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 SHADOW RISING

I know these posts are getting mirrored around to a lot of different websites, so I thought I’d mention a couple of things. First off, you should understand how I use my blog. While I sometimes go into depth on topics, writing long essays (I call them EULOgies, after my net nickname EUOL), most of the time my blog is used simply for a “Here’s what I’m doing right now.” Often, I’ll post a few paragraphs about the copyedit I’m working on or the book I’m writing. Nothing ever in-depth.

I’m not a true blogger, as I’ve discussed often on this blog. I don’t read up on what is happening in the Blogosphere and offer criticism and debate. My blog is more of a news feed than a true blog. A way for my readers to keep an eye on what I’m doing.

These WHEEL OF TIME posts are intended for that purpose. Less analysis of the books, more of a way of saying “Hey, I’ve finished this book and am moving on to the next, if you’re interested.” I intentionally shy away from any deep analysis since, well, I’d rather not get pulled into any in-depth debates at this point. These are just off the cuff reactions intended to indicate where I am and what I’ve been feeling.

That said, here are a few reactions to THE SHADOW RISING.

This book is long–huge, actually. I’m curious to know if it’s the longest of Mr. Jordan’s books by wordcount. (Does anyone have a list of the wordcounts of all the books?) However, it didn’t feel long to me, since we have so many characters to watch and follow. I’ve heard some people complain about the number of characters in the WoT books, but this is what makes the series work so well, in my opinion. You can justify a 400,000 word novel if you’re letting us follow so many different viewpoints and storylines.

The best part of this book for me, hands down, were the scenes where Rand gets to experience the history of the Aiel and the Traveling People. This actually illustrates what I was trying to say in the previous paragraph, but didn’t quite get around to. These books work because no matter who’s viewpoint you are in, Mr. Jordan is able to make them feel alive and real, and is able to make their motivations rational. (If, sometimes, evil.) These scenes in the past are a great example. We’ve never met these people, and yet they were as interesting to read for me as the main characters.

I think this is the jump readers need to make to really enjoy this series. They can’t get so attached to Rand, Mat, Egwene, and Perrin that they aren’t willing to experience the powerful characterizations of other people in the world. Those who can’t make this jump tend to complain about the series loosing focus. Those who do make the jump get a story with more complexity and depth than you find in some of the other fantasy series, which stick to the more traditional plot structures and characterizations.

My second favorite parts of this book come with Perrin and Faile. Faile is often cited as one of people’s least favorite characters, but again, I think this comes from not understanding what is going on. She’s annoying at the beginning–she really is. She’s childish and petulant. That’s great: it means she has room to grow. And I think she does. This book starts off with her and Perrin having, in my opinion, a very immature relationship. By the end they’ve grown together and both have matured. Perrin by learning to be a leader, Faile by learning to work with him rather than just trying to hard to get him to let her be in charge. I think that’s an important lesson that a young noblewoman like her needed to learn.

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