Rajiv Moté is Dragonmount's book blogger with a lens on the craft of fiction writing. When he's not managing software engineers, he writes fiction of his own, which can be found cataloged at his website.

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“Well we have to choose someone [to rule].”

“Why just us? We represent the Great Houses, but whomever we choose, they won’t just rule over lords and ladies. Maybe the decision about what’s best for everyone should be left to, well, everyone.”

[Laughter ensues]

“Maybe we should give the dogs a vote as well!”

“I’ll ask my horse!”

Game of Thrones (HBO), Season 8, Episode 6, “The Iron Throne”

 

So close. The series finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones could have “broken the wheel” of Houses warring for the Iron Throne with the introduction of representative democracy. But alas, the time had not yet come in Westeros for Samwell Tarley’s radical idea. It seemed like a nod to the audience, who had long speculated what kind of government could arise when the “Game” was over and everybody (knowing George R. R. Martin) had lost. The scene seemed to say, “we hear you, but this isn’t the kind of story that has room to explore how a society moves away from monarchy toward a government of the people.” Great shifts in political philosophy can’t be accomplished convincingly in the denouement. (Or even in the epilogue.)

Readers in these politically energized times are less satisfied with stories where the world’s problems are solved by the Chosen One claiming the throne, or defeating the Dark Lord in single combat. Readers want stories that acknowledge the complexity of the world they contend with every day. Destroying Emperor Palpatine does nothing to address the authoritarian impulses that caused the Republic to fall, twice. Destroying Voldemort didn’t free the House Elves or end pureblood racism. If there must be a Chosen One, readers demand he do more than kill his opposite number. The Chosen One must leave an enduring legacy.

In The Wheel of Time, Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, makes a decent job of it when it comes to legacies. He could probably credit the lesson of two other “Chosen Ones” in history whose legacies were failures. 

Lews Therin Telamon, Rand’s own prior incarnation, perpetrated the Wheel’s Original Sin of disunity by attacking the Dark One at Shayol Ghul without the support of the female Aes Sedai. The result was the male Aes Sedai going mad, Lew Therin earning the epithet “Kinslayer,” and the Breaking of the World.

The second failed Chosen One was Artur Paendrag Tanreall, the “Hawkwing.” During the High King’s lifetime, he succeeded in uniting the entire continent under his rule, which, for the common folk, was a peaceful and just rule. But after his death, his empire fell apart.

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“Hawkwing died the very day the statue was finished, and his sons and the rest of his blood fought over who would sit on Hawkwing’s throne… The sons and the nephews and the cousins died, and the last of the Hawkwing’s blood vanished from the earth… There were those who would have erased even the memory of him, if they could. Books were burned just because they mentioned his name. In the end there was nothing left of him but the stories, and most of them wrong. That’s what his glory came to.”

The Eye of the World, “Eyes Without Pity”

 

Elyas Machera’s story, told among the rubble of Hawkwing’s ruined statue, invokes imagery of the poem “Ozymandias,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

 

The wisdom Rand al’Thor learns from his ta’veren predecessors (and through hard-learned lessons throughout the story) are that he cannot succeed on his own, and that facing his prophesied fate is not enough. He must lay the foundation for what will come after he is gone. This turning of the Wheel, he has to do better. 

Let’s look at some of Rand’s biggest political contributions to the Fourth Age.

The Black Tower

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“They think they can always tear everything down. It’s always tearing down, never building up! I’m going to build something, leave something behind. Whatever happens, I will do that!”

Lord of Chaos, “A Woman’s Eyes”

 

The Black Tower was the first step along the road of righting Lews Therin’s Original Sin. Men like him, men who could channel, had no place in the world following the Time of Madness. Even as Rand amassed his Asha’man as a weapon to use in the Last Battle, he wanted the Black Tower to outlast him, to become every bit the institution as the White Tower. Whether it was by design or a result of being spread too thin, Rand took no part in the Black Tower’s fall into darkness under Mazrim Taim, and subsequent redemption under Logain. By the Asha’man authoring their own fate, they established an identity apart from Rand, and beyond their role in Tarmon Gai’don. Given Egwene’s prophetic vision of the fang and flame, at last unified in the ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai, it looks promising that the Black Tower will finally redeem Lews Therin’s sin.

Dragon University

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“Rand had wanted to gather knowledge in one place. Time and again he had heard how much had been lost in the War of the Hundred Years and the Trolloc Wars. How much more must have vanished in the Breaking of the World? If he was going to Break the World again, he meant to create repositories where knowledge could be preserved. Another school had already started in Tear, though just barely, and he had begun seeking a place in Caemlyn.”

Lord of Chaos, “A Taste of Solitude”

 

Unlike the Black Tower, Rand’s schools were an effort of pure legacy. They would yield no advantage in the Last Battle; their fruits were for the Age after the Dark One was settled. Rand got to watch, in small but satisfying interstitial scenes, the inventors and scholars learning how to harness the power of steam and electricity. As readers, we know where this could lead, just as we know this is a thread that will go on to change the world beyond the Dragon Reborn’s story. The Fourth Age seems full of potential and possibility. Though Rand’s distance from the Black Tower could have been negligence (and bad delegation), Rand’s decision to play patron but not manager of the schools seem to come from a deliberate choice to let the experts do their work. Rand built not for his own glory, but for a better world after him.

The Sea Folk Bargain

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“Aes Sedai serve me, and so will the Sea Folk… That is what the Jendai Prophecy says. The Sea Folk will serve the Coramoor. I am the Coramoor.”

“Yes, but there is the matter of the Bargain.” That word was plainly capitalized in Harine’s tone. “The Jendai Prophecy says you will bring us to glory, and all the seas of the world will be ours. As we give to you, you must give to us.”

A Crown of Swords, “Ta’veren”

 

The Wheel of Time is globalist in its ethos. Characters and nations discover strength in uniting disparate cultures and people. If the Dark One gains strength from chaos and entropy, the Light finds purchase in order and new, stronger ways of people coming together. The Sea Folk are but one of the isolationist cultures that Rand brings into the mainstream with the Bargain. It’s not an accident that, here too, Rand delegates negotiating the terms to the professionals, from the Gray Ajah Aes Sedai to skilled politicians like Queen Elayne Trakand. Rand is the catalyst for the world coming together, but he is intentionally not the glue that holds it together. All the participants are invested in working together.

The Dragon’s Peace

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“The last Age ended with a Breaking, and so the next one will begin with peace--even if it must be shoved down your throats like medicine given to a screaming babe.”

