It's finally here! - NaBloPoMo Day 2

Today is the day I've been waiting for. The one I've been looking forward to for at least a year now. Really for longer, since we're getting close to the point we've all been waiting for ever since this whole journey began.

That's right! My book came out today!
Wait, what? A book? This isn't about a quilt? No, today we're taking a break from quilt talk to highlight a book that has sent me into literary jubilation.

Or, I suppose that will send me into jubilation once I get to actually read it.

This is Towers of Midnight, the thirteenth book in the Wheel of Time series by the now deceased Robert Jordan. Yeah, he's dead. And still being published to boot.

Or at least kind of. See, Robert Jordan died three years ago, after battling cancer for a long time, and with only one book left to go in his epic series. One very long, very involved, and very dramatic book that was already planned out in detailed notes and probably about half written.

Luckily for the thousands of fans around the world, his wife and editor decided to get in touch with an up and coming epic fantasy author named Brandon Sanderson in order to ask him to finish the series. He said yes, broke the one enormous volume into three books comparable in size to the rest of the series (ya know, only about 800 pages each) and got to work.

The first of these final volumes, The Gathering Storm, came out last year and was amazing. In a series of over 11,000 pages, lag is pretty much inevitable. There's going to be a few slow bits. There was a good chunk in the second half of the series that kind of fizzled, lacking the punch of the earlier novels. But an explosive event at the end of the 9th book got the train rolling again, and it's been widely acknowledged that with last year's Gathering Storm the series once again reached its highest peaks.

But today is even better, because the majority of Towers of Midnight revolves around one of my favorite characters and his quest to rescue a character we've all thought dead since the fifth book. She's not dead! Nope, in fact Mat (the character I really like) and Thom (a minstrel made out of bad-assery and song) are going to go save Moiraine and make sure she's there to keep main character Rand from destroying the world in the next book. Not to mention the fact that Perrin, the third of the main male characters and the one who I've thought has been a sappy git for the last few books, is going to return to the days when he was awesome with wolf powers. And Loial gets to-yeah, I should probably stop before I start writing an essay about the reasons I'm excited for this book.

The only problem is, I have to wait. Not because the bookstore didn't have it or anything like that, but because my brother has to read our copy first and he's kind of a slow reader. He actually bought our copy, so he gets first reading rights. Just like with the Harry Potter books, except opposite since those are all mine and everyone else had to wait to read them after I did.


Oh, if only my brother read with the same kind of speed I do! But, until he's done, I'll just be sitting here, bouncing in anticipation, occasionally shooting the book longing glances. Oh to have money to spare on a second copy!