That was the last thing I heard, though Jordan had previously thrown around the number 15. With the new book impending, does anyone know?
I think we’re holding at 12. I’ve also been told that Book 11 ties up LOTS of loose ends.
Have you seen the prologue? Had more plot movement than the previous book. I hope the rest of the book lives up to the prologue.
If you haven’t seen the prologue, Tor have made it available here
According to everything I’ve read, Jordan and Tor are maintaining that this will be the second-to-last book.
The prologue is great, and the reviews say it’s jaw-droppingly fantastic, but the phone book would be pretty fantastic after Crossroads of Twilight. I’m dragging my way through that right now, so I can be sure I remember all the nothing that happened in it.
My disappointment with Crossroads of Twilight stemmed largely from the fact that I read an early review that praised it up and down as the best Jordan book of the series. “Everything you loved about the early books is back, and better than ever!” it promised. I still want to know what book that reviewer was reading.
So I’m not holding my breath, regardless of how good the reviews are. I’ll wait until some bona fide Dopers post their opinions.
" … if everything you loved about the early books included baths and tea."
I actually kind of liked Crossroads of Twilight. Oh, it wasn’t my favorite book, by any means…but it was pretty good compared to some of the later books. I guess to each his own.
I think we’ll get 12 books total and then Jordan will finally move on to other things…or he’ll write more prequels I guess. The prologue linked looks pretty damn good to me and I’m looking forward to this book. Its definitely on my list of must have’s for the year.
-XT
Nice prologue. To me it’s the best thing he’s written since the events at the end of Book 9. Not that much else happened elsewhere in Book 9.
I hope he really has got it together again in book 11. I’ll read it regardless, but I hope he’s gotten better. I was terribly disappointed in book 10.
Allow me to summaize.
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Lots of women changed clothes, all of which (the clothes, not the naked women) were described in excruciating detail.
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Characters agonized over mysteries that could have been solved by communication between people who can instantly cross the continent at will.
Still, I have hope. Simply because I’ve invested over 6,000 pages reread several times…
-Joe
I heard it from the horse’s mouth at Dragon*Con, the series will end with Book 12 even if that means it has so many pages you will need a wheelbarrow to get it out of the bookstore.
He may not even be kidding about the wheelbarrow.
It would have never occurred to me that he was. After all, I’ve read the last five books…if not a wheelbarrow, then at least a reading harness would have been nice. Something that strapped around the shoulders and held the book at chest height or so…
The man needs an editor like an Arakkian sandworm needs a duffle bag full of silica gel…
My personal prediction is that it will never ever ever end.
Reading the prologue now and I have to wonder…when did everyone become Japanese? I thought the Sheinarans were the Japanese…
But here we go, a guy “making a very precise bow, neither a hair deeper nor higher than protocol demanded.”
Gaah. It’s like one of his standard phrases. Right up there with straightening the skirts.
And, coming to the conclusion, I’ve got to say (again) that boy, people, make sure to close those 400 year-old loopholes in your laws!
-Joe
Stay tuned for The Wheel of Time Book 19: Treachery at Sundown, And There’s a Lake Too.
In which Rand gets a haircut! For 107 pages! And the scissors are the only bladed implements used in the whole book!
(Yes, I’m still going to read it.)
On a side note, I just have to say:
A race of people living in a barren, sand filled land without any water who become superb warriors due to the harsh conditions required to survive… and who have a prophecy about the coming of a young boy who they will unite behind. And this charismatic figure will have special powers beyond those of mortal men and change the way their entire world works.
But enough about Dune…
I don’t think there’s anything in the Prophecy of Rhuidean about the age of the Car’a’carn, but apart from that the parallels are easy to draw. To me though, the Aiel never read like Fremen, so it’s all good.
Well, yeah. The Fremen were both believable and well-written.
*Dune *aside, I always saw as many parallels in Jordan’s books to Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series. In many ways, Rand is just a watered-down Covenant.
A tribe of warriors living in the desert, with a prophecy predicting the arrival of someone who will reshape the world? Meh. I didn’t like it the first time, when it was called the Bible.
Seriously, you can call Robert Jordan derivative (even the names of his characters are references to other literature - Egwene Al’Vere, anyone?) but the fact that some points in the setting are the same as in other literature is not a strong condemnation. All books do that, and this just ain’t a very powerful example of it. It’s not like Dune was one hundred percent original any more than any other book.
I must have missed the part of the Bible with the exclusively female group of mystics with supernatural powers available only to them (and the male hero), who like to manipulate political events from behind the scenes and who make it their purpose to foil the plans of the hero who, due to his maleness, they believe to be destined to destroy the world. Can you point to the proper chapter and verse?
But you’re right - all genre writers are derivativem, to a point. And if Jordan could actually write* I wouldn’t mind at all.
*And wasn’t a Nazi.