Here's Tor Books' press release:Tor Books announced today that novelist Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish writing the final novel in Robert Jordan's bestselling Wheel of Time fantasy series. Jordan--described by some as Tolkien's heir--died Sept. 16 from a rare blood disease. The new novel, A Memory of Light, will be the 12th and final book in the fantasy series which has sold more than 14 million copies in North America and more than 30 million copies worldwide. The last four books in the series were all #1 New York Times bestsellers.
Harriet Popham Rigney, Jordan's widow and editor, chose Sanderson to complete A Memory of Light--which Jordan worked on almost daily for the last few months of his life--and will edit it. Rigney said some scenes from the book were completed by Jordan before his death, and some exist in draft form. "He left copious notes and hours of audio recordings," she said. He also revealed details about the end of the series to close members of his family.
Sanderson, who acknowledged Jordan as an inspiration to him as a writer, has established a loyal fan base as the author of three fantasy novels: Elantris, Mistborn and The Well of Ascension (Tor), as well as a YA novel, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (Scholastic Press). Sanderson said, "I'm both extremely excited and daunted by this opportunity. There is only one man who could have done this book the way it deserved to be written, and we lost him in September. However, I promise to do my very best to remain true to Mr. Jordan's vision and produce the book we have all been waiting to read."
A Memory of Light is scheduled for publication in fall 2009.
In terms of styles, Sanderson and Jordan are like night and day. I wonder what made Harriet select him. . .
Oh man. . .
11 commentaires:
Very interesting. I was sort of hoping for it to be more of a small group of writers rather than just one. I know too many cooks can ruin the stew and all that, but having a few people overseeing the writing would prevent one person from putting too much of their own personality into it.
Interesting, but, with his wife (Jordan's) editting, and his notes, hopefully, it'll be a success.
I not a huge fan of the series myself, but, I hope it works out for his legion of fans..
Hey, if he's working from a detailed set of notes things should be ok.
There might even be less braid-tugging that usual!
(boy that gets annoying, from Book 1 and onwards)
I thought I'd pass along this tidbit from the Fantasybookspot.com forum post on the news, the quote itself is swiped from the Dragonmount boards:
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(From Brandon Sanderson)
"Just a quick note to thank you all for your good wishes. I just wanted to let you know that I have now seen the notes, and while I can't say anything specific without breaking my NDA, I will say that the notes are in far better shape than I had expected. Mr. Jordan's staff are very skilled, and they have complied an outline for me that goes scene-by-scene. After reading through it, I'm confident we can produce a book that Mr. Jordan would have been pleased with.
Also, I DO finally know who killed Asmodean, and I promise to include it in the book to finally answer that question for you.
Also, I WILL be more detailed in my descriptions for this book. I may need a fleet of people to help me get the clothing descriptions down, but I'll do it!"
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So it looks like the lengthy clothing descriptions are in (which means the volume will likely be 900+ pages, lol) but I'll still hold out hope for less braid tugging.
I had given up on WOT. To many pages for the payoff. I also got really tired of the way Jordan wrote his female characters. I'll probably read this last one though, I did read eight of them so a little closure would be nice. I'm also interested to see a different writing style applied to the same story line, although it sounds like Sanderson is going to do his best Jordan impersonation.
Hey Pat! Nice choice showing 'The Dragon Reborn' cover for this news post.
I don't know anything about Mr. Sanderson. But damned if I don't read this book!
lol - you seem concerned Pat! The only downside to this announcement is we haven't had the fun of speculating who else might best do the job. Who might you have preferred?
I don't know whether the difference is as far as 'night and day' but it's there. However, I trust Sanderson. He's good at tying things together so they all make sense, and that's exactly what this series needs a healthy dose of (understatement) to finish it.
Night and day would be having, say, China Miéville complete the series. (I would read that. XD)
While I am satisfied with Sanderson accepting this responsibility, if you really want a "night and day" situation, imagine if someone like Gene Wolfe were to take charge of the final volume!
Come to think of it, if Wolfe were to do a full-blown secondary-world series, it might make even Bakker's work appear to be simplistic :P
I don't know him, but it should have been Martin. Then we could have been sure Rand dies....
I just hope the cut will not be felt too strongly.
I wish they would just publish all the notes. I would buy that. Same with Frank Herbert's notes he left for his final Dune book.
Lol dliwir, but I'd really prefer for Martin to finish his series. And kill Daenerys. :)
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