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If youve never read The Wheel of Time, this post might seem like gibberish to you.

It was the first set of Fantasy/SciFi books that I read, and I’ve never gotten as immersed in a book as I was in this story. Not 1 book, but 12 enormous books(11 in the main series and 1 prequel).

Unfortunately Robert Jordan passed away in the middle of writing the final book in the main series. His widow, who was also his editor for all the books, selected Brandon Sanderson to finish the last book. Sanderson is going to be writing some of his thoughts about the series of books as he runs through the entire series in preparation. He just posted his first set of impressions on The Eye of the World. He talks about foreshadowing:

I know how difficult it is to foreshadow across an entire series, and am frankly astounded by how well Mr. Jordan laid the groundwork for his future books.  Min’s prophesies are one great example, but equally potent is Mr. Jordan’s use of mythology and story as a means of preparing the reader for events such as the Great Hunt, future interactions with the Aiel (and the People’s relationship with them), and the coming of the Seanchan.

If you havent read these books its impossible to realise just how difficult and incredible a job this foreshadowing is. This is a massive story, the scope of which Ive never come close to seeing anywhere else. Its 3.1 Million words. compare that to the average length of a novel which is around 100,000 words.

He talks about 2 kinds of foreshadowing above, Prophecy and Myth. Theres another thing RJ did, which delighted rereaders in particular. A throwaway line, will wind up alluding to significant events, character arcs in the future. One that comes to mind is Mat telling Rands father how he is interested in war. Theres another line by Moiraine about Egwene becoming the Amyrlin Seat.

Robert Jordan really was an incredible author.

Something that makes me happy reading this and all of Sandersons post on the Wheel of time, is just how much he gets the series. Based on my first few sampling of his blog, I’m encouraged, that he will give this series the finish it deserves. I have also ordered the first book of his Mistborn series, which I understand is darker, but will hopefully give me more reason to be excited about A Memory of Light.

Finally and most importantly we have been promised the identity of Asmodeans killer. I cant wait for 2009.

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