The first chapter of next installment of Robert Jordan's Epic fanticy series The Wheel of Time has been published on Tor's website. This is the first chance we have had as fans to read hybrid text written by Brandon Sanderson using notes and a partial manuscript left by the author before his death. The Gathering Storm is the first of three planned novels that will complete this nearly 20 year old series.

In this post I'm going to write about what I think of the sample text released. There will be spoilers below the fold so if you are waiting to read the whole book, don't click "Read More."

Before I head into spoiler country however, I will make a few general comments. First this is clearly The Wheel of Time. My concern that the series would drift away from its original plot to become fit the new authors vision of how the story ought to have been written are gone. Brandon Sanderson was a wonderful choice. He is not an author that is set in his story-line so strongly that he cannot adapt to someone eses. Having read every thing he has published to date, He shows remarkable flexibility in his work and unlike some fantasy authors is not stuck writing the same book over and over again with different casts and setting. He also ahs a strong sense of systematic magic. The use of the One Power in the Wheel of Time books was a marvle of consistency and rules. Sanderson excels at using such systems and in this regard even outstrips Jordan.

On the other hand Sanderson has a less refined quality to his word choice and style. A friend commented that some of his action scenes feel like they were made for Nintendo. The old southern aristocracy and slightly affected formalism of Jordan are replaced by the easy notes of a Gen-X'er from Utah. Sanderson is also not as confident in his readers ability to "get it" as Jordan. Robert Jordan was subtle to the point that many things slipped by most or all readers and that was ok. It added to the mystique. Sanderson on the other hand wants his readers to be in on the joke. Perhaps the hardest part of emulating Jordan for him has been the demands of utter secrecy and obscurity about the writing process and outcomes. As he says they are not his secrets, but he is anxious to share them in the one medium open to him -- the final books.

Spoilers for the first chapter below

What follows will be like arguing over the number of stars in the sky, because we may never know the answers, but I am going to try to pick apart the first chapter and separate Jordan (J) and Sanderson (S) as if this were a biblical source critique. From this I am going to try to guess at the flow of the rest of the series.

P1-3 are clearly (J) the beginning lines have started every book in the series. My guess is that the description in P2-3 did not originally start off this book, but were pulled in by (S) to fill out the description. The path of the wind was probably outlined shortly before (J)'s death when he knew another would finish the book for him. it would not have been something he would have wasted precious time fleshing out.

The rest of the winds path is almost certainly predominated by (S). The hand of editor (H) is evident here in the break of pace at the mention of Heartstone, or perhaps this name is foreshadowing sence we know that the Seals of Dark Ones Prison were Heartstone. For these paragraphs (S) if he was the author agonized over just the right prose knowing they would be the first words of his Jordan's rabid fans would read, weeks ahead of the books full release and worked tirelessly to blend them seamlessly into the Novel.

Mighty though this effort is, sentences like "Others wondered what would have happened if the Aiel had actually wanted to cross into the city." make me suspicious. The journey of the wind was always written by Jordan in what his character Thom Merriln would call high chant. This sound too much like how you might tell thing to your neighbor over the back fence.

The journey of the wind ends in P12. It is impossible to tel from the text whether (J) or (S) imagined how the wind would end. So many possibilities exist. This could be a metaphor for the coming Tarmon Gai’don, or merely stating the Dark One's further touching of the world. Base on (S)'s other writings, if it is his, there is likely a reason and a system behind what the Dark One can and is doing, while (J)'s former books seemed content to leave the powers of the Dark One as limited in scope but not in nature.

We now start Rands Point of View. (J) was intentionally giving us fewer and fewer glimpses into the inner thoughts of Rands increasingly fragile mind, preferring instead to write about the how those around him perceived him. Returning strongly to the "main characters" point of view seems to me to be a decision born at leas in part from the needs of publishers and readers to have a reconnection with our main characters. This leads me to believe that most of the rest of this chapter is (S).

Based on this and on the rest of this chapter is far more likely to yield clues about the rest of the book then would (J)'s work. I believe we can conclude the following:

• While the relation with the voice in Rand's head will be a source of anxiety and conflict, we now see what direction Rand and the plot are pointing. Rands Plot lie will be driven by exploring what the 100 companions did, and what they did wrong. There will be a quest for this information and the reward will be a detailed understanding of how the Bore was sealed.
• We know that Rand is going to loose his sight. The Fisher King in the prologue describes Rands archetype as having a blindfold over his eyes.
• Morain's purpose in life now is to remove the name from the list of dead women rand keeps in his head, and not just any woman, the woman who anchors that list. With this anchor loosed Rand will be free to commit himself fully to the sacrifice of the Last Battle. The long conversation about a captured forsaken is not worth the ink unless Rands prohibition on torture is significant in some other way as well.

Finally two predictions based only on my one cynicism. 1) Rand et.al. will discover that they must instigate Tarmon Gai’don. if they wait and do nothing, the Dark One breaks free, the Wheel is broken, Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!. 2) The Dark One will not prevail at Tarmon Gai’don. I think we all know this, and so does the author. On the other hand some kind of easy win will not do justice to 15 huge volumes. My prediction is that this will not be the "Last Batte" but will simply prolong the eternal conflict into the next age.

We'll see how well I did in a month or so.