Incomplete

I meant to write this a long time ago. Take a step back in time to 1993, I was leaving home and country to go and work and live in Singapore. One of the things that I did in preparation was look for a couple of books to take with me. In the process of looking, I stumbled across Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

Now back then, most of the science fiction fantasy stories that I read were trilogies. Often I would read the first one and then have to wait for the publishing cycle to get around to the second and then the third books coming out so that I could enjoy the actual end of the story.

The beauty of the find in this instance was that I found three books … a series that I hadn’t caught onto during the first book! I happily procured the set and then took off for Singapore. It was some time later that I finally got around to finishing the third book and of course it was at this time that I discovered that it wasn’t the end of the story! And by the time that I’d read it, two of my friends had also commenced reading the stories as the books were passed along. I was pissed.

Fortunately I managed to find the fourth book and over time, the fifth, sixth and subsequent books.

This continued over a period of 15 years. The last book that I managed to read was book number 11 and though the story did seem to be advancing towards something of a finale, it certainly wasn’t there.

And the next thing that happened was that I read on the internet that he’d died! He bloody didn’t finish the series and then died. It rammed that feeling I’d had upon finishing the 3rd book some 15 years earlier straight back down my throat. I was really pissed this time.

And I maintained that rage until just moments ago when I googled Robert Jordan’s name to get a link for this entry. And it was then that I found out that he hadn’t completely stiffed me at all. Not only did he actually have a plan to finish the story in a final book – the twelfth, a revelation to me in itself, but he has also left all the significant plot details behind so that this final book can be written! For that I have to take back some of the things that I’ve said in the past.

And the best thing about the news is that his widow has selected Brandon_Sanderson to finish the final book. I randomly picked up his book Mistborn whilst over here in Canada and loved it. I’ve been meaning to recommend it to friends for some time simply for the system of ‘magic’ that he uses in it. It’s truly original which is rare indeed in this genre.