A Memory of Light, “A Knack”

 

Rand’s meeting with the leaders of the nations on the Field of Merrilor was, like the schools, an act of pure legacy. He could have simply met his fate at Shayol Ghul and let the survivors of Tarmon Gai’don do with the Fourth Age what they would. But Rand al’Thor took a page from Peter Parker’s book, and decided that his great power entailed great responsibility to the world that survived him. And he was not above extorting the nations for a hundred years of peace.

This was not a compact that could be sold by Tyrion Lannister delivering a stirring speech in the Dragonpit of King’s Landing, or even handed down, fully formed, by the Dragon Reborn. The rulers correctly pointed out that unless the Seanchan were brought into the accord, it was worthless. Aviendha demanded that the Aiel be included, having seen a bleak future if the Aiel had no defined place in the new world order. And Perrin, with his knowledge of tools and blacksmith puzzles, suggested that the Aiel be the enforcers of the Dragon’s Peace. Egwene resisted, and Moiraine mediated. Faile saw political maneuvering in how the parties reached their agreement, but it may be that Rand’s guileless insistence on a unity that would outlast him won the day on its own strength. With a touch of ta’veren, perhaps. As Herid Fel said, “Belief and order give strength.”

Compromise with the Seanchan

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“Light be merciful, let it be done. I will carry this weight too. You may keep the damane you already have, but you shall not take any from among my allies while we fight the Last Battle. Taking any afterward who are not in your own land will be seen as breaking the treaty and attacking the other nations.”

A Memory of Light, “Older, More Weathered”

 

Even the Chosen One must compromise, and bringing the Seanchan into the Dragon’s Peace proved to be the bitterest compromise of all. Within the lands they currently controlled, the Seanchan could continue their practice of enslaving women who channeled. Just as the Last Battle wouldn’t automatically rid the world of evils unconnected to the Dark One, cruelty, prejudice, and oppression were not banished from human hearts by the Dark One’s defeat. Chattel slavery was something the Fourth Age civilization would still have to wrestle.

Empress Fortuona herself, as a damane trainer, could be held by the a’dam. How would that truth weigh against centuries of Seanchan tradition, over time? Could Mat’s influence sway her heart? Will the Windfinders refuse to engage in commerce in Seanchan lands, putting economic pressure on the Empire? How would the united Black and White Towers deal with the Seanchan? The Wheel turns, and there are stories yet to be told, even if we’ll never read them. Rand al’Thor re-wove the universe to preserve human free will. With it comes the struggle to overcome the evil humanity has wrought, and to strive for new heights of nobility. Because that’s what free will means.

10 years ago today, on September 3, 2010, Dragonmount premiered the Towers of Midnight book trailer. 

This promotional video was funded by Tor Books and made with the blessing of Harriet McDougal and Brandon Sanderson. It features Sarah Nakamura in the small role of Moiraine. Today, Sarah is a Story Consultant for Amazon Prime's upcoming Wheel of Time TV show. 

Making that video was a lot of fun. Be sure to check out our extensive behind-the-scenes feature about its making. 

Rajiv Moté is Dragonmount's book blogger with a lens on the craft of fiction writing. When he's not managing software engineers, he writes fiction of his own, which can be found cataloged at his website.

The Dark One is the source of evil in The Wheel of Time, and his army of monsters is formidable. Hulking man/beast soldiers, eyeless swordsmen, soul-sucking bat-men, unnoticeable assassins, evil hounds, Power-resistant gumbies, giant worms, and the giant insects they become. But the scariest monsters in the saga are creatures without a direct link to the Dark One, unaffiliated evils who haunt the corners of the Pattern, with nefarious purposes beyond the battle between the Dark One and the Dragon. Let’s look at five of them.

Shadar Logoth

“Suspicion and hate had given birth to something that fed on that which created it, something locked in the bedrock on which the city stood. Mashadar waits still, hungering.”

“Shadows Waiting”, The Eye of the World

Shadar Logoth is the name of a haunted city, but also of a triumvirate monster composed of ghosts, a mist creature called Mashadar, and a corrupting taint. Its evil has a complex and murky history, but its origin is human. It was initially kindled by people’s paranoia and ruthlessness against the Dark One. In some ways, it is like an echo of the Dark One himself, trapped in the prison of Shadar Logoth at the moment of its creation, needing human action to escape and touch the world with its corruption. But its evil “vibrates” at an opposite frequency to the Dark One’s, a pivotal piece of natural philosophy that caused Rand al’Thor’s wounds from the ruby-capped dagger and Ba’alzamon’s staff to war against each other instead of destroying him, and inspired Rand to cleanse the Dark One’s taint on saidin.

Though there are invisible watchers and the ghostly counselor Mordeth himself haunting Shadar Logoth, the evil manifests as Mashadar, a mindless, chthonic monster emerging from deep in the earth only at night, blindly seeking prey with its misty tentacles. Shadar Logoth is one of the scariest parts of The Wheel of Time, the place where Robert Jordan unleashed the horror-writing chops he hinted at in the dream-scenes with Ba’alzamon. But the monster’s human origins make it fascinating, and Robert Jordan’s cosmology more complex. Whatever the glossary says, the Dark One is not the source of evil in The Wheel of Time, or at least not the sole source. Evil comes from people’s hearts, and when it is sufficiently strong, it can manifest monstrously. Perhaps the Dark One himself was created by humans in the infinite turnings of the Wheel.

Machin Shin

“Something left from the Time of Madness, perhaps,” Moiraine replied. “Or even from the War of the Shadow, the War of Power. Something hiding in the Ways so long it can no longer get out. No one, not even among the Ogier, knows how far the Ways run, or how deep. It could even be something of the Ways themselves. As Loial said, the Ways are living things, and all living things have parasites. Perhaps even a creature of the corruption itself, something born of the decay. Something that hates life and light.”

“What Follows in Shadow”, The Eye of the World

The Black Wind could be a creature of the Dark One in the way the creatures of the Blight are: a product of the Dark One’s taint. But it seems to be a chthonic monster more similar to the evil of Shadar Logoth than the Dark One, a collection of voices confined to its domain, and happily gobbling up Shadowspawn as readily as any other intruder. Moiraine makes the likeness between Shadar Logoth’s evil and Machin Shin explicit when she describes the Mordeth-possessed Padan Fain’s encounter with it.

“The Black Wind caught him--and he claimed to understand the voices. Some greeted him as like to them; others feared him. No sooner did the Wind envelop Fain than it fled.”

“More Tales of the Wheel”, The Eye of the World

Machin Shin and the Ways are another wonderfully creepy horror flex by Robert Jordan, and it’s a shame that the in-canon conclusion of the series wasn’t able to resolve its threat. Out of canon, at least we have “A Fire Within the Ways,” a deleted chapter from A Memory of Light (jointly credited to Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson) appearing in the Unfettered III anthology. In it, Perrin leads a mission to disrupt the Dark One’s armies from using the Ways, and at the climax of the battle, Machin Shin attacks. Neither weapons nor the One Power harm it, but then they hear a pure rumble of Ogier voices raised in song. Something in the song allows the Asha’man and Aes Sedai to channel bright, uncorrupted light, and Machin Shin is driven back into the shadows.

