Robert Jordan promised to finish up his spiraling epic Wheel of Time in front of several hundred fans at Dragon*Con.
"I'm committed," Jordan said answering a fan's question. "It's going to be 12 books even if the 12th book is 1,500 pages long. So if you have to bring a luggage cart get ready."
Jordan has increasing been taking hits from his readership who are unhappy that 15 years after the first book, The Eye of the World, appeared, the series still has not finished. Although he has taken some criticism from fans throughout the web almost all of the questions were rather softball. The closest thing to confrontational question was a fan who asked about the open-ended nature of the series.
"It's never been open ended," Jordan said. "I could have written the last scene of the last chapter of the last book back in 1984, sealed it in an envelope, take it out when I finish the last book and the wording might have changed, but nothing else."
The release date for Knife of Dreams has been pushed back several times, but Jordan called the October release date for the book "rock solid." He said the 11th book in the series would be about the same length as Winter's Heart.
To much applause and a hissing of "yes" throughout the crowd, Jordan announced the current plans for visual adaptations of the series.
"I think the plan is to do three films, and do the rest of the books a series on the Sci-Fi Channel or HBO," he said.
A production company called Red Eagle has bought the rights to Eye of the World, and has attached an initial screenwriter. Jordan said he is waiting to see an outline for the script. This is not the first time a company has tried to film the sprawling epic. Jordan reported that NBC had once obtained the rights to produce a six-hour mini-series but nothing came of it.
He also said that the Wheel of Time comic book would continue for the time being.
One of the more interesting personal notes that came out of the conference is that Jordan used to be the dungeon master for his son's Dungeons and Dragons campaign. They finally went off and found a new DM because "as far as I'm concerned if the role says you die, you die," he said with complete seriousness. "There is no starting over with the same powers and the same character you had before. If you die, you're dead."
Edited: PC
Article comments
1 - Ashok K. Banker
Hey Matt,
I lost patience with WoT around the 6th book. But have kept buying them and planning to get round to reading them...someday. Now, with the series finally ending at Vol. 12, I guess it'll be sooner rather than later. Am still undecided about whether or not (and if yes, then when) to read the three prequels. But have to say, his pace may be slow and his later books dull as a sleeping dragon without a fire, but he's still one of the best goddamn world-builders in the epic fantasy genre. George R.R. Martin's a better writer, word for word and chapter for chapter, but Robert Jordan is the king of creating believable worlds. Hopefully, he'll end with a bang and justify calling WoT a genuine classic.
2 - hi!
i really like th wheel of time seiries and i think everybody should read it i have read every one exept the 12th whitch hasn't come out
3 - smileysama
I hope he takes as much time finishing this series as he has in writing them. What's waiting another 2 years for another couple of books when we've spent 15 years avidily reading the series?
4 - Andrew Iskov
After reading the series 1 to 10 and then 1 to 11 again when the knife of dreams came out. I can safely say this series has providied me with endless hours of entertainment, no matter what the weather is like. Take your time, I will be waiting aslong as it takes.
5 - biodun gaffar
i do not want to sound mean but will we ever get to read the 12th book now?