The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson: Book Review

Brandon Sanderson is the master of the unique fantasy world, complete with unique magic systems, and he doesn’t fail to deliver in this novella. In an Asian style setting, the people of this place have mastered a magic called ‘Forging’ – imprint an object with a seal (like a Chinese chop) that ‘tells’ the object what it would be if its past were rewritten - and it changes.

The closer the Seal is to the actual object in terms of probability, the easier it is to make it work. So restoring a worn desk to its former glory is relatively easy – it only supposes that someone didn’t stop caring for it. If there is absolutely no conceivable way the object you are working on could ever have been what you want it to be, the Seal fails. If a Seal is removed, because it remains as a physical seal that can be prised off, the object returns to its original form.

Shai is a Forger – the kind who dabbles in the forbidden, daring to Forge people’s souls, and even her own. Though she is reviled, when the Emperor suffers a terrible accident and has no memory of who he is, the political leaders turn to her in a desperate bid to reforge the Emperor’s Soul and return him to the man he was. The Emperor will remain in mourning for one hundred days, and this is the impossible timeframe Shai must work within.

But she knows that even if she succeeds, they dare not allow her to live…

Shai faces multiple challenges – Forging a soul is a complex task, one that is nigh impossible to do within a hundred days, and a task that requires her to intimately understand who the Emperor really is. Not just who he presents himself as, but his true self, a truth that may be lost with the Emperor’s memories. At the same time, she must plot an escape plan to get her beyond reach of her enemies. 

One of her captors, Gaotana, and close friend of the Emperor, makes himself available to her in this quest to learn the nature of the Emperor. As she probes the deepest motives of the Emperor, Gaotana finds himself questioning his beliefs about the evil nature of Forging. 

When Shai discovers that the Emperor lost his idealism, and his potential to be a great man, will she risk everything in a bid to restore to him the possibility of what he might have been?

Like all of Sanderson’s stories, this one captured me easily, even though it’s only short. It’s one of his most alien, though, and I found myself questioning this system of Forging and Seals more than I might question another magic system. Still, as the complexity of it revealed itself, I found myself more willing to suspend disbelief, particularly my scepticism that it would be possibly to replicate the almost infinite complexity that makes up a person to any kind of believable degree. Yet the evident level of complexity that went into Forging a Soul was sufficiently high to be believable.

An excellent fast read, highly recommended for readers looking for unique story worlds and magic systems. It won the 2013 Hugo Award for a Novella, and that really says it all.

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Audience Expectations: The Danger of Trying To Be All Things To All People

Last week I saw Brandon Sanderson was releasing a new book. Excited, I rushed off to find out when I could buy book 2 in The Stormlight Archive only to find Steelheart is the first book in a new dystopian series. 

What the…?

After some discussion with some folks, I learned that Brandon Sanderson apparently advocates writing multiple series at once in case some people don’t like one series or the other.

Hmmmm…..

I see what he’s getting at, but I think it’s playing with fire. Readers already wait a long time for sequels in the fantasy market, and I was under the impression that his readers were already chomping at the bit because of how much of his time had been consumed by finishing The Wheel of Time. If you make them wait longer, by dividing your attention between series, you may frustrate them to the point of losing them.

I think this also applies to cross-genre writers. If you’re playing in two genres, readers won’t necessarily follow you. Sanderson can get away with epic fantasy and dystopian sci-fi, I think, because both are inside the speculative fiction genre. Hard SF, and erotic romance (separately, I don't mean genre mash-ups or crossing genres), might be a tougher sell….

Anyway, I was mollified by the knowledge that the second Stormlight book is to be released soon, but still, I think it’s a dangerous course.

After this experience, I started listening to Keith Urban’s latest album, Fuse, and I am not happy (I know, jump to country music, but bear with me). Where’s the country at? I began to suspect the name Fuse was a reference to genre crossing, and it turns out I was half-right. Fuse is a move away from traditional country. Urban says he wasn't trying to create a pop album, only to "capture a sonic energy" he hadn't captured on other records, but the result is something that sounds more pop to me than country. For someone who just loves that country sound, this is disappointing.

Urban says “If I were a new artist, I don’t think I could have done this." I would argue the opposite. If he were a new artist, no one

would yet have any expectations, and he could create whatever sound he wanted, and attract the fans who like that sound. With an existing fan base, you risk alienating them. How many of his other fans feel the same way? I don't know, but it strikes me as risky.

