The story of The Wheel of Time spans fifteen books, but the fantasy world which that story resides within is more complex and detailed than even those books could relate. Only a fraction of what author Robert Jordan imagined ended up on the page, the rest going into his personal files.
Now The Wheel of Time Companion sheds light on some of the most intriguing aspects of the world, including biographies and motivations of many characters that never made it into the books, but helped bring Jordan’s world to life.
Included in the volume in an A-to-Z format are:
- An entry for each named character
- An inclusive dictionary of the Old Tongue
- New maps of the Last Battle
- New portraits of many characters
- Histories and customs of the nations of the world
- The strength level of many channelers
- Descriptions of the flora and fauna unique to the world
- And much more!
The cover, featuring the updated snake wheel by artist Sam Weber:
Harriet McDougal, former Editorial Director of Tom Doherty Associates, was Robert Jordan’s wife and editor. She selected Brandon Sanderson to complete the series after Jordan’s untimely death, and was his editor.
Alan Romanczuk and Maria Simons were Robert Jordan’s editorial assistants for a combined 18 years, and Harriet’s for 14. They worked with Brandon Sanderson to complete the last three volumes of the series.
The Wheel of Time Companion will be required reading for The Wheel of Time’s millions of fans and is expected to be in stores in November 2015.
YES!!!!!!
ooooooh.
Can we pre-order yet?!
Awesome, it will look nice next to The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time on my bookshelf
I feel like “motivations of many characters that never made it into the books” is something that should have made it into the books, considering their lenght. I also wish they would have gone with something less boring for the cover. I think we’ve all seen that snake and wheel design thousands of times and seeing it again on a cover isn’t all that impressive.
Still, i’ve enjoyed the books in the series that i’ve read so far and i’m a sucker for books like this. Looking forward to it.
Oh, that’s VERY exciting :)
Better do a hardcover reprint of all books so I can finally lay my hands on The Dragon Reborn. it’s really hard to get by in hardcover these days. And certainly not gonna pay 70 dollars for a used version on ebay :D.
When can I preorder it? already so excited! Yeeeesssss!
Just in time for Christmas!!! Thank you Tor & Team Jordan!!!
Will there be a release tour?
Can expect a signing at JordanCon 8 in 2016? :-)
Please?
@@.-@: it will mirror what the UK has had for all their books. Plus, what image represents all the books better?
As for “motivations of many characters that never made it into the books” – we were never inside the head of every character ever given a name.
Therefore, how & why should their motivations have all made it into the books? We would start rolling our eyes if every character gave a villain style rant about what motivated them.
I will probably pick this up because I am a WoT fan, however I do have to wonder about the true value of this item. If Jordan’s work is going to be highly acclaimed in the future like Tolkein’s, then an item like this (which I surmise will be analagous to Tolkein’s LoTR appendicies) will be quite valuable. If Jordan’s work falls into obscurity, then it won’t.
I guess overall I am just curmedgeon because there will be no more new WoT to read. A part of me wishes that Harriet and the rest of Team Jordan would open the universe up to new writers where Team Jordan maintains a roadmap for the overall “universe” like the rebooted Star Trek lines have done. If that happened, then I think this Companion would be highly valuable in the RIGHT NOW.
An entry for each named character? There are 2,782 named characters in the series. That would literally be hundreds of pages by itself!
@12: So I’m guessing we only get to hear more about a few of the more important ones. :-)
I really need to start working again.
Hurray!
This actually makes me a little worried… How desperate do you have to be to come up with interesting content when you have to tout the inclusion of information on flora and fauna?
And now I know what I want for my birthday this year.
Is it November yet?
I have been eagerly waiting for this, can’t wait to for it to be mine
I look at it this way, Mr. Jordan developed the notes on his world so extensively that he had entries on flora and fauna. I also recall in one of the interviews Brandon did that he found a file naming all 250something Two Rivers folk that were with Perrin in his army in the last several books. This volume is about details, for details sake that didn’t make it into the books themselves.
Looking forward to it. I’d definitely like to know more about some of the different characters’ motivations, as well as more detailed description of some of the flora/fauna (hopefully breaking down all of the different species in the Blight, as well as whatever else Aginor came up with).
