# Wheel of Time final book(s) question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615 "2009-06-03T19:40:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ice\_Cream\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ice\_Cream\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Cream_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615/21 "2009-06-05T16:37:10Z")
I thought he also mentioned that the book stores get mad at very large books because they take up more shelf space. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615/22 "2009-06-05T20:40:05Z")
Forget all the side plots, all the new good and bad guys, all the social upheaval that is going on, and I still don’t see how it could be completed in one book. Just the main quest, unite the world for the coming final battle, doesn’t seem doable when you consider that so far Rand has managed to unite the equivalent of Austria, Germany, part of France, and the Sahara desert, which is less than half of the world he knows of. He has contact with a huge honking empire that is now in the middle of a civil war, and if he seizes control of that and unifies the everything between the waste and the see, he will control maybe 50% of the world. All this while he is going slowly (or maybe quickly) insane. Jonathan ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615/23 "2009-06-05T20:49:57Z")
Rand shouldn’t be going insane anymore…he cleansed _saidin_ of the Taint at the end of _Winter’s Heart_. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615/24 "2009-06-05T20:51:07Z")
He still has the taint in him, even if the source is clean. At least something is going on with him…he has issues whenever he tries to use the source (it may be because of Lew’s though). -XT ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615/25 "2009-06-05T20:52:50Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > He still has the taint in him, even if the source is clean. At least something is going on with him…he has issues whenever he tries to use the source (it may be because of Lew’s though). > > -XT There’s some speculation [here](http://linuxmafia.com/jordan/2_nondark/2.3_one-power/2.3.16_taint-cleansing.html) that the incident with the Wanderer in Shadar Logoth where their balefire intersected is the cause or the catalyst for his dizzy spells and double vision, since the first time he had the double vision was immediately after that incident. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615/26 "2009-06-05T20:55:39Z")
Yeah, I’ve seen that also. It’s one of the myriad open questions though that need to be resolved. Personally I am looking forward to seeing what happens to Matt and his new wife… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615/27 "2009-06-05T21:09:25Z")
I think the wound in his side (from the second book, then later made worse by the dagger Matt brought out of Shadar Logoth) has sealed the Taint in him. No one has yet been able to heal it, only seal it from spreading. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheel-of-time-final-book-s-question/498615.md?page=1)