The lesson?

Think about the expectations of your fans. I’m not saying you can’t branch out and experiment, but consider if it might lose you fans. And if you might, consider why you are doing it, and if it’s a good enough reason. Don’t just expect that readers will stay loyal to you if you try something new. Look what happened to JK Rowling with The Casual Vacancy - it's now on the list of most unfinished books because so many readers started it and then stopped because it wasn't what they expected from the author of Harry Potter.

In another word - branding. You create a brand, and fans are loyal to your brand, not you. Think about whether something fits within your brand, could damage your brand, or needs a new brand.

How do you feel as a reader if your favourite authors switch between series or genres? How do you feel when your expectations aren’t met?

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Discovery Writers and A Memory of Light

So often a writer is asked if they are a plotter or a pantser. But what about someone in-between?

Apparently there is a name for this in the industry and it is ‘discovery writer’. This is a writer who plots a basic outline, but then isn’t afraid to follow the characters and the story wherever it might lead.

I came across the concept when I attended a Brandon Sanderson book-signing. As those of us who are Wheel of Time fans know, Brandon is responsible for finishing the saga following Robert Jordan’s untimely demise, and Brandon spoke to us a little bit about Robert Jordan, and used the term ‘discovery writer’ to describe him.

The story goes that when Robert Jordan first pitched The Wheel of Time to his publisher, he had a planned trilogy. His publisher said he loved the idea, but knew Robert Jordan tended to let his stories get away from him, and suggested a six-book deal, thinking that would be enough to get him the whole series even if it blew out. 

And as we sit here awaiting the fourteenth and final book in the series, we all laugh.

Evidently Robert Jordan was a discovery writer to the extreme, taking what was originally only a planned three book series and turning it into the epic saga we all know and love. The ideas must have flowed thick and fast as he wrote, and kept flowing for a good long time.

I don’t think a writer needs to turn a three book series into a fourteen book series to be a discovery writer, though. All it requires is a balance between plotting and pantsing, a need to outline the basic bones of the story, and then the desire and the willingness to follow where the characters lead.

I admit to being rather enamoured of the concept, because it seemed a fairly accurate description of my own writing process. I always outline my books these days, but the finished product may only bear a passing resemblance to that original outline at the most basic level.

So with Robert Jordan’s ‘discovery writer’ tendencies in mind, do you think Rand will die in A Memory of Light? 

Here’s what I think:

• Maybe Rand was originally intended to die, but somewhere along the way that plan (if it ever existed) changed;
• Sure, we know Rand has to bleed all over the rocks of Shayol Ghul, but that doesn’t mean death. Hey, a paper cut bleeds like hell;
• Rand thinks he’s going to die – therefore it’s too obvious for him to do so;
• You’d have to be one son of a b*tch to keep your readers waiting twenty years only to kill off the hero.

OK, you might say some of that is more wishful thinking than hard evidence, but that’s my line, and I’m sticking to it. Earlier in the series I was far more convinced Rand would die, but after The Towers of Midnight, I started to think he had a real chance. 

So what do you think? Is Rand going to live happily ever after, or do you think he’s going to get the sword?

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Review of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson has a real knack for creating high fantasy worlds from the ground up, including magic systems. This, the tale of two sisters, the God-King one of them must marry, a lesser god, and an immortal trying to atone for his sins, is set primarily in the kingdom of Hallandren, ruled by the God-King and a set of Returned (lesser gods) and filled with Awakeners. 

Every person is born with one Breath, and Awakeners collect Breath to reach different levels of power (Heightenings) and can create certain feats of magic. Breath cannot be taken by force, it can only be given voluntarily, and the more Breath a person has, the greater the feats they can carry out. The Returned, or the Hallandren pantheon of gods, are similar – having died heroically, they Return as gods, invested with only one mighty Breath granting them powers comparable to an Awakener of the Fifth Heightening. The catch: because a Returned only has one Breath, he cannot Awaken. His Returned nature means the giving of his one Breath would mean his death. And so the Returned await that moment only they will recognise – that moment when they should make the ultimate sacrifice and use their Breath for another. 

