Cover Art: Whelan painting the final Wheel of Time & Pratchett's latest

Tor recently announced the cover artist for AMOL ( A Memory of Light), the final book in the long-running wheel of time series - Michael Whelan. Last year, I posted here about how he was picked to design the cover for the AMOL ebook, and now, due to the previous cover artist's death, he will be designing the jacket for the print books too.
He does pretty good work (see The Way of Kings cover here). I just hope these are better than the really ugly covers we've seen from Tor before - see earlier Wheel of Time covers here. In contrast, the ebook covers are impressive! My favorites are the ones by Sam Weber (pictured to the right here) and Raymond Swanland.



In other exciting Pratchett news, the cover for Dodger is here. Dodger is an upcoming Victorian-era novel, not set in the Discworld. This is probably going to be a good place to start for non-Pratchett readers too. What a fantastic year this is going to be for Pratchett fans!! Dodger in September, a new June release collaborative novel, and a new Discworld novel later this year to conclude the Moist van Lipwig trilogy.

A Memory of Light - Draft done!

Brandon Sanderson tweeted saying he's done with draft one of A Memory of Light, the final Wheel of Time book!

We know that he isn't touching parts of the story that have already been written by Robert Jordan. We also saw a lot of improvement between the previous two books, and certainly we shall see a fantastic series ending novel!

There is a lot happening in the books just now, building towards the climax - Rand's mind is whole, the men's Black Tower is a crazy place, Semirhage, Graendal, Mesaana lie defeated, the White Tower stands united; On the flip side, Moridin's grand plan is yet unveiled, the Aiel undead is a surprise twist, we still don't know the song the Leaf People have (and perhaps the travellers are looking for...) AND MORE. There are tons of unresolved questions and prophecies, so this book is really going to have a lot riding on it.
Second half of 2012 is the release!


You can read my review of Towers of Midnight here
Read a review of The Gathering Storm here
Never heard of the Wheel of Time before? Go right here!

News: Ebook covers for the Wheel of Time

The artist for the Final Wheel of Time ebook has been announced! It is Michael Whelan who will be bringing life to the cover of A Memory of Light. (Tor.com)
I got carried away with the awesomeness of the previous covers: You can see the stories and the making of the cover videos here:
http://www.tor.com/features/series/wheel-of-time-master-index#ebooks

Finally, the brilliance of the Towers of Midnight ebook cover in all its glory shows the scene above where Perrin is crafting The Hammer (a fitting name I just made up). The image shows the exact moment when Perrin is done creating this masterpiece, and his eyes seem aflame. You can see the wolf emerging out of the hammer - like Perrin's soul has just united and accepted his wolf. The banner behind him and the war camp scene sets the background part of the image.
My favorite of all the WoT ebook covers so far - this is the perfect scene from the book, at the best angle, with such intense strength in Perrin's eyes.

New to the series? Read my review of the entire series here.

Sneak Preview of new Brandon Sanderson novel!

The amazing Tor.com has the first two chapters of Brandon Sanderson's sequel to the Mistborn novel. The Law of Alloy, to be released in November, is set in a time much after Vin and Co, where our heroine is remembered as a God.
Rumors say that this novel will also unveil at least 1 new Alloy used by the Allomancers.
Quoting from the prologue:

"Today, the dead town seemed completely empty, though he knew it wasn’t so. Wax had come here hunting a psychopath. And he wasn’t the only one."

If you haven't read Brandon Sanderson before, he has a free novel on his website - and aside from the Robert Jordan/Wheel of Time books, has established a new epic in The Way of Kings: My review here
Read the prologue and Chapter 1 at TOR here: The Alloy of Law (excerpt)
More excerpts will be out on Tor from the book over the next few months.

Book Blogger Hop #19 - Feb19-20: Movies and books

Welcome to e-volving books! If you've been here before, you know that this site is about ebooks, epic fantasy, blogger spotlights and the Kindle/Amazon.

The Book I'd like to see made into a movie?

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series! Though I'd combine several books into movies, as so much of the books is purely descriptive, world-building material.
Another book I'm excited is already making it to the wide-screen thanks to HBO is George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice. The HBO Mini series is called Game of Thrones after the first novel, and will be out mid-April - how exciting!

 If you want to find an entertaining minute or two:

• Alisha @ My Need To Read is our Spotlight blogger featured here yesterday
• The Law of Unintended Consequences
  
• My confession: ebooks vs paper can be read here
• Review: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
• The Most Beautiful Public Libraries in the US 

If you follow, let me know so I can follow you back! Have fun hopping and following.

My confession - ebooks vs. paper

After two dozen posts extolling the virtues of ebooks, I am finally going to write one praising paper books. 

My confession is: Rereading is easier on physical books!

