My old friend Brandon Sanderson (

) just got chosen to write the final chapter in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I have a special place in my heart for this series–it’s one of the first fantasy series I ever read in college, and the first series that ever had me waiting with baited breath for the book release date and then reading through the night till dawn the day after I bought the book. Though the series slowed down WAY too much for my liking in the last few books (really, can something more happen between books 8 and 11?), I still think that The Eye of the World is a classic fantasy text that writers would do well to take an example from. Jordan, who passed away this last September, did a lot to bring fantasy back into the forefront at least to the niche SFF audience, long before Harry Potter was a twinkle in J.K. Rowling’s eye.

So stop by and congratulate Brandon. He’s got quite a tall job ahead of him.