And so our cast of characters – the sisters Siri and Vivenna, from a kingdom holding Awakening abhorrent, one doomed to marry the Hallandren God-King, the other hell-bent to rescue her. The God-King himself, Returned, mighty, unknowable, and all-powerful. Vasher; who does he play for, and in whose interest? And Lighthope, a Returned who does not even believe in his own religion. 

The idea of a god who doesn’t believe in his own godhood or his own religion is one of the themes Brandon Sanderson set out to explore in this book, and I must say I easily connected with Lighthope very early in the book. His flippant nature and refusal to take his own godhood seriously conceals the fact that he, of all the gods, actually takes his duties with some importance. He says he is unreliable and a hopeless god, while at the same time actually trying to be a good one; his flippancy reflects his own dissatisfaction with what he perceives as a flawed government and religion. Why should he be trusted with power to govern? He has no clue what he is doing and believes this should be evident to everyone who sees him, but instead they stubbornly insist in trusting his divinity. His earnest uncertainty draws me to him. 

The sisters, Siri and Vivenna, are completely different characters with their own distinct voices. One, promised in marriage to the God-King, must offer herself to bear his child in silence, lest her words offend this majestic immortal, while the other, adrift in a barbarian city must decide who to trust to free her sister. But nothing is as it seems for either sister, and in the background looms the very real threat of war against their homeland – a war their kingdom cannot win. Each sister must battle in her own way, against the odds, to prevent that war and rescue all they hold dear, with neither knowing who they can trust and who plots against them. 

Warbreaker is a compelling story of love and a spider web of intrigue. It’s been a while since I tore through a book in less than a few weeks, but Warbreaker I read in three days – and that’s my pre-marriage, pre-child rate of reading! I crammed that in around a family. If I wasn’t reading this book, I was thinking about reading it. Every chapter ends with a hook, driving you on to know what happens next, and I assure you, what happens next is never what you think it will be. I often enjoy a book where I make the connections to guess what happens, but in Warbreaker I guessed but rarely and the surprise was a pleasure all of its own.

As always, the near-perfection of the writing is impressive, although I found the prose less-polished than The Way of Kings (bearing in mind this was written first). However, the occasional ‘saidism’ or telling sentence was not sufficient to spoil my pleasure in the read, and the foreshadowing is so masterful it’s enough to make any aspiring writer fall to the floor in worship. 

I simply cannot recommend this book enough. Original, exotic, unique, and compelling. 

 

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An Evening of Books with Brandon Sanderson

This week I attended a book signing by Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn Trilogy and the Stormlight Archives, and the man responsible for completing the late Robert Jordan’s legacy, the Wheel of Time. 

In the course of the evening he chose to share some of his writing process with us. I felt like I should have been taking notes and didn’t have anything to do it with! So if I’ve forgotten anything, or get something wrong, I do apologise to Brandon, who was so totally cool and awesome that he was still signing books at 10pm when I left and he’d been going for two and a half hours!

First off, how many drafts do you think you should do of your novel? I know some people think they can publish a first, second or third draft. Brandon talked us through some of his drafts:

• Version 1 – This is the absolute first cut. Brandon tends to write each character arc from start to end independently, so at the end of this process the different points of view are not woven together.;
• Version 2 – This is where the storylines are woven together, revisions done to make them fit and to correct continuity errors;
• Version 3 – Brandon’s own line edit, where he focuses on sentence structure and polishing the prose. It then goes to his editor for his or her line edit;
• Version 4 – After the line edit by his editor, it comes back to Brandon. Version 4 is working through the line edit and making corrections line by line;
• Version 5 – this is beg revisions the editor asked for – new scenes and the like which have to be written from scratch. Then it goes back to the editor again.

It certainly made me feel better about the four versions I worked my way through on Deathhawk’s Betrayal last year. Out of curiosity, I asked him how many drafts he does total. The answer was a staggering twelve drafts for a Wheel of Time book (the series is so monstrous the extra drafts are required for consistency) and eight drafts for his own works. So if you think one, two, or even three drafts is enough – think again!

It's also worth noting that his drafts come back from his editor covered in red scribbles - this is always going to happen. If you don't get your work back from an editor covered in scribbles, the editor is not doing their job.Even if you got most everything else right, an editor will look for passive language, the chance to use stronger verbs, and to improve specificity e.g. oak door instead of wooden door.

