The Gathering Storm release party

So, as you’ve been following my blog you know I’m a big fan of the Wheel of Time and was excited for the first of the final 3 books to be released. Well, I decided I would actually head down to the official release party held at the BYU Book Store at midnight where Brandon Sanderson was signing and numbering copies of the book.

I’ve been really sick, so I also had to weigh that with my desire to go, so I ended up going, just later than I had originally intended so I wouldn’t have to hang out in line for as long. So I got down there at about 10:30pm.

I got in the store and they were having everyone pre-purchase the book, which I did, and then I asked where I was supposed to go get in line. I could see the line, but it was wound too crazy to see where it ended. It turns out that it was back in the sports apparel area, so I headed back. To make a long story short, I waited in line until midnight or so. They had some trivia games and stuff to keep us entertained.

  

At midnight, they started giving out the books. Brandon Sanderson had already signed and numbered them, so as the line moved you showed your receipt and number that had been assigned based on your spot in line and they gave you the book with that number. I was number #684.

 

It took about 15 minutes before movement in the line was noticed where we were at, but once we started moving it moved fairly steadily. I got my book at about 12:45am at which point I could join another line to get a personalization by Brandon, or just leave. I chose to go home… I figure I’ll see Brandon again out here and have plenty of chances to get it personalized, plus, I already wasn’t going to get into bed until 1:30am and I had to leave for work by 7 or 7:30.

Here are a few of the things we got for showing up…

 

Bumper Stickers

The signed book… They also printed Robert Jordan’s signature in it, which was cool.

The Wheel Turns

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

Early in 1990 a book was released by little known author, Robert Jordan. The book was known as The Eye of the World, book 1 of the Wheel of Time. The book gained quickly in popularity and only a year later book 2, The Great Hunt was released. It was sometime between then and 1992 that I first read the Eye of the World. The book completely blew my mind and changed me forever. I quickly got the 2nd one and after just a short wait was able to follow Rand as he made his way to the Heart of the Stone in Tear in the Dragon Reborn (book 3).

Sadly the frequency of book releases slowed down after book 3, but the store rose to crashing crescendos, especially epic battle scenes in The Lord of Chaos (book 6). Jordan, had built an entire world and some of the later books suffered from just the sheer number of characters and locations, but the story demanded it. This was no simple adventure tale along the lines of Dave Eddings (not that there is anything wrong with a story like that), it was far more advanced and in-depth.

The story began winding its way to it’s close when the devastating news that Robert Jordan was ill with a fatal disease. He wouldn’t live to finish his tale. Luckily he and his wife were able to plan and prepare for this and work towards the end of the series. After Robert Jordan’s passing Utah’s own Brandon Sanderson was chosen to finish the series based on the work Jordan had already completed in the last book, as well as his extensive notes and recorded commentary about what was supposed to happen.

As Sanderson worked on the last book, its length dictated that it would be around 1,000,000 words, way too large to print in a single volume. The decision was made to split the final volume into 3 books. The first of those books, The Gathering Storm, is coming out next week.

In order to prepare, I’ve been reading the Tor.com reread by Leigh Butler. Those of us who have been following the Wheel of Time forever know her from the old usenet days on rasfwr-j and as the keeper of the FAQ. It’s very interesting to read, it’s especially interesting to read a raging feminist views on topics which certainly fit into a medieval setting but certainly don’t fit in their worldview. You can check that out here.

I’m really glad to see the Wheel of Time coming to a close, I’ve read and loved this series almost my whole life. Certainly who whole adult life. I still believe it will end up being the greatest series of all time.

News Feed for BYU Sports

I’m testing out a feed on my site for BYU sports.

Default Fonts

A quick note if you’re a developer at your job, and you’re working on some web development projects, including CSS. You should make sure that your default font settings in Firefox are not set in such a way that there is a minimum font size selected, that is somewhat large. You tend to make things smaller than you intended to, if you can’t actually see how small it’s getting.