Through the first four books it was excellent, but it should have ended five books ago. Some innovation, some memorable characters, but not well written. It won't become a classic, partly due to its sheer size. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" is a lot better, though it won't become a classic, either, due to its relentless violence and nihilistic world view.
I'm actually done with fantasy and only read science fiction these days. But I find the takeover of free inquiry in SciFi by the "Green Mafia" to be a disturbing trend. Many very talented authors (Kim Stanley Robinson comes to mind) have succumbed to it.
Actually, I don’t read either any more. I find SciFi too nihilistic altogether and fantasy too predictable (and violent).
For what it’s worth, I am still plowing through WoT and just want to see the series concluded. I feel over-invested but close to the finish. I’d like to get closure (at low expense, naturally) A good editor would have pared the equivalent of five WoT-sized books from the series. There was too much repetitive internal monologue along the way (and books seven and eight were extensive diversions that have done damage to several characters and probably were what turned a lot of people against the series altogether), which should have been pared. Part of this was the original creeping temptation to allow readers into the series in later books by lamely recapping what had already happened. The effect was to produce repeated stereotypic descriptions and confine major characters in the narrative boxes they started in. When the narrative started to grow out of the original dimensions, the characters failed to grow as well, requiring a lot of ‘wasn’t it lucky THAT bad thing didn’t happen’.
Yeah, I’m pretty tired of it too.
Then again, it only took four books for Martin to repulse me and none of them were anywhere as long as Jordan’s.