Whenever I’ve thought a bit deeper about the prodigious talent that is American fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson over the past several years, one question has gradually risen to the surface of my mind.

That question is: Is Sanderson up to the incredibly ambitious task he has set himself, of satisfactorily finishing off one of the most complex and influential epic fantasy series of all time (The Wheel of Time), as well as starting another of similar magnitude (The Stormlight Archive) and keeping various assorted other writing endeavours on track?

With the publication of the thirteenth book in The Wheel of Time series this year, that question has finally been answered. And the answer is a resounding “no”.

Disappointingly, given the high standard of the previous Wheel of Time book Sanderson authored – The Gathering Storm – Towers of Midnight will go down in history as one of the poorest books in The Wheel of Time canon.

The tome is plagued by many faults; a lack of true feeling for how to write several characters, unsatisfactory conclusions to several of the Wheel of Time’s longest-held paradoxes and plot lines, and a lack of exciting action as Sanderson tries to tie off all of the threads that the series’ founding author Robert Jordan left hanging for so many years.

After finishing The Gathering Storm, I wanted to leap up and proclaim to the world that Jordan had found a true successor in Sanderson. I was jubilant that the series would find a satisfying end.

After finishing Towers of Midnight, I wanted to mail it back to Sanderson and his editor, Harriet McDougal, with about a thousand red lines to make sections that needed to be deleted or revised. It’s simply that bad. This should have been in the oven for another year or so, rather than rushed out; and as a veteran editor, that should have been apparent to McDougal.

Towers of Midnight begins the plot cycle which is The Wheel of Time’s long-awaited endgame; the end war that will determine the fate of its world. Tarmon Gai’Don, the Last Battle, is coming, and the whole book is overshadowed by that knowledge.

Accordingly, every major player and faction in the Wheel of Time universe has begun to head towards that ultimate destination. New Amyrlin Egwene Al’Vere is consolidating her power inside the White Tower. In Caemlyn, Elayne is doing the same with her monarchy. Perrin is slowly gathering a vast, disparate army to him.

Having survived the internal and external storms of his past, a new peaceful Rand Al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn (or, as he has been dubbed online, Randzen) is now also gathering his global resources – political, military, Power or otherwise – to him as he too prepared for the Last Battle, which has already started to touch the Borderlands as a massive nightmare of Shadowspawn boils out of the Blight.

And Mat?

Unusually for someone who has gotten himself almost continually in trouble for most of the Wheel of Time, Mat’s time these days seems to mostly constitute sitting on his fat ass in Caemlyn making eyes at various women and ruminating on the perils of being married.

No kidding, that’s most of what he does.

Now what I really hated in Towers of Midnight was the extremely trite way in which Sanderson ties off so many of the meaningful plot threads that have tortured Wheel of Time fans for the best part of two decades now.

Things like … what’s the endgame for Perrin’s Faile/Berelain paradox? How will Mat and Thom deal with the Snakes and Foxes and save Moiraine? What will happen to fated King of the Malkier, Lan Mandragoran? Who killed Asmodean? What’s really going on at the Black Tower? Who is Mesaana in the White Tower? When will Mat invent cannons? And so on and so on.

If you can think of the most obvious and boring ways to answer all of these questions, then you’ll be able to guess how Sanderson answers them in Towers of Midnight.

When I found out the answers (and not all of them have been completely filled out yet), the curiousity I had been holding in for more than a decade now was not sated.

I was outraged.

At some points I literally leapt up out of my seat and shook my fist at the sky, cursing Brandon Sanderson’s laziness in resolving thorny plot points which Wheel of Time fans have been obsessing about for so long. There were better ways to do this; and I cannot believe that Jordan would have approved of all of the answers that Sanderson gave us to these questions.

Another major problem with the book is how Sanderson treats Mat.

Mat – a fan favourite – has always been a dynamic character. But in Towers of Midnight he does very little throughout the whole book apart from sit on his fat ass in taverns, musing about dice, drinking, eyeing women and so on.

The way that Sanderson writes Mat is more or less spot on; his mental tone is pretty good. But, goddamnit, IT IS NOT THE JOB of the Band of the Red Hand to encamp itself outside a goddamn city and sit there for a whole book, even going on little excursions for Elayne like a pet army. His army reflects Mat’s own life, and both do very little in Towers of Midnight at all. No battles, no action, not even any good drinking or chasing women. Nothing.

