Dragonmount have posted a finished version of the cover to the next Wheel of Time book, due out (fingers crossed) this October in the US. It ties in with the blurb from the cover that in part says:

Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The creatures beyond the stone gateways–the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn–have confused him, taunted him, and left him hanged, his memory stuffed with bits and pieces of other men’s lives. He had hoped that his last confrontation with them would be the end of it, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. The time is coming when he will again have to dance with the Snakes and the Foxes, playing a game that cannot be won. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost.

It irritated me that the whole Tower of Ghenjei resolution didn’t happen in volume 12 but I suppose it was necessary for the pacing of the novel (although not since the end of Tad Williams The Stone of Farewell have we been left hanging on so badly), so to see Thom with his gleeman’s cloak on appearing to unlock the entrance to the Tower with Matt and Noam/Jain Farstrider in attendance is pretty exciting.

There is an interesting blog post on Joe Abercrombie’s website that does a bit more than tell the reader he’s finished his first draft, it actually details the mechanics of how he writes. What I found interesting was how closely it tallies with what I was reading in this blog post at Bubble Cow.

Its worth a read, especially if you’ve liked the First Law trilogy or the excellent Best Served Cold or if you’re interested in the mechanics of writing.

The penultimate part of the final Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is due out this October and I just noticed that Amazon has the cover blurb up:

Desperate for help to find her adopted son, Jeremiah, Linden Avery has resurrected Thomas Covenant in a cataclysmic exertion of Earthpower and wild magic. But the consequences of her efforts are more terrible than she could have imagined. Sorcery on that scale has awakened the Worm of the World’s End: the ultimate end of all Time, and therefore of all life, has been set in motion. And on a more personal level, the results are no less extreme. The stress of reincarnation so many centuries after his death has fractured Covenant’s mind. He cannot tell Linden where to find her son. And his leprosy has renewed its grip on him, inexorably killing his nerves. The Ranyhyn had tried to warn her. Now, plunged to depths of desperation and despair for which she is entirely unprepared, Linden seeks radical responses to the dilemmas she has created. Searching for Jeremiah, and accompanied only by a few friends and allies – some of them unwilling – she takes chances that threaten her sanity, forcing her to confront the Land’s most fearsome secrets. Dreadful futures hinge on all of her choices, and she and her companions are driven beyond the limits of their endurance. Yet she still walks paths laid out for her by the Despiser, and his forces are ready . . .

The first two Chronicles are perhaps my favourite fantasy reads ever and I’ll admit so far the final series leave me torn. Perhaps 20 years is too long between the second and third series, despite what Donaldson has said about needing to develop as an author in order to be skilled enough to tackle the story, there are still some aspects I don’t like. The whole concept of the Insequent doesn’t fit comfortably with me. If a race as powerful as the Insequent has existed I can’t make sense of them not appearing in any of the preceding books.

Some of the reveals in the previous two books were pretty awesome but additionally some of the chapters also seemed like visiting the characters and creatures of the two previous trilogies to put ticks in boxes. I’m torn you see but the blurb for Against All Things Ending makes me really excited.