*twitch*
I would love it if this book would contain two important things, one of which is likely and one of which is probably not:
The likely: Better artwork, as the other Companion book was notorious for it.
The not: I want a USB drive or a CD with audio tracks of the authors teaching the proper pronunciation of all the names of places and characters. I have been fighting with people for years about how to say Nynaeve and Manetheren.
Let’s just hope the illustrations are of much higher quality (and accuracy) than the previous compendium. (Here it is for those who were unaware of it.) One of the few books I’ve ever returned – it was really disheartening to see not only poor quality illustrations but often times they were blatantly wrong from the clear descriptions in the books.
(Just once I’d like to see a Fade done right – no eye sockets, just the smooth “eggshell” forehead from hairline to cheeks).
Should we start the “Best Related Work” Hugo talk now?
I cannot agree with @11 more. A wheel of time extended universe like the Star Wars one, with many novelists being allowed to ply their trade within the confines of RJ’s world, would be absolutely amazing! As long as there’s a director of sorts to approve stuff and make sure no ridiculous story lines appear and everything has the right feel. Why hasn’t this been done already?! Harriet, Tor. Please. This would make millions so happy.
@21 JasonD: Have you listened to the audiobooks? Evidently Michael Kramer and Kate Reading got some of the pronunciations wrong in the earlier audiobooks and were corrected by R.J., so the later books have proper pronunciations of everything. Some of the pronunciations did not match what I would have expected AT ALL. For example, I never would have guessed that “Faile” is two syllables; I thought it was just “fail.” But apparently it’s “fah-EEL.” To answer some others:
Nynaeve: NIGH-neeve
Manetheren: men-ETH-uh-ren
Egwene: egg-WAIN
Birgitte: burr-GIT-uh
Siuan: SWAHN
Aes Sedai: ICE seh-DIE
I’m dying to get my grubby hands on this monster.
DYING I TELL YOU!
IT LIVES! so happy to see that it’s finally really coming!
I am looking forward to it very much. Not too happy with the A-Z format. I much prefer it by topic- e.g. chapters on History, Geography, etc. Still lots of time to wait…
Thanks to TOR, the magnificent Harriet, Maria & Alan. Please keep feeding us Wheel of Time books.
I WOT it Bad!
Yay on the book, ugh on the shared world idea. I can’t think of one that was good besides Thieves’ World, and that was ruined pretty fast.
Bouke @20- haha!
Encyclopaedia-wot(.org) has audio imbeded with pronunciation of many character’s names.
This has gotta be better than the BBoBA, with plenty of fodder for JCon 8.
Niels1988 @6 did you try amazon? $22.78 at this link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312852487/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=23O7GXWKXIHWU&coliid=IIB7BXMF38R1I
My sister just gave me TDR in hardback for Christmas, I think she ordered it from Amazon, but I’m not 100% certain.
Hopefully this will be a Nother b
BWBOBA!
Niels1988 I just found a hard cover of the DR at a goodwill for $1.99 it took me awhile to find that one, but i have seen every book atleast once at goodwill stores $4.99 the most expensive
Yes!
“An entry for each named character”
Each? Each?
Is that even possible? Can I even carry it around?
wow.
What a great way to revisit the books, and maybe a good oppotunity to start that re-read :)
I’m looking forward to it.
I cannot wait until this is out. Really looking forward to seeing what kinds of things I’ll get to learn that will expand on the story.
@6: Niels1988. You can get the Dragon Reborn new or used through amazon, or through sites like thriftbooks, for under $20.
I just want to leave some comments about TWOT companion. Navigating the menus for tor.com is kind of tricky, so I hope I’m in the right section for TWOT. What I really hope to see in TWOT companion is descriptions about the gholams and the true power. Those are two things that are not described alot in the glossaries or The World of RJ The Wheel of Time. I also want to see maps-old and new- in TWOT companions. Almost all the maps were left out of George RR Martins The World of Ice and Fire which was a disppointment for that book. Looking forward to getting TWOT companion when it comes out. Thanks!
I would really like to see descriptions about the true power and gholams in TWOT companion. Those are the only two main things we have not read much about in the glossaries or The World of RJ: TWOT. They should definitely be included in TWOT companion!