As many of you know, I have been waiting (im)patiently for author Brandon Sanderson to complete the late Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series, THE WHEEL OF TIME (you can read about this here and on my left sidebar). Reading Brandon's blog keeps me apprised of his progress - he is very open with his fans - so I knew that the book was getting longer than originally expected. The publisher, Tor Books, made some announcements regarding the book yesterday and I'm dying to discuss them with someone!
Here's the official news:
- Rather than one extremely long and unbindable book, it will be split into three separate volumes (all long as well). Fans were expecting a 2-volume book so this was a bit shocking.
- Volume 1 will be released in Nov. '09. The following volumes will come each in Nov. '10 and Nov. '11. Fans were expecting a two-volume release with a six-month gap between.
- A new encyclopedia will be released about a year after the final-final book.
- Tor.com's big announcement
- Brandon Sanderson's explanation - a very good read! In fact, he handles it better than the official announcement did.
- More info at Dragonmount.com
- interview with Harriet, Jordan's widow and long-time editor
But then I thought about it more and realized a few things.
First, I get to live in THE WHEEL OF TIME land for another few years. I've been inhabiting this world, following these characters, since the mid-1990s so the ending of the series is a huge event for me. Now I get more time with them - and that can only be a good thing.
Second, a book a year is MUCH better than Robert Jordan had done in many years (for a variety of good reasons). So I won't have to wait nearly as long as I did for the last few books.
However, this does present a problem. I've spent the last year listening to the first 11 books in the series on audio in order to prepare for the last book - I wanted everything to be fresh in my mind. And I'm also following along with Tor.com's re-read of the series which is scheduled to finish just before November. All this was in preparation for the END of the series ... but now I'm only getting the BEGINNING of the end.
Oh well, I guess I should just be grateful that there will be THREE more books to enjoy, and that I can spread that enjoyment out for a few more years yet.
Any other WHEEL OF TIME fans out there want to chime in on this? Even if you're not a fan, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Has something like this every happened with a series you love?
8 comments:
Oh thank you for posting this!! I love reading about the updates on this. I really need to finish the series up before so I can read the last ones. I too don't mind it being in three volumes since I can live in WOT world a little bit longer. It's always held a special place in my heart. I found my dad's copy of The Crown of Swords after he passed away in '97 with his bookmarker halfway through. I've now gotten my sister and brother hooked too :) Here's a link for chapter summeries:
http://www.wotmania.com/chaptersummaries.asp
And I'm trying to find on Tor where a blogger is reading the books right now and giving thoughts as she goes. I'll try and find it :)
I'm more or less okay with it. Since Brandon has been so open on his blog, I was expecting an announcement like this, and I have been waiting for so long now that a couple more years is normal, and now we'll have one every year. I just don't know when to do my big series reread now, though. A year in between is probably just enough for me to forget all the little details that I'm sure Brandon will include.
Hi! I guess I'm delurking. I found your site when Laurie King did her guest post here, and when I saw you were a WoT fan too, I stuck around.
I thought Tor's announcement was a bit bland considering the anticipation for this book, but I wasn't too surprised by the announcement itself. When Sanderson first said it would be 750,000 words, my first thought was "that's 3 books, not 2!"
I'm just glad he is willing to write the conclusion the series deserves. It would have been frustrating if minor plot lines had been edited out for the sake of binding restrictions.
Also, this gives me plenty of time to re-read the series. I'm starting tonight and hope to finish the whole series by November.
Not sure what I'll do between the last two books. I think 3 years of reading nothing but WoT might just be too much of a good thing! I'll probably just read the summaries on Dragonmount.com to refresh my memory.
My only thought... do you think I can get the whole entire series read before November? :)
I can see how this would be frustrating to fans, after waiting for so long. But you would be sad when it's all over, right? This way, it won't be over with so soon! :)
I want to be excited about this, but I am so tired. Maybe I'll file this away into the same box as Lost (i.e. the 'wait til it's all done FOR REAL and then go from beginning to end, as not to go bat-shit' box). And then in 2011 I'll get pregnant and put on permanent bedrest and see how fast I can zoom through them all.
11 books in a series??? Wow...
I usually hear about a series when it's already half way through.
The only series I llok forward to are the ones by Nora Roberts and she writes pretty fast :)
I've been following the series for a while, as well as Sanderson's blog waiting for updates. I'm happy about having the finally book in multiple volumes, waiting extra time will suck. Especially if they leave off at a cliff hanger, but over all happy, Ill have another WoT book soon!
Im always glad to find WoT readers as well. I'm starting book 7.
Mists of Avalon is currently on Hiatus. I read the first part, but other books keep interfering. I've enjoyed it so far and I like Arthurian tales.
e-mail is dobson.j.m@gmail.com
(if you want to talk more on the books :)
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