I am an unrepentant escapist—one of those nerdy 28 year olds who still curls up with Frodo and Gandalf at midnight. This blog is a celebration of all SFF, but is especially targeted at people like me, who are up and coming speculative fiction writers.
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Quotation
“For he is an unrepetant escapist. His plays spin fancies in a clear air. He just doesn’t like his fellow-men, and cares less for their continuously clumsy though well-meaning attempts to straighten things out.” -William Kozlenko
(Two Reviews instead of Two Rivers. Geddit? This is the spoiler-free part.)
I camped out at the BYU book signing and got the #58th copy of Memory of Light. A large part of me felt insane for doing it--it was, after all, -2 degree whether, and by the end of the night, the inside my tent walls had so much ice on them that they looked like frosted glass--but the Wheel of Time has been my go-to comfort read for some 16 years now, and I wanted to end things in style.
Speaking of ending things with style...Wow. I finished the book this morning at 4 a.m. After 7 books of waiting (for me), I have an ending to the story I first started reading when I was 13 years old. And it was an awesome ending.
I don't know how Brandon Sanderson did it. There were so many threads to be juggled, so many characters, so many plot-points, and he managed to pull them together in a satisfying fashion. Before, I've said his style grated on me, but while I still noted the differences between him and Robert Jordan in this book--this was the first book where I really, truly didn't care. I could tell that the majority of it was his, but it didn't matter because things were so good. I'm glad Team Jordan put the extra time into it, because I think it shows in the book's quality.
If any of the last books bugged you, be they the pacing issues of Crossroads of Twilight or the painful rendition of Mat in Gathering Storm, I say--skip ahead. Just read this book. It's worth it, especially if you like battle scenes. Because this book is like 700-pages of non-stop battles. And since this book feels like it's going back to the roots of the series (appropriate for the wheel theme), you won't actually have missed too much.
And the stakes get high. People we've known and loved since the first book die. Characters make heroic sacrifices. There are callbacks to things earlier in the series that I'd pretty much forgotten.
****SPOILER-REVIEW****
(Seriously, spoilers. Don't read this until you're at the end of AMOL).
Speaking of callbacks and deaths, I almost wish there had been more dying. Lan's fight with Demandred might be one of the top moments of the entire series for me. But you can't SHEAVE THE SWORD and then walk away after. That's cheating. My favorite actual death was either Egwene's or Siuan's. Even if Siuan's is only a couple lines, you got to admire someone who heroically goes to their death, even if they aren't sure it will accomplish anything. That's true heroism. I wish we'd had one last Bryne POV as he went beserking to his death to accompany it, or that they'd found his body later with 90 dead trollocs around it, but you can't have everything even in a 900-page novel, I guess.
I liked the male/female working-together dynamic that was running through everywhere (Andol/Pevara, Elayne/her generals, Rand/NynaRaine). That was a cool pay-off of the series' philosophy. It was cool to see the flaws in Callandor be intentional. That was great.
At the same time, I was disappointed by how useless Moiraine and Nynaeve turned out to be. What did Moiraine do that was so important for saving the world? Alivia could have come in her place and nothing would have changed. Mat sacrificed his eye so that, what, Moiraine could tell Egwene she needed to break the seals when she got her hands on them? I guess coming to a truce between them was good, but I wasn't sure Moiraine was the only one capable of doing that. I had really hoped she'd get to do something awesomely dramatic. And she did, at the very end with exploiting the flaw, but that was Rand's idea, so she only gets partial credit with it.
Ditto with Nynaeve. Alanna could have released the stupid bond at any time. So Nynaeve actually knowing how to do stuff without the power (a theme repeatedly hashed on this whole time) didn't actually turn out to matter. It also brings up the question: Moiraine knew she was going to die, why didn't she release Lan and save him a little suicidal angst? Not good on you, girlfriend. I always assumed she didn't because it was some complicated weave that could only be done with time/effort. Nope!
And all the stuff we had to slog through with how many books with the Windfinders? Did it pay off? Nope. Not that I wanted to spend time with a culture that beats up its teachers. WTF was that???
Padan Fain was the biggest letdown. He's been screwing things up for our heroes ever since the first book and he barely gets a mention (except for two obvious 'help remind the reader that's he's still out there' moments by Perrin) until he's suddenly a mini-roaming Mashadar who gets two pages and then gets offed. Thanks for wasting our book space for however many years only to give Mat something to do at the bore for thirty seconds!