The Band of the Red Hand is supposed to be KICKASS AND KICK SOME ASS like it used to. As it stands, Sanderson has reduced Mat’s KICKASS ARMY into a cohort of little girls who whimper when anything which even looks like a Gholam or even a goddamn Aes Sedai enters its heavily guarded perimeter.

This is not how you make legends of armies. This is how you make little girls.

So there’s that.

Ultimately, there are really only two things that I liked about Towers of Midnight. The first is how Sanderson treats Perrin.

For the first time in a long while, Perrin gets some limelight, and he features in some really inspirational moments which are well written (you’ll know them when you see them … has a lot to do with the hammer and its own endgame). Sure, Sanderson fails the whole Faile/Berelain thing, but he does a lot of really great stuff with Perrin, and you have to give him credit for that.

If Towers of Midnight is about anything, it is about Perrin. This book is the first to truly give the understudy third Ta’averen a decent go, and I applaud Sanderson for that – even though he had virtually promised fans Towers of Midnight would actually be about Mat. Which it is not.

The second thing that’s great about the book is that Sanderson gives some little cameos to Lan.

Without giving too much away, it’s obvious that Sanderson is building Lan up with an incredibly slow burning plotline which is going to pay off in a glorious way in the upcoming last Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light. And we can’t wait for that to happen. I have a feeling that when Lan gets the justice that is coming to him, readers are going to want to be sitting next to something sturdy so they can pound their hand on it and yell “FUCK YES”.

What’s coming is that good. These sections had a pretty Bruce Willis feel about them.

Why did this happen?
At this stage of the review, I’d like to espouse a theory which I think explains why I think Sanderson was unable to reach the peak of his writing with Towers of Midnight, and why he had problems with some of the characters; not so much how to write them (mostly that works, although not always; there are many awkward, out of character moments), but how to make them interact with plot; how to get them to do things rather than think them.

It’s simple: His attention was divided.

Sanderson is currently working on two of the human race’s most epic fantasy series; The Wheel of Time and his own The Stormlight Archive, which is slated to be a ten book masterwork akin to Jordan’s own masterpiece.

To do artistic justice to both series is simply impossible; a fact Sanderson himself must suspect. They are too complex; the characterisations and plotlines are too deep; and I can’t think of any author in the history of fantasy writing who has been able to pull off delivering two masterworks at the same time.

It’s called a masterwork for a reason; you can only do one.

Furthermore, when you look at the strengths of Towers of Midnight, it’s seems apparent that Sanderson’s mindset when writing the book was very much influenced by The Way of Kings.

The two characters who are best written in Towers of Midnight — whose thoughts and actions seem most authentic and touch you — are Perrin and Lan; in both cases Sanderson nails who they are and delivers some fantastic moments where you start to believe in The Wheel of Time again.

In what is probably not a coincidence, these two characters are pretty close analogues of two of the three central characters in The Way of Kings; Kalak (a Perrin duty-type analogue reluctantly drawn into leadership and gifted with powers he does not understand) and Dalinar Kholin (a Lan-style inspirational but hard-beaten leader with shoulders heavy with duty and with the honour of a people and a way of life to uphold).

It is simply not surprising that Sanderson succeeded with these characters (but little else) in Towers of Midnight; artistically, and creatively, his head is in The Stormlight Archive right now, whereas it was in Jordan’s universe when he put together The Gathering Storm.

One further thing: There is no “Mat” character in The Way of Kings. Hence, it is unsurprising that Sanderson struggled with the chaotic fan favourite and his riotous Band of the Red Hand in Towers of Midnight. Mat does not believe in duty; whereas The Way of Kings is about nothing if it is not about duty.

To tell you the truth, I don’t blame Sanderson for any of this.

There is simply nobody else who could do a better job of finishing The Wheel of Time than Sanderson could, apart from Robert Jordan. And we don’t have that option. We should be amazingly happy that Sanderson is carving off some of his prodigious writing (and organizational) talent from his own epic series to devote it to The Wheel of Time. The Stormlight Archive itself is shaping up to be one of the best epic fantasy series of all time and a definite match for Jordan’s own masterpiece.

