No, not really. The first just seemed remarkably generic. Lots of Tolkeinesque names and concepts. Wholely unremarkable. I also remember being confused as the first story felt almost like a standalone story. But I was excited and fresh off the series, and powered right through it. I don’t remember having strong feelings either way about book 2 or 3 but I do agree with most everyone else that 4 and on is where the story starts to shine.

But I’ll be honest, I did not dislike any of the books I read. Even though sometimes you sit through multiple paragraphs of Jordan describing the most mundane detail. But for me at least, the payoff was more than worth it. I LOVED the characters, their arcs, the universe, the entire journey, the ending. I even liked Sandersons part so much (the transition was pretty seamless, although I think I enjoyed his writing more than Jordans) that I started reading Mistborn last week.

I think I’ve had the complete opposite experience as you. I watched s1, I liked it enough although I found it to be a bit teen angsty, but the world fascinated me. So between s1 and s2 I read the entire wot series and loved it.

Sometime in the middle of my reading I went back to the tv series and I couldn’t make it past the first show. I appreciate the series for introducing the universe to me, but I just hated everything about it. The characters, the acting, and so many of the plot decisions the showrunners made were just incredibly perplexing.

There’s literally several preventative measures you can take to never see nsfw content again. This is not one of them.