Speaking of Mat, how great was it that the Hornsounder didn't end up sounding the horn after all. Great thing or greatest thing? (TEAM OLVER 4EVAH!!!)
***END SPOILERS***
Overall, even though I was annoyed at some little things, I loved the ending. You can't have a book series go on for so long with so many things being juggled without there being a few disappointments, and I'm in awe that Brandon Sanderson managed to complete such a daunting task.
So bravo, team Jordan, bravo. A part of my life feels...empty, now. Good thing GRRM's still writing books for me to obsess about. If he finishes a Song of Ice and Fire, I won't know what to do with myself :)
Woo! It finally came. In my younger years, I would have read this book straight through in one day, 1000 pages or no, but now I'm made of less stern stuff. I had to fit it into two.
The hardcover is beautiful. I just liked holding the book. I almost didn't want to read it, because it looks so pristine.
So what about the contents?
As always, George R.R. Martin is a fantastic worldbuilder and storyteller. It's easy to get swept away into Westoros. Between the return of old favorites characters, the addition of new favorites and the thickening of the plot, there was a lot here to love.
On the other hand, if you're new to Martin, just picking up his books after seeing the TV series, this probably isn't the place to start. Because this is dense, and the pacing can be a little frustrating.
Like its brother, Feast of Crows, this is a turning point in the series. This feels like it's going away from the mystery/political conflict that drove the first few books and becomes more of a travelogue. So there's a heavy heaping of wonder--I appreciated the idea of a medieval/magic leper type camp especially--along with lots of legends to unravel, but I think fans may miss the tightly wound plot of the first few books. Earlier, most of the storylines took place on the same continent and you could see more direct reactions on how characters' decisions affected one another. This time around, the threads here feel more spaced out.
There's definitely also a sense of 'darkest before the dawn.' We're hitting the middle of the series, which means that characters are going to suffer. And some of them suffer hard. There are no good choices, and some of the bright spots that used to lighten the tortured characters' souls are missing. Maybe fewer heads roll here, but it felt to me that this book offered fewer servings of hope than any other book in the series. And pretty much every plot ends on a cliffhanger, so don't expect too much satisfaction on that score. Though, since I've been studying G.R.R.M. for years and know his tricks well, I'm pretty sure I know where 90 percent of those cliffhangers are going to end. Yet he does manage to keep me guessing.
With all that said, would I still recommend A Dance with Dragons? Absolutely, if you don't mind dark fantasy. I feel it was worth the wait. While I may not see where everything is going now, the skill with which Martin handles his twists and turns convinces me that we are in capable hands. This book is a page-turner. About 400 in, I found myself struggling to put the book down. It kept calling, even when I had better things to do. I may not have liked this one as much as Storm of Swords, despite their comparable length, but it's still George R.R. Martin. And he's still fantastic. And some things are best savored slowly.
Still, I think the next book will be a test of fire. I think everyone was expecting more character convergences, but there wasn't much of that. If G.R.R.M. truly intends to end it all in two more books more, everything needs to be turned up a notch.
Beautiful cover for Karen Mahoney's Iron Witch. It would stop me absolutely dead in the bookstores. Everything is perfect, from the curve of the arm mirroring the swirls on the background to the biggest drops of color coming from the jewels in her hand.
I thought we'd see more witch in high school stories along with the Vampire craze. I always loved Willow best of any Buffy character. It frightens me a little that Buffy the Vampire Slayer started its run 13 years ago. I'm getting old... (*weep.)
I went to LTUE and enjoyed it. I was in a cranky mood part of the time so I was more Scrooge-like than I usually am, mostly because some authors tended to drop into English teacher mode, which is "Let's define things" instead of "Let's talk about writing" (The first twenty minutes of the Dystopian panel, I'm looking at you!!!)
My joy was not assisted by questions from a certain class of writers who seem to be shouting "Look At Me! Look at ME!!!" during Q&A. IE, asking, "My book is about this, is that okay?"
My response to my fellow audience members is, "Will you stop writing your book just because I say no?" If so, you're not cut out for this life. And if you'll write it anyway, regardless of the answer, why ask the question? Why seek validation from authors who haven't actually read your work?
I practiced my pitch to the editor of a small press and got shot down, which was expected. I didn't think my story quite fit her line, and she agreed with me. Good practice. Hopefully I wasn't annoying. It really is hard to sum up a story in 15 words or less. Unfortunately, the words you say in front of a mirror aren't always the words that come out of your mouth, either. And there's the strangled, fast, sweaty tone. This was my first time ever doing it, so I'll give myself a little leeway.
