It's very rare for me to actually want to have fan paraphernalia for much of anything, but these playing cards are cool enough to be the exception to the rule.  Well done, Ms. Burgess!

Okay, folks...let's get back to what really matters here--the cover art!

(Okay, that's not what really matters, but it is a curiosity that the comments seem to neglect.)

The press release states: "Over the next few seasons, Tor will continue to release new Wheel of Time material, including trade paperback editions of the early novels with new art..." Does this indicate that we won't see a Darrell Sweet-like cover for AMoL? I wonder if anyone has the skinny here.

I'm wondering what this business about new paperback editions portends for the cover of AMoL. Since the death of the original artist (not sure I remember the name, but "Sweet" comes to mind), I'm wondering if AMoL will have a completely different cover art style. (I kind of hope not, since it will look out of place on my bookshelf...and there's no way in heck I'm going to buy all 13 of the prior books again to make a matching set.)

Anyone have a guess as to when the paperback is coming out?

Honestly, it looks to me like a no-brainer for the publisher. They already know that the already-converted WoT fans will buy this thing no matter what. That puts the fans in a hopeless bargaining position. If profits are the name of the game, then it's *obvious* that they'll push for a release date that will make a big splash.

And if they're *very* successful, there's a *possibility* that current WoT fans might benefit from it. If they actually convert a lot of people to WoT fandom, that might spill over into other WoT-related things being offered on the horizon (although an HBO series might be too much to ask for).

At any rate, I think this sort of reasoning on the part of the publisher is perfectly predictible--whether or not you like it.