The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon SandersonBack when Robert Jordan was still alive, there was a lot of talk (and even a novel, New Spring) about novels set outside of the mainline Wheel of Time series. Oddly enough, even Jordan’s passing was not enough to quell the rumours.

Brandon Sanderson, who was chosen to complete Jordan’s series, spoke out (rather bluntly) about his opinion on expanding the series beyond the planned 13 volumes:

Mr. Jordan spoke with Tor (and even signed contracts) regarding some other books set in the WoT universe. The talk was originally centered on the three prequels Mr. Jordan wanted to write (New Spring, which was published, was the first of these three.) Later, Mr. Jordan shifted the discussion to something called “The Outriggers” which were within WoT continuity, taking place after the end of the series. They were to deal with some certain characters from the main storyline, expanding on their lives.

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I think that Harriet and I are on the same page when we say we’ve got our hands full with the three books of A MEMORY OF LIGHT. Really, this is big enough a project for now, and all of our energies are focused on making certain these last novels are everything they need to be.

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That doesn’t answer your questions though, does it? Will the other books get written? Here’s where we get vague, because I simply can’t tell you a yes or a no.

The decision will be Harriet’s. She gets to make the call. And since all of her energy is focused on these last three books, I suspect we’re not going to know the fate of the Outriggers or the Prequels for some time yet. I’m afraid you’ll just have to be patient.

At JordanCon, Tom Doherty (CEO of Tor) mentioned the Outriggers and how excited he is for them. (They would be about his favorite character.) Tom has been very involved in the WoT all through its life, and is a huge fan.

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Tom wants the Outriggers.

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I don’t want to see the Wheel of Time turn into an eternal franchise. I said this last weekend at my signing in Montreal. Part of the value of a great work of art is, in my opinion, the ending. An ending loses power if it isn’t allowed to be…well, the END.

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I haven’t specifically told Harriet not to do the Outriggers. That isn’t my place. When she’s asked for my input, I’ve said “My suggestion is to be very, very careful. I would err on the side of protecting Jim’s legacy, and don’t know if it would be appropriate to do any more books.” However, if she asks me to do them, I will most probably say yes.

Why? Well, a couple of reasons. My soul is not part of the Wheel of Time. This series is NOT mine–it is Harriet’s and it is yours. But my soul is in there, and it would be very hard to let someone else write it. Almost as hard as it would be to let go of another series. My reasoning would be the same as my reasoning behind picking up AMOL in the first place. If Mr. Jordan’s not here, I want to make certain that someone who respects the series is writing on it.

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I have told Harriet, and I have repeated it on blogs, that I would say no (though it would hurt to do so) if a decision were made to go beyond the Outriggers and the prequels.

But please, understand. There has been very little talk of these things. AMOL is what NEEDS to be done.

Phew! Believe it or not, this is a very abridged version of Sanderson’s thoughts on the subject (say anything about the man, but don’t say he doesn’t like to talk!) and it’s interesting to see him struggling to straddle the line between fan and author of the series.

Out of respect for Jordan, it seems like it would behoove Tor to let the series stand, after Sanderson has completed it. Even as it is, there are fans out there who are unhappy with someone else getting their hands on Jordan’s series, and I have a hard time believing that whole new novels (written mostly without guidance from Jordan’s notes, which were plentiful for A Memory of Light) would go over well.

My own opinion about it is that one can’t help but feel that any attempt to expand the world beyond the main series would be nothing more than a money-grab, taking advantage of Jordan’s immense popularity. Just take a look at what happened to the Dune series after Frank Herbert passed away and control of the series fell to Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert.

In any case, it’s worth taking a look at Sanderson’s whole account of the Outrigger Trilogy over at Dragonmount.

Discussion
  • James (Speculative Horizons) August 12, 2009 at 1:45 am

    I’m not a fan of WoT, but I find the idea of doing further novels rather distasteful. Writing the closing volume to WoT based on Jordan’s expansive notes is one thing, but writing further prequels/sequels (presumably without such notes) has the unmistakable whiff of dead horse about it. Wouldn’t be surprised though, since Tor will want to squeeze every last drop of gold out of WoT before letting it rest in peace.

    The thing is, who’s to say these other novels – if they happened – would be commercially successful? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t ‘A New Spring’ bomb?

    And yes, you seriously want to avoid WoT becoming a complete shambles like Dune. What a mess that is.

  • Theodor August 12, 2009 at 3:02 am

    There are actually fans who whould like to read the outriggers, so I think that they should be written. I mean, the outriggers would deal with an important plot element that doesn’t get resolved in the main series. And if you don’t want them, don’t read them.

    But I can agree that moving beyond the outriggers whould be a money grab. But again, I can choose not to read these books….

  • kevin August 12, 2009 at 5:49 am

    @James: “The thing is, who’s to say these other novels – if they happened – would be commercially successful? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t ‘A New Spring’ bomb?”

    It’s all relative. While “A New Spring” did not sell to the standards of the rest of the series, it still sold better than 99.9% of other fantasy out there.

    And “A New Spring” was a dicey proposition from the start since it was a prequel no one wanted since the main series wasn’t finished and it was published following “Crossroads of Twilight” which had poisonous word of mouth.

    If AMoL is well received then I think fan interest for the outriggers would be pretty heavy since concerns over Sanderson’s ability to write in the WoT worldn’t be a concern. Plus, not only does it focus on perhaps the most popular character in the series, but it also has the bonus of not being a book that is just filling in pieces in a timeline that no one cared about.