My worst fears are confirmed that agents/editors are being glutted with post-apocalyptic stories like Skin Farm. I would have been able to finish and query my book much sooner if I hadn't gone back and revised my first novel, so I'm a little frustrated I may have killed a book just because of poor timing. I will make sure I try the regional presses when I query in hopes that they may be less swamped. I need to read more locally published books to see if I fit in with what they're selling. James Dashner and Brandon Mull both started in local publishing, as did Ally Condie.
My friend/fellow writing group member Stephen will be posting videos of some of the lectures and panels, so anyone who didn't get to go can still get some insight. My favorite panel was probably when author John Brown broke Hunger Games down scene-by-scene and chapter by chapter, showing us the mechanics behind why Katniss so easily grabs both our attention and our sympathy. I love working with other people to strip away the smoke and mirrors behind good books. He said he'll post his slides on his website, here. It's full of good advice for new writers.
Anyway, here are my Top 10 insights from LTUE:
10) If you want your books to do well internationally, you might want to create characters from different races/backgrounds.
9) Part of the reason urban fantasy is so popular is because of its low learning curve. It's easier for readers to get into the world because everything's the same, except for one significant change, (IE, witches are real). Not everyone has the time or desire to understand the thick, complex otherworlds of your B.A.F.S.
8) Author Paul Genesse uses the Myers-Briggs personality archetypes to help shape his characters. Too technical for me, but I've never heard that method before. Probably because I put the I in INTJ.
7) From John Brown's Hunger Games lecture. Every single book only has a small audience. Even for big-time authors like Stephen King, while millions of people pick up his books, even more people hate him/don't read him. So whenever you write a book, your audience is going to be relatively small. Ergo, you should take other people's advice with a grain of salt NOT because they're wrong but because they might be the wrong target audience. (For example, Dan Wells and Brandon Sanderson weren't fond of Hunger Games because they'd seen the story before, while the teenage audience that carried it to NYT bestseller status hadn't been exposed to The Most Dangerous Game/Battle Royale. My younger brother hates Wheel of Time and G.R.R.M.)
6) New authors are frequently advised to put their characters in pain. In response to a question, "How dark is too dark?" James Dashner said that too dark is when a character's pain is meaningless. You can torture your character, but don't do it for no reason. I asked a similar question to Brandon Sanderson in his class. I asked, "How do you create a necessary sense of progress while also making your characters face miserable amounts of set-backs?" The answer was to give your characters successes with one hand and kidney punches with the other.
5) From Dave Farland's lecture: When it comes to editing, don't try to tackle everything in the first go-around. He separates his own editing process into multiple stages. I know I waste too much time with line/syllabic editing early on, so it's advice I should listen to. The problem is, I never do.
4) To quote John Brown: "Manure is Gold. Cherish your crappy ideas." In a brainstorming session, we looked at stereotypical, boring ideas and turned them into interesting ones. We were dealing with ghosts. I think my favorite two were, "Ghost Labor Unions" and "A People-Whisperer" (ie, the only ghost in a ghost society who can talk to people). Either of these could make an interesting book. I came up with the idea of a ridiculous Pro-Wrestler's ghost. Think of Hulk Hogan's ghost haunting an arena, trying to scare people. Go on. Try not to laugh.
3) There's a reason big totalitarian governments are so common in dystopian stories. Because a) they make sense from a world-building perspective, since tyrannical govts logically arise after great economic/social stresses. b) they create easy sympathy with the character, because an all-oppressive government turns them into an instant underdog. If you want your novel to have the same sort of menace but don't want to use a government, find something else that has that same atmosphere of oppression. I like this advice because it transcends genres. Threats to your heroes should always feel oppressively, well, threatening.
2) Turning old tropes on their head can be good advice, but consider your audience. Larry Correia's wife got sick of goody-goody Tolkein rip-off elves, so he created "Trailer Park Elves" for his book, Monster Hunters International. But Dan Wells once pitched a story about vampires who were a twist on the trope because they were total, absolute losers and was told that you can't sell novels about vampires who...uh, suck...to an audience that loves vampires. So the advice is be original, but know your audience too.
1) Some babies have really big lungs. Seriously, lungs must make up half an infant's weight. I can't think of any other reason so much sound can exude from something so small.
I was going to write a review of Percy Jackson and compare it to Harry Potter today but I ended up sick with the flu, and sitting up makes me feel like vomiting. Hardly a situation conductive to cogent thought. I could barely even watch my beloved figure skaters do their pretty lutzs at Skate America. Oh, Daisuke Takahashi, your babies would look so refulgent in the verdure of my viviparous womb!