I know there are those out there who expect an editor to tell them how wonderful they are and not change anything, but I'm sorry, it's never going to happen. If this is really how you feel, you might like to consider another career. Receiving feedback can always be a very demoralising experience, and Brandon admitted it is for him as well, but it's part and parcel of the job and it's never going to change, no matter how successful you are. Your job is to write. The editor's job is to scribble all over your baby.

Interestingly enough, Brandon said one of his weak areas is his prose. He doesn’t have naturally beautiful prose, which I found completely amazing. While being lectured about editing and prose, I happened to be reading the Stormlight Archives and noticed Brandon’s style is very effective. I asked my editor and she said yes, he is virtually technically perfect. Apparently, though, that’s something he has to work hard at! So there is hope for me yet. 

One of his stronger points is characterisation and he says he often has to dial back the characterisation. I think the lesson here is balance, people! Work on your weaknesses and don’t let your strengths get so out of hand they take over. Too much of a good thing is bad. Everything in moderation!

Lastly, if you are a Wheel of Time fan, Brandon told us a little story about the death of Asmodean at the end of the Fires of Heaven. If you don't know (and I didn't) the killer is revealed in the glossary (of all places) of The Towers of Midnight. I'm not going to tell you under which entry, but I'll wait while you check *taps foot impatiently*. If you really can't find it, let me know.

Anyway, the reason behind putting it in the glossary is that when Robert Jordan's notes were handed over to Brandon Sanderson, there was a post-it note stuck to one page which said simply 'X killed Asmodean'. No how, or why, just the name of the killer. Because all these other details are lost with Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal (Robert Jordan's widow and editor) decided the details would only be disclosed in the glossary. Brandon did try to slip it into a scene but it was removed during editing.

I’m sure there were other pearls of wisdom but I’m afraid for the moment they have escaped me. 

I should also mention how cool Brandon is – Tuesday night he was free and he issued a Twitter invitation for people to go and play ‘Magic’ with him. Apparently that’s a card game. I would have gone along if I had any clue how to play, but my friend was most impressed he gave out his hotel like that. Definite cool points. 

Lastly a shout-out to @goddessmallie, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the book signing. We waited 2.5 hours to have our books signed, with no phone reception, and therefore no Twitter I might add (AARGH!!!), and I'm sure we kept each other sane. 

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Using Prologues: A Case Study With Brandon Sanderson

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard the advice ‘don’t use a prologue unless you really need one’. If you write fantasy, you have probably broken this rule at least once (most likely before you ever heard it) and may have been tempted to break it since you did learn it. If you’re a reader of fantasy you have almost certainly ploughed your way through many prologues of varying calibre.  

There are many reasons for not using prologues. The key one for me is they are nearly always an infodump of backstory. That’s two sins right there:

• Infodump – a massive dump of information that makes the reader’s eyes water and their brain desperately desire to be elsewhere; and
• Backstory – which should always be trickled to the reader in the exact amount they need as they need it. Kind of like Goldilocks – not too much and not too little, not too early and not too late, just right!

First off, why tell your reader all the backstory in a lump at the beginning when you can keep them guessing? Secrets can drive plot, create suspense and keep the reader turning pages. I am guilty of this one in my manuscript The Fires of Madness. Did I mention it needs a complete rewrite? Yep. Total. Bulldoze it flat and build it up from scratch type rewrite. And there won’t be a prologue. Why would I reveal the reason for my character’s self-inflicted emotional torment and borderline insanity when I can get so much mileage out of teasing the reader with it? I mean, really, when you look at it that way, it’s a no-brainer, right?

So we all know that prologues are almost always a big no-no. But what about the other question? The one that you don’t see answered as much?

When should you use a prologue?

I don’t claim to be an expert on this, but I can point you to one person I believe has done it right. 

Brandon Sanderson in The Way of Kings.

I have nothing but respect for Brandon Sanderson. My favourite editor told me I should read some Dickens because my weakness is at the sentence structure level. When this was pointed out to me, I was reading The Way of Kings. Thinking about what she’d said, I noticed that Sanderson’s writing is very economical and effective. In fact, I have done so much writing and critiquing these days, it’s hard for me not to mentally rewrite the book I am reading. 

But I couldn’t rewrite The Way of Kings. Not for love or money. I suppose there is a reason he was hand-picked and personally invited to complete The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan’s lamentable premature death. 

