Tor Books is honored to announce the forthcoming publication of Warrior of the Altaii, the never-before-seen first novel by epic fantasy titan Robert Jordan.
Warrior of the Altaii is a fascinating formative work by The Wheel of Time creator, offering an abundance of the epic themes that Jordan would continue to develop in The Wheel of Time itself. A standalone fantasy story told with implacable momentum, readers new to Robert Jordan will find Warrior of the Altaii an easy gateway to the author’s artistry.
Tor Books Chairman and Founder Tom Doherty reveals the enduring journey of the manuscript itself:
When I first acquired Warrior of the Altaii, back in early ’79, I was still publisher of Ace. I knew we had a Storyteller. I thought for a first novel this is great, but Harriet had acquired Fallon Blood from him as his publisher. Ace distributed Fallon Blood first in 1980; it was a hit. Fallon Blood was a novel of the American Revolution in the south, and the country was then celebrating its bicentennial. By then I had left Ace; Harriet and Jim Baen came with me as I started Tor. Jim Rigney (Robert Jordan) came with Harriet. The Fallon Trilogy finished in ’81-82, then came the Conan novels, and, of course, the Wheel of Time. Warrior of the Altaii was the first (and now last) book I bought from Jim, and I am so pleased to publish it for his fans.
Fans of Robert Jordan’s work will immediately recognize the author’s evocative prose in Warrior of the Altaii, and experience anew Jordan’s full-voiced strength, carried on the wind of his words.
Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan’s editor and wife, elaborates:
Warrior of the Altaii has been sold twice, but has never been published. Until now.
When I reread Warrior of the Altaii this winter, after this long intermission, I was amazed at the foreshadowing of The Wheel of Time. You will find many hints of what is to come. One of the most obvious is the name of the major mountain range – the Backbone of the World. In The Wheel of Time, it is the Spine of the World. I think you’ll have fun finding them as you read this brand new Robert Jordan – a fine wine that has reached its perfect maturity.
This fall, draw near and listen.
If people want to read the first page, it’s been floating around online for a bit. Seems very much in the Conan register, which I quite like.
With the caveat that I’m excited about this and will read it myself, I am nonetheless a little skeptical, considering Jordan said this about it in 2003: “you will never see it, or know anything about it. I have not destroyed the manuscript, because it has powerful juju…but in my will I have provisions to have that manuscript burned.”
@1:
At a signing in 1998, I asked Robert Jordan what would happen if he died before he could finish the series. He told me “You better pray I don’t die, because I’m going to have a provision in my will that the story is never completed.” He wasn’t joking. Nor was he amused at the question. In my defense, I was 19. The question was rude.
The point is, people change their minds. And he would not begrudge this of Harriet. I think this is wonderful for hard-core fans of the Wheel of Time who are interested in the creative process. I’m not so sure its a good idea for anybody else, but I’ll reserve judgement until its published and I can read it.
@2
Certainly people do change their minds, and of course everyone involved in this decision knew Jordan as well as anyone could. That’s part of why I debated posting that interview clip, to be honest. I’m not trying to suggest this is de facto the wrong choice or disrespectful. But I still have to confess some degree of discomfort, which I think comes along with many–if not most–posthumous publications.
Purely as a work of fiction, I also think it’s exciting for WoT fans, and perhaps for abstainers also. There’s an appetite for straight-ahead single-volume fantasy that maintains mythic depth and register, and not (to my mind) many books to satisfy that appetite. I expect I’ll enjoy the book for plenty of reasons.
Aside: When I was a child, I attended a Brian Jacques book signing. One of the other kids bluntly asked what would become of the Redwall series when he died. Everyone shuddered/laughed, and to his credit, Jacques took it in stride and said he’d be happy to have others write in his universe.
Well… the lesson for authors living today seems to be: If you dont want something published after your death, burn it yourself ;-)
“Fans of Robert Jordan’s work will immediately recognize the author’s evocative prose in Warrior of the Altaii”
I think Jordan’s Conan pastiches contain his best prose, to be honest. And while they aren’t as good as Howard’s originals or as good as The Wheel of Time, I do quite like his pastiches.
https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/2017/08/17/summer-of-conan-robert-jordan-pastiches/
I’m curious about this book. And, seeing how I haven’t started “A Wheel in Time” series, I’m going to try to read this novel.
You could see other bits of WoT in his Conan novels.
I can’t remember which novel it was, but he had mongol type horsemen called hyrkanians, whose manner of speech is instantly recognizable as early-aiel.
I don’t have a civil and respectful way of framing my objection, so I’ll just say I don’t approve and won’t be buying this. I hope anyone who wants to read this story gets pleasure from it.
I hope that was civil and respectful enough.
@2:
I’m aware that some will disagree but I don’t find the question of your 19-year-old self rude. It might be an unpleasant thought to ponder one’s mortality but since everybody dies sooner or later this is a valid question. Even more so as fantasy has known several cases of foundational authors who couldn’t conclude their works before they died.
R. E. Howard chose to take his life; he might have brought his fictional universe into more order.
Tolkien never saw the Silmarillion completed, let alone any of the other texts he had been reworking till the end.
Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series also never was completed.
In light of these cases I find it a very legitimate question, even if one that some won’t want to think about.
@@@@@5
I remember enjoying the first two Robert Jordan Conan pastiches I read as a kid (Invincible and Defender, I believe) but found the subsequent ones to be of decreasing quality (I don’t recall the titles). Perhaps Jordan was growing bored with the character, or I was maturing somewhat, or both. I later turned into a Robert E. Howard purist vis-à-vis Conan, and concluded that Jordan, L. Sprague De Camp’s opinion notwithstanding, had never really grasped the essence of the character.