(See, I'm practicing, right? No, not avoiding studying for the GRE. No, not me).
I blame my sickness on trying to multiply decimals without a calculator--a feat I have not performed since junior high school but which is apparently centripetal to my future education. The GRE people prove they are not entirely bilious idiots by planning to allow calculators in the revised version of the test...which kicks off in August, long after the grad school deadlines have passed, alas for moi.
As always, the math story problems are slaughtering me. They have been my nemesis for about two decades, keeping me out of that coveted 95th percentile. The fact I haven't taken a math class in 5 years hasn't helped, either, but I swear to all that I apotheosize, I will conquer all things quantitative!
The blogo-writing world has semi-exploded in response to an (intentionally?) inflammatory article at Salon.com which calls NaNoWriMo a waste of time and energy, basically pointing out that there are too many writers feeding the vanity presses anyway and we shouldn't be celebrating/promoting the production of junk. Carolyn Kellogg does a good job in refuting the analysis in her article at the LA Times' book blog, using skills that I will hopefully be able to imitate on my GRE argumentative writing sample. (You'd think I wouldn't sweat the writing samples, but I suppose one of the symptoms of my flu is advanced paranoia.) Other writers (like John Scalzi) have also condemned the article, rightly.
It's true that the original article sets up a foolish false dichotomy between reading and writing, but I will say that in certain sectors of the epic fantasy community, there are far more people who want to write 300,000-word books than people willing to plunk down the cash for 300,000-word hardcovers (outside of big names like GGRM). I suspect the proportion of wannabe writers to books published by the mainstream presses is higher in this genre than anywhere else, exception maybe romance. This is part of the reason the book I'm working on now is YA, where the market seems to have much more room for new writers. Being the internet, if anyone actually read this blog, I'm sure they'd take what I'm saying in a pejorative way, but allow me to exculpate myself: everyone should write epic fantasy if they want to. The merit of your ideas and your growth as a writer/human being has nothing to do with whether or not you are published, and it is quite possible that you will be. I love epic fantasy and read it and buy it when I can afford it. I am not saying don't write your epic fantasy, or that your epic fantasy isn't worth publishing.
In fact, I'm not entirely sure what I am saying, it's probably the flu talking, but the one thing in the Salon article I agree with is that it's a cool idea to pick a month and say, "let's read ten books this month." Not in competition with NaNoWriMo, but in conjuction with it, maybe in September? It would be especially salubrious for wannabe writers, who need to know the market they're entering into. And there's nothing better than closely analyzing other books to learn how to write. The basic tenets of grammar, plot, and character are all available for you to cadge from careful analysis of these texts. You don't have to memorize techniques out of context from some kind of writer's dictionary--as I am somewhat forced to do by the GREs--you have a nonpareil toolbox at your hand, one of almost infinite variety, weighing down the doughty shelves of your local library.
And I do think it's a tool that goes underused, because people tend to find their favorite authors and genres and keep to that niche for decades. Epic fantasy writers have stuff to learn from people like Robert Graves and Isabelle Allende, as well as stuff to learn from Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan.
So I would propose having a "Writers Read" book month (NaNoReMore?) where authors are required to read several books, some outside their favorite genres. And it can be like those things we had in elementary school, where if you turn in your book calendar all filled in, you can get a free pizza. Though I won't be paying for it, of course.
What am I writing for NaNoWriMo? I am not participating in it this year, unfortunately. I have far too much studying to do. (Sigh).
EDIT: No surprise, someone else has already come up with the NaNoReaMo idea.
It's amazing how a little thing like an argument can completely throw off your mojo for an entire day. It destroys time you don't have, and leaves you frustrated because there's no way to resolve a conflict. Most of the time, you have to forgive, forget and move on, even though you crave the satisfaction of the other person admitting that you're right.
But enough of that. Anyway, here's the promised book reviews:
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
For writers, there are two types of books in the world--The books that make you think, "I wish I had had that idea because I could have done it so much better." And the books that make you think, "I'm so glad I didn't write that book, because otherwise I couldn't have gone along for the ride."
The Lies of Locke Lamora is definitely the latter. But what else would you expect from a Campbell award winner that the master George R.R. Martin himself graces with a blurb? (Speaking of which, a Game of Thrones preview is up on HBOs web site. If you're a fan, go check it out.)
