A MEMORY OF LIGHT Volume I Cover Art and Title (Apparently) Confirmed

[Werthead]

Disregard the bits below. This news was breaking as I was typing :)

 

A MEMORY OF LIGHT is definitely now two volumes and may become three. Volume I is called THE GATHERING STORM and will be published in November 2009.

 

The following is a very rough cover idea that Tor were throwing around. It was not meant for official release but has now spread across the Internet:

 

 

In addition, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.ca are also carrying the new title for the book (but not the cover), so that at least appears to be legit. Jason has confirmed Dragonmount will be spilling the official beans in a few days.

 

UPDATE FROM TOR:

 

There is no cover for the next Wheel of Time book available yet. The formal Wheel of Time update has been scheduled to release two weeks before JordanCon, with personal words from Harriet and Tom. This is going to be an exciting year, so we appreciate your patience and enthusiasm!

 

 

 

 

Original information, now supersceded and left here as a reference:

 

Uh-oh.

 

Robert Jordan's epic The Wheel of Time will be completed, but it will require an entire trilogy in order to hold all the material. As we reported earlier it is Brandon Sanderson who is finishing the ultimate book. The first part is released in November this year and will change name from "A Memory of Light" to "The Gathering Storm".

 

Grounds for optimism: this may just be the Swedish translation. I believe some previous books in the series required two volumes in Swedish, so AMoL requiring three may be unsurprising.

 

However, apparently elsewhere on the site it is suggested it is the Tor edition they are talking about. And the three volumes will be published at 12-month intervals (so November 2009, 2010 and 2011).

 

Erm...

 

Yeah.

 

I need to stress that we shouldn't believe anything until we hear it from Brandon, Harriet or Tom Doherty, but I have to say I am getting a bad feeling about this...

[Majsju]

They are talking about the original releases, not the Swedish translations. So, they are talking out of their *cough* behinds...

 

Odd thing though, they claim to already have the title of the first book from a split AMOL: The Gathering Storm, and they accept pre-orders starting tomorrow...

[Darkmush]

http://sfbokhandelnmalmo.blogspot.com/2009/03/wheel-of-time-turns.html Note that this was posted 24/3 god i hope its just a rumor spreading.

 

edit: wth http://www.abc.nl/search/detailed.php?isbn=9780765325631&valuta=$ these guys even have the cover picture.

[Werthead]

One of my colleagues on Westeros reports that have made some big mistakes before, particularly about the Song of Ice and Fire books, so here's hoping they got that wrong and it's just the TWO volumes we pretty much already knew were coming.

 

What was worrying is that in the current economic climate, it is easy to believe that Tor could very well decide that three 250,000-word novels and thus three NYT #1 bestsellers in three separate years were much better for them and their fortunes than two.

[Werthead]

http://sfbokhandelnmalmo.blogspot.com/2009/03/wheel-of-time-turns.html Note that this was posted 24/3 god i hope its just a rumor spreading.

 

edit: wth http://www.abc.nl/search/detailed.php?isbn=9780765325631&valuta=$ these guys even have the cover picture.

 

Confirmed. Typing in THE GATHERING STORM BY ROBERT JORDAN into Google results in a sudden rash of appearances. Barnes and Noble are now listing it as well. Can't seem to find more info about it being two or three books though.

 

Oh yes I can.

 

We’ve just had news from the publisher of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series that the last installment will be split into two or possibly three parts. Tentative plans are to publish book 12 in November this year, with two more volumes following in 2010 and 2011.

 

Robert Jordan passed away in September 2007 while he was still writing what was planned to be the last installment in the series. It was announced that Brandon Sanderson would take up Jordan’s pen and complete the last book, to be entitled A Memory of Light. A publication date of November 2009 was scheduled.

 

Wheel of Time fans have been eagerly anticipating the last book and the series and will be pelased to learn that they will still get a new book, as promised, in 2009 - The Gathering Storm will be published this coming November in a large format paperback. (I.e., lots cheaper than a hardcover!) The price is currently EUR 21.99, though this may change (we’re trying to make it cheaper, obviously!)

 

[Werthead]

I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Darrell K. Sweet for actually managing to create a cover worse than Knife of Dreams. I honestly did not believe that was possible. I must admit that when I was thinking of '(possibly) penultimate book of beloved fantasy epic' and 'beginning of the struggle against ultimate darkness' the first thing that came to mind was 'Rand breakdancing in front of a haunted house'.

