WHEEL OF TIME gets its sixth consecutive #1 NYT bestseller

Back in 1998 the eighth Wheel of Time novel, The Path of Daggers, became the first book in the series to hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller lists. Remarkably, every book released so far in the series has managed the same feat and Towers of Midnight has made it six in a row. Even more startling is that Towers of Midnight sold 12% more copies than The Gathering Storm did in the first week and displaced crime mega-seller John Grisham's new novel from the #1 spot in only its second week on sale (last year The Gathering Storm knocked Dan Brown off the top spot, but that was after a much longer period).

Photo of Brandon Sanderson by John Sloan via Facebook, check here for the full-size version.

Congratulations to Brandon and everyone at Tor Books!

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

The Last Battle has begun. From Saldaea to Shienar, vast armies of Shadowspawn burst forth into the unprepared Borderlands. Whilst Rodel Ituralde prepares to stand siege against overwhelming numbers, Lan Mandragoran rides for Tarwin's Gap with the last of the Malkieri at his side.

The Dragon Reborn has overcome the darkness that was threatening to swallow him but now faces a struggle to repair the damage his actions have unleashed. Arad Doman is starving, the Borderlander army at Far Madding must be confronted and Cairhien remains without a ruler. But before Rand can address those problems, he must stand within the Hall of the Tower and answer for his actions to the Amyrlin Seat...


Perrin Aybara and Mat Cauthon have their own challenges to face. Perrin must make peace with his wolf side and forge a dangerous alliance with those who only want to kill him for crimes from long ago. Mat must face his own nemesis on the streets of Caemlyn and undertake a desperate quest to rescue an old friend, but the price will be high. And, in the Aiel Waste, Aviendha must journey into Rhuidean and confront a terrible truth that could shatter the Aiel more completely than Rand al'Thor's revelations.

Towers of Midnight is, at last (and third time lucky) the penultimate volume of The Wheel of Time. The fourteenth and final book, A Memory of Light, will be published in early 2012. Towers is published just short of the twenty-first anniversary of the series, which is appropriate as this is where the series finally matures and comes of age. Lots of the more irritating quirks of the series, such as the inability of the major characters to, you know, talk to one another about what's going on, are absent from this novel as fresh alliances are forged, plans are laid and armies are readied for the grand finale.

Just as Rand al'Thor has decided that he must sweep away the rubble of the Bore before he can confront the Dark One, Towers of Midnight sweeps aside many storylines and side-characters in preparation for the grand finale. The pace of the novel is relentless as we drive towards the moment when the Last Battle must be unleashed in its full fury, with each chapter seemingly ticking off character and story arcs stretching back all the way to The Eye of the World. Many characters who first appeared in that book, including relatively minor ones like Dain Bornhald and Morgase Trakand, have important roles to play here, giving the feeling of a vast circle slowly being closed off. There are also strong ties to The Shadow Rising, with the Aiel playing a larger role in events then they have for a while and a revisiting of Rhuidean and its glass columns providing a late-series game-changing moment that was wholly unexpected but quite satisfying.

Thematically, Towers cannot hope to match The Gathering Storm's tight focus on Rand and Egwene and their respective journeys through chaos and fire and out the other side. This book is far more epic and sprawling, with many more storylines and characters visited and progressed. However, Sanderson manages to maintain a strong focus on getting the original major characters back into the thick of the action, this time with Perrin and Mat. There's also an interesting dramatic device used where Lan's march across the Borderlands towards Tarwin's Gap serves as a countdown to the moment when all hell truly breaks loose, which helps the book achieve its oppressive feeling of events moving towards a final, chaotic doom.

In terms of the writing, Sanderson continues to do a fine job of integrating his and Robert Jordan's styles, although Sanderson's 'voice' is a little bit more noticeable here (Towers apparently has far less of Jordan's finished text than the other two books). Fortunately, his grasp of Jordan's characters is more assured than before, with the major weak link (Mat) coming across far more like he did in earlier books. Of the characters prominent in this novel, he only really struggles with Berelain, hardly the most vital of characters anyway, whilst he gets the likes of Perrin, Elayne and Birgitte spot-on (for example, Elayne continues to make wince-inducingly stupid mistakes and not really learn from them). In fact, Sanderson achieves the near-impossible here of making Faile actually quasi-likable for a few chapters, which may be his most towering achievement in writing these concluding volumes so far.


