A Memory of Light (Vols I & II & III)

[Werthead]

[quote name='The Humble Asskicker' post='1742521' date='Apr 2 2009, 20.18']ASoS was around 425,000 words. According to GRRM, any longer and the book would have needed to be split in two.[/quote]

And it was split in two in many territories (such as the UK paperback, although the tradeback and hardcover book club edition were in single volumes), and the USA mmpb was very borderline on whether it was going to be split or not. Bantam just about managed to squeeze it into one volume.

[quote]Sanderson hasn't finished writing MoL either. It is the same thing: what was originally intended as one volume multiplied. Of course, I refer to the unhappy comment by Doherty of what began as a trilogy ends with a trilogy. These works expand themselves.[/quote]

I'd say the difference is that Sanderson is writing AMoL as one continuous, contiguous volume (with periodic breaks to work on editing), whilst the expansion of the hypothetical AFFC/ADWD novelistic entity ( ;) ) into two separate novels occuring simultaneously but incorporating events and ideas originally planned for later in the series has probably created a structural clusterfuck, which the author has taken some time to untangle and straighten out :)

Whilst AMoL has a hell of a lot of wrapping up to do, structurally it's vastly more simple, especially as Jordan set up a lot of guns and primed them to fire in KoD.

I was left thinking what would happen if Erikson was unable to complete [b]Malazan[/b] and a new writer was brought in. For some reason I have an image of the new writer being left with Erikson's notes and story outline, and when the editor came back to discuss it with him, the new author was found to have gone completely insane :stunned:

[Fatuous]

[quote name='uneedathneed' post='1742518' date='Apr 2 2009, 15.13']And more, considering Taim saved his bacon at Dumai's Wells (without being asked).

Nonetheless, Rand's shockingly hand's off approach when it comes to the Black Tower is incredibly poor planning, perhaps unrealistically so. Even if he doesn't trust Taim or Logain, he could have left a few people there to look over things and report back to him. But he didn't. Real communication is too much to ask in WOT.[/quote]

The middle one is right; Rand sent that Tairen Lord he personally tested to the Black Tower to join Taim's ranks.