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The Gathering Storm is the title of the twelfth book if the The Wheel of Time fantasy series. It was incomplete at the time of the death of its author, Robert Jordan, who died on September 16, 2007 from cardiac amyloidosis, having written 50,000 words of the final book. His widow Harriet McDougal and publisher Tom Doherty chose to continue the book posthumously. Brandon Sanderson was then chosen to finish writing the book.

Jordan had originally intended to finish the series in a single volume titled A Memory of Light, but when Sanderson began writing the book it became clear a split was required as it was believed a single volume would be too large to print. The book was then split into three volumes; The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light. The books would be published a year apart with the first volume, The Gathering Storm, published on October 27, 2009; a week earlier than originally announced.

The three books will together encompass what can be considered Jordan's final vision of the series. In the foreword of the first book Sanderson had stated that they can be thought of as three separate books or three volumes in a trilogy. He also commented on the differing writing style, suggesting that it could be compared to different film directors directing the same script.

Synopsis
The series' storyline has been leading up to the "Last Battle" (Tarmon Gai'don); a fight between the forces of Light and Shadow. According to prophecy in the series the primary protagonist Rand al'Thor, as the Dragon Reborn, will "fight the [battle]", and must be present for the forces of Light to have a chance at winning.

The book follows many plot threads but focuses primarily on two characters, Rand al'Thor and Egwene al'Vere. It follows al'Thor's attempts to unite and rally the world's forces for the Last Battle, it also addresses his struggle with sanity following the events of the series. The unification of White Tower is addressed from al'Vere's perspective, as well as the exposure of the Black Ajah, a secretive faction of Darkfriends within the story.

Plot summary
The Gathering Storm centres on the stories of two characters, primary protagonist Rand al'Thor and the character Egwene al'Vere. While the stories of some main characters such as Perrin Aybara and Mat Cauthon are briefly touched upon, they have little bearing on the main plotline. Some main characters such as Elayne Trakand and Lan Mandragoran do not appear at all, but are referenced.

Rand al'Thor's story begins in Arad Doman, restoring order while searching for the Forsaken Graendal. The Aes Sedai working with Rand interrogate Semirhage, but she is freed by Shaidar Haran. She takes the domination band, an item used to control male channelers, and locks it around Rand's neck. She and Black sister Elza Penfell use it to make him torture and attempt to kill his lover, Min Farshaw. Unable to touch saidin, he reaches out and embraces the True Power, using it free himself and kill Semirhage and Elza. After this, he resolves to make himself harder and emotionless. He banishes Cadsuane for not securing the domination band; promising to kill her if he sees her face again.

Graendal's hiding place is eventually traced to a remote palace. Confirming her presence, Rand uses the Choedan Kal, a powerful sa'angreal, to eliminate the entire building with balefire. This horrifies Min and Nynaeve al'Meara and they turn to Cadsuane for help. Rand gives up on saving Arad Doman from the Seanchan and starvation, and returns to Tear.

The second main plot thread follows Egwene al'Vere, leader of the rebel faction of Aes Sedai. After her capture by the White Tower in the previous book, Egwene works to gain support against Elaida a'Roihan's rule and the strife it is causing between the Ajahs in the White Tower. While initially granted freedom of the tower as novice but after denouncing Elaida as a coward and a tyrant, she is sentenced to imprisonment. She is eventually released and instead the Mistress of Novices, Silviana Brehon, was scapegoated for failing to control Egwene's behavior.

Egwene returns to her room to find Verin Mathwin waiting for her, who announces that she is of the Black Ajah, but admits she was forced to swear fealty to them or face death. Verin chose to use the position to research the Ajah, she had sworn an unbreakable oath that she could not betray them "until the hour of my death". Fatally poisoning herself she is able to use her last hour to reveal everything she has learned to Egwene, giving her a journal detailing the group's structure and nearly every member.

The Seanchan then raid the White Tower. The fractured state of the tower prevents an effective defense and many Aes Sedai are captured or killed before Egwene, leading a group of novices and succeeds in driving. Siuan Sanche, Gawyn Trakand and Gareth Bryne mount a rescue for Egwene; they find her nearly unconscious from exhaustion, and proceed to extract her against her wishes. When Egwene awakens in the camp, she complains that they may have ruined her chances to gain credit among the Tower loyalists for defeating the Seanchan.