If the evil of Shadar Logoth seemed like a primitive prototype of the Dark One in miniature, bound in its prison and reaching the world through human proxies, Machin Shin mirrors him in other ways. It is a formless but sentient evil that exists outside of the Pattern, known only because the Aes Sedai reached into the liminal space where it lurks.

Hinderstap’s Ghosts

“The road’s length squirmed with shadows, figures battling, screeching, struggling in the deepening gloom. In that darkness, the fights looked at times to be solid, single creatures--horrific monstrosities with a dozen waving limbs and a hundred mouths to scream from the blackness.”

“Night in Hinderstap”, The Gathering Storm

By day, the people of Hinderstap are welcoming, but they insist that visitors leave before nightfall. Because night is when the entire town goes murderously insane, and everyone fights each other to the death. By morning, they all wake up in their beds, fully healed, with no memory of the night’s carnage. Any outsider unlucky enough to be killed in the madness joins the cycle of violence, forever.

Hinderstap is an eldritch stopover that doesn’t seem to be connected to anything else in the saga, though it has a fun payoff during the Last Battle. The chapter icon suggests that what’s happening in Hinderstap is a result of the Pattern unraveling. But we’ve seen these localized, nocturnal curses before, and the above description tickles a memory.

“The waving gray tentacles of Mashadar blocked half the street, and the Trollocs were balking… The thickening tentacles of fog swung uncertainly for a moment, then struck like vipers… There was no sound from that cry, any more than from the Trollocs, but something came through, a piercing whine just beyond hearing, like all the hornets in the world, digging into Rand’s ears with all the fear that could exist.”

“Dust on the Wind”, The Eye of the World

Perhaps there was another deleted chapter in which Mordeth, in Padan Fain’s body, spent some time in Hinderstap, leaving his corrupting influence to seep into the bedrock. Certainly one can imagine that the nightly carnage in Hinderstap had some analogue in Aridhol at first, and over the centuries its undying people became little more than mist and shadowy watchers.

The Aelfinn and the Eelfinn

“The game is a remembrance of old dealings. It does not matter so long as you stay away from the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn. They are not evil the way the Shadow is evil, yet they are so different from humankind they might as well be. They are not to be trusted, archer. Stay clear of the Tower of Ghenjei.”

“To the Tower of Ghenjei”, The Shadow Rising

The Aelfinn (the “snake people”) and the Eelfinn (the “fox people”) are ancient folk who live in a different, geometry-bending world called Sindhol, accessible only through ter’angreal portals and the mysterious Tower of Ghenjei. They share similarities with genies and fae, granting wishes (if not always in the ways hoped for) and imparting truths (while exacting a price). They also feed on memories and sensations, and can watch the world through the eyes of those they’ve touched. If Shadar Logoth and the Ways gives readers a dip into chthonic horror, Sindhol is a foray into dark fairy tales. The Aelfinn and the Eelfinn even seem to share an origin with a creature in a Neil Gaiman story.

“‘And what do you take, for the gold you give them?’

Little enough, for my needs are few, and I am old; too old to follow my sisters into the West. I taste their pleasure and their joy. I feed, a little, feed on what they do not need and do not value. A taste of heart, a lick and a nibble of their fine consciences, a sliver of soul. And in return a fragment of me leaves this cave with them and gazes out at the world through their eyes, sees what they see until their lives are done and I take back what is mine.”

“The Truth Is a Cave In the Black Mountains”, Neil Gaiman

The ’finns are the perfect foil for Mat. While Rand contends with the political machinations of the lands he tries to unite, Mat plays a game against inhuman creatures with unfathomable desires. He has to discover the rules as he plays, the stakes are staggeringly high, and the only way to win is to cheat. Who better to take them on, than the Wheel’s trickster figure? Instead of being armed with prophecy and ta’veren destiny, Mat’s rescue mission is armed with folklore, lessons from a children’s game, and pure luck. Fortunately, Mat is the luckiest man alive.

The Children of the Light

“There are a lot of men coming, on horses. They came up behind the wolves, but the men didn’t see them… But Dapple says… Dapple says they smell wrong. It’s… sort of the way a rabid dog smells wrong.”

“Children of Shadow”, The Eye of the World

Shortly after the War of Power that sealed the Dark One and (most of) the Forsaken in their prison at Shayol Ghul, there were angry men who decided to take “justice” into their own hands. They rooted out and punished people they believed served the Forsaken. Their spiritual successors became the Children of the Light, dedicated to finding and destroying Darkfriends wherever they may be. 

The Whitecloaks are so fanatical (even before encountering Mordeth’s corruption) that, to wolves, they smell rabid. They see improper respect paid to them, or casual association with Tar Valon, the Power, or anything unexplained, to be proof of being a Darkfriend. Their Questioners seem modeled on the Spanish Inquisition. They’re bigots and bullies, so convinced of their own righteousness that they’re willing to cross any line to accomplish their goals.

If the evil of Shadar Logoth was human in origin, the Children of Light show that the same evil remains alive and well in humanity itself. It’s the most mundane evil in The Wheel of Time, but the most pervasive, persistent, and real. They embody what William Butler Yeats described in his apocalyptic poem “The Second Coming” with “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” The Fourth Age has cleared the field of many dangerous foes, but the danger of people like the Whitecloaks is always with us. Rand al’Thor remade the world to preserve human free will, which is why the struggle against the Shadow will continue forever, even if the Dark One is locked back in his prison.

What’s your choice of scariest monster from The Wheel of Time?

Rajiv Moté is Dragonmount's book blogger with a lens on the craft of fiction writing. When he's not managing software engineers, he writes fiction of his own, which can be found cataloged at his website.

Spoilers below for The Wheel of Time books, and the prologues or epilogues of The Handmaid's Tale, A Game of Thrones, The Deathly Hallows, and The Return of the King.

The Eye of the World begins with one of the most memorable prologues in epic fantasy, a confrontation between a fallen hero-turned-madman and a villain who takes no joy in his apparent victory. It drops tantalizing hints of a world that is never fully explained, along with the idea that this battle has raged through an endless cycle of ages.

And in Chapter One, on an empty road, thousands of years later, the actual story begins.

