How the Wheel of Time
Gave Birth to Spare Tires

When Robert Jordan died in 2007, Brandon Sanderson was chosen to complete his work on the Wheel of Time series. Now, reports Publishers Weekly, Tor Books has announced the details about the final book(s):

The Gathering Storm, book 12 of the Wheel of Time series—and the first of three volumes that will make up A Memory of Light—will go on sale November 3.

A Memory of Light, itself a three-volume work, is partially written by Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson; it will be released over a two-year period.

Jordan died in 2007 from a rare blood disease. Sanderson, the New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn books, was chosen by Jordan’s editor—his wife, Harriet McDougal—to complete the final book.

Once Tor made the announcement, Brandon Sanderson felt free to explain how they decided to split the text:

In order to explain to you how this book came to be split as it did, I want to step you through some events of the last sixteen months. That way, you can see what led us up to making the decisions we did. You might still disagree with those decisions (many of you will.) But at least you’ll understand the rationale behind them.

[Thanks to Francis Hamit and Andrew Porter for the links.]