Locke Lamora is a thief who steals too much. In a city of glass and canals, where gladiators battle sharks and thieves are ruled by hidden gods, Lamora is a conman who plays both sides against the middle. He's ostentatiously working for a man who is the fantasy version of the Godfather, yet at the same time he's stealing from the upper class nobles that the Godfather has declared off-limits. He's kind of a Robin Hood...except that he keeps the money.
Lamora is on track for pulling off his largest heist ever, until a mage in the service of a mysterious vigilante decides to blackmail Lamora into helping his revenge scheme against the Godfather figure and the nobles both.
Who doesn't love the fictional antics of a conman? This was a guilty pleasure for me. Yes, I got my credit card number stolen once and it sure as hell wasn't funny then, but that doesn't stop me from loving Lamora as he goes on his merry, rampaging way. It's always easier to sell me on righteous thieves than righteous assassins, even though the assassin character was very popular in fantasy for awhile. It's one thing to rob rich people of their money, it's quite another to kill them, and I thought that of lot of assasin books, much like the "pimp" phenemonon that inexplicably gripped pop culture, glorified a lifestyle that, in actual reality, was very sordid and exploitative. However, because I enjoyed Lies so much, and he only ruins people instead of murdering them, I guess I have to set my principles aside. It helps that the class conflict in the book is so demarked. It's also amusing that, though Locke Lamora steals, he doesn't really know what to do with the money afterward.
This book crackles with tension and suspense. Granted, not every twist and turn was unpredictable, but it's rare for a book to startle me so frequently and to such good effect. Lynch has mastered "the surprising-yet-inevitable" art of the twist. I found my jaw dropping in the middle of the novel, and I was cursing by the time I had to set it down and go to bed.
Like the Da Vinci Code, most chapters ended with a hook to drag the reader forward. Except in this book, for me, they always succeeded. What made this feat even more impressive is that the book utilizes an unusual structure, spacing chapters about Lamora and the other character's pasts in between chapters that propelled the main narrative forward. In other words, Scott Lynch could keep me wanting more even when I knew that the stakes were low--no character deaths, just a lot of info-dumping. Yet I loved every page.
Besides being a master of colorful characterization, Lynch also has a deft hand with description. Few of the details of his world struck me as stock fantasy set dressing leftover from the LOTR movies.
Lamora is also notable for not having much of a romantic subplot. This is strictly a buddy comedy. Well, in some parts, a buddy tragedy. There is a love plot in the sequel--a book which might even be superior to the first--but (SPOILER ALERT...Scroll over the text to see it) it's pretty obvious from the beginning that's it's going to be a case of women in refrigerator syndrome--a term propagated by comic book readers and applied to the love interests of superheroes who are fated to die for the sake of the plot.
Be warned, for those of you who aren't a fan of adult language, Lamora has it's fair share of it. It's not meant as a book for children. Also be warned that the second book ends on a cliff-hanger, and Lynch's blog suggests he's been having problems that may delay the third book for some time.
But if Hunger Games was the best book I read last year, I suspect The Lies of Locke Lamora will be my favorite of 2010. I read it back in February and haven't found another book that even comes close to toppling it. Lamora was fresh and exciting in a genre that so often embraces clones. I can't wait to read the sequel, and depending on how the rest of the series goes, "the Gentlemen Bastards Sequence" might even be up there with the works of George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan.
***
Paper Mage, by Leah Cutter
I don't know if there's ever going to be another book where the magic system is centered entirely around origami.
Xiao Zen is a female paper mage struggling in a fantasy world reminiscent of Imperial China. She folds paper creatures to bring them to life. Her family is disgusted by her profession because they believe it will harm Zen's chances of marriage, but her manipulative aunt sees it as a way to guarentee herself immortality. Zen herself isn't sure what she wants and struggles throughout the book to come to terms with her talent, her feminity, and her duties to her family.
I'm putting this book next to the Lies of Locke Lamora because they both use a similar narrative system--one chapter on background, one chapter on the present, alternating throughout the book. While structurally similar, the purposes are quite different. Lamora, though populated with a large number of memorable characters, is a plot-driven book, and even the background pages give you a dallop of mystery. Paper Mage, on the other hand, is a character driven book, where the suspense comes more from the character's decisions than from anything about the plot. Because I'm not as much a fan of character-driven fiction as I am of plot-driven fiction, this didn't necessarily always work for me as well as Lynch's book did. For example, Xiao defeats the big bad evil warlord in the middle of her book, not the end, which honestly left me scratching my head a little.
