Well, it’s official, and likely to annoy some fans of The Wheel of Time:

From Tor.com:

A Memory of Light will release on January 8, 2013, in the final month of the Year of the Dragon.

Consider that the first draft of the novel has completed for a few months (and some parts of it, including the ending, for years), a lot of us expected that the book would hit shelves this holiday season, somewhere between September and November. To see it pushed into 2013 is a bit of a surprise. No surprise gifts underneath the Christmas tree, I guess. Oh well, though, at least that gives me a few extra months to catch up to the series and read the final volume alongside the rest of the fans.

Now, the real question is, when will we get the cover art and who will be the artist responsible?

When I got [to Charleston] and I sat and read that alone quietly, actually, in Robert Jordan’s chair, in his room, just a few feet from the computer he’d written much of the books on, I felt immensely and deeply satisfied with this conclusion, that he wrote himself. It feels right to me.

It’s hard to imagine Sanderson saying anything other than that he was satisfied by the ending, but one has to expect that, given how long and hard Jordan working in constructing the labyrinthine storyline of The Wheel of Time, that he’d have given a lot of thought to how it should end. Frankly, if there’s anything I’m worried about, it’s the reaction of the fans if the volume plays out too closely to what we all expect. Fans have had nearly 20 years to sit and ponder all the secrets of the series, and, given that Tarmon Gai’don is the ultimate battle between good and evil, as black and white a confrontation as you can get, it’s hard to imagine that things won’t fall into place just as we all expect them too. Fans have constantly been surprised by this series, but I expect surprises will be lacking if Sanderson stays close to the script laid out by Jordan 20+ years ago.