I love prologues and epilogues. They let authors--and their readers--play at the edges of the story. They bridge the installments, expand the world, or just provide more emotional build-up and release. The early-release Wheel of Time prologues, beginning with “Snow” from Winter’s Heart, were like trailers for long-awaited movies. The epilogues of comic books--and the post-credits scenes of the movies they inspire--suggest possibilities sometimes more exciting than the stories themselves. “The Grey Havens” in The Lord of the Rings taught grade-school-age me the notion of beautiful melancholy.

In The Wheel of Time, the only books without a prologue are New Spring and The Shadow Rising. In the former’s first chapter, “The Hook,” Lan witnessing the end of the Aiel War feels isolated enough from the main story to feel like a prologue. In the latter book, parts of the first chapter were, in fact, a prologue in the advanced reading copy before being integrated. The Shadow Rising’s first chapter surveys a number of points-of-view, a technique both Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson used in subsequent prologues. “Snow” and the prologues that followed, seemed to be written specifically for advance release, checking in on several characters--major and minor--to tease the upcoming book.

By contrast, Lord of Chaos is the first book where Robert Jordan used an epilogue, a practice he did not pick up again until 2003-2004, with Crossroads of Twilight and New Spring. But even as early as The Eye of the World, when Moiraine told Lord Agelmar what must be done with the Horn of Valere, and spied on Rand while declaring “the Dragon is Reborn,” Jordan used the final scenes less to conclude the arc of the current novel than to set up the next one. The final chapter, “After,” of The Great Hunt, was even more explicitly an epilogue, switching to an omniscient point-of-view to describe how the ending of the Hunt reverberated across the continent. Prologues and epilogues, whether labeled so or not, are consistent features of The Wheel of Time. They give readers a look at the story’s place in the larger world, either through new point-of-view characters (in a story with dozens already), or sweeping narration across ages and geography.

Most Western notions of story demand that a story begins when the protagonists face a threat to their status quo, and ends with a new status quo. In big, secondary world stories, prologues and epilogues allow readers to break outside the structure of Aristotle's unities (action, place, time) and Gustav Freytag’s dramatic acts (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement). We glimpse people and events that inform--but are not part of--the story to come, or linger in the denouement, seeing how the story ripples beyond its bounds. For a bit longer, readers get to enjoy the world in which they are investing hours of imaginative immersion.

The Eye of the World’s prologue puts Rand al’Thor’s story into the vaster context of an eternal battle between the Dragon and the Dark One, where Rand’s struggle becomes Lews Therin’s second chance. This widening scope shares similarities with the epilogue of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. It occurs hundreds of years after the events of Offred’s story. An academic puts Offred’s harrowing and uncertain fate into the context of the rise and fall of the oppressive regime of Gilead. In both novels, these story fragments, separated in time, reframe the main tale. Both offer hope in the long arc of history. They imply other stories.

The “Dragonmount” prologue introduces readers to the saga’s real stakes. On the way to Tarmon Gaidon, though, there are hundreds of pages focused on the Aiel, the return of Hawkwing’s armies, the Shaido, the Bowl of Winds, Andor’s royal succession, and the schism and healing of the White Tower. The prologue keeps readers’ eyes on the prize. The prologue in George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones does the same, letting the readers know that the Iron Throne is a distraction from the real threat: the Others are coming (someday?) with The Winds of Winter.

The scope of epics means not every plot thread gets wrapped up when the core story ends. Falling action and denouement can be a narrow frame for the catharsis readers want. In “To See the Answer,” the epilogue to A Memory of Light, we know that the Light triumphed in Tarmon Gaidon, but we still want hints of what the future holds for our surviving heroes in the Fourth Age. The answers give us just enough to imagine the future. And like Sister Night stepping out onto a swimming pool at the end of HBO’s Watchmen, a mysteriously lit pipe suggests an entirely new set of possibilities that will only live in our imaginations. The Wheel turns.

Sometimes we want more than just assurances that the story goes on. It’s not essential to know that, at the end of The Lord of the Rings, the mallorn tree that Samwise Gamgee planted became famous, and the beer of 1420 was remembered for generations. But it feels good. And fans young and old were glad to know that after Voldemort’s destruction, Harry married Ginny, Hermione married Ron, they all remained friends, and their children attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, surely to have adventures of their own. After spending years invested in a story world, readers take comfort not only that the world continues, but that it’s a better place for the struggles of its heroes.

Readers need structure to navigate a sprawling epic. But they want emotional payoffs too, and everyone has a secondary plot line, character, or detail they hold especially dear. Prologues and epilogues, the stories around the stories, give the reader this richer satisfaction. When I return to these worlds, they’re the first parts I revisit.

What’s your favorite prologue or epilogue?

This year, The Eye of the World celebrated its 30^th anniversary.  To commemorate this special occasion Tor Books is releasing a new hardcover and paperback versions of The Eye of the World as well as a new paperback cover for New Spring.

The 30^th anniversary The Eye of the World hardcover will be published October 6^th, 2020.  This amazing cover has a metallic jacket.  It will include a new introduction written by Brandon Sanderson.  The Eye of the World’s official birthday was January 15^th, 1990, and the Wheel of Time Community Show celebrated this milestone earlier this year.

The artwork will feature the original image of Moiraine, Lan, and Rand drawn by Darrell K. Sweet, but in a format similar to the other trade paperbacks in the series. The publication date for this version will be August 4^th, 2020.

The new paperback version is the first time New Spring will be released in the trade paperback size. The cover will feature artwork by Jason Chan, showing the moment Moiraine bonds Lan as her warder.  The publication date will be August 18^th, 2020.

Fans have wanted New Spring in trade paperback for some time.  With this addition, our trade paperback bookshelves will be complete!

You can watch Ebony go over the details in the latest episode of the Wheel of Time Community Show! And as always, check out our Books section for more info on each book. 

So, are you as anxious as I am to get the metallic cover?  Let us know in the comments.

Les éditions Bragelonne, the publisher of the French versions of the Wheel of Time series, is re-releasing each of the novels with a new cover.  Even for those of us who aren’t able to read French, this publication still gives us something to gawk over.  These new covers are amazing! You can watch the latest episode of The Wheel of Time Community Show to hear more about these covers, and you can check out the images below!

Clearly an image of Tam’s heron marked sword. The detail on the hilts shows how Rand could be branded by it when Ba’alzamon heats it in the The Great Hunt.  Also, the Serpent spinning the Wheel seems a lot fiercer.

A seal to the Dark One’s prison, already broken.

Mat’s ruby dagger retrieved from Shadar Logoth.  I love the snakes on the hilt.

An interesting interpretation of the Horn of Valere, complete with Old Tongue script along the edge.

The Dragon Banner.

Callandor.  I really love how crystallized it is.  Most renditions of Callandor are smoother and not nearly as detailed.