However, let’s not pretend it’s possible for one man to do justice to two incredible series like The Wheel of Time and The Stormlight Archive at the same time. Along the way, there will be compromises, poorly written bits and disappointments.

Towers of Midnight is one of those. Jordan might not be rolling in his grave right now. But he is definitely shifting around uncomfortably as his masterwork is slightly shortchanged.

Blood and bloody ashes!

At long last, and two years after the tragic death of the original creator of the epic and much-loved series, fans have the next book in The Wheel of Time in their hot little hands, after it went on sale last week to great acclaim. No doubt there are tens of thousands of people right around the globe poring through the pages of the book this very instant. And the web forums are running hot.

Thankfully, those fans have much to be grateful for. Considering that Robert Jordan is no longer around, it is remarkable that The Gathering Storm is so true to the vision of the series’ original creator, and a worthwhile 12th book in the series that scores on a large number of levels. It’s simply thrilling to be thrust back into the world of The Wheel of Time.

God, I’ve missed it so much. I had a very emotional reaction to this book.

The question of whether Jordan substitute Brandon Sanderson is up to finishing the series has been answered. He is.

Thank you, Brandon Sanderson. Not only did we enjoy your stellar Mistborn series, along with the rest of Team Jordan, you have already gone some way towards realising the dreams of likely hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Wheel of Time fans who have been dying for this series to be finished in a way that will honour Robert Jordan, arguably the best fantasy author of our time. Keep up the good work.

That’s not to say that Sanderson has done as good a job as Jordan could have. There are many places in The Gathering Storm which make it clear that its delivery has suffered from Sanderson’s smaller vision. But the book is perhaps as good as it could possibly have been, without Jordan himself to write it.

For those of you who have lost patience with, as some call the series, The Waste of Time, this is now the time to jump back in and get up to speed on all things Rand Al’Thor and his merry band of Two Rivers folk. The end will come in the next few years, and The Gathering Storm is the first step in that journey. For anyone still wavering keep reading this review as I outline the book and provide some criticism.

If you are lost (and who can blame you) as to where the plot stands before The Gathering Storm, we recommend you read Dragonmount‘s plot summary (PDF).

As the book begins, the countries of the world of The Wheel of Time are in chaos.

Many are still reeling from the invasion of the Seanchan, the returned armies of Artur Hawkwing’s son from across the oceans. Others have suffered extensive upheaval due to the machinations of the Dark One’s top lieutenants, the fallen channellers known as the Forsaken.

The White Tower, the home of the female Aes Sedai, is suffering its own frosty civil war, with Tar Valon besieged by a rebel cadre of Aes Sedai, and even the Aiel have suffered their own discord, with bands of the Shaido clan still scattered across the land.

The situations of the heroes we have come to know and love so well over the past eleven books are no less chaotic.

Rand Al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, appears to be spiralling downwards as he wraps himself ever closer in his steel cloak of mercilessness and – at times – indifference to the suffering of others. The Lord of the Morning, it appears, has been pushed too far and been forced to kill too many women. His heart has turned to blackest night.

Fellow Ta’averen Perrin and Mat are scattered around the world, leading disparate bands of armies that they plan to eventually meet with Rand’s forced to take on the forces of evil in the Last Battle. Elayne is consolidating her power as the new Queen of Andor, while Nynaeve is by Rand’s side, as are Min and Aviendha.

Perhaps the most interesting situation for one of the main protagonists in the story is that of Egwene Al’Vere. Raised Amyrlin by the rebel Aes Sedai who had congregated at Salidar but then marched on Tar Valon with an army led by one of the great generals of the time, Gareth Bryne.

After being captured by the White Tower Aes Sedai, Egwene is continuing within its own walls her resistance against the unstable rule of the Tower’s Amyrlin, Elaida. The only caveat is that she is doing so after being reduced to novice status again and while suffering repeated beatings and other indignities at the hands of Elaida’s underlings.

The Gathering Storm primarily follows the individual storylines of Rand and Egwene. As the book goes on, the difference between them becomes starker and starker. Rand’s problems mount, and he begins to fail to keep on top of them, or even to function normally when relating to those around him.

By contrast, Egwene takes on an almost Gandhi-like determination and stance towards her own suffering. She increasingly forces herself to rise against her pain and act for the unification of the warring Aes Sedai factions.

