Tor Books founder Tom Doherty is reportedly advising Robert Jordan‘s widow Harriet McDougal to authorise more books to be written in the author’s epic Wheel of Time series.

American fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who currently has several of his own fantasy series on his plate, was selected by Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal after the author tragically passed away in September 2007 to finish Jordan’s masterpiece. The first book, The Gathering Storm, has already been finished and is presumably in editing or production now, and two more books are planned to finish the series.

But, writes Wotmania.com contributor Dominic, Tor founder and Jordan friend Tom Doherty, who first signed the author to write The Wheel of Time, wants even more books.

Before he passed away, Jordan had planned to write two prequel novels after he finished The Wheel of Time main arc, and up to three “outrigger” books, which would take place more or less around the time of the main series, one reportedly featuring the popular character Mat Cauthon and Tuon Athaem Kore Paendrag.

“At some point in the future I will do two more short prequel novels,” Jordan wrote on his Dragonmount blog in November 2005:

“I’ve said frequently that I wouldn’t write in this universe again once [The Wheel of Time] was done unless I had a really great idea. I may — I say again, may — have had such an idea. I have to poke at it for a year or two to see whether it’s strong enough. If it is, I’ll do two or three “outrigger” novels following some of the characters on another story arc. If it isn’t strong enough, then I’ll let it die a quiet death.”

According to Dominic, at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Montreal in Canada last week, Sanderson said Doherty is trying “very hard” to have the three outrigger books written:

“and the motive is quite personal: [Robert Jordan] sold him hard on the ideas for this trilogy and Doherty is apparently the biggest Mat Cauthon fan on the planet, so he wants these books written very very badly.”

Dominic wrote that Sanderson “strongly advised” McDougal not to consent to the books being written, but that if she did, he wanted to write them. “Harriet doesn’t want to think about them for the moment,” Dominic wrote.

Commentary
OK, let’s just assume this is correct for a moment. This is at least third-hand information and it qualifies as hearsay at this point. My apologies to Doherty and Tor if this is just hogwash.

Proceeding on that basis … Woah there, Tom, calm down that wild imagination of yours! We haven’t even finished The Wheel of Time itself yet, and you’re already talking about more?

There’s been a lot of discussion on Keeping the Door (and other places) over recent weeks about the idea that Kevin J. Anderson and Frank Herbert’s son Brian Herbert might not have done the best job about continuing the epic Dune series in a way that is canonical and appropriate to the memory of its creator.

I don’t think anyone’s saying at this point that Brandon Sanderson is going to do a bad job of finishing The Wheel of Time; and certainly there is at least one, very loud voice, saying he’s done a very good job already on the first book, The Gathering Storm.

However, it’s impossible to underestimate how badly wrong continuing The Wheel of Time could go.

Robert Jordan
(credit: Jeanne Collins)

An author as talented as Robert Jordan only comes along every so often, and it’s incredibly important to honour his legacy in a way that is respectful; both to the author themselves, as well as the massive hardcore fan and wider reader base that has built up around their work.

It’s common knowledge that Jordan left a mammoth body of notes about his work; I read in the same article by Dominic on Wotmania.com that the author even left an extremely detailed explanation of the long-standing WOT mystery relating to who killed Asmodean.

It seems fairly clear that these notes extend to Jordan’s vision for the completion of the series; from what I’ve read, Sanderson seems to believe that he is merely fleshing out the books that Jordan had already created structures and frameworks for. The plot has already been written and the actors are on the stage; but there is a new director.

But can the same be said of the prequel and outrigger books? I would highly doubt that Jordan had left as many notes about these bodies of work, given that he knew he was in bad health and desperately wanted to leave enough notes to finish his masterwork, The Wheel of Time series itself.

I would be very careful indeed about discussing any further Wheel of Time work until the final chapter has been written on the current series.

Even then; sometimes it’s best to just let sleeping dogs lie. Maybe it would be better to give the series the completion it so richly deserves and then draw a line in the sand (or, as Jordan might say, the Three-fold Land).