The Gathering Storm is the book twelve in Robert Jordan’s fantasy fiction series collective known as the Wheel of Time. At the time of Jordan’s death on September 16, 2007, the book was not yet completed. Jordan’s editor, Tom Doherty and his widow Harriet McDougal eventually selected Brandon Sanderson—who had already enjoyed his own success as a writer of fantasy and science fiction—to complete the book based on extensive notes left behind by Jordan. Those notes had been directed toward the original conception of the Wheel of Time to reach its conclusion following the volume which precedes this book, Knife of Dreams. Sanderson quickly realized that there was no way all the various narrative threads could be satisfactorily completed over the course of just one book without it becoming one of the longest and most unwieldy novels in history. And so, The Gathering Storm became something of a mini-trilogy by Sanderson within the much more expansive series already completed by Jordan.
Considering that the final word count of the last three novels in the series verges on one million words and the combined hardcover page count exceeds 2500, Sanderson was certainly correct in his assumption that a single final novel to bring Jordan’s vision to a close would be unwieldy to the point of probably setting some sort of record. Instead, wisely releasing the conclusion in three separate books seems not just the wisest decision, but which satisfied critics and readers alike. Upon publication, The Gathering Storm became the number one selling novel in America. Notably, considering Sanderson’s concerns about being able to bring series to a satisfying conclusion, the general consensus is that it is the volume which finally kickstarted back into higher gear a pace which had slowed considerably over the course of the three or four entries preceding it. In addition, fans were also delighted to see that subplots in which nothing new had been introduced were finally being resolved.
Although not routinely ranked among the top tier of the Wheel of Time series by fans, The Gathering Storm has managed to avoid the fate of Crossroads of Twilights by also routinely avoiding winding up in the bottom tier. Most rankings place the entry point at which Sanderson takes over from Jordan squarely in the middle five as in quality compared to the rest of the books comprising this hugely popular fantasy series mainstay.