The choice to focus on these two central characters in the pages of The Gathering Storm was a wise one, whether it was made by Jordan or Sanderson. Finally, after several books worth of getting lost in twenty different character viewpoints, the series settles on some rather large questions and resolves them. And some of the climactic scenes involving the pair are highly dramatic – the kind of stuff the first few books in The Wheel of Time were filled with.

The Dragon Reborn taking the Stone of Tear kind of stuff, or claiming the Aiel.

The downside of this approach is that, as many other reviewers and fans have pointed out, we see relatively little of the popular Ta’averen Mat, or other major characters like Perrin. And we see nothing of Elayne at all.

This problem is made worse by the fact that Sanderson pretty much fluffs the Mat chapters completely, missing the constant yet understated humour found when Jordan writes from Mat’s viewpoint and hamming it up big time. Yet again, Mat doesn’t get any limelight, and his escapades could have been entirely removed from the book – that’s how little importance they have in the wider scheme of things.

In terms of the writing in general, it is normally spot on and ‘feels’ like Jordan writing, especially in the minor tension-building scenes. Sanderson gets almost all of the characters down pat, especially Egwene, Rand, Siuan Sanche, Cadsuane, and Perrin.

However, there are several problem areas in the book that Sanderson fails with. The first is the Mat sections. But I was also disturbed by how downplayed several of the major, major plot resolutions are that fans have literally been waiting decades for.

Without going into the details, I was shocked at how quickly ongoing mysteries such as Verin Sedai’s secret were solved and then written out of the plot. These things should have been more major focuses of the book. They needed to have more drama and more build-up. People have been constructing theories about these mysteries for the past ten years online. One chapter to deliver the solution is just not enough, when Jordan himself had been feeding the debate for years and years. Especially when many nuggety chapters like this are surrounded by fluffy almost-filler.

In a similar vein, although the climactic battles and confrontations of the book are ultimately satisfying and give you a certain thrill, they are broadly too short and Sanderson didn’t go into enough detail when describing them. These things are BIG events. They should have been treated as such. They shouldn’t be over within several chapters. The repercussions should have been felt.

Ultimately, these are minor quibbles, of the level that you could level at any of the previous Jordan-penned books in The Wheel of Time. And there is no doubt that many (including myself) will consider The Gathering Storm a cut above the most recent few books in the series, where Jordan simply seemed to get bogged down with the size of the world he had created, struggling to bring it all together for the big conclusion.

The one question fans have been debating (OK, to be honest, they’re all still debating who killed bloody Asmodean) over the past few years is whether Brandon Sanderson would be up to the task of finishing Robert Jordan’s masterpiece in a way that is true to the author’s vision.

That answer is yes. If you are a Wheel of Time fan and have not already bought it (what, are you insane?!), run, do not walk, run out to your local bookstore and buy a copy of this book, read it, re-read the entire series, then watch and wait feverishly over the next few months for even a small tidbit of news about when the remaining two books in the series will come out and we finally enter Tarmon Gaidon.

The Last Battle is drawing near, The Wheel of Time is back on track for completion, and things are well in the world again. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Note: I’m not the only critic who has written a review of The Gathering Storm. Here are similar reviews from some of my favourite writers:

• OF Blog of the Fallen
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
• Neth Space
• The Wertzone

The thirteenth (and second-last) book in the Wheel of Time series will be formally titled Towers of Midnight, the series’ new author Brandon Sanderson revealed last week, with the fourteenth and last to retain its original title A Memory of Light.

The last three books in The Wheel of Time are being written by established fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who was selected by Harriet McDougal, the widow of the original author, Robert Jordan, after tragically passed away in September 2007 to finish Jordan’s masterpiece. The first book, The Gathering Storm, has already been finished and will be published internationally on October 27.

Last week Sanderson wrote on his blog:

“After a long round of conversations with Tor and Harriet, we settled on TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT as the title. There are various reasons for this, which I’ll go into more once the book is out next year. I’m pleased, however, as this was the title I suggested. It’s actually appropriate in an interesting way. Harriet was the one who came up with the name for the first of the three, and the second one gets the title I proposed. And so, we will (as I’ve been saying for a while) use Mr. Jordan’s title for the final of the three, A MEMORY OF LIGHT.”

