As we draw closer to the release date (so I discovered this evening - the 27th of this very month, in fact!), I went head and spent the piddly 3 bucks to read the prologue for the new book. I am not, I am afraid to say, very pleased. Perhaps it's been too long since I've read the Wheel of Time books (and so I plan on rereading the last 2 books this week), however the style is noticeably different - and, well. I'm just not content.

Granted, I'm one of those naesayers who isn't very fond of the chosen author to finish the series (personally, I was rather shocked and decidedly appalled to hear he plan on putting his own name on the cover of the books in lieu of, or alongside, Jordan's), so perhaps I'm seeing spectres, as it were. However, I am needlessly excited over the upcoming book, and am glad we will be seeing the series drawn to a close. There is some pretty intriguing things going on within the Forsaken, the Seanchan and even within Rand's own loyalists.

Faile killing Masima - CLASSIC

I do, however, hope the topic of Moiraine is resolved in this book. I'm getting pretty damn irritated about not knowing about the Aelfinn/Eelfinn.

Oh, and does anyone else suspect Dammiekins is bringing the Shara to Randland for war? Or do you think Graendel is right and he has the Borderlands under thumb?

At any rate. Just wanted to post my opinions/alert the unaware of the upcoming release/encourage discussion.

P.S. - On the plus side, the damn books are being finished. On the down side, a Song of Ice and Fire is still... Acting like it's going. ARGH.

Your words confuse and intruige me. Have I been missing out on a new fantasy series?

Not so much new, Wheel of Time has been around since before I was born. I haven't had the chance to read them yet, I've heard they're actually really good. Maybe once this one comes out, I'll head to the library and set a week or two or three to reading all of them.

The thing that distresses me about the next book coming out is...

... I have to re-read the rest of the series again. I have read this series far too many times!

I plan to buy the new one when it comes out, but I haven't done a whole lot of looking into it. It's been a long time since the last book, so I guess some of the excitement has worn off for me.

I share these feelings immensely. After Heart of Winter (and re-reading the previous nine books), I decided I'm just rereading the previous two books from now on. My memory's pretty sharp anyways, though I have problems like remembering what happened to Masima to make him become the Prophet (which I think was like... Book One, tEotW).

I also just found the first chapter on TOR's website - I feel like I don't even remember Knife of Dreams, at all. I mean, it's been four years, but I simply do NOT remember Rand being attacked by Semirhage, capturing her and getting his hand cut off.

That was one of the most important parts!

I'm fairly annoyed that they've split the 'last book' into 3 different parts. I'm afraid the books will drag on as much as they did during about 7-10. Granted, Jordan had waaay too many different plots going on and hasn't resolved almost all of them. :/ And I hope that they manage to get them out before I'm old and senile.

Where's this prologue thing you mentioned?

You can purchase it on Amazon.com.

Splitting the book into 3 parts was probably the best thing they could do, to be honest. I would rather 3 books that cover everything than 1 book that covers 2/3 of it. Or worse, less. I cannot picture a publisher reasonably producing a 3600 page book - or larger, as Brandon has suggested it might become. Robert Jordan had too many plot threads dangling, I fear.

This makes me feel old... very old. I started reading the books in 1991...

Which is 18 years ago, which is still five years longer than someone has to be alive to play Lusternia without lying.

I was born in 91. You are old.

Aheehee, you're the same age as my brother. Wait... damnit! Now I feel old too

To be fair, Eventru, the hand wasn't cut off

Honestly.. I can't wait for the next book. I've been waiting way too long and I'm tired of re-reading the old books that I paid good money for! It's beyond irritating not knowing what happends! Not that I'm blaming the poor guy for dying or anything.. but he could of finished the book first!

Arm blown all to hell then healed back on, hand cut off, it's just semantics!

And I understand why they decided to split it into 3 books, there really is a -ton- going on that a lot of people would be unsatisfied with if they just dropped it and went 'WHOA HEY TARMON GAI'DON (whatever the spelling is) WHERE'D THAT COME FROM'.