An Aiel spear and buckler.  And maybe a shoufa wrapped around it.  But what is it balanced on?  The design at the top looks like a Seanchan helmet.

Perrin’s axe.

Mat’s ashandarei.  I love it!  The ravens are amazing.

A Cairhienin helmet.  Note the sunbursts, which could stand for the Rising Sun of Cairhien, also featured on their flag. 

The flag for Tar Valon and the White Tower.

A trolloc helmet.  Quite horrifying.

A marriage knife worn by women in Ebou Dar.  The white stones indicate four female children, and the red stone in the center indicated one male child.  Possibly Tylin’s, since she does have one male son, and it doesn’t state how many others she had.

The Laurel Crown of Illian, also called the Crown of Swords.

These covers are amazing to look at.  It’s wonderful to get new perspective on anything within the series, especially when it’s official.  Each novel within the Wheel of Time will be split into two novels, making a total of 28 when completed.

Books one through ten are available now, with eleven and twelve available August 12^th, and thirteen and fourteen available November 18^th.

January 15, 2020 marks the 30-year anniversary of the publication of The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.  Although there are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time, this date does mark the official beginning of the book franchise. 

After leaving a career as a nuclear engineer, Robert Jordan (a pen name for James Rigney Jr, who went by "Jim" to his friends and family) began a prolific writing career. He wrote in a variety of genres, using a different pen name for each one, eventually making a name for himself in the fantasy publishing industry primarily on the strength of his Conan novels. (Robert Jordan did not create the Conan character or write the original novels. He wrote later ones in the series over 50 years after the original author, Robert E. Howard died). 

Originally pitched to Tor Books as a 3-book series, Tor publisher Tom Doherty laughed at the sheer scope of The Wheel of Time and instead offered Jim a 6-book contract.  Tor believed in the first book so much that they did a heavy marketing push, going so far as to commission an alternative book cover and creating 5,000 advance reader copies, which was unheard of now, or then. 

To celebrate this 30-year anniversary occasion, we asked Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's wife and editor, what her memories were of that time in 1990.  Here's what she sent us:

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September 1989 brought Hurricane Hugo, which caused over $200,000 worth of damage to our house. It was awful. That December brought … snow.  A tremendous rarity in Charleston.  Now known as the Christmas Hell froze over.  It even froze  some of the city’s water mains. First, owing to the lack of water pressure, the third floor bathroom had no water. Then the second floor had no water either.  The ground floor powder room slowed to a trickle. A good friend who visited from New York for Christmas (together with two other Christmas visitors) found me in the kitchen very sadly filling my mother’s big pickling kettle with water so we’d have something to flush the downstairs toilet with. He said,

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“I’m saving some water in case the city supply fails.”

 

“What’ll we do if it does?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Oh. Well we’ll just have to drink our own urine.”

 

This tickled my funny bone. “Yeah. Go get the empty wine bottles out of the recycling. We’ll label the bottles so we’ll each have our own private vintage.”

 

Then I couldn’t help laughing. So I got Christmas back. 

 

And the water mains didn’t totally fail. So we didn’t have to establish our private labels.

 

So where was Robert Jordan? He was working flat out on The Great Hunt. Tom Doherty, the publisher, was insisting on publishing it within a year of Eye’s publication. This was really tight. So dear Jim would have Christmas Day away from the keyboard, but no other.

 

New Year’s Day came. We ate our hoppin’john, collards, and some pork, in order to conjure up prosperity in the new year. It worked!

 

And that, my friends, is about all I remember of that winter of The Eye.

 

- Harriet McDougal

We're also asking YOU to share your memories of how you found this special book. You can reply here to this article, or you can reply on our social media:

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Be sure to check out our Eye of the World info page, as well as our Book Summary and Chapter Recaps.

Over the years, Dragonmount has provided various chapter summaries and recaps of each book in The Wheel of Time. Now, for the first time, we've expanded that and published short book summaries, and complete chapter recaps for all 15 books in the series (main series + New Spring).

Take a look for yourself. Head over to Dragonmount.com/Books and begin browsing. 

The book summaries are a good way to recall what happened in each book, especially if you've not read it in a long time.  And the chapter recaps provide a bit more detail and depth.

Creating this content has been a multi-month project by a fantastic group of volunteer fans. Each writer and editor is credited on the individual pages. They are: Joan Albright, Rajiv Mote, Erick Walter, Jim Vogel, and Angela Carter.

Also, special thanks to Matalina (aka Alicia Wilkerson), a long-time contributor to Dragonmount, for creating a handy script to help automate the conversion of the original Google Documents into these web pages. 

WARRIOR OF THE ALTAII, a stand-alone fantasy novel by Robert Jordan, is now available.

The novel is is published by Tor Books, the same publisher of Jordan’s U.S. Wheel of Time books.  The book is set in a unique fantasy world that is unrelated to the WoT universe except for some coincidental and thematic similarities. 

The book was originally announced in January 2019. 

Here’s the official plot description:

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Draw near and listen, or else time is at an end.

 

The watering holes of the Plain are drying up, the fearsome fanghorn grow more numerous, and bad omens abound. Wulfgar, a leader of the Altaii people, must contend with twin queens, warlords, prophets and magic in hopes of protecting his people and securing their future. Elspeth, a visitor from another world, holds the answers, but first Wulfgar must learn to ask the right questions.

 

But what if the knowledge that saves the Altaii will also destroy them?

 

Warrior of the Altaii was originally written in 1977 by a then-unpublished Robert Jordan. It went through an unusual process of being acquired by a publisher, only to quickly have the contract cancelled when Jordan asked for more money.  It continued to receive interest from publishers for a while until Robert Jordan decided to shelve the project in favor of developing his WoT books.  Harriet McDougal, RJ’s wife and editor, describes the story in great detail as part of the novel’s introduction. 

An exclusive edition of the book with additional interior color artwork is available from Barnes & Noble.

The book is available in print and ebook formats. In addition, an audiobook is available and is read by WoT audiobook reader Michael Kramer. 

Barnes & Noble (exclusive edition)

Amazon

Indiebound.org

Dragonmount eBook store

Tor Books, the U.S. publisher of The Wheel of Time, is planning to release new editions of the entire series, beginning October of this year. The new editions will feature brand-new cover designs. 

These new editions are wisely being timed to coincide with the forthcoming TV show from Amazon Studios. The cover art doesn't feature any new art featuring characters or scenes from the books but instead aims for mass appear with a stylized look. The covers are reminiscent of the UK mass market editions that were first released in 2014. 

Only the covers for the first six books have been released so far. Below you'll find the release schedule, links to purchase them, and the full-sized covers. 