Towers of Midnight’s working title had been Shifting Winds, but Sanderson had stated several times that it wasn’t the book’s final name. Before he passed away, Jordan had passed on a desire for the final book to be called “A Memory of Light”, although once the book was split into three, a debate began between Tor, McDougal and Sanderson about the exact titles of the three.

The final book, A Memory of Light, for example, had a working title of Tarmon Gai’don, referring to the final battle planned in The Wheel of Time universe.

Speculation has already begun online (more here) about what the title Towers of Midnight refers to, with some highlighting the fact that there is an action location in the Seanchan Empire named The Towers of Midnight, and others wondering if the title refers to a possible corruption of various towers in the books; for example the Aes Sedai White Tower and the Asha’man Black Tower.

The prologue to the next Wheel of Time book, The Gathering Storm, was released in e-book format last week and immediately leaked to the BitTorrent peer to peer file-sharing system.

The last three books in The Wheel of Time are being written by established fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who was selected by the widow of the original author, Robert Jordan, after tragically passed away in September 2007 to finish Jordan’s masterpiece. The first book, The Gathering Storm, has already been finished and will be published internationally on October 27.

Last week, Wheel of Time publisher Tor Books made the prologue to The Gathering Storm available for sale in various e-book formats for US$2.99, from sites like Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and audible.com. The publisher had already released the first chapter to The Gathering Storm online for free and plans to gradually release all of the existing series as e-books.

However, on BitTorrent site Mininova, several dozen people are sharing The Gathering Storm prologue for free, with another dozen downloading it, although Keeping the Door has not downloaded the file to verify if it is accurate. There are also many more people downloading the previous Robert Jordan books in the series, in PDF and audio forms.

On his blog last week, Sanderson wrote that he had received complaints about the prologue being sold with digital rights management attached, or about it being in limited e-book formats. However, he pointed out that at least one seller was providing the prologue as a simple PDF file.

“To be honest, I’m not sure what I think of selling the prologue ahead of time,” he wrote. “I’m not a fan of charging people multiple times for the same content. But it’s been established practice for the WoT for a while now, and the length of the prologue makes it worth the money.”

The BitTorrent leak follows a similar situation with Dan Brown’s highly anticipated book The Lost Symbol, which has already been downloaded tens of thousands of times on BitTorrent.

Commentary
This was always going to happen; any time someone asks people to charge for content, the internet is going to find a way around it.

In today’s digital age, the morality of downloading pirated content from BitTorrent and other peer to peer file-sharing systems is a highly debated topic. I’m reluctant to go into it here, beyond noting that many authors see the practice as depriving them of remuneration for their work, while some, such as Paulo Coelho, author of the best-selling The Alchemist, see it as free publicity.

Wheel of Time fans have overwhelmingly praised the first chapter to be released in the new book in the series, which has been penned by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson in the wake of the tragic death of its original creator Robert Jordan.

Last week, series publisher Tor Books made the first chapter in the new book, The Gathering Storm, available for free from its website. The entire book will be published internationally on October 27 and will be followed by two more to conclude the series.

Over the past week, Wheel of Time fans have posted no less than 380 comments on Tor’s site about the new chapter. The overwhelming response has been that Sanderson writes in a slightly different and less descriptive style than Jordan, but that fans were immediately able to re-enter the Wheel of Time universe and were incredibly excited to be doing so.

“I thought the beginning didn’t sound very RJ-like, but as I read on, I easily got lost in Brandon’s writing and could not personally distinguish the two “styles”. Kudos, Brandon!” enthused one fan.

Another wrote:

“This extract in acordance with all RJ’s previous work is well written. The developement of both plot and character are again suble but compellingly real in that I have the sense of witnessing these events as they unfold. Whoever’s finger prints are on the paper this bodes very well, and if the standard is maintained to the final chapter then we can undoubtedly say that the tale has been done justice to the dream that was.”

Wertzone author Adam Whitehead, writing on popular forum site ReadAndFindOut, which replaced long-time Wheel of Time site wotmania.com several weeks ago, wrote that the first chapter didn’t sound like Jordan, but didn’t sound like Sanderson’s previous work either:

“People expecting this to be EXACTLY the same as Robert Jordan’s writing have missed the point entirely. It was never about that totally unachievable goal, it was about Sanderson not completely screwing up the story and characters. So far we are off to a flying start.”

