A two year journey? It seemed like over twenty
Got my mind boggled on January 4. That's the day when, thanks to the power of the Internet and my willingness to trust a stranger, I got my hands on a copy of A Memory of Light, the lastmost, final, and most of all, ending book of the main sequence of The Wheel of Time. (I qualify this not because the planned prequels and "outriggers" will happen-they won't, per both Harriet McDougal, the widow/editor, and Brandon Sanderson, the co-author-but because there will be an encyclopedia, likely sometime in 2014.)
The book itself wasn't particularly boggling. I mean, I was frequently shocked, sometimes confused, and often moved, but that's not unusual for a book, especially a WoT book. No, it's more that a single story took 14 books (plus a prequel) and 23 years to tell, surviving its author by half a decade. I started reading in early 1992. I'd been seeing Book Three, The Dragon Reborn in huge piles all over bookstores for the last four months of 1991, so I picked up the The Eye of the World in the early months of 1992. That means I've been reading this damn series for over 20 years.
The other thing is the ups and downs. I've been wondering for a long time if I'd ever reach this day. The biggest down, of course, was September 16, 2007, when Jim Rigney, aka Robert Jordan, died of amyloidosis. But even before his illness and death, I'd often despaired of him finishing, given the glacial plot movement in books 8, 9, and 10. It took Brandson Sanderson and a team of dozens over five years to finally get the damn thing to print (in three volumes, yet; fittingly for a series that had "three more books" for the better part of a decade).
So how is the book? Well, no spoilers, but I liked it. I can see the flaws and the truly fitting scenes, but like Deathly Hallows I think it did the job. So a job well done to Brandon, Harriet, and the rest of Team Jordan and Tor: Tai'shar Nebraska and Utah, Tai'shar Charleston, Tai'shar New York, and wherever else. And to James Oliver Rigney, Jr., a final thank you for a story that has meant a lot to me over the years. Your story is told. May you rest easily in the embrace of the mother.
The book itself wasn't particularly boggling. I mean, I was frequently shocked, sometimes confused, and often moved, but that's not unusual for a book, especially a WoT book. No, it's more that a single story took 14 books (plus a prequel) and 23 years to tell, surviving its author by half a decade. I started reading in early 1992. I'd been seeing Book Three, The Dragon Reborn in huge piles all over bookstores for the last four months of 1991, so I picked up the The Eye of the World in the early months of 1992. That means I've been reading this damn series for over 20 years.
The other thing is the ups and downs. I've been wondering for a long time if I'd ever reach this day. The biggest down, of course, was September 16, 2007, when Jim Rigney, aka Robert Jordan, died of amyloidosis. But even before his illness and death, I'd often despaired of him finishing, given the glacial plot movement in books 8, 9, and 10. It took Brandson Sanderson and a team of dozens over five years to finally get the damn thing to print (in three volumes, yet; fittingly for a series that had "three more books" for the better part of a decade).
So how is the book? Well, no spoilers, but I liked it. I can see the flaws and the truly fitting scenes, but like Deathly Hallows I think it did the job. So a job well done to Brandon, Harriet, and the rest of Team Jordan and Tor: Tai'shar Nebraska and Utah, Tai'shar Charleston, Tai'shar New York, and wherever else. And to James Oliver Rigney, Jr., a final thank you for a story that has meant a lot to me over the years. Your story is told. May you rest easily in the embrace of the mother.