I asked my favourite editor and she said yes, Sanderson’s writing is technically near perfect. Of course, there is more to writing than technical perfection, but I'm not going to complain about technical perfection in addition to compelling stories - would you?

The Way of Kings is interesting because it breaks the prologue rule. 

Twice.

I kid you not, this book has a prologue, but before the prologue, you read a prelude. 

I know what you’re thinking. In this day and age, when prologues are frowned upon, why would you write a prologue and a prelude? And how would you get it published? Well, the answer to the latter could be because publishing houses do have favourite sons and daughters who get to break the rules, and while a certain amount of this is going on here (The Way of Kings is so long it’s been broken into two parts) I don’t believe that is the reason the prelude and prologue slipped through.

No, I believe they are there for good reasons. So what are those good reasons?

The prologue and the prelude contain information the reader needs to know. This information cannot be dribbled to the reader throughout the book because the viewpoint characters don’t know it.

The prelude is ancient history. So ancient it has been lost in the mists of time. If I didn’t have this information, I believe a decent amount of the rest of the book would be confusing to me in the context of the bigger picture. Some of the foreshadowing I have identified would be meaningless. Also, one of the main characters has visions of the past. I only know they are true visions of the past because I know some of the past. Everyone in the book believes he is mad. I think it’s important the reader believes he isn't mad, otherwise the visions would have no meaning. And believe me, even with the prelude, my faith did waver at one point and I began to wonder if the poor guy really was mad. Without that prelude, I’d be almost convinced of it.

The prologue deals with more recent events – who was behind the assassination of the Alethi king. The Alethi know a little bit, but they don’t know the full details. The POV character of this prologue also gets his own POV scenes later in the book, but not many. Arguably these details could be dribbled in there, but since he only has two or three scenes, I personally believe those scenes would be getting into the realm of information overload if you tried. The reader just wouldn't grasp all the important information. 

The full details of the situation are important because it lets the reader know there is more going on than the war with the Parshendi, the Parshendi are not the unrefined brutes the Alethi think they are, and there is some kind of villain out there who is carefully orchestrating events for his own advantage and things are so much worse than the protagonists think it is. 

The villain is revealed at the end of book one – but of course you can’t build suspense and tension for a big reveal unless the reader knows there is something to be revealed. The prologue is the first step in building this tension and suspense, and of course the tension increases after the reveal because the identity of the villain is someone the protagonists trust – and they still don’t know he’s working against them. 

So the two key reasons for a prologue?

• It contains information the reader needs to know; and
•  There is no other real way to give it to the reader because, for example, the primary viewpoint characters don’t have this information.

The prelude/prologue were written in limited third person, which for me made it more engaging than using omniscient. That said, even though there is a good reason for including both the prologue and the prelude in The Way of Kings, I must warn you, they did still make it hard for me to get into this book. Inevitably, they will slow the introduction down, and I found myself wondering ‘when am I going to get to the real protagonist?’. So even if you need a prologue, be cautious in its use. 

And unless you are Brandon Sanderson, I really don’t recommend you opt for the prelude/prologue double whammy. 

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Death Will Not Hold Me Down: A Tribute to Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan. Where can I possibly start?

Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr., under which he was best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series. According to the author bio inside his books, he taught himself to read at age three and was reading Mark Twain at five (or something like that – my books are in storage!). That has always impressed me. 

Robert Jordan

I was eleven when I first encountered the work of Robert Jordan. That’s right, eleven. At that time (1992) there were four books available in his Wheel of Time series, with the fifth, The Fires of Heaven released around that time or shortly after. Now, in 2011, aged 30, I am still awaiting the conclusion to The Wheel of Time. That makes me a fan of The Wheel of Time for two-thirds of my life. If you’ve been a fan for a greater proportion of your life, please leave a comment to let me know you’re out there!

The Wheel of Time was one of the things I shared with my Dad as I grew up. We read the same books and of course the epic proportions of The Wheel of Time loaned itself to the wasting of many hours discussing the multitudinous possible outcomes, guessing at the identities of villains reborn, villains concealed, the identities of prophesied heroes, and the love lives of the many characters. I still remember wandering down a dirt track on horseback speculating about the revelations to be had in the next book.

I know some people tired of the story, either because it was too big, or too complex, or just dragged on for too long. But I never did. Was it my age? A child’s endless fascination or the ability of my brain at that age to grasp and keep up with the many plots, subplots, tangents and secrets?