Most other commenters on ReadAndFindOut, which has an excellent discussion thread about the first chapter, were positive about the release and optimistic about The Gathering Storm, although there were a number of minor criticisms and some people did not enjoy the first chapter.

Warning: Spoilers about the chapter and previous books ahead, as well as plot discussion.

Much of the plot discussion surrounding the chapter has focused on one of the only new plot points that was introduced in it; Rand has a new sword.

The chapter states:

“It looked as if it had been designed speci?cally for Rand—and yet it was centuries old, unearthed only recently. How odd, that they should ?nd this now, he thought, and make a gift of it to me, completely unaware of what they were holding. . . . He had told no one, not even Min, that he had recognized the weapon. And not, oddly, from Lews Therin’s memories—but Rand’s own.”

There appears to be a gradually developing consensus online that the sword may be Justice, the legendary blade of the king, general and ta’veren who united much of the lands west of the Spine of the World long before Rand Al’Thor’s time.

Possessing Justice, so the theory goes, would give Rand a massive advantage in trying to win over the invading Seanchan armies, as their nation was founded by Hawkwing’s son, and they revere Hawkwing himself.

Commentary
After reading the first chapter of The Gathering Storm, I am excitedly awaiting the release of the full book. All the signs are there from the first chapter that Sanderson knows and reveres Jordan’s work extremely well and is dedicated to and capable of producing a stunning sequel to the series.

Yes, if you’re a long-time Wheel of Time fan, you will be able to detect differences between the writing styles of Jordan and Sanderson.

However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I hadn’t read any of Sanderson’s work before, but this week I’ve been reading Mistborn, the first book in his Final Empire series. And I have to say that I am completely hooked. I love this book, and I’m going to be speedily rushing out to read the rest of his books as well.

Knowing that Mistborn is great has given be a great deal of confidence in Sanderson’s ability to finish The Wheel of Time.

However, as many people have noted online, there is also quite a lot of difference between Sanderson’s evolving style in his previous books and the writing in the first chapter of The Gathering Storm.

To me, it appears as if the new book will very much be a mixing of both authors, done in a very respectful way to Robert Jordan’s memory. I suspect it will be a tribute to Sanderson’s respect for Jordan.

What do you think about the first chapter of The Gathering Storm? Did it, as many people have noted, hook you back into Jordan’s epic vision? Or did it leave you feeling cold?

Publisher Tor Books has made the first chapter of the upcoming book in The Wheel of Time fantasy series, The Gathering Storm, available for free from its website.

The last three books in The Wheel of Time are being written by established fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who was selected by the widow of the original author, Robert Jordan, after tragically passed away in September 2007 to finish Jordan’s masterpiece. The first book, The Gathering Storm, has already been finished and will be published internationally on October 27.

But by registering today on Tor.com, Wheel of Time fans are able to immediately download a text or audio reading of the first chapter of The Gathering Storm.

The chapter begins with the standard Wheel of Time format:

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose around the alabaster spire known as the White Tower. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

It then moves further into the main story of the book.

In comments posted underneath the chapter on Tor.com’s site, Wheel of Time fans appeared to agree that the writing style of the new chapter differed from Jordan’s style, but not in a bad way. Most expressed positive sentiments about the chapter.

“I can tell this is a different voice but it’s a good one and does pay respect to the rest of the series,” wrote one fan. Added another: “I could definitely tell it was not RJ writing this, not that it was badly written, but it will take a bit of getting used to.”

But even so, some readers have already filed small criticisms at Sanderson. For example, one wrote:

“If I had to offer any real quibbles, I would say it was a little self-consciously written in parts. I thought Rand’s internal thought processes, in particular, were a tad over-laboured and over-expressed compared to where he was at in the later books – whereby RJ kept him a bit more wrapped in mystique.”

Semi-official Wheel of Time site Dragonmount has also posted a slew of other news about moves associated with launch of The Gathering Storm.

For starters, the prologue to the book will be available on October September 17 as an electronic book download for US$2.99 from vendors like Amazon.com. The whole Wheel of Time series will also be released as e-books, and the original books are to get new covers. And of course there will be a book tour associated with the launch, so far only in the US.

