Sword of Truth series?

[getting old in mke]

2. Several books I liked a lot

and several premises.

Intermixed is a lot of philosophy only Rand Paul could love. Pages and pages and pages of it. Who is Richard Cypher? John Gault with a dragon.

On top of that, Goodkind's writing can be truly plodding, narrating detail after detail that don't really push things through (though giving his characters time to cogitate on "individual good, community bad" a lot). Did I mention that there's a certain amount of objectivist drivel thrown in?

That thrown out there, I HAVE been through it twice, so there is SOMETHING compelling going on, even if I don't feel clean afterwards...

Song of Ice and Fire has some truly terrible characters and that's part of the fascination, I think. You care for some of the characters because they're so bad.

Sword of Truth has boring philosophy, but still a rich, interesting world and that's part of its fascination. You care for some of the characters in spite of their thought processes.

I went through Wheel of Time last year (in the run up to the conclusion). It was probably most interesting in its characters' blindnesses and politics. And one where the sidekicks rule.

Finally, for sheer romp through the fantasy tropes, value, Jim Butcher's "The Alera Codex" gave me the most bang for the reading time involved over the last couple of years. Tavi isn't Dresden and doesn't try to be, but the writing is light enough that the approach of the end of the world as they know it is still fun to read.