Cutter is excellent at capturing a culture not her own. I'm not used to being in character's heads who are so alien from me. I think a lot of fantasy readers are so used to female characters who embrace the modern tennants of feminism, so it's surprising when we see a woman so firmly torn between career and family. And one who often believes that she is made less by the soft squishiness between her legs. Her attitude frustrated me to death sometimes, but also helped me see into a world that is admittedly very far from my own.
The setting itself is interesting. I loved the tidbits like part-rat/part-dragon monster, and how Zen has to find creative ways to defeat things with paper.
Paper Mage is an impressive study in characterization and cultural exploration. Writers can learn a lot about using foreign cultures and different ideas in this book. But if you're expecting a lot of suspense, swordfights and flashy fireballs, this is definitely not a book for you.
The cover art for local author Brandon Sanderson's new epic fantasy series Way of Kings is up on Tor's website. It's by Michael Whalen so it's, of course, beautiful. Sanderson read us excerpts from the book at LTUE, and the parts I heard sounded like good writing. Unfortunately, of course all the ideas I had while listening were blatant copies so I hard to discard them, which was too bad. Some of the ideas were quite good, I thought.
Still not sure whether I'll read the book, because it sounds like the formatting is weird and I hate books I can't finish in a single setting. He said this new puppy's over 400,000 words long, which is freaking ridiculous. Longer than the Gathering Storm. I like reading epic fantasy as must as the next nerd, but I don't like the carpal tunnel that is going to come with it if I try and pick up the hardback monster. Wheel of Time is bad enough for that.
There's also a second choice on the Tor web page. I like the composition better, because it has that classic s-curve which so delights the eye, but it doesn't work so well with the lettering. It surprises me that the lettering is done separately BEFORE. I always figured they decided on the lettering after they saw the cover art. When I decided newspaper layout, I did them both at once, and it's hard for me to imagine developing headline lettering without seeing the image I'm going to use first.
My favorite part of this cover is the sky. Which is incredibly gorgeous.
Finished the the Gathering Storm. In about 12 hours. Fantastic. There are minor quibbles, minor disappointments, occasional steps out of character, and definite jolts of stylistic choice that left me blinking, but nothing that denies the basic greatness of the work itself. There is no question that Tor chose a worthy heir. I think most of my annoyances would have existed even if Robert Jordan had written the work, so they don't stem from a new author.
I was right about the character POV swaps though. That was a little distracting. Felt like a water droplet being jolted around on a hot griddle. I wanted to nail the POV to the ground and FOCUS.
Still, he did a phenomenal job. This book will make you fall in love with the Wheel of Time all over again. I laughed, I cried (well, not really), I cheered.
I will have to pick up Brandon Sanderson's other books now and read them. That is the highest compliment you can give an author.
Here's my write-up of the Wheel of Time release party last night: if you were one of those people crazy enough to tune into the live broadcast, you got to watch me sing Dance with Jak o' the Shadows. The video will probably float to the surface to embarrass me long after I have granchildren.
Anyway, here it is. I hope it's all accurate--I was very tired last night and some of the notes I took are completely illegible.
Diary of a Stormleader (By Jennifer McBride)—unrepentantescapist.blogspot.com (a.k.a Vegetathalas)
Want a sneak peek into the glorious, glamorous life of a Storm Leader? Here’s a glimpse into the excitement of during the midnight bookstore release at BYU. (For those of you watching the livecast, I was the really annoying blond girl that hopefully nobody noticed because they were so busy goggling at Brandon. This was my first chance to be at a Wheel of Time release party, so I might have been a touch…overexcited.)
12:00 p.m.:TWELVE HOURS BEFORE THE RELEASE
The Stormleaders have been meeting by email for a couple of weeks, but it’s finally time to meet in person. People from all over the valley (and one from Idaho) converge on Springville, Utah to put the final touches on the event. We range from fans who have followed the series almost since its inception to one person who only joined up at the Knife of Dreams. Most of the meeting we spend talking about our favorite books and examining the swag from Tor, which includes comic books, bumper stickers and bookmarks. As I run my fingers down the slick comic book covers, murmurs of “my precious” are heard. THANKS TOR!
Matt Hatch, our “First Among Servants,” already has the book and stayed up all night reading it despite a trip from Las Vegas which left him short of sleep. He lets us look at it. A quick-flip through doesn’t reveal any new chapter symbols, though I could have missed some. The book weighs in at a hefty 783 pages with a skinny glossary. Oddly, the symbol above Brandon Sanderson’s biography is Faile’s golden waistband from Sevanna. An oblique commentary on Brandon being ‘chained’ to his work? I’m glad they changed the last line of Robert Jordan’s biography. Every time I read the “until they nail shot his coffin” part, I feel like I’ve lost him all over again.