I don’t know but I love the books and I don’t see that ever changing. I have lost count of the number of times I have read them. As a general rule, I reread them every time a new book comes out. There are thirteen books and there were four when I started, which means I have read some of these books as many as nine times. It’s probably more, because for a while there I would reread them every year and it was about two years between books. 

As a writer, I am in awe of Robert Jordan’s sweeping epic. To write a story of that complexity on such a grand scale boggles the mind. Although there have been many criticisms of his writing (particularly over-detailed attention to irrelevant scenes), credit is due just for the sheer scale, complexity and genius of the story alone. I could not conceive of imagining a story of such reach and scope. My modest aspirations include only a six book series, which is technically two connected trilogies. Fourteen books? This is the point where I feel I should get down on my knees and worship.

The Wheel of Time turns...

It is true that fourteen books could be fourteen books of crap but it’s not. Robert Jordan gets credit just for keeping his stories straight. And while his technical writing could maybe have done with a brush-up, there are many other elements of genius. Like the moment of awe you get when you realise a revelation in book ten, for example, was foreshadowed four books earlier. There are plot twists and secrets, the foundations for which were laid in the very roots of this story, that aren’t revealed for many books. 

And that’s maybe where my awe really lies. To write a simple, straightforward story that spans fourteen books is one thing. To write a story as complex as this, with so many secrets, plots, misdirections, prophecies, players and vested interests, is something else again. The words even escape me to describe the sheer complexity of this tale. If you’ve read it, you don’t need me to tell you. Love it or hate it, I don’t think you can deny the work that went into keeping the story straight.

Someone once said to me they didn’t believe Robert Jordan knew where his story was headed, that he didn’t know where it would end. 

They were wrong. 

On March 23, 2006, Robert Jordan announced he had been diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis and that with treatment his median life expectancy was four years. Though he said he intended to beat the statistics, he died on September 16, 2007.

He spent the last weeks of his life dictating all the major plot points and twists in the remaining volume (later decided to be split in three) of The Wheel of Time. In other words, he dedicated his last time on this earth to ensuring that someone would have everything they needed to finish The Wheel of Time the way it had always been intended. Clearly he knew exactly where his story was going. 

I also don’t believe a story this complicated could have held together if he didn’t know how it would end and how to get there. I believe, when we learn how it ends, we will discover it was foreshadowed in the very first books. His blood on the rocks of Shayol Ghul... If you’re a reader, you know what I mean. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about how that will turn out. For the record, I don’t believe Rand will die (or at least, not die and stay dead). What do you think?

Did Robert Jordan dedicate his last hours to preserving his story because he couldn’t stand the idea of leaving such an epic work unfinished? Dedication to his fans? I don’t presume to know. Maybe it was a bit of both. But only death could part this writer from his passion. 

I still remember the day of his death, when I learned he had passed away. It was a shock to the system. I don’t presume to say I was as grief-stricken as his family, or as grief-stricken as I would be about my own family. It would presumptuous to say the least if I were to assert that. But I definitely felt that someone I knew was gone and they weren’t coming back. I had shared, at this point, The Wheel of Time journey for fifteen years. It was akin, I suppose, to learning that your local baker, or doctor, someone you had known since you were a child, had died. I even went so far as to shed a tear. 

It was a profound moment. And of course, though many mourned his passing, I am sure the next question on the lips of many was what would happen to The Wheel of Time? 

Fortunately the decision was made to have someone else finish it using the notes and details Robert Jordan had left. The man chosen was Brandon Sanderson and a fine choice it was. Though I can clearly see the difference in the writing styles, the characters have been executed true to themselves. I don’t read the books thinking ‘But if Robert Jordan had written it he would have done this.’ 

Two books have been completed by Brandon Sanderson and he is working on the last book now. I can hardly wait though I wonder what my life will be like without the next Wheel of Time book to anticipate. I have been doing it for so long you see. 

But to the memory of Robert Jordan – a toast. A great mind and a great man have gone, a genius I dare not aspire to match. But it is clear that while he was here he loved his writing and his worlds with a fierce passion. 

Most of all, I thank him for being generous enough to take us along for the ride. He is one of my greatest influences.

Would I be a different person if The Wheel of Time never existed?

A dragon, Wheel of Time style, as depicted on the banner of Lews Therin Telamon

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