I read the first book, and some of the second, because my dad owned (and enjoyed!) the whole of the series at the time (which... this was ~13-15 years ago? when I was a young teen). But I bounced off (dunno why; I enjoyed plenty of other long epic fantasy novels!), and so I'm coming at this show with a general sense of who the main characters are and a lot of "oh I know that name! :D" with zero context. :)

So I'm very here for beautiful magic (the CGI is so good!) and getting to learn who all these characters are and why the series is so beloved.