I found Eye of the World to be a perfectly conventional Tolkien knock-off and never proceeded further into the series. Given that it went on for another 10,000+ pages, I presume it must have evolved into its own thing. But unless I get locked in a cell with it, I’ll never read it.
@@@@@ 7
“Hyrkania” is from the original Howard stories, and in turn derives from a historical region of Central Asia.
@@@@@ 9
I’ve envisioned an alternate universe in which Robert E. Howard overcame his suicidal urges. He goes on to become a prolific writer for early TV westerns in the vein of Bonanza, Rawhide and Gunsmoke. He also writes for fantasy shows like Outer Limits, Dark Shadows and The Twilight Zone, where he is joined by his pen pal H.P. Lovecraft, who had also failed to die off so young in this universe…. I suspect it would make a good story. I wish some Weird Tales era scholar would write it.
A guy named Wulfgar in Altaii? I wonder if Jordan mish-mashed the cultures /ethnicities in this book as he did in the Wheel of Time. A Germanic sounding protagonist name in a book with a Nomadic Central Asian title.
@2
For what it’s worth, I attended a couple of Q&A/ signings for Jordan books. At everyone I was at, he always started with a series of answers to common questions/ rumors. One of those (ironically) was something like ‘no, I do not have a terminal disease, or am otherwise dying’. So, you weren’t the only one to have interest in what would happen if he died before finishing.
Tom Doherty had published the first half of The Eye of the World as a free PB giveaway. I read it over an afternoon, and was sufficiently impressed to read more.
I met Jordan at a WoT signing decades back. He stated he knew what the last scene in the last book was, but had not yet determined precisely how he would get there. He was adamant it would not be a 12 book series. I read the book he was signing and saw how much it hadn’t advanced the plot, said “He’s right! It won’t be a 12 book series. It will take at least 13!” (The last few books did advance the plot, and it was obvious he was moving pieces on the board in preparation for the endgame. And when Brandon Sanderson completed the series working from Jordan’s outline and notes, it became a 14 book series.)
I was impressed by his ability to keep multiple plot lines in the air without dropping balls, and by his ability to not go where you might expect from what had gone before. I was also impressed by his ability to give his characters unique voices, so you seldom had the problem of knowing just who was talking in long stretches of dialog between characters.
I was not one who gave up because of the sheer length of the series. The more he wrote, the more he discovered he had to write to tell the story. And I felt no need to rearead what had gone before when a new book came out. I believed I would remember enough to not be totally lost and could pick up what I didn’t remember form context. I was right.
I was sorry when he passed, in part because he had other things he wanted to write next, but had to finish WoT before he could go on to write them.
I’m pleased that Tom Doherty could finally publish his first novel. Personally, I won’t be reading it. My To Be Read list is in round thousands, and there are too many books higher on the list as it is. But it should please large numbers of Jordan fans, and that they get something they will like to read is the important part.
>Dennis
@10
“I found Eye of the World to be a perfectly conventional Tolkien knock-off and never proceeded further into the series.”
You didn’t proceed all the way through EotW, then. It’s (purposefully) a LotR knock-off for the first half, because RJ wanted fantasy readers to feel “at home,” but definitely diverges by Shadar Logoth. Additionally, the mythology of the world directly feeds that feeling, the history of one Age becoming the myths of the next Age. I feel very confident that RJ made it a little in-joke to himself that the “history” of the first half of WoT becomes the “story” of LotR in our Age.
@14
“I feel very confident that RJ made it a little in-joke to himself that the “history” of the first half of EoTW becomes the “story” of LotR in our Age.”
I’m bad at proofreading.
Well, as a RJ fan from the beginning, I will not be able to resist reading this.
I have read the entire WoT series.
While I admit I enjoyed the story over all, by the time I finished the entire series I have to confess that the one over-arching thing I took away from it was that Jordan’s editor(s) failed to do their job.
The story should have been about half as long as it was and his editor(s) should have been fired for not doing their job(s). There was WAY too much braid pulling and other extraneous BS that should have been deleted. (Describe what they’re wearing and/or eating once or twice and you’re adding interesting little details that add flavor. Do it a thousand times, you’re just boring.)
If they had done their job(s) and made Jordan tighten up his story, a story that was really only a “good” story (if we’re being honest about it), would have been a “great” story and Jordan would have been finished with it BEFORE he died and we would have been given a chance to see what other stories the man had to tell.
Why did I force myself to slog through all the BS braid pulling and dress descriptions?
Simple.
I’m stubborn and refused to let Jordon beat me and make me give up on finishing what I started.
For what it’s worth, I thought Sanderson did a much better job at writing tight and engaging prose in the last two books than Jordan ever managed to pull off. If anything Sanderson’s ending made slogging through the middle section of the story worth it.
Dress descriptions and braid tugging didn’t add that much wordage. The damme Shaido, Padan Fain, tiresome Sea Folk and succession crises stretched it out.
@18
LOL!
I won’t argue with you on that. :)
@18 Fain? I feel like he barely appears in the second half of the series.
Let Mr Jordan rest in peace,just my opinion
You all know that there was a good reason why it was never published in the first place. Even the publisher is giving it faint praise, it showed talent but wasn’t good enough to release. The only reason for publishing it now is because there are a million fans who have no discernment and will buy anything by RJ.
@22
Or by people who are intrigued by the evolution of the man’s art.
@2 No matter what RJ said in ’98, he was heavily involved in getting as much as possible down on paper before his passing in order to facilitate someone being able to finish the series. He might not have started out wanting to pass it on, but he certainly ended up there before the end.