Using the information provided by Verin, Egwene begins to expose the Black Ajah among the rebels, requiring every sister to re-swear her allegiances. Fifty sisters are exposed and executed, while twenty are able to escape. While the White Tower is weakened following the Seanchan raid, the rebels prepare an immediate attack on the White Tower. Just before the attack is mounted, the Tower Aes Sedai announce that Elaida was captured in the Seanchan raid, and that they would have Egwene as their leader, the "Amyrlin Seat". She appoints Silviana as her Keeper as a gesture to the Red Ajah. The rebels return, and they begin rebuilding the Tower.

Nynaeve, under the instruction of Cadsuane, locates Tam al'Thor, Rand's father, to meet with Rand in an attempt to break his emotional isolation. Rand becomes angry when he learns that Tam was sent by Cadsuane, nearly kills his father before fleeing in horror at what he had almost done. Rand Travels to Ebou Dar, intending to destroy the entire Seanchan army, but he becomes reluctant to act after seeing how peaceful the city is. Nearly mad with rage and grief, he Travels to the top of Dragonmount, the location he killed himself in a past life. Angry at the futility of life bound to the Wheel and its repeating pattern, he uses Choedan Kal to draw enough power to destroy the world. Lews Therin, a voice in Rand's head from his past life, suggests that by being reborn to the same life one has the opportunity to do things right. Agreeing, Rand turns the power of Choedan Kal against itself, destroying it. Rand is finally able to laugh again.

Robert Jordan, illness and death (2005-2007)
James Oliver Rigney, Jr., under the pen name Robert Jordan, began writing the intended final book, A Memory of Light, before the release of the previous book Knife of Dreams in 2005. Scheduled for publication by Tor Books in 2009, it was intended to conclude the series, which began in 1990 with The Eye of the World, originally intended as series of four or five books. According to Forbes, Jordan had intended for it to be the final book "even if it reaches 2,000 pages." After Jordan fell fatally ill in December 2005 from a rare blood disease, cardiac amyloidosis, he still intended to finish at least A Memory of Light, and thus the main story arc, if the "worse comes to worst." Later he made preparations in case he was not able to finish the book, "I'm getting out notes, so if the worst actually happens, someone could finish A Memory of Light and have it end the way I want it to end."

The book was not completed at the time of Jordan's death on September 16, 2007. His widow Harriet McDougal and his publisher, Tor Books president Tom Doherty made the decision to have the book completed posthumously, with McDougal saying "I am sad to see the series end. But I would be far more distressed to leave it unfinished, incomplete and dangling forever."

On December 11, 2007, 4 months after Jordan's death, it was announced that McDougal had chosen Brandon Sanderson to finish the final book in the series, although the decision itself had been made the preceding month. Sanderson had been chosen partly because McDougal had read and liked his novels, and partly because of a eulogy he had written for Jordan. McDougal later expanded on her reasons "I do think [he] has a natural feeling for the ethical and moral issues of life."

Jordan had also intended to write several "outrigger" books continuing the story beyond the conclusion of the main series, but it is not known if these will ever be published.

Brandon Sanderson, split and The Gathering Storm (2007-2009)
Brandon Sanderson was devastated by the news of Jordan's death; he has been a fan of the series since he was 15 years old and he cites Jordan as an inspiration. He is known for the novel Elantris and the Mistborn series. He did not want to imitate Jordan's style as he felt it would "turn into parody."

Sanderson said in an interview with Sci Fi Wire that it was a great honor to be given the chance to complete the series but stated "To be perfectly honest, I can't fill [Jordan's] shoes." Some parts of the book were nearly finished by Jordan, while others have only a couple of paragraphs to describe a twenty page scene, but he describes Jordan's notes as "amazing." He later elaborated that "the amount of material [Jordan] left behind is what makes this book possible." Through February 2008 Sanderson reread the entire series, posting his impressions of each book on his blog.

