'Towers of Midnight' progress bar

[mb]

TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT is going very well. I'm very pleased with how it's turning out, and I'm confident it will be ready in time for a release later this year as promised. It will be longer than THE GATHERING STORM, which is another reason the progress bar stopped. I'm just not sure how long the book will end up being, so a percentage is harder to judge right now. The actual length of the book right now—after putting together all the pieces I've been working on over the last six months—comes to 291,294 words. THE GATHERING STORM was around 300,000 words. I estimate this one at around 320,000 or so after revisions and edits. (It might get as high as 350,000, then get sliced back down. I always trim a lot off books in later drafts when I tighten up the language.)

(bold mine)

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/870/Some-Long-Awaited-Updates

 

[Charlz Guybon]

Why post a blog update from February?

[Millon]

This book is goin to be huge. Dear God

[Sentinel78]

This book is goin to be huge. Dear God

 

Yup.  Not as long as Shadow Rising or Storm of Swords by GRRM, but quite long.

[Millon]

really? I didn't realize SR was that big of a book. huh Still haven't read the last couple Martin books. Don't want to get strung along. again.....

[JenniferL]

The Shadow Rising is the longest book in the series, by far. It's about a thousand pages in paperback.

[Crael123]

The Shadow Rising is the longest book in the series, by far. It's about a thousand pages in paperback.

 

so is LOC

[Cirin]

Yeah, I think Lord of Chaos is the longest, actually.  Strictly in page number, anyway... maybe there are just bigger words in it.

[JenniferL]

Word counts are listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Time#Books_in_the_series

 

Page count can be deceiving, as there are a number of factors that can affect it. Margin, print size, illustrations, chapter length, etc. TSR is longer than LOC by about 4500 words.

[Ereinion]

From a BS blog a couple years ago(http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/743?m=1&y=2012&d=8):

 

Alcatraz/Evil Librarians 60,400

New Spring 121,815

Elantris 202,765

The Final Empire 214,752

The Path of Daggers 226,687

Warbreaker 236,301

Winter's Heart 238,789

Hero of Ages 244,201

The Dragon Reborn 251,392

The Well of Ascension 252,739

The Great Hunt 267,078

Crossroads of Twilight 271,632

A Crown of Swords 295,028

The Eye of the World 305,902

Knife of Dreams 315,163

The Fires of Heaven 354,109

Lord of Chaos 389,264

The Shadow Rising 393,823

—-A MEMORY OF LIGHT 408k So Far!—-

The Stand: 464,218

Lord of the Rings: 470,000

Les Miserables (French): 513,000

War and Peace (English): 560,000

Ten copies of Alcatraz: 604,000

Atlas Shrugged:  645,000

Entire Mistborn Trilogy:  711,692

[Sentinel78]

Found this site with some good info across different series:

 

http://www.cesspit.net/drupal/node/1869

 

Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

 

The Fellowship of the Ring: 177k

The Two Towers: 143k

The Return of the King: 134k

 

Total: 454k

 

Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan

 

The Eye of the World: 305k

The Great Hunt: 267k

The Dragon Reborn: 251k

The Shadow Rising: 393k

The Fires of Heaven: 354k

Lord of Chaos: 389k

A Crown of Swords: 295k

The Path of Daggers: 226k

Winter's Heart: 238k

Crossroads of Twilight: 271k

Knife of Dreams: 315k

 

Total: 3M 304k  (Needs updating)

 

A Song of Ice And Fire - George R. R. Martin

 

A Game of Thrones: 284k

A Clash of kings: 326k

A Storm of Swords: 404k  <---- WOW

A Feast for Crows: 300k

 

Total: 1M 314k

 

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson

 

Gardens of the Moon: 209k

Deadhouse Gates: 270k

Memories of Ice: 351k

House of Chains: 306k

Midnight Tides: 271k

The Bonehunters: 365k

Reaper's Gale: 386k

Toll the Hounds: 392k

Dust of Dreams: 382k

 

Total: 2M 932k

 

Esslemont:

 

Night of Knives: 88k

Return of the Crimson Guard: 278k

 

The Night's Dawn Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton

 

The Reality Dysfunction: 385k

The Neutronium Alchemist: 393k

The Naked God: 469k (!)

