New Wheel of Time Book — Chapter One Online, Released Oct 27

Tor Books has made the first chapter of the latest Wheel of Time book available to readers for free via their website. This is the first book to have work from Robert Jordan's replacement, Brandon Sanderson, since Jordan died in September of 2007. The Gathering Storm is complete and will be released on October 27th of this year. In addition, the prologue to this book will be available in e-book format on October 17th for $2.99. The whole of the Wheel of Time series will also be released as e-books with several of the books receiving new cover art as well.
Update: 09/07 23:42 GMT by KD : Reader Daniel Benamy points out that the correct release date for the prologue e-book is September 17.

There isn't enough bandwidth in the world

[xC0000005]

to download this book if they followed Jordan's writing style. The first chapter alone will contain so many electrons the internet itself will become unbalanced. Seriously, I swear he was paid by the pound for how much his books weighed. Long, flowery descriptions of clothing, scenery, hell, the crust on the underside of a chamber pot in the thirteenth bathroom of the summer home of the ice king's third cousin's dog. The series ought to come with a Wheel-barrow of time to avoid slipping a disc. Still, as long as there are trees left to kill and money to be earned the series will "be continued."

Re:There isn't enough bandwidth in the world

[orkysoft]

It compresses remarkably well, though.

Spoiler Alert

[zapakh]

Snape kills Dumbledore!

No wait, that's not right...

Re:Spoiler Alert

[secolactico]

Loial kills Rand al'Thor. But only after Rand flips out and kills Elayne Avhienda and Min in a rather grisly way.

Fearing reprisals, the Ogier declare war on the White Tower and lose. The entire Ogier race goes extinct.

A pack of wolves mistake Perrin's continued brooding for an illness and give him a mercy killing.

Nynaeve breaks her neck in a freak braid-pulling incident.

Mat wakes up and finds Bobby Ewing in his shower and realizes it was all a dream.

Re:Oooo ya

[causality]

I just couldn't understand he couldn't write in more rational female characters

Realism?

Just kidding. Mostly.

News: Robert Jordan gets away with it

[David Gerard]

Rainforest destruction legend Robert Jordan has successfully evaded paying off the advance on what was originally a four-page satire of ridiculous fantasy cliches, The Wheel of Time.

The epic originated as a piece of semi-amusing cubemail circulating on a private mailing list for writers bored with their day jobs. "But I just kept adding and adding to it," Jordan confessed years later. "Then someone snuck it into an Eye Of Argon reading session. And the idio-- I mean, tasteful and discerning consumers of science fiction and fantasy loved it! They couldn't get enough of it! Certainly more than I could be bothered with, anyway. If only I could find the Caribbean island Elvis, Jimi, Janis and Kurt are hiding out on ..."

The process of writing was reflected in the work. "You get long, stringy drips of various elements. All recycled. Then you weave them together. We thought of using a wiki, but people kept putting Pokemons in. 'My Pokemans, let me show you them.' Idjits."

Plaudits came in from fellow fantasy writers around the globe. "I always found plot and characterisation overrated," said master fantasist J.R.R. Tolkein. "They only get in the way of exploring a really interesting constructed language. The more demanding sort of reader can be so very tiresome at times."

"Bugger," said David Eddings, frantically casting his eyes about for fresh sources.

"Who are you, and where did you get this number?" said Neil Gaiman.

Readers will be over the moon to learn that Kevin J. Anderson has contracted to finish the series in a suitable manner. "I figure there's another twenty, thirty books needed to finish it properly. Lotta unanswered questions, yeah. I should have 'em done by next week."

Woolheaded shepherds the world over fold their arms beneath their breasts, tug at their braids, smooth their skirts and bow their heads today, and remember Jordan's wise words:

"Plagiarism^WResearch is lighter than a feather; advances already received, heavier than a mountain."

Illustration: Robert Jordan silenced at last. [today.com]

Re:Spoiler Alert

[MagusSlurpy]

No, Bela killed Asmodean.

My braid

[thefringthing]

I'm tugging it.

Jordan could have finished

[Herkum01]

I don't understand, if you skip all the text referring to someone "smoothing out her split riding skirt" you could have probably saved a couple of volumes.

Re:Oooo ya

[jjohnson]

Melvin [Jack Nicholson] from As Good As It Gets

Woman: "How do you write women so well?"
Melvin: "I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability."

Re:WoT Religion?

[chill]

You had possibilities until the phrase "...to finish the series." No true WoT acolyte would ever utter those words. I believe the only reason it was called "Wheel of Time" is because "The Neverending Story" was already taken.

Now, if you change the phrase to "...to continue the series" then you might be on to something.

Re:Spoiler Alert

[sukotto]

Jadis kills Aslan (but he gets better)

Re:There isn't enough bandwidth in the world

[jdevivre]

It compresses remarkably well, though.

That's because "pulled her braid" and "smoothed her skirts" comprise 47% of the content.

Re:There isn't enough bandwidth in the world

[The_Wilschon]

You forgot "crossed her arms underneath her breasts".

Re:Oooo ya

[godefroi]

If after the third volume we can see that the three volumes were filled with needless fluff, then sure, we can say Brandon was making the books longer than necessary to get more money.

If after the third volume, we can see that the three were filled with needless fluff, then all we can say is that they're just like the previous six or seven books.