Elsewhere, problems remain. The formal agreement between two armies to do battle at a given place on a given time feels very odd and doesn't ring true. Whilst the pace is mostly furious, there's possibly a couple too many chapters and scenes where people sit around and talk about the plot rather than getting on with business, although these are less noticeable than they have been in the past. There's also, to this reader's frustration, the fact that this is the seventh book in a row where Perrin and his forces are messing around in the Altaran/Ghealdanin backwoods (a story which, thankfully, finally and definitively ends here) rather than doing anything that's actually interesting. Fortunately Sanderson even rescues this storyline, taking advantage of the longueur to conclude Perrin's 'wolfbrother' arc. However, I suspect there will be complaints that both the Seanchan and Black Tower storylines are only barely touched on here, rather than being explored more thoroughly. As it stands, it is dubious that Sanderson can bring those two storylines into play and conclude them satisfyingly with only a (relatively) small number of chapters remaining, but we will see.

Many events unfold that people have been expecting for years (and yes, we learn the answer to a long-standing but utterly irrelevant mystery that Wheel of Time fans have furiously debated for over a decade), but Jordan's plotting skills and Sanderson's writing means that there are still plenty of big surprises to come, some of them almost strokes of genius in how they were set up beforehand.

Towers of Midnight (****½) clears the decks of a lot of dead wood and brings us almost to the end. Some minor issues mar what could have been the best book of the series, but there is nevertheless the feeling that we have been set up for a huge finale. Time will tell if Sanderson can deliver on that. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

First review of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT

Not by me, sadly. Jason at Dragonmount has read a later draft of the book (but not the final copy) and posted his impressions here. Obviously, Jason has a vested interest in the book and gives a lengthy disclaimer warning that he is biased (he did give Crossroads of Twilight a good review as well on release). However, his assessment that the book builds on the success of The Gathering Storm and remedies the biggest problems of that book (such as Mat's problematic characterisation) is nevertheless encouraging.

The book is published in just over a month's time.

New interview with Brandon Sanderson

Myself, Neth, Larry and Pat have joined forces to interview Brandon Sanderson about his new novel, The Way of Kings, and the upcoming penultimate Wheel of Time novel, Towers of Midnight, due for release in November 2010. Sanderson gives detailed and insightful answers to some interesting questions, making this one of the best interviews I've been involved with. Thanks to Pat for setting it up.

Brandon Sanderson completes TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT

According to Brandon Sanderson (via Facebook), Towers of Midnight's final revisions have been completed and the book is off to Tor. Sanderson reports that the book has come in at 328,000 words, 57 chapters, plus an epilogue and prologue.


Towers of Midnight's release date remains set for 2 November 2010 in the USA and UK.

Brandon Sanderson on the release schedule for A MEMORY OF LIGHT

On Facebook, Brandon Sanderson has indicated that it is looking unlikely that A Memory of Light will be released in 2011. He is starting the full writing process on the book in January, and given the time The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight have taken, it is not looking likely that the book will be out in October/November 2011, a year after Towers of Midnight, as hoped. He has asked people to keep an eye on his website around Summer 2011 to see if he can do it, but it's more likely to be Spring 2012 before the book appears.

In addition, Sanderson confirmed that he would not work on the sequel to The Way of Kings until Wheel of Time is concluded.

Sanderson has also undertaken an AIM chat with fans, a transcript of which can be found here. He muses on what characters will be back in the final two Wheel of Time books, how much research he needs to do for the project and how he does it, and rules out completing certain other in-progress fantasy series, and how he only took the Wheel job because of the impact of the series on his own writing.

New Brandon Sanderson interview

Pat has posted an interview with Brandon Sanderson that myself, Larry and Ken also participated in last year, from shortly after The Gathering Storm's publication.


Brandon also addresses some questions about Towers of Midnight and criticisms over his handling of Mat in The Gathering Storm. Many thanks to Pat for inviting me to participate.

Final American TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT artwork released

Behold!


