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Well, the time has finally arrived. 23 years after it first began, the Wheel of Time saga is finally completed. This final book is the 14th book in the series (not counting the shorter novella that was published as a prequel), and puts the series at just over 4 million words. This will be a bittersweet book to read. It will finally reach a conclusion we've been building towards forever, but also be the end of the series. But, I've been waiting for the book for over a year, so I'm ready to have at it. I want to take my time reading it, to make it last as long as possible, but I know I will barely be able to put it down. So, without further rambling, the final volume of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.



"A Memory of Light" by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

From BN.com:

Since 1990, when Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time® burst on the world with its first book, The Eye of the World, readers have been anticipating the final scenes of this extraordinary saga, which has sold over forty million copies in over thirty languages.

When Robert Jordan died in 2007, all feared that these concluding scenes would never be written. But working from notes and partials left by Jordan, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson stepped in to complete the masterwork. With The Gathering Storm (Book 12) and Towers of Midnight (Book 13) behind him, both of which were # 1 New York Times hardcover bestsellers, Sanderson now re-creates the vision that Robert Jordan left behind.

Edited by Jordan’s widow, who edited all of Jordan’s books, A Memory of Light will delight, enthrall, and deeply satisfy all of Jordan’s legions of readers.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass.
What was, what will be, and what is,
may yet fall under the Shadow.
Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Now reading...

So, The Wheel of Time is a series of books that has helped to define the fantasy (or prolonged fantasy, based on your point of view) genre. The first book in the series was published way back in 1990 (remember the 90s? Yeah, me neither). I was first introduced to them by my dad, either when I was still in high school or just after I went off to college, I can't remember (you know, cause it was in the 90s).

Well, after the 11th book of the series, Robert Jordan announced he had cardiac amyloidosis, which is a fancy way of saying he had a heart problem. And a pretty severe one, since the average life expectancy with this illness is just 4 years. A mere one and a half years later, he passed, the series still far from completion.

Enter Brandon Sanderson. A relatively new writer at the time, he has since written approximately 500 books (and that's a low estimate). Seriously, the man is a writing machine. And he's not writing novellas, either. These are some serious books. Jordan had always said that the next book was going to be the last, and even if you needed a wheelbarrow to cart it around, it was going to be just one book. Since bookstores are rarely found next door to hardware stores, the decision was made to split the final text into 3 books. A fine decision, since the final 3 books in the series clock in with a total of just under one million words (I'm telling you, these are serious books). With the final installment due next week, I figured it was time to refresh my memory a little, so I'm re-reading the final 15 or so chapters of the penultimate* book in the series, Towers of Midnight.

From BarnesandNoble.com:

The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One’s prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight.

The sun has begun to set upon the Third Age.

Perrin Aybara is now hunted by specters from his past: Whitecloaks, a slayer of wolves, and the responsibilities of leadership. All the while, an unseen foe is slowly pulling a noose tight around his neck. To prevail, he must seek answers in Tel’aran’rhiod and find a way—at long last—to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it forever.

Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The creatures beyond the stone gateways—the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn—have confused him, taunted him, and left him hanged, his memory stuffed with bits and pieces of other men’s lives. He had hoped that his last confrontation with them would be the end of it, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. The time is coming when he will again have to dance with the Snakes and the Foxes, playing a game that cannot be won. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost.

This penultimate novel of Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling series—the second of three based on materials he left behind when he died in 2007—brings dramatic and compelling developments to many threads in the Pattern. The end draws near.

Dovie’andi se tovya sagain. It’s time to toss the dice.

* I swear, I wrote penultimate before I pulled up and inserted the book synopsis.