It does get better, I promise. Shards and The Warrior's Apprentice, which were published the same year, have their rough points, but she improves as both a writer and as a story teller as the years pass. The talent is there in the early books, its just not shiny and polished. I love Shards, not because its the greatest book ever written, but because I dearly love Cordelia and Aral and it is the beginning of their story.