 

Still, WA-HEY! I guess. And interesting it's called 'Book 1 of A MEMORY OF LIGHT' rather than 'Book 12 of THE WHEEL OF TIME'.

[bjclinton]

this is unacceptable.

 

[Tyrell]

*montage of Aes Sedai vomiting*

[RobertAlexWillis]

Ye-GADS ... that is a truly atrocious cover!

 

I'm sold on the two volumes idea though ... there is still an AWFUL lot to tie up ... not so hot about THREE ...

[Tyrell]

Terrible terrible title. Godawful cover :(

 

Three books :(

 

Robert Jordan : Exploited in death to prop up Tor with extra sales.

[Werthead]

The only way three is even remotely acceptable is if Sanderson has had to raise his completion estimate to 900,000 words or something. Otherwise...why the hell is it necessary?

 

Tor: "Well, given the current economic climate..."

 

Fans: "Wasn't the 400,000-word The Shadow Rising released in 1992 at the height of the last recession?"

 

Tor: "Erm...Maybe?"

[Dmitri]

OMG...

 

:-\

 

 

[Vambram]

Two volumes for AMOL, I could live with and be okay with waiting to get. However, unless Harriet and Sanderson have decided that AMOL is going to be a 900K to 1 million word massively gigantic Book, then I see no good reason that Tor ought to split AMOL into THREE frakin' volumes.

Also, the reported cover art for "The Gathering Storm" ((a title I am okay with having for vol. 1)), the cover Art by Mr. Darrell K. Sweet is atrocious and ugly, ... but what else is new concerning the covers?

[Gentled Ben]

*weeps*

[Delirium]

I love my plain covers with the Wheel of Time logo on them.  I used to have some with cover art, but I gave them away because they were so hideous!

[Werthead]

At the moment I am counting my lucky stars I live in the UK and won't have that cover peering down at me from the shelf. Just the polish-wood effect and snake 'n' wheel logo are fine by me.

[lt;(^-^)gt;]

Brandon Sanderson's site shows 70% progress on the AMOL April deadline.  Has that changed recently?  I thought it was at 40% last week?

[Darth_Andrea]

I sent Brandon a e-mail with the link that shows the cover and everything so perhaps in a day or so he will post something. as for that cover it's self it looks like a fan attempt to copy sweets style the people look amateurish at best.

 

 

 

 

Darth_Andrea       

[Werthead]

I hope so.

 

However, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.ca are both carrying the new book title, so that at least looks 'real'. The three-volume thing and the cover I'm hoping rather desperately are fake.

[Jason Denzel]

Hi everyone,

 

This all appears to be pretty exciting, huh?    Nice find.

 

DM will have a lot of official news on all of this in the next few days.  Stay tuned.

 

Jason

[MikeRiley]

I sent Brandon a e-mail with the link that shows the cover and everything so perhaps in a day or so he will post something. as for that cover it's self it looks like a fan attempt to copy sweets style the people look amateurish at best.

 

Look at the part of the cover that says "Sequel to".. It shows Crossroads of Twilight, wasn't the last book Knife of Dreams?

[Werthead]

Look at the part of the cover that says "Sequel to".. It shows Crossroads of Twilight, wasn't the last book Knife of Dreams?

 

That is correct, and hopefully a sign that this isn't the final cover.

 

In an ideal universe, it will turn out that the Dutch and Swedish websites mistranslated some things, AMoL is still two books and that is a very early, very rough placeholder draft of the cover.

[Vambram]

Hi everyone,

 

This all appears to be pretty exciting, huh?    Nice find.

 

DM will have a lot of official news on all of this in the next few days.  Stay tuned.

 

Jason

 

Thank you, Jason.

and I can promise you that I will most definitely stay tuned for the newest and latest official news.

[Luckers]

Honestly i dont mind the idea of there being two or even three books, my issue is with the delayed release dates. They would not need a year between each, and the fans have already waited such a long time.

[Werthead]

Honestly i dont mind the idea of there being two or even three books, my issue is with the delayed release dates. They would not need a year between each, and the fans have already waited such a long time.

 

This also appears to be information from that one Dutch website as well with no confirmation elsewhere yet, so I wouldn't entirely conclude that there will be such a big gap between the books. I know Brandon was dead-set against it, although he could have been overruled.