And it sucks slightly less than the preview we were shown a month back! Still a vast improvement over Sweet's last few covers and us Brits are spared it altogether, so there is that bright side.

The book is currently due for publication in late October in the UK and US, assuming Brandon Sanderson can complete the final draft by mid-August.

TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT UK cover art

Hot on the heels of the early draft of the American cover, we have the UK cover as shown in the latest Orbit catalogue (thanks to Jussi at Westeros for the reference).


Hmm. Dull, to be honest. Crossroads of Twlight and Knife of Dreams' UK hardcovers had similar art with just a different colour (red and jade-green), whilst The Gathering Storm had the same layout but a threatening use of clouds in the background. And you'd think they could change the cover quote for the first time in eight or nine books, just for variety's sake. Still, this could also be a mock-up and might not represent the final version (though I suspect it will).

Brandon Sanderson also read out the first paragraph from the book at JordanCon:

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose around the misty peaks of Imfaral. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."

Interesting, as this is the first time that the 'wind' has risen on another continent, in this case around the city-fortress of Imfaral in the far north of the Seanchan continent, near the Lesser Blight. Imfaral is the second city of the Seanchan Empire (although only the sixth most populous) and the base of operations for Luthair Paendrag during his invasion of Seanchan's northern landmass before taking Seandar later in his war. Imfaral is the location of the titular Towers of Midnight, a prison complex consisting of thirteen towers where political prisoners are interrogated and executed. It appears that the actual Towers will be referenced in the book, although fans have also speculated that the title acts as a reference to the Tower of Ghenjei and the Black Tower, both of which are expected to figure prominently in the novel. It's also possibly as nod to Tolkien, as Towers of Midnight is the middle volume of its own trilogy, like The Two Towers.

The book is currently expected to be published in November 2010, apparently in both the UK and USA.

US cover art for Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson's TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT

The Dragonmount.com team have Tweeted a picture from JordanCon of the tentative US cover art for Towers of Midnight, the thirteenth and penultimate novel in the Wheel of Time series, due for publication late this year. At a guess, the three characters on the cover are Mat Cauthon, Thom Merrilin and Noal Charin.


Okay, not actually that helpful, but it does appear to be superior to The Gathering Storm's depiction of Rand al'Thor having some kind of epileptic fit in front of the Addams Family house, even though it appears that Sweet is trading even more on past glories (this is no less than his twenty-first piece of cover art for the series by my count). This cover evokes his work on the Wheel of Time roleplaying game for Wizards of the Coast:


Based on this, I expect the full cover art to be released soon, hopefully followed by Orbit's UK artwork.

Update: More recent Tweets indicate that the cover art may actually be a different painting (although we heard this before for The Gathering Storm and they pretty much used what was in the rough sketches, just turning Rand around 180 degrees) altogether.

Update: a clearer image courtesy of Dragonmount:

Brandon Sanderson update

It's turning into one of those days when lots of news all comes along at once, isn't it?

Brandon Sanderson has posted an update about Towers of Midnight, the thirteenth and penultimate Wheel of Time novel. Sanderson reports that the writing of new material on the book has paused in favour of rewrites and editing, something which he seemed to get a bit down about around Christmas, at one point hinting that book might even slip to a Spring 2011 release.

However, this new update is much more upbeat and positive, with Sanderson stating that the plan is to still release the book in late 2010, and this is still eminently achievable at the moment. He also confirms that the book will be about 20,000 words longer than The Gathering Storm.

Sanderson also promises additional updates in the next few months ahead of the summer publication of his own new novel, The Way of Kings, the first book in The Stormlight Archive. This new novel will feature covert art from Michael Whelan, an interesting coup given that Whelan is not as prolific as he used to be.

WHEEL OF TIME Book 13 title (for real, this time)

Brandon Sanderson has confirmed that Book 13 of The Wheel of Time - the one that comes out in October 2010, not the one out in a few weeks which is The Gathering Storm - will be called Towers of Midnight.

I approve of this title, as it's an already-existing Robert Jordan name, a reference to the thirteen-towered fortress-castle in the city of Imfaral in Seanchan, Luthair Paendrag's headquarters during the initial invasion of the Seanchan continent. A nice bit of detail there.