The Eye of the World - October 29, 2019
The Great Hunt - October 29, 2019
The Dragon Reborn - October 29, 2019
The Shadow Rising - December 31, 2019
The Fires of Heaven - December 31, 2019
Lord of Chaos - December 31, 2019
A Crown of Swords - February 2020
The Path of Daggers - February 2020
Winter's Heart - February 2020
The Crossroads of Twilight - Spring 2020
Knife of Dreams - Spring 2020
The Gathering Storm - Spring 2020
Towers of Midnight - Summer 2020
A Memory of Light - Summer 2020
New Spring - Summer 2020

Unfettered III, the fantasy anthology from Grim Oak Press, is now available for purchase. The book features stories from some of today's top names in fantasy literature including Terry Brooks, Lev Grossman, Delilah S. Dawson, Seanan McGuire, Naomi Novik, and Tad Williams. It also, very notably, includes a new "deleted novella" from Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson, as well as a short story from Dragonmount founder Jason Denzel.

A Fire Within the Ways is the name of the deleted sequence of chapters that was originally written for A Memory of Light. It's a non-canon story that features Perrin within the Ways.  Here's a portion of what Brandon had to say about it:

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I’ve long been fond of this sequence, and it was quite difficult to cut from the book. (In the anthology itself, I’ll explain why we eventually decided that the sequence needed to go.) I do have to warn you that-unlike River of Souls, which we consider canon to events in the Wheel of Time—this as-of-yet untitled sequence is NOT canon. You’ll want to read it in the same way you’d watch an unfinished, alternate film scene that ended up not being used. 

 

Still, I think it’s an exciting and interesting chunk of writing. It’s quite big, as long as a novella, and it addresses one of the big unanswered questions we left hanging at the end of the Wheel of Time. So I think you’re in for a treat.

Brandon's blog post about the story. You can read its opening portion for free on Tor.com, and join a discussion on our forums. 

In addition to the Wheel of Time story, Unfettered III includes a short story from Dragonmount founder Jason Denzel entitled, "The Stone Golem of Qual'Jom." From Jason:

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The story’s about a blind creature made of stone who lives in an underground cavern and is charged with protecting his master’s dwelling. The story delves deep in the creature’s loneliness, his nature, his purpose, and his eventual journey to something greater. I’ve been holding onto this story for a special occasion, and now I’m excited to finally be able to share it with everyone.

You can read more about that story on Jason's website. 

Unfettered III is currently available in hardcover and ebook. An audiobook edition is coming soon. The publisher reported that they've had some issues with Amazon, and are working to get the book available there. But in the meantime you can get the ebook edition from other vendors such Barnes & Noble and Kobo. 

Tor Books has announced it plans to release Warrior of the Altaii, a previously-unpublished fantasy novel by Robert Jordan. The book is currently scheduled for release on October 8, 2019. 

Publication History

Warrior of the Altaii was written before Robert Jordan began The Eye of the World (which was published in 1990). After finishing the manuscript, he received an offer of publication from Donald Wolheim at DAW Books. Jordan responded to the publisher that he was happy to receive such an offer, but wondered if some changes to the contract could be made. The publisher replied by cancelling the offer, saying that unknown authors shouldn't make such demands.  Here's Robert Jordan talking about it:

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"...I found out that he didn't like beginning writers to ask for changes. He thought that beginning writers should accept what was offered. So the result of my asking for the changes was that I got a letter back saying, "Dear Sir, in view of your contract demands we are withdrawing our offer. Sincerely, Donald A. Wolheim."

 

I looked at the two letters and I didn't know why I'd gotten the second, as I hadn't demanded anything. It was actually a very diffident letter, and I had ended by saying, "If any of these requests seem out of line, please let me know." Thus throwing away everything, but I knew that I had no real knowledge of publishing.

 

So, I decided to ignore the second letter because the first letter said; you can write."

 

Jordan sold the book again in 1979 to Jim Baen, who worked for Tom Doherty at the time at ACE books. The project never got off the ground, in part because Baen was focused on science-fiction at the time, and because Tom Doherty left to found Tor Books. The rights to Warrior of the Altaii ultimately reverted back to Jordan, who decided to rest the project.

What's it About?

The book's official plot description:

Quote

 

Draw near and listen, or else time is at an end.

 

The watering holes of the Plain are drying up, the fearsome fanghorn grow more numerous, and bad omens abound. Wulfgar, a leader of the Altaii people, must contend with twin queens, warlords, prophets and magic in hopes of protecting his people and securing their future. Elspeth, a visitor from another world, holds the answers, but first Wulfgar must learn to ask the right questions.

 

But what if the knowledge that saves the Altaii will also destroy them?

 

Not much else is known about the plot yet, but Wheel of Time fans can likely expect a "proto-WoT" novel filled with thematic foreshadowing that resonates with Jordan's later books. Warrior of the Altaii is expected to be a more modest-sized novel, at least in comparison to Jordan's later books. 

Why publish it now?
Robert Jordan is on record several times saying that he didn't expect to ever publish this novel.

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"Its title was Warriors of the Altaii, and you will never see it, or know anything about it. I have not destroyed the manuscript, because it has powerful juju...but in my will I have provisions to have that manuscript burned. But until then I'm afraid to get rid of the juju that resides in it."

It's clear now that Jordan's comment about having the manuscript destroyed was made in jest. Fans should remember that he made similar comments about how he would have his hard drive erased if he ever died before finishing The Wheel of Time series, and that he could never imagine another author writing in his universe, which he destained at the time as "sharecropping." 

Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's wife and the editor of The Wheel of Time series, had this to say:

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When I reread Warrior of the Altaii this winter, after this long intermission, I was amazed at the foreshadowing of The Wheel of Time. You will find many hints of what is to come. One of the most obvious is the name of the major mountain range – the Backbone of the World. In The Wheel of Time, it is the Spine of the World. I think you’ll have fun finding them as you read this brand new Robert Jordan – a fine wine that has reached its perfect maturity.

 

Although Robert Jordan has been gone for well over a decade, his legacy, and his stories live on. With this new novel, which was both his first, and his last, he is once again showing us that time, indeed, has no beginnings or endings. 

Warrior of the Altaii is now available for pre-order. 

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Macmillan info page

Grim Oaks Press has announced a give-away contest where you can win one of 25 advance copies of their upcoming anthology, Unfettered III. Details for entering can be found on Goodreads. Add the book to your shelf to enter the giveaway. Unfortunately, the contest is only open to US and Canada residents. 

Unfettered III is an anthology of fantasy short stories from some of today's most well-known authors. It includes a deleted 20,000 word sequence (~55 pages in paperback) from A Memory of Light written  Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan featuring Perrin in the Ways. The sequence is a lengthy "deleted scene" that isn't considered canon to the story, but still offers us a fascinating and exciting adventure. You can read Brandon's comments about the sequence on his website.

