My philosphy is that everyone is good.  And everyone is bad. At the same time.  Yin, yang and all that.
So yeah I always have the option to be conniving, whiny w/e, and I always have the option to rise above it, and when I can do both at the same time, I go for it.

And I'm sorry you feel that they are always those things.  They aren't. You may want to try it again with an open mind.  Morgaine is wise and powerful.  Nynaeve is smart and brave.  Egwene is strong, inquisitive, and accepting of others. Morgase (when not brain-washed) is dignified and self-sacrificing. Just as a few examples.  I can pull out my texts when I get home and illustrate more for you if you like.  I hate to see people decide they hate a book for something that just isn't true.  If you say you dislike WoT b/c of the pace or the setting or the writing, then fine.  But b/c you think the characters don't have good qualities and only have bad qualities, when it is just not so is another thing.

The problem with all those characters, and the women in general in those books, is the ultra massive sense  of entitlement they carry around, and the fact they consider men to be beneath them.

Jordan claims he was aiming to write 'strong' women, and a culture that had it's gender revolution so long ago that it's not longer even relevant...but I think he was wide of the mark in both cases.

Egwene is all the things you mentioned...but she's also stuck up, and borderline misandrist.

There are multiple examples, but the biggest one I can see is that almost all the female channelers, at some point, use their power to impress upon someone (usually a man) that they are stronger.
That's abuse, right there....

I don't consider them strong women....I consider them sad stereotypes.

IIRC, it WAS done with Jim's permission.

Well then, not an issue!!

Good books - I recommend 'em.    Dunno if I should spoiler-tag this, but just in case:

(click to show/hide)

In his second Quincy Morris book, Evil Ways, turns out Quincy has a friend in Chicago who is a techno-phobic Wizard named Harry and who passes along some information.  Harry never actually appears in person, but one scene does take place in a pub called McAnally's, and features a bartender named Mac.

See, to me, that treads dangerously close to stealing Jim's IP.

Right. And we never dogpile on anyone in Big, Clean Fun.

... and I'm never sarcastic.

SUUUURRRRRRREEEE you aren't.

Don't tease the newbies..it's not nice.

NO! THE FRED IS ALL-POWERFUL!

Then criticising him would seem to be a bad idea!!

Mr. Butcher's Spider Man: The Darkest Hours is being re-issued as a Trade Paperback version (whatever the heck that means).  It will be released on June 2nd, 2009.  Here is the link for it on Simon and Schuster, http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=647438&er=9781416594765

And here is the Amazon.com Butcher Store friendly link,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416594760/iagonet

Trades are the size of a hardcover....but with a paper cover, rather than hardback.

I personally hate them....they are as inconvenient as a hardback, and as fragile as a paperback!

We want to see these people are Cool, so big multi-racial dance party with visible gay couples and triads if you look closely. Works for me.

Yeah...just don't see how it fits into the plot.
Unless that's how Zion celebrates all announcements of doom

Multi-racial orgy.