It's just been a rocky road. First finding out Jordan was sick - D:
Finding out Jordan was committed to finishing the series -
Finding out Jordan passed away (RIP) - D:
Finding out the book was still going to be finished -
Finding out the author might be a little sketchy - D:
Finding out the book is going to be split and carried on for a few more years when thinking it was going to be ended - D:

I just really hope they don't try to milk it out, knowing it's a well-liked and successful series, for a little extra money.

I just hope this author doesn't completely ruin the personalities of the characters I happen to like. Seriously, if you screw over mat or min then I'm sending you hate mail!

I've still not heard any compelling reason why people think Brandon might be a bit sketchy. I suspect it's simply because we were all left reeling from his death, and then he says he's going to put his own names on the books and... A lot of us took that very harshly. I still get upset when I think about it, and will probably do something asinine like use my otherwise useless label maker (I far prefer my system of filing - that is, chronologically - the oldest 's on the bottom of the pile, the new 's on top) and put ROBERT JORDAN ROBERT JORDAN ROBERT JORDAN ROBERT JORDAN over Brandon's name. Hem hem. Still not a very good reason to doubt his talents as an author, though.

Doesn't stop me from joining the crowd, however. I rather wish Harriet had finished the series herself (as I feel she would serve good old Dangling Plot Threads' image best), though I can totally understand why she chose to have another author finish it.

I think, as an afterthought, one of my greatest concerns is that I, personally, have never heard of him before, nor have any of the people I went to middle and high school with (we would each buy a few of the books, and then share amongst ourselves every time a new one came out - we all eventually just started buying the new ones, and this fell out of practice. Then we just had WoT book club meetings on the green, heh.) that were WoT fans, at least the ones I've talked to. So I suppose I sort of feel like, by replacing Jordan's name with his own, the replacement author (Brandon Sanderson or whatever his last name is) is attempting to make a name for himself on Jordan's brilliance. Because, for all of the dangling plot threads (Thus why we've deemed him to be Robert 'Dangling Plot Threads' Jordan), the series is magnificent, and I would rather have to read 20 books that tell everything in great detail than read 5 or 10 or even 15 books that have even something obscure cut out.

This is to be read as "Anything Tolkein so much as touched." or "Legend of the Seeker". Not sure which. One was good in spite of the HUGE amount of information only hinted at in the source material. The other was a fairly cheap knock off capitalizing on a name...









I'm not bitter, nooooo.

I must be alone in my general uncaring disposition towards Mat. Everyone loves him but me. I simply do not find him to be all that compelling, however his story line (him, Moiraine, Thom, Tuon, the Aelfinn/Eelfinn, Tower of Genjii) is by far and above my favourite. And honestly, I think everyone feels that way - Rand, while rock awesome, is the lesser of the two story lines. Perrin, while cool, takes a distant third - though I definitely am loving the Faile aspect of it, what with her and Elayne's mother and such. Though I just remembered the Ogier (Loeil? Loail? Something) and I really loved his story, too.

And I'm not a fan of Min, either. Of Rand's wives, I greatly prefer Elayne and then Aviendha. Min's general lack of explanation (I don't think anyone else has ever been discovered with her talent, and from memory no one's ever been recorded with having it) and lack of origins infuriate me more than anything else. Perhaps my opinions will shift greatly upon discovery of what she is (I remember a friend theorizing she's of the Aelfinn/Eelfinn variety - not unlikely, from memory, and would be pretty cool).

The Shara and the Tinkers are the two races I am most eager to learn more about - the mere thought of their social/political structure, their reverence for channelers and how they treat them as leaders gives me chills.

I always liked the Perin story line best, and then Mat's. Since book 7 I havn't liked the rand story line at all.

I had, actually. I liked the Mistborn series (books 1 and 2 were out prior to the decision to bring him on). After this announcement I also went and picked up Elantris which I enjoyed.