Post by Tony on May 27, 2009 13:12:50 GMT -5
From Dragonmount (http://www.dragonmount.com/Books/Gathering_Storm/):
About this Book
As we all know, Robert Jordan passed away in September, 2007. The book he was working on, A Memory of Light, which was intended to be the twelth and final novel in The Wheel of Time series, was incomplete at the time of his passing. He left behind a staggering amount of notes on the world, as well as some written chapters for the final book. In addition, for the parts of the story he did not have documented in written form, he passed on in the good, old fashioned way: he told people the story.
In his last days he told the story to his friends and family, who recorded it onto tape. In the months that followed his death, Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's beloved wife and editor, put together a comprehensive outline of this final book.
Brandon Sanderson, an up-and-coming fantasy writer (and long-time fan of Robert Jordans's) was chosen by Harriet to bring the outline to life in the form of a published novel. Harriet will edit these book, just as she did the rest of the series.
In March 2009, it was announced that A Memory of Light was going to be far too long to contain into a single novel and would be published as three seperate novels instead. This was primarily a creative decision, and not a business one. (For a full explanation of why this decision was made, please read Brandon's blog post on the topic).
The final three books will be:
The Gathering Storm
Shifting Winds (Working title... Brandon says it WILL change!)
Tarmon'Gaidon (Working title - alt title: A Memory of Light)
It was originally discussed that these books would be written as one book that was simply divided. This is NOT the case. Each book will be its own independent novel, with its own story and chracter arcs.
When will it be published?
The Gathering Storm will be published on Tuesday, November 3, 2009. This is directly in line with the intial speculation that the book would be published in the Fall of 2009. (See the count-down widget on this page)
The timeframe for the remaining novels is currently unknown. Brandon Sanderson is currently working on completing them. For frequent updates directly from Brandon, be sure to visit his website (www.brandonsanderson.com) and read his blog.
Why did they split "A Memory of Light" into three parts?
As stated above, before he died, Robert Jordan frequently said that he intended to write just ONE more WoT novel, entitled A MEMORY OF LIGHT, which would conclude the series. The decision to take his remaining notes and publish them as three novels was ultimately something Brandon thought was best in order to properly tell the story. Please see Brandons blog post for the full details. He explains it very well on his website.
Before Brandon had posted that article, we asked Harriet that same question in an interview we did with her in March 2009, right when the news about the split started to come out. Here's what she said:
The material that Jim left was very capacious, and Brandon saw after working with it for a while that he could not complete it in less than a total of 750,000 words. This is probably an impossible thing to bind - unless we sold it with a magnifying glass. 250,000 words is in fact a fat, or Rubensesque, novel. You will notice that 3 x 250,000 equals 750,000. So... part of the decision was based on making a book within the scope of binding technology. The major part of the decision was to get ALL the story that Jim left out there for us all.
The full interview with Harriet can be found here.
On his blog, Brandon Sanderson said:
I'll be honest, this is a big, big project. I stand by one promise to you, no matter what else happens. I will NOT artificially inflate the size of this book. It doesn't matter to me how many volumes Tor decides to make it; the story is the same to me. One volume, as Robert Jordan planned it. Enormous.
Will the prologue be published early?
It's still too early to tell. Robert Jordan released the prolgues to the previous three books several months ahead of the book itself being published. Although it seems likely they'll follow this trend again for this final novel, we won't know until much more time has passed.
Special Note: If you attend the JordanCon 2009 convention in April, 2009, there will be a reading from the prologue. See the JordanCon website for more information.
What will happen in this book?
We have, of course, no idea! Dragonmount will soon publish a list of unresolved questions and plot threads that we know of. Most of those are likely to be resolved, but both Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson are known for their suprise twists.
Brandon Sanderson said the following about the contents of the final books:
[These books] WILL finish the series. I've read the outline, and I am confident that I can do it in a single book. This won't go five more novels. It will end here.
Note that I'm not saying there won't be more Wheel of Time material released. That's not up to me. There were notes for prequels (Mr. Jordan wrote one of a planned three) and some notes on what happened to certain characters after the end of book 12. However, those are all intended as extra information and separate books outside the Wheel of Time main series.
Where can I learn more about Brandon Sanderson?
Brandon runs a very active website complete with forums and a blog. He encourages anybody to contact himn through his website and encourages you to enjoy his free sample chapeters of his published books.
