Just finished the first book ... thought I'd post some quick thoughts and hopefully get some fun discussion
The TV adaptation
Generally, my feeling of reading the book after seeing season 1 of the show is that, though it's been a while since I saw season 1, it felt like a much better adaptation than I would have guessed given its negative reception. Yes there were changes, especially at the end, but generally it was a pretty faithful adaptation of the story whereas I got the impression that it was doing huge injustices to the main story. As for the ending in the book, well, I'm not sure that could have worked on TV, and honestly, I did not enjoy the ending of the book and probably prefer that of the TV show. Season 1 had clumsiness and seemed to stumble in its writing and direction and fail to capture the tension of the story ... but in the end, to me, much of that seems to have been first-season-jitters and the shortness of the season.
The only problems I have with the adaptation, at a distance, are the delaying of the Perrin Wolfbrother progress into Season 2 (which I'm guessing was a common problem), and, to some extent, Morraine losing her powers. For me, Perrin and the wolfbrother stuff were some of the most enjoyable of the book, so I'm not entirely sure why that was pushed back out of season 1, though I'm sure time constraints were a big factor. As for Morraine losing her power, AFAICT that's a mechanism to get her into season 2 more (keeping in mind I haven't read book 2), which I'm personally behind. Somewhat tangentially, Rosamund Pike was probably the actor that shone through into their character in the book the most ... as in I heard her voice when she spoke in the book.
I seem to recall debate about the appearance of the weaves and that they are visible at all ... generally I like being able to see the weaves in the show and more or less "saw" it that way as I was reading the book.
The Book
So ... my immediate impression is that I'm not sure I actually even liked the book.
I'm eager to read on though. The series and world has more or less been sold to me by its reputation, the show (including season 1 to be fair) and that the first book is widely regarded as not the best of the series. But, after finishing the book, I'd say it's now more likely than not that I won't end up finishing the series because I can imagine it becoming unsatisfying at some point (however reflective the first book is of the rest of the series).
I mentioned that the ending would not have been appropriate for a direct adaptation to TV, and part of my reasoning/bias there is that I didn't enjoy it. It was clearly rushed, kinda cartoonish and a few too many deus ex machina's for my liking. A telling aspect of it for me was that I didn't have a clear image at all in my mind as I was reading and was instead just absorbing plot points. By contrast, at least with the show, I got clear image of what happened.
"The Green Man" was never not funny sounding from the first time it came up and I was honestly confused thinking it might be some weird typo or something when it first appeared. That it was more or less a cross between an Ent and Tom Bombadil didn't help. The appearance of the two foresaken out of nowhere like Scooby-Doo villains felt rather off as well. And I'm not sure how I feel about Rand's going Super Saiyan to fix everything. Giving that to Egwene and Nyneave seems like a sensible idea, especially as a way of alleviating some of the itchy gendered vibe in the book, and, at least, as a way of giving them something to do in the ending. From the ending of season 1 I have the feeling that it's an intentionally Pyrrhic victory, and I liked Morraine's suggestion that the artifacts revealed by the eye may have been there for protection not to be collected ... but overall it felt like a quickly thought up ending designed to climactic and get us along to the next book.
Besides the ending, the obvious LotR borrowings were always a turn off for me, but I can forgive them. There definitely felt like some bloat, especially Rand and Mat's journey to Caemlyn and maybe the whole road from the Two Rivers to Caemlyn. The dialogue and characters surprisingly felt more childish or YA than I expected. I forget how old the 5 two rivers characters are supposed to be, but I was surprised that the dialogue felt the way it did compared to the show.
Surprisingly, apart from Perrin as a wolfbrother, the other character that I came to like was Mat. Season 2 Mat seems closer than Season 1 Mat (I know they're different actors) to the impression I got of him in book 1. I've heard he becomes a well-liked character ... and just from book 1 I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that Mat was the main character of the series and Rand kind of falls into the background as the literally larger than life "Dragon" always off doing Dragon things.
Generally, though, Jordan seems very good at managing character perspective and I did enjoy his ability to put me in the action from a certain person's perspective ... it reads quite well and compellingly ... is this something the series is known for in fantasy?. Otherwise, romance doesn't seem to be his forte thus far. I understand he has a military background, and that soldiers can to be scarred with a certain utilitarian take on romance/intimacy. I kept thinking that Jordan was injecting that kind of experience into the WoT, which is perhaps fitting for the turmoil the characters were going through ... but still it came off as awkward.
One final note of praise ... Ogiers are definitely a cool fantasy race. I'm not a fantasy buff, so I don't know how original they are/were ... but I'm so down.
Overall, I'm definitely going to keep reading, but my impression is that I'm hoping the series' writing stabilises. On a broad birds-eye level, the book has done well at setting up this whole world and only showing us parts of it and setting up the very clear idea that the battle has only just begun, even to the point of being a tad too explicit with Loial's declarations of their being ta'veren and having destinies around which the world bends ... wondering if there'll be any subverted tropes there.
Newbies Questions (non-spoilery please) or Fellow first time readers' speculation time
- Seriously ... what was up with "The Green Man" ... is it something that just gets forgotten or did Jordan admit that it was awkward?
- I seem to recall that one of the foresaken at the end admitted to Ishamael already being free and walking around yet it didn't seem to be acknowledged by anyone. Given that the show has gone with Ishamael being the main/only agent, I'm guessing that this comes to the fore in book 2.
- I guess that this could only be answered with spoilers that I don't want to hear ... but I keep wondering about Shadar Logoth (perhaps being a sucker for dark mysterious things that aren't obviously "The Dark One") ... anyone have any non-spoilery thoughts or speculations on what is actually going on there or what meaning it has or whether it will play a role further in the series?
- Even if you now know ... what did you think about it when you first read the first book? Obviously there's Mat and his Dagger, which has left something of a Petrov's Gun in the way that it somehow got the foresaken into the Green Man's place (though I guess that could be easily explained by what Morraine says about the way that darkfriends and fades could sense the dagger from afar)