When writing the book Sanderson was assisted buy Maria Simons, Jordan's assistant before his death and "right arm", and Alan Romanczuk, the series continuity manager, together known as "Team Jordan". Sanderson eventually dedicated the book to them, stating "without whom this book wouldn't have been possible."

It was confirmed at a panel at the 2008 World Science Fiction Convention that Jordan had completed 50,000 words of the book before he died, with the largest sections of complete text being the prologue and the end. Whilst Sanderson was working to a target of 400,000 words by the end of December 2008 early in his work on the final book, Sanderson later estimated the final length of A Memory of Light to be at least 700,000 words.

Information emerged on the Internet pertaining to the book, with a draft cover suggesting it was to be split into volumes. On March 30, 2009 Tor Books confirmed A Memory of Light was to be split into three volumes the first of which, The Gathering Storm, will be released on November 3, 2009. This date was later changed to October 27, 2009, a week earlier than planned.

Although Jordan himself had promised only a single book, according to Sanderson neither Jordan's widow nor Doherty believed he could achieve this. Sanderson claimed that he could not do the story and characters justice with a single volume, so a split was inevitable. The decision was made to split the final book into three separate volumes, rather than two, so that a reasonably sized and unfractured volume could be released at the promised November 2009 date. Sanderson has stated that had the book remained as a single volume, it would not have been able to be released before November 2011, and likely would have been so large as to be unpublishable.

The first volume was originally intended to be titled A Memory of Light: Gathering Clouds. The other volumes had working subtitles of Shifting Winds and Tarmon Gai'don for the second and third installments respectively. At the point the title A Memory of Light was dropped because book stores were worried it would be confusing, Sanderson decided the subtitle Gathering Clouds was "too generic, too basic" to be used as a title on its own. McDougal decided upon The Gathering Storm based on suggestions from Doherty. Sanderson states he considers the name to be "one of the more bland Wheel of Time titles."

Release (2009 onwards)
Leading up to the release of The Gathering Storm, Tor released several samples of the book. The first and second chapters were released for free on September 4 and September 23. An e-book of the prologue, "What the Storm Means", was released for purchase on September 17, 2009. Before the release, the final titles of the last two books were also revealed to be Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light for the thirteenth and fourteenth books respectively. Sanderson felt using A Memory of Light for the final book was "the best way to honor Mr. Jordan's wishes."

The Gathering Storm was released on October 27, 2009, with an initial print run of one million books. Sanderson supported the release with a 25 city book signing tour, with McDougal attending some events. The first event in the tour was a midnight release party in Provo, Utah with several hundred fans of the series attending. An unabridged audiobook was released, produced and read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer, who have so far produced all the audiobooks for the series.

The book, like the previous four books in the series, entered the top of The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction for the week of November 6, 2009; ending Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol's seven week reign.

Reception
The Gathering Storm, like the previous four books in the series, entered the top of The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction for the week of November 6, 2009; ending Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol ' s seven-week reign. It dropped to the fourth position after one week. The book sold well in the United Kingdom, selling 13,017 copies in the first week of sale according to BookScan results.

Upon the release of the book the reception was positive. It was agreed that compared to other books in the series the pace was faster. Many subplots were resolved, something Zack Handlen writing for the AV Club found satisfying, saying that the book had "a blessed willingness to tie up loose ends," something he felt Jordan had been unwilling to do. In a positive review by Seth Bracken of Deseret News he described the pace as jarring but it also "creates a sense of urgency."

Reviewers noted that Sanderson's style comes through in certain ways, Handlen felt Sanderson's prose "lacks some of the descriptive punch" compared to Jordan's. The Michael D'Croz writing for the Lincoln Journal Star went on to say Sanderson's "voice comes through in certain ways", describing the book as the "ultimate fan fiction."

Themes
There are several themes based on current world events and issues such as torture. Co-author Brandon Sanderson, who was chosen to complete the book partially because of his understanding of ethical and moral issues, has admitted in an interview with Wired that these were on his mind but he was not intentionally making a political allegory. Going on to say "fantasy is, at its very core, inherently representative." He also described laughter as a theme for the book, with the main character himself being unable to laugh, "We’ve got the terrible laughter and the full, joyful laughter, and poor Rand's silence in the middle."


 * comedy
 * taint
 * gender politics