  • aidan August 12, 2009 at 8:13 am

    The thing that concerns me the most, even beyond the money grab, is the idea that Sanderson would be held off for a number of years no working on his own original material.

    I trust Sanderson, and think he could probably pull off the Outrigger novels if he was asked to write them, but I’d much rather see The Stormlight Archives proceed first.

  • kevin August 12, 2009 at 10:20 am

    I think, at the least, Sanderson will alternate Stormlight with WoT material.

    Plus, it seems like there isn’t much actual story material in place for the Outriggers, so Sanderson will be responsible for much, much more of the story/plot/characters, etc than he is with AMoL. So, from the standpoint of a Sanderson fan, it will likely feel much more like his original material.

  • James (Speculative Horizons) August 12, 2009 at 10:54 am

    “Plus, it seems like there isn’t much actual story material in place for the Outriggers, so Sanderson will be responsible for much, much more of the story/plot/characters, etc than he is with AMoL. So, from the standpoint of a Sanderson fan, it will likely feel much more like his original material.”

    This leads me to ask the question – what is the point? For A Memory of Light, Sanderson is/was working from detailed notes. For these novels, he’ll most likely have to come up with his own material, characters, etc to a large extent. So is it worth it? Do WoT fans want a WoT-related novel written by someone else, containing many of their own ideas and characters? Would such novels be considered canon? Would these novels be relevant and worthwhile, or would they be just an excuse to make some money by telling a story no-one really cares about?

    This is when you start treading Dune-like territory. A Memory of Light made a lot of sense, but these novels only really make sense to me on one level – a financial one. Still, I may well be wrong – maybe there’s thousands of fans out there that will eagerly anticipate these books. If so, fair enough – as long as they’re aware of what they’re getting.

  • aidan August 12, 2009 at 11:34 am

    I more-or-less agree with James. A Memory of Light had to be done, and Tor/Harriet did a great job of choosing Sanderson to complete the series. I have faith that he’ll be able to do an adequate/great job on tying up the series. But I don’t think the Outrigger books are worth pursuing, and certainly nothing beyond them!

    To say that Outrigger would be original Sanderson work is like saying Greg Keyes upcoming Elder Scrolls novels is original work. Despite Sanderson having most of the creative control of the series (which make me wonder why they would even be written, if Jordan didn’t leave notes), he is still working with someone else’s world, with someone else’s rules and someone else’s characters.

    Sanderson has way too many ideas and stories to tell to spend time in someone else’s world writing books that don’t need to be written. Sure, seeing more of Mat would be cool, but how would you feel if someone came along and started writing stories about Aragorn and his adventures between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings? Sure, there might be a cool story there, but is it really worth telling if Tolkien doesn’t have a hand in it?

  • kevin August 12, 2009 at 11:35 am

    @James: “This leads me to ask the question – what is the point? For A Memory of Light, Sanderson is/was working from detailed notes. For these novels, he’ll most likely have to come up with his own material, characters, etc to a large extent. So is it worth it? Do WoT fans want a WoT-related novel written by someone else, containing many of their own ideas and characters? Would such novels be considered canon? Would these novels be relevant and worthwhile, or would they be just an excuse to make some money by telling a story no-one really cares about? ”

    I think that’s exactly the point that Sanderson is saying and is why he is advocating that they not be written. However should Harriet decide that they be written, whether for personal financial gain, a sense of obligation to Tor, or a perceived obligation to the series fans, then Sanderson is willing to write them lest they fall into the hands of someone like Kevin J. Anderson.

    It’s certainly Dune-like territory but I daresay that reaction to Brian Herbert and KJA’s series is much more about the overall poor quality of the work than about how canon the whole thing is. Personally that doesn’t concern me as I’ve enjoyed Sanderson’s work far, far more than I ever did anything by KJA so I expect any of his future novels, Wheel of Time or no, to be well done.

  • kevin August 12, 2009 at 11:48 am

    @aidan: “To say that Outrigger would be original Sanderson work is like saying Greg Keyes upcoming Elder Scrolls novels is original work. Despite Sanderson having most of the creative control of the series (which make me wonder why they would even be written, if Jordan didn’t leave notes), he is still working with someone else’s world, with someone else’s rules and someone else’s characters.”

    That’s an interesting point. Especially considering how unique books are in this aspect compared to other forms of entertainment media. TV Shows, Films, and Video Games frequently have people whose primary job is to tell stories with settings and characters established by others, and the results are both good and bad. But when it comes to novels, playing in someone else’s sandbox is frowned upon.

    In the case of the outriggers, I think Sanderson would be far less handicapped than Keyes or most other tie-in fiction simply because he doesn’t have to worry about stepping on any toes other than being consistent than what has gone before since there is no other active creative entity to step in and say “No, you can’t go there, do that, kill this character, etc because we have plans down the road to do something else.”

    Personally, I like the idea of Sanderson’s plot and story in Jordan’s world. Mainly because in my opinion on reading everything of Sanderson except for [i]Elantris[/i], he excels in the former and not the latter. Wheel of Time’s greatest strength IMO is the world building and there is a sense that there is something interesting always occurring whether onscreen or off. I don’t get that same sense from the worlds of Mistborn and Warbreaker. So I’d be interested to see what kind of story Sanderson could tell with no other guidance than Jordan’s extraordinarily detailed notes on Seanchan culture.