All week we have been reporting tweeting that there would be a total of SIX major announcements related to The Wheel of Time this week.

The first of these news items was the article we posted about Brandon and Harriet’s U.S. book tour. Be sure to check that out if you would like to come meet them in person.

Now here are the remaining FIVE announcements as announced at DragonCon this evening. We will post more details about each over the next few days and/or weeks.

1. CHAPTER ONE of The Gathering Storm is NOW AVAILABLE for FREE on Tor.com. On September 4th at 9:30 PM (EST, GMT -5), you can go to Tor.com to get it. You will need to register with their site, but it is free to do so. Don’t miss this opportunity to start reading the book TONIGHT. (And you thought you had plans on Friday night, huh?) Chapter 1 will remain on Tor.com through the end of October. An audio version is also available via the same link.
2. The PROLOGUE to The Gathering Storm will be available as an eBook purchase beginning on September 17th. The price will be $2.99 and will be available from Amazon.com, BN.com, Tor.com, as well as other online vendors.
3. Tor will be releasing the ENTIRE Wheel of Time series in various eBook formats beginning with the release of The Eye of the World beginning on October 27th. Each book will be released in series order on a monthly basis after that. The text of the books has been optimized for the ebook reading experience, and retain all illustrations and maps from the physical books. Pricing is not yet available
4. And that’s not all — Each of the WoT eBooks mentioned above (not the TGS prologue) will include new “cover art” by different professional artists. Tor is commissioning a different artist for each book, so you’ll see brand new art for each one of the books in the series. Here are the details for the artists of the first four books:
   

   THE EYE OF THE WORLD
   David Grove
   http://www.stock-illustration-portfolios.com/artistPage/Grove_David.html
   Illustrators Hall of Fame.
   Known for work in National Geographic, advertising, and movie posters including Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Outsiders.

   THE GREAT HUNT
   Kekai Kotaki
   Spectrum award winner.
   Lead Concept Artist for ArenaNet on Guild Wars 2.
   http://www.kekaiart.com/
   http://kekai.blogspot.com/

   THE DRAGON REBORN
   Donato Giancola
   http://www.donatoart.com/
   bio: http://www.tor.com/bios/artists/donato
   Multiple Spectrum and Hugo Award Winner, and Hamilton King award winner.

   THE SHADOW RISING
   Sam Weber
   Society of Illustrators and Spectrum award winner.
   http://www.sampaints.com/

5. Dragonmount is proud to announce a very special opportunity for WoT fans. We are working closely with the gang at Tor to put together a team of Storm Leaders for each city that Brandon visits on The Gathering Storm tour. These Storm Leaders will be fans (like you!) who will get to meet Brandon and/or Harriet before the bookstore event begins (food and drinks to be provided). This will be a small, intimate gathering, only about 4-5 people per city, where you can also get your books signed. Because in return, during the actual event, you’ll help us photograph and blog about the event, so that other fans can read about it on DM and other sites. There will also be other responsibilities outside of that, details of which to come next week. Storm Leaders will also receive a limited edition TGS Storm Leader Tour t-shirt™ and bragging rights to all your friends.

   Dragonmount will be accepting applications for Storm Leaders beginning sometime next week. It’s free to participate and sign up. We’ll post a lot more information next week about how you sign up, what’s required,and what we’re looking for from candidates.

You may be wondering why Tor is releasing Chapter 1 before the prologue? Yes, technically that’s out of order. The prologue is about 20,000 words, while Chapter 1 is only a few thousand (ie, much shorter). Be forewarned: Although you will have no problems whatsoever following along, chapter 1 does begin after a short scene takes place in the prologue.

Regarding the book covers: this new art will be exclusive to the eBooks for now. There are no plans to print new editions of the books themselves with the new art. Darryl K Sweet (who has illustrated the other books in the series) will most likely be asked to paint the covers for books 13 and book 14. Tor remains committed to exploring the idea of doing all new art for the series after the final book is published.

Finally, Brandon reported on twitter today that the new title of book 13 has been approved by Harriet and is now going to Tor for approval as well. (Tor needs to make sure the title doesn’t conflict with other recently published books, and that it doesn’t bother the booksellers. Yes, book sellers have a lot of say on book titles believe it or not)

So… what do you think? Not too bad, eh?

The Gathering Storm will be released in hardcover in the U.S, Canada, U.K. and other locations on October 27th.

More Info

• Pre-Order The Gathering Storm from Amazon.com (and help support this site)
• Read our Review of the book
• The Gathering Storm Info Page
• Downloadable Recap of Books 1-11 (PDF)
• Discuss the book on our forums
• Listen to us talk about #WoT and #TGS all day on Twitter

Brandon Sanderson, the author chosen to complete the final novel in The Wheel of Time series, is currently re-reading the entire series before embarking on his journey into A MEMORY OF LIGHT. As he writes, he’s sharing some of his thoughts and observations with fans via his blog. We’ll post these excerpts as he writes them.

Be sure to read his introduction first.

These are some MORE of his throughts on THE DRAGON REBORN

I’ve mentioned that it’s sometimes hard for me to remember which events happen in which book. Obviously, I knew going into this one that I’d be reading about the fall of the Stone of Tear–the cover gives a handy hint on that. However, some of what I’d THOUGHT happened here–the pages and pages of Egwene being held by the Seanchan, the training of the three in the White Tower–all was covered in the last book. (Man, he packed a lot into THE GREAT HUNT.) And now, it turns out that another big event (Rand using the lightning to clear the Stone from shadowspawn) is actually in the next book.

So, I went into this one a little bit confused, trying to remember what exactly happened in Book Three. About a hundred pages into it, I suddenly remembered. This is the one where Rand disappears.

As if in foreshadowing of future books in the series, where side characters become main characters, this is the book where we only get brief glimpses of Rand. I remember being annoyed by this when I was younger. Oddly–this is another change between my young self and my older self–I didn’t feel that any more. I’ve grown, over the years, to see the WHEEL OF TIME less as Rand’s story, and more of the story of the end of an age. It’s the story of the entire world and the people in it, not just the story of one person. And so, I actually enjoyed reading the different viewpoints, which allowed me to get to know the world and setting better. Perhaps that’s just the writer in me knowing that in another month or so, I’m going to have to write in this setting, and so anything that shows me more viewpoints, more characters, and more places is going to be well appreciated.

All admit to a slight longing, however. Not for more Rand viewpoints specifically, but a longing to know him better. The man whom we read about at the beginning of this book has changed a lot since the end of the second book. That progress, that change, is trapped between books, lost to us. A friend recently explained to me that Mr. Jordan looked at Rand’s changes during this book as a metaphor for the way he himself changed during his years in Vietnam. That same friend suggested that maybe showing those changes explicitly might have been to close to home for Mr. Jordan. I’d never heard that before, but it makes a whole lot of sense.

My only other complaint about this books is Moiraine. She’s always been one of my favorites, but she got on my nerves here. It’s okay to push around Mat–he deserves it. Rand is fair game too; he can blow up cities. He needs direction. But why does she have to pick on Perrin? He doesn’t deserve it.

And, speaking of Perrin, my favorite moment in this book came when Perrin entered the blacksmith’s shop near the end and worked the forges. Something about the beauty of the writing there, mixed with Perrin’s inner turmoil of the surrounding chapters, worked for me. It was one of the most amazing moments in the series so far for me, and reminded me why I like Perrin as a character so much.

More Info
Brandon Sanderson’s Blog [ View this entry quoted above ]
A Memory of Light info page
The Dragon Reborn info page