Posts Tagged: Robert Jordan

News

An Aside | Another Suvudu 2012 Cage Match: Moiraine vs. The Dagda Mor

By Aidan Moher March 12th, 2012

Suvudu Cage Match, Moiraine vs. The Dagda MorI was asked to contribute another write-up for Suvudu’s 2012 Cage Matches. This time around, it’s The Wheel of Time‘s Moiraine Damodred, diminutive Aes Sedai, versus Terry Brooks’ hulking demon lord, The Dagda Mor. A taste:

The vicious sound of her Warder locked in battle with the Demon clawed at her, but Moiraine could not waste a thought for Lan, no matter his peril. The Dagda Mor dropped from the sky, and Moiraine caught a bat-shaped beast winging away into the dark night. Even hunched, the Demon towered over the diminutive Aes Sedai. Tufts of green hair, like saw-grass, sprouted over its entire body. In its hands was a long, gnarled staff, the end glowing green as magic coursed between the Demon and the shaft.

Moiraine wore a brocaded blue silk dress, horizontal slashes of alternating blue and white crossing her chest, and a black belt circling her waist. On her feet were high-calfed leather boots and gossamer stockings, made from Shara’s finest silk. Over all this, she wore a dark blue cloak trimmed in white, too light for travel, but so perfectly fitted that it gave the Aes Sedia a regal look, hinting at her noble Cairhienen background. The hood of her cloak was drawn up, so that the only hint of life in the shadowed recesses was the sparkle of her eyes and the glint of light caught in the small blue stone that sat suspended on her forehead by a silver chain.

“Can we get on with this?” the Dagda Mor growled. Moiraine’s eyes snapped up from admiring her outfit, startled from her reverie by the Demon’s words.

Read the Moiraine vs. The Dagda Mor cage match!

I accepted the gig before I thought about the fact that I’d be assuming a character from The Wheel of Time, which has one of the largest and most loyal fan bases in all of Fantasy. To say I was nervous for the fan reaction would be an understatement of enormous proportion. I had some fun with the match, though, so I hope they’ll enjoy it!

My previous cage matches:

2010

2011

2012

Art

Michael Whelan painting cover for A MEMORY OF LIGHT by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

By Aidan Moher February 27th, 2012

The Way of Kings by Brandon SandersonFrom Tor.com:

A while ago we announced that Michael Whelan will be creating the ebook cover art for A Memory of Light, the final volume of The Wheel of Time. I am proud to announce that his artwork will also be used in the print edition.

Everyone at Tor was deeply saddened to hear the news that Darrell K. Sweet had passed away and deciding how to complete the series without him was a challenge that none of us wanted. In choosing Michael Whelan, however, the series gains an artist who has dedicated his four-decade-long career to interpreting fantasy and science fiction literature in a way that is true to the source material while serving as an inspirational centerpiece on it’s own. We are thrilled to have him on board for this series.

From Whelan himself: “I’m flattered to no end to have been asked to work on such a prestigious and popular project. My only regret is that it had to come under such unfortunate circumstances; I never would have accepted had Darrell been here to see the Wheel of Time saga to it’s completion. It will always remain a testament to his career, and I’m humbled to stand in his shadow for the work on the final volume.”

We do not have a cover reveal date yet but rest assured we will reveal it as soon as possible.

Sweet being replaced by my favourite cover artist of all time? Good deal. It’s obviously a bummer that the series won’t match, and I half expected Tor to ‘discover’ a nearly complete painting by Sweet (but actually emulated by another artist based on Sweet’s drafts) to cover the final novel. An unfortunate situation all around, but Whelan’s as good a consolation prize as any Wheel of Time fan could wish for.

News

An Aside | Official release date for A MEMORY OF LIGHT by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

By Aidan Moher February 16th, 2012

The Wheel of Time, A MEMORY OF LIGHTWell, 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?

Review

Review | THE SHADOW RISING by Robert Jordan

By Aidan Moher January 31st, 2012

The Shadow Rising

By Robert Jordan
Hardcover
Pages: 1008 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: 10/15/93
ISBN: 0812513738

AUDIO EXCERPT

Yarr! There be spoilers for the series ahead. Ye’ve been warned!

The Shadow Rising is considered by many fans to be the current pinnacle of Robert Jordan’s near-legendary Wheel of Time series. Despite being the longest volume, clocking in at 393,000 words, The Shadow Rising is a showcase of Jordan’s writing where his strengths are in full evidence and the weaknesses that bog down later volumes have yet to become overwhelming. It’s even less concise than the preceding volumes, and already Jordan’s tendencies towards rambling narrative and long-winded, repetitive internal dialogue and self-conflict continue to escalate in frequency and annoyance, but The Shadow Rising also contains many of the series’ most genuinely terrific moments that those flaws are if not unnoticed at least forgiven.

One interesting addition to the series are the ‘Bubbles of Evil’ that Jordan introduces early on in the novel with three of the most memorable scenes in the entire series (in particular, Mat’s fight against the figures from the playing cards has always been one of the most ‘otherly’ and interesting scenes I’ve come across in an Epic Fantasy). These acts of seeming randomness allow Jordan to keep Rand and co. on edge by constantly hovering the threat of violence over their heads. It’s one thing to know that Trollocs can pop out of any shadow (and, by this time in the series, the reader has more-or-less lost any sort of respect for the threat they pose, having seen Trollocs dispatched in absolute droves by the end of this novel), it’s entirely another level of anxiety to know that the sand littering the floor can erupt into a maelstrom of razor-sharp wind trying its damnedest to shred you to pulp.
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News

An Aside | Brandon Sanderson on finishing THE WHEEL OF TIME

By Aidan Moher December 13th, 2011

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.