Quite a night for epic fantasy fans, first The Hobbit trailer goes live, then Brandon Sanderson (studiously avoiding watching any trailers, we imagine) finishes the first draft of the final Wheel of Time novel, A Memory of Light.
Sanderson announced topping this particular summit around 8:30 AM this morning, having written through the night. According to his Twitter account, the first half of 2012 will involve careful revision so that the final installment can stand as a shining example of the best that the series has to offer.
This past month, a panel of Wheel of Time experts has been speculating and theorizing about what might happen and what they would like to happen, in A Memory of Light. You can read their roundtable discussions right here. (And stay tuned later today for one final roundtable discussing, well, something you never thought you’d be discussing about The Wheel of Time!)
Brandon chose to listen to this song—“To Zanarkand” from the Final Fantasy X soundtrack—to commemorate finishing the final scene. In an intensely odd bit of serendipity, our production manager Chris tells us he was listening to the exact same song on the train into work at about the same time! “It’s a very pretty, calming solo piano piece. Perfect to kind of marshal your strength to in the morning.” Or when you’re finishing an epic quest, apparently!
Yesssssssssss
I’ve been waiting a long long time for this, sad that certain people didn’t make it with us.
Congratulation Brandon Sanderson. You are in fact The Man.
It almost a sureal feeling knowing we live in a world where WOT has been completed.
How many pages?
@@.-@ he said it was a bit longer the tFoH, but we still got the edit to go so who knows.
Beware Snoopy dance commencing now!!! Ghaaah now I have to stay alive and able to move right arm and eyes for at least another few months to a year depending on who you read.
Wow, I’m way more excited by this announcement than I thought I’d be, considering I knew it had to be coming soon.
Just… wow. I mean, WOW!!
Congratulations, Brandon! Merry Christmas!
Awesome!!
I have to admit to a guilty vice — every few days I’ve been checking the ticker on the left side of Brandon Sanderson’s website to see how much progress he’s made.
I’m really torn — I can’t wait to read the last book, and yet, I know I’ll be really sad when I finish it, that there won’t ever be another.
Hallelujah
Epic win!!
Tears. I swear I just wiped a couple of tears from my eyes. Of Joy, of course. And also sadness.
Congratulations, Brandon, and thank you very much for taking on this daunting task, and completing it so well.
This is a wonderful day, but still a bit sad. It’s going to be….over. Sigh.
Merry Christmas. Have some fun, enjoy your family, and rest!
Amazing.
Brandon is awesome. And I hope he now rests well for at least a couple of weeks!!
I got chills reading that status.
Brandon! You are awesome and you should feel awesome!
And of all the things to take away from FFX, I can’t complain about “To Zanarkand” at all. Nice pick.
Thank you Brandon, I’m sure it will be great.
Enjoy your free time – and than please start your work on the next Way of Kings to mitigate our subdued feelings for this beeing the last WOT book.
Ooooh, Christmas comes early! Can I get an AMEN, Wolf-Brothers and -Sisters?
And yes, I will be rather melancholy when I finish it. Much as I do when finishing a Zelda game, only probably more so. For more than half my life, WoT has been a source of wonder, and I’ll hate to see it end. But thank you so much, Mr. Sanderson, for making it possible.
There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time, but this is an ending. I couldn’t be happier.
That is fabulous! Then the next 20 years we will be missing the next book, lol
Strange how something I’ve waited 14 years for can make me so happy and so sad at the same time. Its not even out yet and I’m already feeling nostalgic for it! Thank you Brandon for finishing it, and kudos on your choice in music! Merry Christmas to all WOTers!
WooHoo!
Mere words can’t express the profound joy (or sadness) i am feeling right now. It feels as if i myself have hiked to the top of Dragonmount and saw randland in all its dazzling glory. Thank you Brandon. Merry christmas to you and all my dear beloved WoT fans.
Was the significance of the selection of “To Zanarkand” realized by anyone else? For those who have played Final Fantasy X, the song evokes intense melancholy and sadness, as it plays while the hero of the story says goodbye to all his friends and MELTS INTO THE ETHER! And there won’t be a secret Final Fantasy X-2 ending to make ya’ll feel better either.
