Tor Books announced today that A MEMORY OF LIGHT, the 12th and final novel of The Wheel of Time series, will be initially released as three separate volumes. The first volume will be entitled THE GATHERING STORM and will go on sale October 27, 2009. (This date was changed from a previously announced date)

Here’s the press release:

Tor announces The Gathering Storm, Book Twelve of Robert Jordan’s legendary Wheel of Time® fantasy series

Tor Books is proud to announce the November 3rd, 2009 on-sale date for The Gathering Storm, Book Twelve of The Wheel of Time and the first of three volumes that will make up A Memory of Light, the stunning conclusion to Robert Jordan’s beloved and bestselling fantasy series. A Memory of Light, partially written by Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson, will be released over a two-year period.

Robert Jordan, one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th and early 21st centuries, passed away in 2007 after a courageous battle with the rare blood disease amyloidosis. Brandon Sanderson, the New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, was chosen by Jordan’s editor—his wife, Harriet McDougal—to complete the final book.

The Wheel of Time series has sold over 14 million copies in North America and over 30 million copies worldwide with translations into 28 languages. The last four books in the series were all #1 New York Times bestsellers, and for over a decade readers have been eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the epic story.

Harriet McDougal said on the process behind A Memory of Light: “The scope and size of the novel was such that it could not be contained in a single volume, It was a piece of marvellous good fortune that Brandon Sanderson undertook the work. He is a great pleasure to work with, as well as a wonderful writer.”

President and Publisher of Tor Books, Tom Doherty, also expressed his happiness with A Memory of Light, saying: “It is a magnificent closure to a great American epic fantasy whose journey began almost twenty years ago. There is no way Robert Jordan would have squeezed it to a single volume, and somehow it seems fitting that what began as a trilogy will also end as one.”

The first ever JordanCon will take place this April 17th – 19th, 2009 in Alpharetta, GA. Harriet McDougal, Tom Doherty, Brandon Sanderson, and other members of “Team Jordan” will attend as featured guests and speak personally on The Wheel of Time and The Gathering Storm and the stories behind the rich literary legacy of Robert Jordan. JordanCon will also include a special preview of The Gathering Storm.

This year will also see major publications of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time comic books and graphic novels with the launch of The Eye of the World comics in May and the New Spring graphic novel with bonus material in November. The Dabel Brothers will be releasing the comic book series, which will then be collected and published as graphic novels by Tor Books.

Universal Pictures acquired the movie rights to The Wheel of Time in August 2008, and currently plan to adapt The Eye of the World as the first movie.

So there you have it, folks. A Memory of Light will be divided into three volumes. According to Brandon Sanderson, the titles of volumes 2 and 3 are tenatively “Shifting Winds“, and “Tarmon’Gaidon“. The release dates of the second and third novels are not known at this time. (See the note below abour Brandon’s blog post for more information about these items)

In past interviews Brandon Sanderson has said that if A Memory of Light was split, it would still be a treated as a single novel. He has also said on his blog and in interviews that he will push to have an “omnibus” edition published after the third volume is out. In this way, if you prefer to read the complete novel in one piece, the omnibus will provide that opportunity.

Also, neither Brandon or Harriet or Tor has any intention of inflating the size of these books. We’ve known for a long time that this book was going to be huge, and the possibility existed that it would be split up.

To go along with this news, we did an interview with Harriet where she was kind enough to give us some more answers.

Be sure to check out our updated page for A MEMORY OF LIGHT. It will give you a nice summary of everything we know so far about the book, as well as links to various interviews and announcements.

NOTE: Brandon Sanderson has posted an article about this news on his blog. He addresses directly the concerns of various upset fans. If you are frustrated by this news, please read his article.

About false rumors: There have been rumors floating around which supposedly contain the cover artwork for the book. While the artwork might actually be a mock-up for the cover, it has NOT been approved by Brandon, Harriet, or even Tor. It was probably an in-progress image that somehow found its way out of the Tor offices. We’ll be one of the first to show you the actual book cover once its ready.

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