We also learn that a storm is literally gathering in Provo, but the rain won’t break until after the party, hopefully. At least the live feed works, even if there’s a delay.
The host’s two-year-old daughter tells us gleeful that the Stormleaders are coming. She seems disappointed to find out the “Stormleaders” are us.
3:00 p.m.: NINE HOURS BEFORE THE RELEASE
We break to visit fans, who are already in line at the BYU bookstore. I rush around town buying necessities—chocolate to keep me awake all night (thank God for Halloween!) and enough copies of the trivia quiz/word find/crossword puzzle to keep some 300 people entertained – our rough estimate of how many are going to show up.
On my way to the bookstore, I’m thinking about Semirhaag when I see a dead hand dangling out of the car trunk in front of me. Seeing it helps me reach new heights of vulgarity until I realize that the hand is plastic, which makes me remember…oh yeah. Halloween.
I run these errands wearing my Stormleader t-shirt to show my general awesomeness. Unfortunately, the rest of the world seems oblivious to said awesomeness. The clerks at Albertsons seem more concerned with the sale on camouflage Snuggies.
6:00 p.m. SIX HOURS BEFORE THE RELEASE
After struggling with a possessed copy machine, I head over to the Red Rooster Dumpling Bar in downtown Provo. Matt’s there and he’s put together a poll in which fans try to guess what will happen by the series’ end.
I get kicked out of my seat by Brandon’ s assistant (Peter, who is wearing a shirt with the word “incalculable,” because that’s what Brandon calls him in one of his book dedications). And I realize with horror that BRANDON SANDERSON is going to be sitting across from me. Watching me eat. What if I get broccoli stuck in my teeth? The HORROR!!!
Brandon arrives fresh off his trip to Denver’s MileHighCon with a nasty cold that will, through the night, put him on the edge of losing his voice. We all feel sorry for him, especially because he’s going to get a maximum of three hours sleep tonight before he’s off on the plane to his next signing.
The dinner goes well, with good conversation. There’s a certain surreal aspect to it, as we’re all clustered around a table treating Brandon like a celebrity and/or minor god and NO ONE ELSE IN THE RESTAURANT KNOWS WHO HE IS. There’s even another Brandon at another table, and the author looks up when he hears his name, grinning sheepishly. His wife, Emily, a former English teacher, is nice, beautiful and pregnant.
Some things we talk about at dinner: (I didn’t take proper notes but I believe the 4th Age Podcaster of our group was recording it so you can probably hear an edited version there)
·Brandon refuses to confirm or deny that the One Power was used to kill Asmodean. He also mentions a Slayer scene deleted from the Shadow Rising which would have shown more about Slayer’s powers.
·If he could pick a nationality from the Wheel of Time world, he’d belong to Malkier because he loves the lost kingdom story. He thinks all the Borderlands are cool, but would definitely NOT be a Saldaean.
·He says he’d have to consult the notes to make sure, but he believes women can become “wolf-sisters.” We just haven’t seen any.
·His favorite chapters to write from TGS were the concluding chapter and also chapter 22.
He also repeated things that he’s said elsewhere, like that Robert Jordan left extensive notes, though he does have the power from Harriet to override them for the interests of the story. Robert Jordan especially left a lot of specific notes as to who lived and who died in Tarmon Gaidin, and he wasn’t going to change any of that. So is there going to be a lot of deaths?
The answer, of course, is RAFO.
I don’t remember if he said this during dinner or during the signings or both, but he was considering doing the outrigger and prequel novels, but that the decision was ultimately Harriet’s. Jordan left notes for that as well, especially the other prequels. If Brandon writes the other books, it will be after a pause at the end of the series. He definitely doesn’t want it to become ‘the McWheel of Time.’
He also said that the series’ ending puts certain threads in perspective. For example, Morgase, my least favorite character, apparently turns out to be less annoying than she appears. Also, fans will better be able to understand the importance of some of the lesser-liked books, like Crossroads of Twilight.
After Tor picks up the check (THANKS TOR! AGAIN!), Brandon heads over to the bookstore to begin signing books. He goes into the back to sign and number everything, and will wait to personalize the books of those willing to stick around and wait in another line. At this point, there’s about 120 people waiting out in the cold at the bookstore. The sun went down almost four hours ago, and I’d guess the temperature is around 46 degrees.
