Oddly I rank the first six books in exactly the order they were written.
LFB - my first introduction to TC and the Land as it is meant to be. How can it not be best
TIW - fantastic second book with some of the most heart wrenching stuff I ever read [the forced march etc] - but we loose TC for a while.
TPTP - strangely my least fav of the first 3 [TC's wandering around, the Bloodguard have f***** off, but Hell! - we're still in the Land that I love - and for the last time ever! Nothing will ever be the same again untill the end of TLD [and then it will be in some un-understood way 'wrong'.]
TWL - Hooray, we're back in the Land - but there's something wrong. But we have Giants and flat faced Haruchai. [And Linden - hmmmm.]
TOT - We're going travelling! Well - it's an interlude but hellfire - a damn good one!
TWGW - A consummation devoutly to be wished.
It was always the Land I loved and 2C. never had me quite as much as when on the odd occasion the Land of old suddenly poked through and a glimpse was had of what we were striving for [eg when Sunder is persuaded to eat aliantha - sounds wrong given Ali's presence on the watch. Sorry about that Ali
]. Thus the second Chrons will always fall below the first for me - but I loved them deeply [except Linden who I sort of got used to in the end].
The Last Chrons. Of them I will not speak.
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
We are the Bloodguard