Customer Reviews

What the Storm Means: Prologue to the Gathering Storm

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2 star:		(1)
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EDIT:

As the book to which this is a prologue has been released, I would recommend buying the book instead of this prologue. Consider the review below a historical curiosity -- it was written well prior to the actual novel's release.
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This is the prologue (about forty pages printed, or about 500 kindle "locations") to the new book in Robert Jordan's _Wheel of Time_ series, _The Gathering Storm_; it's coauthored by Jordan (who sadly died about a two years ago) and by Brandon Sanderson, author of several excellent but less-well-known fantasy novels.

The quality of the Wheel of Time series overall has been somewhat of a sine wave, with definite peaks and definite valleys, and despite a marked increase in quality in the book immediately prior to this one (Knife of Dreams, which came out in 2005), Jordan's death and the series' checkered history gave real reason to fear that the handover of this series would not go well.

So far as this preview goes, at least, the handover has succeeded. There's a real spark and fire here; if you're a fan of the earlier books, and you haven't gotten completely jaded to the entire Wheel of Time series by now, this prologue will probably be good enough to get you excited about the upcoming book (or, at least, it got *me* excited. But I've always been a Wheel of Time fan).

Because of the nature of the coauthorship (Jordan wrote some sections of this book before he died, and the rest was completed from outlines and notes), it's hard to know how much we're seeing here of Brandon Sanderson's work and how much of Jordan's, and there were one or two moments where I as a reader wondered whose voice I was reading. But only one or two. The puzzle-like interlocking complexity of Jordan's world and the compelling characters (major and minor) are definitely still here, and these few pages were a thrill to read.

We won't know till we read 'em whether the remaining three books in the series are going to live up to the peaks of what's gone before, or crash down into the valleys. But this prologue has me excited (which is its job, I suppose).

edit: I should also mention that the first chapter of this book is available online for "free" (email address required) at tor.com; the second chapter is available as an audiobook at the same location.

Of course, as a fan of WOT, I'm eager for a new release.
I believe I can say, (no SPOILER intended,) that I am pleased with Brandon's writing, even considering that he's tasked with introducing new characters "before the storm;" My only qualms are with the digital editing.
The price is 'low' for a fan, for this minuscule installment, but for the measly $2.65 I would have appreciated a linked TOC (table of contents,)or at least a page break between shifts of time or setting.
RJ often shifted time and space with a simple " * * * ;"...- I assume at the editors' discretion, but it takes a knowledgeable reader to decipher the lack of page breaks in the Kindle version.
I look forward to however many books Mr. Sanderson and Mrs. Jordan feel it must expand into, as I have become accustomed to, no..., thankful for Robert's (or the editors') decisions on length in the past.
Hopefully someone will edit this, and future works, to give us a SEARCHABLE, LINKABLE, text, as a part of a comprehensive, digitized, kindle form of the entire WOT series.

This is the prolouge to what should be the final book of the series of The Wheel of Time. I have been curious how sanderson would tackle this book while keeping Jordans vision and voice intact. So far so good. Sanderson seems to be able to tell the story well keeping the feel and characters very much as Jordan created them its exciting to read a new voice in the pages as well. As a longtime fan of Jordan I think the final volume of the series looks to be one of the best. As a result of this prolouge I will definately be reading The Gethering Storm. Sanderson has removed all doubts for me.

I had forgotten how much I had missed Robert Jordan, and Brandon Sanderson helped me remeber. The only problem I have with the prologue is that it has made it more difficult for me to wait for the actual book release.

I finished this prologue very quickly. It was over so fast that I was surprised it was not free.

On a side note, the writing seems very true to Robert's style. Frequent sentence fragments and other mistakes had me thinking that the books will feel right. I'm excited for the book, but this should have been a give away.

I bought this on my iTouch iPod for the Kindle application and was sorely disappointed when it was only the Prologue of the book. No where in the title, or the description, does it say that it is only the Prologue. Since the picture of the book cover is very small on the iTouch, I couldn't see it there. Instead, I just bought this assuming that it was the full book, just under a different name.

It would have been very helpful if any mention that this was only the Prologue was in the book description. I will, if I use Amazon again, pay much more attention to details. I really don't see how they can get away with just selling the Prologue of a book..

In any case, this is not worth the price and a complete waste space on your iTouch or Kindle. You are better off buying the whole book when it comes out for Kindle instead.

cant get the ebook from Amazon without kindle - and why would i want one of those when I prefer a proper book? can't download from Barnes and Noble because I don't live in the continental US, come on Tor get it sorted - shame on you Amazon for making this kindle exclusive.

tempted to pull my order for the novel and other products and purchase them elsewhere in protest.

sure the prologue is excellent though and i'm jealous of those of you already enjoying it.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

I do not have a kindle and can not use this product. I have searched the site and only Kindle is available so I will get my version from Barnes and Noble. Sorry.