I don’t know how I feel about this. First, the news story:
PROVO, Utah (AP) — Brandon Sanderson, author of the fantasy “Mistborn” series, will finish Robert Jordan’s final novel.
Jordan, whose real name was James Oliver Rigney Jr., died from a blood disease in September in South Carolina. He was working on the 12th book in his “Wheel of Time” fantasy series at the time of his death.
More than 44 million books in the “Wheel of Time” series have been sold worldwide, according to publisher Tor Books. The final book is titled “A Memory of Light.”
“To me, Robert Jordan is still kind of a mythological figure,” Sanderson told the Daily Herald of Provo. “I would have done this with no credit and no payment, to be perfectly honest.”
Sanderson, whose first novel, “Elantris,” was published in 2005, has four books in print.
Jordan’s widow and the book’s editor, Harriet Popham Rigney, said she was “absolutely delighted” that Sanderson agreed to finish it.
“He left copious notes and hours of audio recordings,” Rigney said in a statement on Tor Books’ Web site.
Jordan’s books tells of Rand al’Thor, who is destined to become the champion who will battle ultimate evil in a mythical land. The first title in the series, “The Eye of the World,” was published in 1990.
First off, I hadn’t gotten the news that RJ had died. Moment of silence for a brilliant writer, please. Thank you.
Secondly, in a rare moment, I don’t know how I feel about this plan. Part of me is happy. I want to finish the series. I’ve been invested in it for almost ten years and would hate for that to be cut off. On the other hand, I don’t know how I feel about another author finishing it (especially one with whom I’m not familiar). Nobody else writes like Robert Jordan. I’ve never seen anyone, including Tolkien who can get lost in a world like Jordan does. At times the work is too big, too confused to keep track of, but he always pulls it back together. When Beethoven died, nobody finished his unfinished symphony. They just play it like he left it. I’m not saying you should do that with a book, although it would be an interesting literary experiment.
I guess I’m wondering at Tor’s motivation here. The Wheel of Time series is a huge seller with rabid fans. Are they doing this to crank out one more book so they can reap the profits? Or are they legitimately trying to satisfy those fans with closure to the story?
Maybe the most important tell on how I feel is that I still plan to buy the book. So I can’t be that pissed about it, right? And I guess if Mrs. Jordan is cool with it, I can be too. But I’m wary. I will be going into this book when it releases with trepidation in my heart, and that’s not how I want to read the finale of the Wheel of Time series.
Hello, I’m a fellow fan stopping by, equally filled with trepidation but hopeful all the same.
I am happy that the series is going to be finished, and that Tor is doing this for the right reasons. I believe they are legitimately doing this to satisfy fans, and that it is also what Mr. Jordan wanted. We know that Harriett herself chose Sanderson, not just those at Tor which makes me hopeful. And as always she will be editing this installment. Her commitment to the final book eases my anxieties over it. Who knew RJ better than her? It may not be his words, but I don’t think she will let a product go to publication that wouldn’t meet his approval.
Hi There!
Love the picture in the header – very evocative. And, I pretty much agree with what you said about Jordan’s writing style. I truly think he started writing just to please himself around book 6. This was good for him but not necessarily good for the reader, but hey, nobody could put any reins on him by then and he already had enough money for a lifetime. Just as a sidelight, Beethoven did not have an unfinished symphony (There is some research that points to the possibility that he was considering a 10th symphony but there are not even any piano sketches. One musicologist mistakenly intrepreted an unfinished sketch for a string quartet as the beginning of a 10th symphony but that has been put to rest. Perhaps, you are thinking of Schubert’s 8th symphony, sometimes called the “Unfinished”. But Schubert was happy with the first two movements as they were and used the third as the basis to his Rosamunde overture, then went on to create a glorious 9th symphony. Gustave Mahler left a symphony unfinished – his 10th – and it has been completed (with limited success) in several editions by at least 2 subsequent composers. However, your point is well taken. No one can complete something the way the original author or composer could. The best we can hope for is the same result Sussmayer achieved when he completed Mozart’s great requiem mass postumously.