Image From www.Gawker.com

My most recent hardback buy was Towers of Midnight by Brandson Sanderson and Robert Jordan, from the Wheel of Time series. This is the penultimate book in the series, and I was incredibly kicked to be able to get it on the day it released (as I was in the US of A at that time).

I completed this monster-sized novel on my birthday, one day and one night after it arrived, as it was an early arrival birthday gift. One really can’t get all the implications of such a busy book in so short a time, so I let everything simmer for a few weeks.

Last weekend, I decided to re-read the second half of the book…it felt great to be able to easily pick spots to slow down for, turning pages kept my momentum going. I've even taken to reading it for a few minutes every other day, just to re-read parts that I might have missed earlier. The pages feel great, with that still-stiff, only been read by one person in the world, feeling.

This is probably the only book that could have prompted this confession - I'm a little obsessed with the Wheel of Time series, as you might know.

I probably wouldn’t have read this again if I had only an ebook version – sad but true.

New to Wheel of Time?

Read this brief series review

You can read my review of the Towers of Midnight here

New to eBooks?

View

Review: Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Rating: A

Description: "The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One’s prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight...It is time to toss the dice"

Length: 864 pages of Hardcover (no ebook for 1 more year)

Overview: This is the most hotly anticipated book of the year (currently on a number of Amazon Bestseller Lists)! As the penultimate book in the Wheel of Time series, Towers of Midnight is about a lot of things, but there are two main focuses here - Tying off several hanging stories and prophecies, AND  bringing all the required players to the site of the Final Showdown. A very fast-paced novel, there were very few moments that I could bear to put this book down (I read till 4 AM!)

Plus: A lot of resolutions, several plot-lines were tied up nicely. Rand was more of 'hidden' character in this book. Not to say that he didn't have a lot to say and do, but Rand came in at pivotal moments in other character's stories and changed the game. We didn't see too many Rand POV chapters, if I recall. Still, the phenomenal amount of work he got done in this manner! Perrin, not one of my fav characters, had one of the key Moments of Awesome in the book - and it was about time!! 

Brandon's writing has really improved from his previous work on the series (The Gathering Storm). His ability to enter a character's personality and write multiple timelines is clearly growing, and hopefully will hit the sweet spot in the Final novel.

Minus: While this peeve is not about the actual book itself, it is more of a publisher gripe - why is the ebook being released one year after the hardcover? Not sure what the logic is. People do get used to reading on the Kindle, and especially for long, heavy books like this, I would have loved to be able to have the ebook option.

The focus clearly was on timelines, plots and resolving several open threads. Brandon had to hustle to be able to fit it all in and bring the diverse characters upto speed. I don't blame him for this, and I know he is able to write thrilling, deep characters, as we saw in The Way of Kings.

Overall: A very, very, strong setup for the finale - The Last Battle.

You will like this if: You are a high/epic fantasy reader, or like anything by George R. R. Martin, Steven Erikson, Robert Jordan. If you have read Brandon Sanderson's books, this is for you. If you haven't picked up the series yet, what better time than now? The next and final book is coming, and you have 13 books to go for entertainment..Unlike poor souls like me who waited 15 years for the complete series and The Last Battle.

Buy from Amazon: by Jordan's, Sanderson's Towers of Midnight (Hardcover) (2010) (Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time))

***

New to the series? Read my review of the entire series here.

My detailed analysis of the last book, The Gathering Storm, is here.

A review of Brandon's last book, The Way of Kings is here.

Watch the Trailer for Towers of Midnight here: 
Trailer - Towers of Midnight (a.k.a Most Anticipated Book of the Year)

Teaser Tuesday #18 - Towers of Midnight

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading.

***

We pre-ordered this penultimate book in the Wheel of Time series from Amazon and it arrived today, the day of release (and the day before my bday!) SQUEE

"A wave of wrongness washed over her, a warping in the air, the Pattern itself rippling. A balescream it was called - a moment when creation itself howled in pain."

New to the series? Read my review of the entire series here.

My detailed analysis of the last book, The Gathering Storm, is here.

Watch the Trailer for Towers of Midnight here: 
Trailer - Towers of Midnight (a.k.a Most Anticipated Book of the Year)

Bai, I disappear to read.

Trailer - Towers of Midnight (a.k.a Most Anticipated Book of the Year)

The regular old-timers on this blog know that I have long been a fan of Robert Jordan's (my review of the Wheel of Time is linked there). When The Gathering Storm, Book 12, came out, I read it with bated breath, and reviewed it in detail. I read Brandon Sanderson's entire Mistborn series to understand his writing style, and it paid off when TGS was released. Now, I am loyal to both authors, independently and together. 

That is why I am SO excited about Towers of Midnight - the penultimate book in the Wheel of Time series!! I have this on pre-order for my birthday.