Please note: if you contact him, please do not pester him with questions about the plot of A MEMORY OF LIGHT. His contract prevents him from being able to talk about that stuff.
As we all know, Robert Jordan passed away in September, 2007. The book he was working on, A Memory of Light, which was intended to be the twelth and final novel in The Wheel of Time series, was incomplete at the time of his passing. He left behind a staggering amount of notes on the world, as well as some written chapters for the final book. In addition, for the parts of the story he did not have documented in written form, he passed on in the good, old fashioned way: he told people the story.
In his last days he told the story to his friends and family, who recorded it onto tape. In the months that followed his death, Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's beloved wife and editor, put together a comprehensive outline of this final book.
Brandon Sanderson, an up-and-coming fantasy writer (and long-time fan of Robert Jordans's) was chosen by Harriet to bring the outline to life in the form of a published novel. Harriet will edit these book, just as she did the rest of the series.
In March 2009, it was announced that A Memory of Light was going to be far too long to contain into a single novel and would be published as three seperate novels instead. This was primarily a creative decision, and not a business one. (For a full explanation of why this decision was made, please read Brandon's blog post on the topic).
The final three books will be:
The Gathering Storm
Shifting Winds (Working title... Brandon says it WILL change!)
Tarmon'Gaidon (Working title - alt title: A Memory of Light)
It was originally discussed that these books would be written as one book that was simply divided. This is NOT the case. Each book will be its own independent novel, with its own story and chracter arcs.
When will it be published?
The Gathering Storm will be published on Tuesday, November 3, 2009. This is directly in line with the intial speculation that the book would be published in the Fall of 2009. (See the count-down widget on this page)
The timeframe for the remaining novels is currently unknown. Brandon Sanderson is currently working on completing them. For frequent updates directly from Brandon, be sure to visit his website (www.brandonsanderson.com) and read his blog.
Why did they split "A Memory of Light" into three parts?
As stated above, before he died, Robert Jordan frequently said that he intended to write just ONE more WoT novel, entitled A MEMORY OF LIGHT, which would conclude the series. The decision to take his remaining notes and publish them as three novels was ultimately something Brandon thought was best in order to properly tell the story. Please see Brandons blog post for the full details. He explains it very well on his website.
Before Brandon had posted that article, we asked Harriet that same question in an interview we did with her in March 2009, right when the news about the split started to come out. Here's what she said:
The material that Jim left was very capacious, and Brandon saw after working with it for a while that he could not complete it in less than a total of 750,000 words. This is probably an impossible thing to bind - unless we sold it with a magnifying glass. 250,000 words is in fact a fat, or Rubensesque, novel. You will notice that 3 x 250,000 equals 750,000. So... part of the decision was based on making a book within the scope of binding technology. The major part of the decision was to get ALL the story that Jim left out there for us all.
The full interview with Harriet can be found here.
On his blog, Brandon Sanderson said:
I'll be honest, this is a big, big project. I stand by one promise to you, no matter what else happens. I will NOT artificially inflate the size of this book. It doesn't matter to me how many volumes Tor decides to make it; the story is the same to me. One volume, as Robert Jordan planned it. Enormous.
Will the prologue be published early?
It's still too early to tell. Robert Jordan released the prolgues to the previous three books several months ahead of the book itself being published. Although it seems likely they'll follow this trend again for this final novel, we won't know until much more time has passed.
Special Note: If you attend the JordanCon 2009 convention in April, 2009, there will be a reading from the prologue. See the JordanCon website for more information.
What will happen in this book?
We have, of course, no idea! Dragonmount will soon publish a list of unresolved questions and plot threads that we know of. Most of those are likely to be resolved, but both Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson are known for their suprise twists.
Brandon Sanderson said the following about the contents of the final books:
[These books] WILL finish the series. I've read the outline, and I am confident that I can do it in a single book. This won't go five more novels. It will end here.
Note that I'm not saying there won't be more Wheel of Time material released. That's not up to me. There were notes for prequels (Mr. Jordan wrote one of a planned three) and some notes on what happened to certain characters after the end of book 12. However, those are all intended as extra information and separate books outside the Wheel of Time main series.
Where can I learn more about Brandon Sanderson?
Brandon runs a very active website complete with forums and a blog. He encourages anybody to contact himn through his website and encourages you to enjoy his free sample chapeters of his published books.
Please note: if you contact him, please do not pester him with questions about the plot of A MEMORY OF LIGHT. His contract prevents him from being able to talk about that stuff.