I am having a harder time waiting, now that I know the first draft is done. I want the time to hurry by so I can read it……but, I also don’t want the epic to end! Thank you Brandon Sanderson for your dedication. Have a Happy Holiday! And… Parrothead@18 AMEN!
And so it ends. I’d like to think Robert Jordan is smiling from somewhere beyond the grave. Kudos to Sanderson for completing his legacy. Looking forward to the last book in the series. But after that I am looking to Sanderson to continue shaping his own legacy with later installments of the Stormlight Archive…and thus the wheel of time turns and us with it.
Does it really have to end!? Bittersweet…
Thank you, Brandon. I have greatly enjoyed the past two books. I have been reading the series since 1999 and I can’t believe it’s coming to an end.
Thank you Brandon, for finishing The Wheel of Time!
Finally, after all the years I have read the wot. I am excited about AMOL, but like most sad to see it come to an end. RJ chose wise to have you complete his series, because of that I discovered a new fantasy author.
Thank you Brandon Sanderson.
Now I am waiting on the second book of The way of Kings
:))))))
Thank you for complete WOT! Maybe the hole world will end in 2012. Maybe only the thirt age will. I would like to read about this.
who says there won’t be more? I seem to recall mention of about 7 Ages in WoT. Many is the author whose world has been continued after their death by another, especially if there is interest in the “world”. Sanderson is better than Chris Tolkein, 1 book of commentary on his father’s notes was plenty, Sanderson actually writes new prose we haven’t read before. After all these pages, if he doesn’t have a feel for the world he never will.
Glamdring @32 – While you have a point about Sanderson doing a good job on WoT, the “world” (as in all copyrighting) belongs to RJ’s widow. She is firmly committed to making sure his legacy isn’t diminished by “franchising” it. There were a few notes and ideas left for what he had planned as a couple more prequels and a few outriggers, but there isn’t a lot of material for them. Neither she nor Brandon have any desire to simply make up some more stories for the purposes of making more money on the WoT name. She has committed to publishing an Encyclopedia for WoT that would contain most of the information on characters and history that was in RJ’s databases, but at this point it’s not looking likely that even the few books he had considered will be written.
Furthermore, Brandon has a fairly long list of his own books waiting to be written. He’s got 9 more books for the Stormlight Archive to write. He plans two more Mistborn trilogies (one “urban” at about our current technological level and one “sci fi” as they use the unique powers of their world to venture into space), along with a number of sideline books set in that same world. He’s planning at least one more in the Elantris world, and I think he said another in the Warbreaker world. And in between all that, he pops out with these novellas and YA books (like the Alcatraz series, Legion, Scribbler and so on). Along with not wanting to cheapen the WoT legacy by writing what would essentially be “fanfic”, the man has a career of his own to pursue. He’s deeply honored and pleased to be the one to finish WoT, but he doesn’t want to limit himself to being “RJ’s successor in the WoT.”
No, I think we’ll have to be satisfied with what we’ve got, once AMoL and the Encyclopedia are published.
So excited, can’t wait to read the last book! :) Sucks to come to the end of a great series, but then again it’s good to have closure after so many years lol. Awesome song too. I also liked the piano pieces from Lunar/Lunar 2.
man, WoT has been part of my life since highschool, i think i read the first one in ’98. I’ll enjoy reading the series over, i almost thought it would never end. Very Epic. best fantasy story i’ve ever read, thank you Brandon for picking up the quill and finishing our R.J.’s story, we would be lost without you. You are awesome
My journey through the WOT started when my mum bought Lord of Chaos hardback for a £1 in about 1995 and I vowed to read from the start of the series before opening it. After now reading all 13 (plus New Spring of course) I am extremely impatient to see the final chapter, with it’s older siblings, completing my shelf on the bookcase! Can we please fast forward to 8th Jan 2013????
Just hope they don’t put the date even further back (twice already!). Just need to get this last one to finish this series. I was young when this first started. Going back to simpler novels series after this (anything under 10 books & 500 pages/book!)
Brandon, You Rock!