Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Robert Jordan

There was the usual mention of how many books. I heard three or so but then he said something else which I missed. It seemed to create a bit of buzz but I have no idea what it was.

He said he had no idea what the title of the next book was yet. Once again I did not hear the rest of what he said. I think though he said that once the title was firmly established he will let us know. Which is what he did with The Path of Daggers.

John Hamby

Problem is what little I heard was then appended by the questioner's perception of what Jordan said. So I may have gotten a few things wrong.

Overall it was the friendliest crowd of fans I have seen yet in four signings over the years. For the most part people wanted to talk and get to know one another.

The cake was good and as Mr. Novak said quite cool. I got the feeling that the powers that be at this Borders either really liked having RJ there because they were fans or because he was a #1 bestselling author. Either way they were very appreciative to have him there and have his fans there as well. If this is how they do things on a regular basis I think their author series is something not to miss.

Thanks Mr. Novak. I was not sure if that was you or not. I am glad you came prepared and got there early. Maybe next time you could vet the questions as well!

One thing about this signing I did notice. We all might be reading WoT, but damn if I would recognize it by some of the theories out there. My favorite had to be the voluble blonde who insisted that Egwene is the reborn soul whose previous incarnations have included (I hope I remember these all):

1. The founder of the White Tower (forget her name)
2. Caraighan Maconar
3. Mabriam en Shareed
4. & 5. Two women named in the frontpieces of two of the books, but I don't remember which ones.
6. Rashima Kerenmosa
7. Kirukin (the Trolloc Queen; she was rather excited since she was mentioned again in the new book.
8. Deane Aryman (this one was the last I recognized)

I think she also was trying to decide if the three strong Amyrlins mentioned in the new book were also a part of this ongoing heroic chain.

Did you catch any of that J Novak? We were rather close to the table when she was going into great depth on the various clues she thinks existed for each case. More amusing were the wide-eyed looks from those standing by her.

Oh well, a good time was had by everyone from what I saw. Oh, except the lady who rather loudly started bitching because the people seated towards the center got to go up first even though "we were in the line before they were". This got repeated at least twenty times in five minutes. I guess she thought those ten people were going to make a world of difference.

Thanks again Mr. Novak. Hopefully this will set a trend for the future signings. A geographical breakdown perhaps. Boye and Bergman can fight it out for who gets the NY territory.

JSH