The wotmania Wheel of Time fan site will shut down this week after more than eleven years of operation, although some of its community energy will likely migrate to a site, Read and Find Out.

The site is one of a handful of massive online resources that fans have used to obsessively discuss all possible aspects of Robert Jordan’s fantasy masterpiece over the past decade, even after his tragic and untimely death in September 2007. In a post in January, wotmania founder Mike Mackert wrote that he had lost interest and had little time to maintain the site any longer.

It sits alongside other sites such as the Wheel of Time FAQ and Dragonmount, which hosted Robert Jordan’s official blog until the Wheel of Time author’s passing, in terms of its fame in the Wheel of Time community of readers.

The site hasn’t quite shut down yet, and readers are still posting in the wotmania forums, but in a post on the 19 of July, wotmania founder Mike Mackert wrote that 31 August would be the last day of the site’s operation. The source code to the site will be placed online in a new SourceForge project.

In a lengthy post, Larry at OF Blog of the Fallen (which has its genesis as an offshoot of wotmania), posts some of his memories about the site and his involvement as an admin with it:

I have visited that site regularly since February 2000 and posted there since October 2000 … I have seen and done a lot during my time there, learning valuable lessons about myself along the way. I’ve seen molehills rise to the size of mountains in the hearts and minds of many there, with some of those molehills taking on a sentimental value that words alone cannot express if one was not present to witness them.

Back in January Dragomount’s Jason Denzel paid tribute to Mackert in an open letter:

For the last 10 years, wotmania has been a pillar of the WHEEL OF TIME community. The fact that you have decided to begin the process of slowly closing down the site makes me terribly sad. No other community or webmaster has challenged DM quite like you have. We practically opened our websites on the same day (1 month apart exactly from what I recall), and have ever since pushed and encouraged the other to do better. Our sites competed, of course, but more than anything else, they complimented each other. saidar and saidin. With wotmania, you have set a standard by which Dragonmount still tries to live up to. I will miss your presence and your competitiveness.

Commentary
I’ve never posted on wotmania, but I’ve been aware of it for a long time and often browsed its forums to find discussions on certain points of interest in Robert Jordan’s masterpiece that I wanted to know more about.

It’s a tragedy that the site is shutting down, given it’s huge level of community energy, but perhaps some of that energy will translate into the new site, Read and Find Out. We can only hope!

I’d like to personally pay tribute to Mackert for the amazing contribution he’s made to the global Wheel of Time and broader fantasy and sci-fi fan community; without pioneering sites like wotmania, much of readers’ thoughts and theories about the books they love would have gone without a venue for discussion. I know personally that running a web site with as much reader involvement as wotmania is a huge amount of work and I’m sure Mackert has made plenty of sacrifices along the way to keep it going.

I’ll raise my glass to you tonight, Mike, and wish you the best of luck with all your future endeavours. To whoever is going to run Read and Find Out, I’ll be keen to check it out.

New Wheel of Time author Brandon Sanderson has posted an entry on his blog stating that he emphathises with fans’ impatience for the series to be completed following the tragic death of its original author Robert Jordan.

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.

Writes Sanderson on his blog:

I understand that some are annoyed at there being three books instead of one, I understand that some are excited about getting three books, and I understand that most of you probably feel both annoyed and excited at the same time. (This series does that to people.)

I understand what it’s like to defend the Wheel of Time vigorously to friends, but then find yourself saying, “I think I’ll wait to read the rest of them until the thing is finally done” to other friends later in the week. I’ve been there. I have a friend who—each time Mr. Jordan’s name was mentioned—used to raise his fist to the sky and curse. Partially in jest, partially to express his fascination and frustration at the same time. I empathized with him a lot.

However, the author adds, he knows how the series ends and the destination will be worth the journey for fans, even those, who like himself, have alternately cursed and praised The Wheel of Time throughout its twenty-year publishing history.

“To you who are like I was, I just say this, give yourself a chance to discover the books again, and you’ll remember what this is all about,” he concludes.

Commentary
In this post, Sanderson captures perfectly how fans feel about The Wheel of Time. It’s a love/hate, relationship, all right. I think most people who have truly spent a lot of time with the series realise how important a work it is. But, paraphrasing Robert Heinlein, Jordan’s masterpiece is a harsh mistress.

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).