Well, I now have it: The Gathering Storm, book 12 of the Wheel of Time, and the third-last volume in the tale. The book was partly written by Robert Jordan, and completed by Brandon Sanderson. Over (hopefully) the next two years, the remainder of the tale will be released and we will finally have the Wheel of Time in its entirety. It’s been a long journey. I began reading the series in 1994; the first volume was released in 1990!
In fact, both the first two volumes were released in 1990. That was the last time that happened – since then, the gaps between the volumes have been growing larger. Disaster struck in 2005, when Robert Jordan succumbed to illness (heart disease), but his wife and publisher made the inspired choice of choosing Brandon Sanderson to finish the tale, based on Robert Jordan’s extensive notes.
I bought Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy and stand-alone tale Elantris earlier in the year, and think they’re extremely good fantasy fiction. I’m going to be fascinated by how he’s handled the Wheel of Time books.
That’s the UK/Australian cover above; unfortunately the new books have moved away from the Darrell K. Sweet illustrations on the earlier set, so my collection doesn’t have a matching set. (But I’ve also got half of them in mass-market paperback size and the rest as trade paperbacks, so they don’t match anyway).
Of course, now I have to read the 750-odd pages of the tale. That’s going to be an enjoyable task. By tomorrow, I dare say I will have finished and can give you my opinion of the actual book, rather than just what I feel at the moment: intense joy that it’s finally out and that I own a copy!