thank you for the Wheel of time posts...

[guess]

This are very good. I discovered Brandon when he was selected to finish WoT. Like most WoT fans I was 'who is this kid?' Though your writing style is very different than RJs, I think you were the best choice to finish the series. The series needed a real fan who was also an experienced writer. It needed an author who has the right personality to collaborate with Team Jordan. To be honest, I had issues with a fair amount of what you did in the series , but that is understandable. Your writing style and the way you compose words is very different than RJ. I have pictured what it would be like for RJ to finish the Stormlight archive when I read A Memory of Light and knew that his style would contrast with yours alot. 

 

These posts are outstanding. For anyone really interesting in what Robert Jordan was like, I highly recommend going to youtube and searching for 'team jordan' there is a session at Jordancon where they talked about RJ and some of the stories are hysterical. 

 

Hey peter: how about a blog post about your role in this? I have a hunch you have had a more important role than most people realize? 

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

I agree 100%; the Wheel of Time posts are really great. They remind me once again why I really love Brandon so much as a writer. There is just so, so much about him that is amazing.

 

Most obviously, there is the cosmere, which I would hazard to say is the main reason most of us here love Brandon's books. There is something truly special about the way Brandon has managed to create so many great worlds and tie them all together. I cannot wait for when the ties come to the forefront more and more. Realmatic Theory and the whole Shard concept are truly wonderful. I may not be a rabid theorizer, but I love all the possibilities the cosmere possesses.

 

In addition, all of Brandon's separate worlds are fascinating in and of themselves. They all seem so very full, even though so far (Roshar excluded) we really only know a lot about a few different cities and countries on each planet. Despite that, they all have a feeling of completeness to them; they seem much bigger than what has been revealed to us (and of course they are).

 

I love Brandon's openness with his fans. All the questions he answers, all the events he does, show us that he really respects his fanbase and enjoys interacting with us. Though I haven't any wish to read them, I love that he willingly gives out rough drafts of old books. I love things like the Steelhunt, which make him seem just so much more amazing. I have yet to meet Brandon in person, but to do so is on my bucket list.

 

I greatly respect Brandon for all of these things, but I cannot with all truth say that they are what I love most about him as a writer. Most important to me is all the talking he does about himself as a writer.

 

The annotations, for one thing, are a great example of this. That he goes and tells us everything that went into his books right down at the chapter level is amazing. I know of no other writer who has done such a thing (though I would love to know if there are others). I love to read about all the little things what went on in Brandon's mind as he wrote these wonderful books. I love to see how he has grown with each new publication, and I eagerly await to see how he will continue to grow in the future.

 

I had always been a little disappointed that we had nothing in the way of annotations for Brandon's Wheel of Time books, despite the fact that they have been the most formative works of his career. This is why I was overjoyed to hear about the Wheel of Time Retrospective posts. He has alluded to much of what he tells us about in the posts before, but it is wonderful to hear it all in a more formal manner. I feel bad for any fans who have not had the chance to read Brandon's work in the Wheel of Time; I feel that they belong to him nearly as much as they do to Robert Jordan, and to try to understand Brandon's career and growth without having read them leaves a gaping hole. So far, we have seen relatively little of his writing since them; The Way of Kings was written concurrently with them, and The Rithmatist was first written before he began to work on them. I cannot wait to see what comes next, for so many reasons. I cannot wait to come to understand more about the cosmere. I cannot wait to learn more about the worlds of Roshar and Scadrial. But, above all, I cannot wait to see how Brandon will continue to grow and become even more awesome than he already is.

Edited October 24, 2013 by GreyPilgrim