Brandon Sanderson splits final volume of Wheel of Time

Posted by Donny on Mar 31, 2009 in News | 2 comments

Brandon Sanderson has decided to split the final book of the Wheel of Time, originally entitled A Memory of Light, into a projected three books.  Before you Wheel of Time fans start to scream incoherently, spewing spittle on your monitors or throw chairs against walls in frustration and justified anger, spare a moment to hear out Mr Sanderson and his thoughtful considerations in arriving at this decision.

From his blog:

And I guess that’s what I’m trying to show you with all of this: No matter how the book is split, cut, or divided, the last portion wouldn’t come out until 2011. Why? It goes back to that first decision I made, the one to write the book the length I felt it needed to be. And so, it’s not the greedy publisher, stringing you along that is keeping you from reading the ending. It’s not the fault of production taking a long time. The blame rests on me.

I must say that the post did go some way in dispelling some of my initial thoughts about a scam on the part of the publisher and author (may not be entirely evident from the snippet I posted above).  Maybe it’s our inherent distrust and cynical nature, but hey, Sanderson seems to be coming through genuinely enough.  I wish him all the success, of course, and hope he brings back the sorely needed polish back to what started as a great piece of work.

The good news then is the first of the final three parter, called The Gathering Storm, will be available Nov 3 2009.