yer, sword of truth is going downhill, its a pity, i really like the characters, and the 1st few books were so good, i loved the evil chicken by the way, but now they all just break into spontaneous preaching which evolves repeating things he said half a page ago over and over.
Haven't read any Hobbs, but after the read the latest wheel of time i'll look into it
btw
http://www.keithparkinson.com/ take a look through his book cover section, its a trip through some fond memories
