I feel like the series really gets much better again with Winter's Heart. Yes, there's still repetitive stuff, when things get described, that have been described every book since #1. That's probably worse if you read the whole lot in one go as I do now.

But thanks to massive story beats around Mat, Elayne and Rand here, arcs get resolved that have been hanging in mid-air for whole books. And it's good, trust me. At least, when seen in the context of the whole series, of course.