10 p.m. TWO HOURS BEFORE THE RELEASE
The gates are opened and people flock in. While I’m off making copies, a 150 more people get in line with more to come. The line, which once wound around the block, now winds around the bookstore. We hand out trivia quizs and start grading them. The winners will get their pick of the Wheel of Time comic books, which are both beautifully illustrated. I love the lacy gateway Ishamael weaves in the prequel, as well as Lews Therin’s destruction scene. Awesome. To my chagrin, the other fans know the series better than I do. The key has some answers wrong, which I realize after I’ve thought about it. Oops. Only two people managed to get a perfect score, both brothers, so congratulations to the Briggs!
When Brandon gets finished signing in the back, he works the line, signing copies of Mistborn, Elantris, the Alcatraz series, and his latest: Warbreaker.
12 a.m.: MIDNIGHT!
After a fifteen second countdown, the boxes are opened and the books are released. Brandon begins signing, and signing, and signing. Sometimes he takes questions from the live feed. I only heard a couple, but one of them was “which Ajah would he be if he could pick an Ajah” and he answered: Brown. Given his love of the Borderlands, I was expecting Green.
The signing went smoothly and well. The bookstore did a wonderful job hosting us and gave out their own door prizes, including free books. It struck me how sincerely grateful Brandon was for his fans, thanking them and trying to remember their names—impossible given however many hundred were stuffed into line. He also stuck up for the Stormleaders and made sure we got our numbers (in the 90s), which was kind of him. He had a cheat card with some phrases of the Old Tongue written down to help with the spelling in personalizing books. Some of his favorite things to write included: “May you always find water and shade” and “it’s time to toss the dice.”
Fans requested other things, like “Tai’shar Robert Jordan” and sayings from Siuan Sanche along with personal jokes. Brandon refused to sign stuff he hadn’t worked on, like the comics. One person brought his old Magic the Gathering Cards and gave them to Brandon, earning his eternal gratitude.
There were a surprising number of fans who waited the several hours in line even though they’d never read a Robert Jordan book. One person waited hours to thank Brandon for his books even though he had nothing to sign. Even Brandon’s sisters joined the line, and Brandon signed a book to “the Goober,” his mother. One of the two people who had come to Brandon’s first book signing back when Elantris was released (and Brandon sat in the bookstore, all alone—very different than today) came to get his book signed. He can legitimately call himself Brandon’s “#1 fan.” There were also people who’d never read Brandon’s works before, including some truly dedicated. Among the rubber band balls, axes and corsets, there was also a man with a heron marked sword. Epic fantasy lovers and t.v. cameras mingled between shelves stacked high with books.
Brian Lickey was the lucky fan who ended up with book #1 of TGS. He waited in line 41 hours, waking up at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday and deciding to go wait in the bookstore line because he had “nothing better to do.” Brian may be a relative latecomer to the series, (he started reading in 2002), but that didn’t dampen his enthusiasm. He said he’d been resisting reading Robert Jordan for years until he fled Utah to get away from Olympic Fever and caught Wheel of Time fever instead. His favorite male character is Mat and his favorite female character is Min.
APPROX. 2:45 a.m.
The last fan has made it through the bleary-eyed yet enthusiastic line. Brandon’s voice is shot. Everyone is tired after a long day. It’s rumored the bookstore sold 400-500 books. The Storm Leaders are the last to get their books personalized from Brandon’s hands, still writing legibly despite the weariness. For some reason, more than a hundred crazy souls have stuck with us through the livefeed and Brandon dances for them. Let’s just say I don’t think MTV will be calling anytime soon. The Stormleaders join in, and we all chant “To Dance with Jak O’ the Shadows.”
Brandon called it his “biggest book signing ever” and hurries home to upload Towers of Midnight onto his portable computer so he could work on it during the tour. Hopefully he managed to get some sleep in the three hours before his flight to Carolina.
The Stormleaders trudge away. I’m too tired even to read the book I spent the last who knows how many years waiting for. I stare at the stack of some 200-300 email addresses I need to put together for the Utah Wheel of Time mailing list we’re developing and sigh before turning into bed.
The Storm may be over, but the work is just beginning. Especially for Brandon, who is probably about to endure the most exhausting book tour of his life.
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For anyone wondering what I asked Brandon to write in my book (#96) -- "For Jennifer. May you become the writer you dream of becoming."
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