The anthology also contains a short story from Dragonmount founder Jason Denzel entitled, "The Stone Golem of Qual'Jom." WoT fans will appreciate Jason's epic narrative about a lonely golem living in a cave who waits across eons for his master to return home. 

Unfettered III will be available from Amazon and other retailers in March 2019. A limited limited edition will be available from Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle from March 14-17th. 

Our friends at Grim Oak Press announced today that their upcoming short story anthology, Unfettered III, will contain an unreleased deleted chapter from A Memory of Light, the final book in The Wheel of Time series. The chapter will follow Perrin as he makes his way through the Ways. There's about 20,000 words of content, which is about the length of two or three hefty WoT-sized chapters. The content was written by Brandon Sanderson during his process of creating AMOL. It was deleted by Harriet as part of the editorial process, but will now be released with everyone's blessing. Although fun to read, Brandon informs us that these scenes are not considered canon. 

The original Unfettered anthology, released in 2013, contained "River of Souls", a series of short scenes featuring Bao the Wyld as he attempted to discover the location of a legendary sa'angreal. 

In addition to featuring a Wheel of Time story, Unfettered III will also feature an original short story from Dragonmount founder Jason Denzel. Here's how Jason described the story: "The Stone Golem of Qual’Jom” is about a lonely, blind creature made entirely of stone who was brought to life by a sorcerer in order to be his assistant. When the master leaves his cavernous lair to go on a long journey, the golem is charged with defending the dwelling from invaders. But during his master’s extended absence, the golem begins to question his nature, and the nature of the world around him. Touching on themes of loneliness and non-duality, and filled with action, “Stone Golem” is my earliest, and one of my most beloved, written stories."

Unfettered III will be released in hardcover and ebook formats on March 19, 2019. It will feature stories from 27 fantasy authors taking place in an abundance of beloved fantasy worlds including the Dune universe. There are 250 early Advance copies available, as well as signed copies, which will contain signatures from all contributing authors, including Brandon Sanderson and Jason Denzel. 

Finally, proceeds from sales of this anthology will go to a good cause. They will be used to help provide health insurance for science fiction and fantasy writers who need such assistance. 

We hope you'll join us in checking out these amazing stories. For more information, including links to pre-order the book, visit the Grim Oak Press website. Read Brandon Sanderson's announcement on his website. 

Recently, the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) compiled a detailed list of all The Wheel of Time related material it’s possible to own.  The list contains many items most fans have heard of—the soundtrack, the comic books, the calendars—and plenty I own myself.  However, it also highlights more obscure items, like a poster and program showing Robert Jordan’s permeant display at Daniel Library of The Citadel, or a custom embossed stamp used to denote Jordan’s own books within his library, or a copy of The Fires of Heaven where the dust jacket proclaims the Amyrlin is named “Flaida” instead of Elaida.  Not to mention all the foreign-translated novels and the amazing covers they have.  The article also speculates about re-releasing the novels with new cover art when the television series kicks off.

For the avid fan, there’s plenty to collect.  And hopefully, with a television series coming soon, there’ll be even more.

As announced last month, PBS will be hosting a new series called “The Great American Read.”  Through a national survey, they identified the best 100 books.  PBS states:

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THE GREAT AMERICAN READ is an eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels (as chosen in a national survey).  It investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what these 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience.

 

This is exciting for us as booklovers, but it’s also exciting for us as Wheel of Time lovers.  The Wheel of Time (the complete series) is one of the 100 nominated.

The two-hour pilot airs tonight (Tuesday, May 22^nd, 2018) at 8/7c.  Check your local PBS station for exact time.

Now here’s where devoted fans of Robert Jordan and The Wheel of Time come into play.  When the pilot airs, voting for the best book begins.  From May 22^nd until October 18^th, viewers can vote DAILY!  On top of that, there are two ways to vote each day.

1. Use the voting app on The Great American Read website.  You’ll need to register first, using an email address or a Facebook login.

2. Post an original post on Facebook or Twitter and include the official hashtag of the book you choose.  The hashtag for The Wheel of Time can be found on its page once voting has opened.

Starting September 11, 2018, there will be two additional ways to vote—bringing the total to four!  More on that when it’s closer.

The Wheel of Time has a great advantage in a show of this format.  We are vast in numbers, and our community is very close-knit.  If we all band together, we can share our beloved series with the rest of the country!

This summer, PBS is hosting an eight-part series dedicated to discovering America's favorite books.  A list of 100 books have been selected, and the PBS series will focus on narrowing down these top picks to select one winner.

Naturally, The Wheel of Time series is included on this list.

The first episode—which premieres May 22nd—will consist of a two-hour introduction, highlighting each of the 100 books, and what they have contributed to American culture. The show will continue with one-hour episodes in a documentary style with authors, celebrities, and book lovers, discussing the nominated books.  The finale will air in October and the winner will be announced.

Here’s where you come in.  The point of the show is to narrow the results, and to do so, PBS is asking Americans to vote!  We all know The Wheel of Time fandom is the best in the world, so we’re calling on all of you to let everyone know how amazing our beloved series is.

Voting will open on May 22, in conjunction with the two-hour premier, and can be done online and through social media outlets.  Follow “The Great American Read” on their website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.  And always check back to Dragonmount for updates!

Today, Tor.com released a very detailed analysis of the Old Tongue--the ancient language used during the Age of Legends.  Written by Richard Littauer, who is a linguist, this article sheds some light on how Robert Jordan did follow some rules of languages and when he made them up. 

This was a very interesting read.  Looking at the Old Tongue from an academic and historical perspective was enlightening.  Though I had heard several instances of inconsistencies in the dynamics of the Old Tongue, Littauer does a great job of explaining why these phrases can't be constructed into one, cohesive language.  

And though Littauer concludes that Jordan was only an amateur linguist, he still sings Jordan's praises:

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It’s at this point that even the most avid linguaphiles among us are forced to face the truth: Robert Jordan was certainly a keen amateur linguist, but he wasn’t an academic—he was a writer first, and a linguist second. The handwaving excuse of “I translated it” wasn’t meant to be serious, it was meant to stop the reader from digging in and finding inconsistencies. Because, ultimately, they don’t matter. What matters is that we see a world filled with history and wonder, with words of power and words of lore, echoing through the ages. Instead of raising a hand like an arrogant high-schooler, we’re supposed to take up arms at Mat’s battlecries (I know I’ve pumped my fists in glory a few times in his chapters).

 

It sure is fun to try and find the cracks though, isn’t it?

The fact that people are still delving so deeply into The Wheel of Time amazes me.  After all these years, there's still so much left to explore and ponder.