Here is the Trailer, and the Making of the Trailer (after the break)

Robert Jordan - New Spring

Grade: B

" For three days battle has raged in the snow around the great city of Tar Valon. In the city, a Foretelling of the future is uttered. On the slopes of Dragonmount, the immense mountain that looms over the city, is born an infant prophesied to change the world. That child must be found before the forces of the Shadow have an opportunity to kill him."

I promise this is the last Robert Jordan review in a while. I only put this up here as I had named this earlier while mini-blogging on my Planned Reading. There is also a graphic novel by the same name, which I don't plan on reading.

I read this on my kindle, and this was my second reading. I don't think this affected my review in any way. New Spring is a prequel to the Wheel of Time, set about 20 years in the past (by my vague reckoning), when Moraine and Siuan are still Accepted.

I remember reading this earlier and liking a few scenes - particularly their studies as Accepted, and their Aes Sedai testing. RJ describes both at length, adding to the slow-paced feel of this book. Even though the Dragon Reborn had just been birthed, I didn't feel the sense of impending doom and urgency that prevail in the main books.

Having read and reviewed The Gathering Storm recently (here), I wanted to see if New Spring changed in the context of new information. Thank Goodness, it did! Knowing the Black Ajah added a thrill, a frisson, to my reading, just as knowing that Lan and Moraine would bond eventually would have added to yours. You can see the cracks forming in Tar Valon and The White Tower already, leading up to the breaking of the tower. As always, there were too many descriptions of clothes for my tastes, but I stuck to my long-standing tradition of skipping these bits.

Overall, I missed RJ's epic battle scenes - they were limited to Lan's scenes. The book also digressed from the main plotline, and added months to RJ's release of his next book at the time. Still don't think it was worth it. Interestingly enough, I found RJ and Brandon Sanderson's The Gathering Storm to be far better than this work.

Robert Jordan - The Gathering Storm

Rating: A

Description: Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, looms. And mankind is not ready.

How do you begin reviewing an 800 page book?

How does one review a book that you have such an emotional connection with - passionately, or take a step back and attempt being impartial?

As I described earlier , this series is one that I started and it lost impact for me towards the last few books.

Robert Jordan died before he finished the planned final book 'Memories of Midnight' , leaving behind a manuscript. Brandon Sanderson was elected by the editor (RJ's wife) to complete it. He decided that it was simply too big and rewrote it into a three-part Grand Finale.

The Gathering Storm is Part 1. This is one great book, even to someone who read the last RJ novel years ago, and so didn't remember much.

I solved that issue using the 'cunning' method of skipping those names/situations I had forgotten :) .

Highly recommended, for the fans of the series who have perhaps not read the last two books - yes, this means you!

It helped that Brandon Sanderson focused on core characters, mainly Egwene and Rand. No more wandering Plotlines starring people you can't remember!

Reading this book gave me a good look into Egwene's mind, probably the best since she was made Amyrlin. Brandon Sanderson finally got closure on a couple of big open issues, and resolved some of the major prophecy threads left dangling.

*mild spoiler below* Click through to read

Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time series

Rating: B+ (A+ for Books 1, 2, 3)

The Wheel of Time series is a terrific, all-round fantastic epic story. Most fans, like me, however, no matter how dedicated, usually dropped this series half way. The books generally took a couple of years to write and publish, and right around Book 6 they started getting increasingly complicated in character names and roles. I lost my faith in RJ about 9 books in, and what with all the prequels, just never thought he would work on finishing this series. I wanted completion!! Lots of folks have had issues with RJ, including me, but the books that DO work are so incredibly rich and amazingly written...I would recommend this series only for those readers who like epic fantasy - fans of Malazan Books of the Fallen, George RR Martin, Terry Goodkind.

P.S. This series took  17 years to write so far, and this is a perfect time for the new readers to jump in; at the conclusion. You get to read Brandon Sanderson's brilliant writing and RJ's genius storyline combined.
The books in order are

1. Eye of the World
2. The Great Hunt
3. The Dragon Reborn
4. The Shadow Rising
5. The Fires of Heaven
6. Lord of Chaos
7. A Crown of Swords
8. The Path of Daggers
9. Winter's Heart
10. Crossroads of Twilight
11. Knife of Dreams
12. A Memory of Light (now published in three parts, with Brandon Sanderson): Part 1 - The Gathering Storm

 Wikipedia has all the summaries. For the most part I can only hazily remember the books, and won't be trying to review any of the older works.

A Preview of coming Attractions

I am working on reviews for (and reading):

• Robert Jordan - New Spring
• Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson - The Gathering Storm
• A short look into RJ's Wheel of Time series
• Haruki Murakami - What I talk about when I talk about Running

I also have some older reviews I had posted on a bangalore-centric blog, and will update and repost here over the next few weeks.

My goal is to post at least 2 posts a week for now, not including the mini-posts I will keep doing.