Tolkien was a peerless prose stylist, capable of writing fluently & powerfully in a tremendous range of styles, ranging from King James Bible to Frank Richards Edwardian. His prose is also tremendously compact; it is difficult to spot places where he could have written a scene shorter without vitiating its whole effect. Jordan writes pedestrian prose, no offence in itself, but he pads & pads & pads. Inidual scenes stretch on for whole chapters.

As befits a professional linguist who invented languages as a hobby, Tolkien has a superb gift for names. Jordan tends to appropriate names from bizarre & ill-matched sources, & betrays a tin ear by many of his choices. There is just no excuse for Ghraem'lan.