I just finished the final Wheel of Time book, by the way, and it bugs me that the NYT compared Jordan’s imaginary world to Tolkein’s, which was printed on every cover of those 14 books. Are they just stupid or something? The two were nothing like one another.
I think that TOR is to blame there. The first couple of books vaguely suggested Tolkien themes, but not for long. Jordan went off in an entirely different direction. However, after a while, who was there to compare to?