Long time Wheel of Time commentator, Leigh Butler, has released her top five scenes within the series.  With a rekindled reading of The Wheel of Time currently underway at Tor.com, Leigh seems eager to get back on her soap box and sing the praises of this wonderful collection of books.

Warning!  Spoilers follow!

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Top Moment No. 5: Verin’s undercover reveal (The Gathering Storm)

Top Moment No. 4: Egwene pwns the White Tower (Knife of Dreams/The Gathering Storm)

Top Moment No. 3: The Battle of the Two Rivers (The Shadow Rising)

Top Moment No. 2: Rand meets Elaida in Caemlyn (The Eye of the World)

Top Moment No. 1: Rand goes through the Wayback Ter’Angreal (The Shadow Rising)

In her full article, Leigh argues why each one is especially significant to the plot, the characters, and the entertainment of the readers.  Do you agree or disagree with Leigh's picks?  One of my personal favorites is when Mat finds out Tuon is really the Daughter of the Nine Moons (which didn't even make the list of honorable mentions).

Don't forget to check out Tor.com's Reading the Wheel of Time, which chronicles Kelsey Jefferson Barrett's initial journey into our beloved series.

Earlier today, Barnes & Noble released a detailed analysis of many components that make up The Wheel of Time series.  The article focuses on wordcount, and how that applies to several areas of the novels, including character's gender, character's nationality, character's occupation, as well as words per book, and words averaged per chapter.

It's a bit overwhelming to look at it in number form, but author Kevin Klein does a fantastic job of explaining what each graph represents, and what we can infer from viewing them all together.

If you're in the mood for some deep thinking—or you happen to be in the White or Brown Ajahs—check out Klein's article!

Adam Whitehead recently published this fascinating article which is a culmination of Robert Jordan's notes, interviews, blog entries, and statements to show the evolution of Jordan's ideas regarding The Wheel of Time.

One of the more interesting pieces of information is how different the series initially began.  Whitehead refers to Jordan's first outline as "Death Metal Wheel of Time," and "essentially George R.R. Martin on acid."  This version featured plotlines full of blood, violence, and sex--very different from the wholesome series we have today.  The main character Rhys al'Thor was initially the Dragon, able to enter the wolf dream, and had amazing luck.  Jordan eventually split these three attributes, forming Perrin Aybara and Mat Cauthon to help the Dragon with his world-saving.  And another curious fact is that Rhys eventually became Tam al'Thor, not Rand.  Jordan's intention was to make the savior a middle-aged war veteran, not the young farm boy typically associated with epic fantasy.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!  Whitehead details so many characters as they were melded with others or split into two.  There's also a lot about worldbuilding and the different cultures that make up The Wheel of Time.

The time and effort needed by Whitehead to sift through all this information and make sense of the details is amazing!  Even more so is Jordan himself, for allowing all of this to brew in his imagination.

Check out Whitehead's complete article here.

In an interview with Brandon Sanderson about the recent release of Oathbringer, the third novel in his Stormlight Archive series, Brandon threw Wheel of Time fans a hinting tidbit:

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Nathaniel Sager: What is the best cryptic statement you can come up with that will drive all your fans mad waiting to see what it means?

BS: Ooooh, ooooh. Best cryptic statement, huh? Let me see … That's a hard one because I have to really be careful what I say, because if I give too much away, the fans are really good at picking out things. I'm going to throw them a curveball, and it's going to be a Wheel of Time one. There are things about The Wheel of Time ending … there are secrets that fans have not yet discovered and which nobody has asked me about yet. Major things. Major, kind of world-shaking, Wheel of Time things that are foreshadowed in the last books that no one has yet figured out or asked me about. So, that'll drive them a little crazy.

This little statement blew the minds of many of us.  This fandom has been dedicated to answering all the questions regarding the ending of this series.  For Brandon to mention something that no one has even asked about seems so far fetched!  But here it is.  Now everyone has begun to speculate over what this missing question might be.

Could it possibly be about the Horn of Valere?  Maybe about Egwene and her Flame of Tar Valon counter to balefire?  Androl and his wonder gateways?  The True Power and its abilities now that the Dark One is sealed again?  I'd even suggest something about Nakomi, but I think we asked every question possible about her and her origins.

What else could it be?  Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Upcoming from Tor, a new Wheel of Time eBook bundle!
 
This new set, available December 13, 2016, will include the first four books of the series.  It's the perfect introduction for someone who hasn't started the series, or a great addition for someone who is looking to expand their Wheel of Time collection.
 
You can preorder it on Amazon, and it will also be available in the Dragonmount eBook store.  The bundle will include high quality versions of the original cover art.  Though there are not plans at this time to make the rest of the series purchasable through a bundle, it is likely to happen.
 
Are the first four novels not enough?  A complete series bundle is already available, here.  It only includes books 1-14, and does not include New Spring.

Barnes & Noble plans to release a new, leather-bound edition of The Eye of The World. This new edition will be available in stores on September 30th. You can also pre-order a copy online. 

The Eye of the World--the opening volume of The Wheel of Time saga--joins an impressive list of well-known novels in Barnes & Noble's Collectible Editions.  The images provided on B&N's website show the spine and cover (shown here), as well as an interior photo and the back cover.  The interior looks the same as the editions we're already familiar with from Tor.  The back cover includes an error in that the "ancient Aes Sedai" symbol is improperly reversed the wrong way. Despite this error, I think we can agree that it's a fine-looking book, and one that's worthy of our shelves.

There are no announced plans to make similar editions for other WoT books, and no plans to provide these overseas. B&N is publishing this with assistance from Tor Books, who owns the U.S and Canadian rights.  There is already a nice leather-bound copy of The Eye of the World available from Orbit UK. 

It was with great pleasure today that Dragonmount learned The Wheel of Time Companion had been nominated for a prestigious World Fantasy Award. This award honors the very best in fantasy literature and art each year. They are awarded by the World Fantasy Convention, which will take place this year in Columbus, Ohio on October 27-30. The Companion is nominated in the category of Special Award, Professional. The World Fantasy Award, alongside the Hugo and the Nebula awards, is considered one of the highest honors in speculative fiction. 

The Wheel of Time Companion was edited by Harriet McDougal, Maria Simons and Alan Romanczuk. Harriet was the primary editor of the series, as well as the wife of author Robert Jordan. Alan and Maria both served as continuity editors for the series. The Companion is an encyclopedia style compendium of the characters, places and objects named in The Wheel of Time series. Some sections were taken directly from Jordan's vast notes. 

We do not yet know if any members of Team Jordan plan on attending the award ceremony. In 2014, when the series was nominated for a Hugo, both Harriet and Maria traveled to the London WorldCon and appeared on programming.