 

Total: 1M 247k

 

Baroque+Crypto - Neal Stephenson

 

Cryptonomicon: 415k

 

Quicksilver: 390k

The Confusion: 348k

The System of the World: 387k

 

Total: 1M 540k

 

The Dark Tower - Stephen King

 

The Gunslinger: 55k

The Drawing of the Three: 128k

The Waste Lands: 178k

Wizard and Glass: 264k

Wolves of the Calla: 251k

Song of Susannah: 131k

The Dark Tower: 288k

 

Total: 1M 295k

 

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

 

- 479k

[JenniferL]

Yeah, i thought my wrists were going to break when i was reading A STORM OF SWORDS in hardback. The thing was huge.

[Fains nose]

Seriously, i never heard of Brandon Sanderson before aGS and i never heard of A Song Of Ice And Fire. Based on the luv on these forums im considering reading sum BS or aSoIaF books, would i like them if i luv WoT, and what should i start first?

[Millon]

Never did the BS ones so I can't say. SoIaF though, unless you're a fan of waiting extended periods of time between books I'd say go for it. Turning out to be another WoT. Series isn't finished yet and the books came few and far between. I love the darkness of the books though so I am torn. Sort of. hahaha I've read the first two and got sick of waiting and just sheleved them until the series is finished. Great story and imagery and peril. Good good stuff there.

[Cirin]

I didn't finish A Song of Ice and Fire either, but from the few books I read, the biggest difference I would say is that you shouldn't get attached to any one particular character.  I don't want to give away much about the book, but yeah... try not to form strong attachments to characters.

The other Brandon Sanderson books I haven't read personally, but I've heard from a friend and my brother (who can be fairly critical when it comes to his books) both said that the Mistborn trilogy at least is good.

[Ereinion]

Personally:

Mistborn - 9/10

Warbreaker - 8/10

Elantris - 7/10

 

ASoIaF - 9/10 for the first 3 books. 4th - 8ish. GRRM has been working on book 5 for 5 years and I think he's about as close to finishing it as he was 3 years ago.

 

Definitely give Mistborn a try though. Warbreaker can be obtained free online on his website so you might also wanna check that one out. Also the first few chapters of his next book(1st book in a large WoT size series) is up on tor right now.

[Millon]

I was goin to say it was that long but thought I had to be wrong because that is such a ridiculously long time to wait for a book but I guess I would have been right. Yeah, stay away from Martin until it's done. About another 15 - 20 years or so.

 

Hey, anyone know of a Martin sight that I may get caught up on the story?

[Kadere]

Hey, anyone know of a Martin sight that I may get caught up on the story?

 

http://www.towerofthehand.com/

[DemandredFO]

Another thing about Martin is they live little to the imagination and I do mean little.  They're very graphic and that's all I'll say since these boards are PG-13.  I gave up both for the long wait and I thought he was gratuitously graphic.

[water_seeker]

I quit aSoIaF after I found out how extremely [shadow=orange,left][glow=orange,2,300]boring[/glow][/shadow] it is.  If I ever have trouble sleeping I may just pick it up again...

[mb]

Why post a blog update from February?

Read (or re-read if you have read) the bold part.

 

Mainly posted it because a number of people seemed to assume that the progress bar would end at 100%.

 

[Kadere]

Well ToM release date on Tor's website is now November 2 instead of Oct 26, so I guess it's official now. Still weird that DM hasn't mentioned it and there hasn't been an announcement from Tor. 

 

http://us.macmillan.com/towersofmidnight

[Crael123]

i have never seen or heard of song of fire and ice. what is it about?

[Ashaman Kovan]

i have never seen or heard of song of fire and ice. what is it about?

 

Have you ever seen or heard of wikipedia?  ;D

[yoniy0]

C'mon guys, I follow this thread for news on ToM. Please keep SoIaF discussions to GRRM's forums (though, if someone has an update about a release date for aDwD, I'll alow it. Yeah right :) ).