Date: 2013-01-11
Type: Verbatim
Reporter: tiffranosaurusrex
When I received my book a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Sanderson offered to answer questions about A Memory of Light to thank me for not revealing anything. I’m posting them here for you people :). Before you all say “Why didn’t you ask _____?!”, when I finished the book, it was late at night and I was extremely overtired from reading all night. This is what came to mind at the time. Also, I didn’t want to pester him with too many questions so I had decided ahead of time to limit myself to four.
Why the decision to leave out the glossary at the end?
Harriet suggested this. She liked the idea of RJ’s words being the last ones in the series, and felt that it was right.
What did the other letters Verin sent say?
This is one of those I’d rather not answer, as I wish to leave it to fan discussion.
Why didn’t Rand immediately find Mat and put him in charge of the armies?
Rand knew where Mat was (the visions.) Therefore, he knew that Mat was with the Seanchan—so in going to find them, and bring them into the battle, he was doing just that. (To an extent.) Also, he understands that with Mat—unlike Perrin—swooping in and ordering him about is a good way to get Mat going the opposite direction. However, Mat also finds his way to where he needs to be. So, Rand decided to let the Pattern work on Mat, and instead focused on preparing Perrin .
If you had to think into the future of Randland, what do you picture the remaining heroes doing?
Well, in RJ’s notes, Perrin was to be involved in the Outriggers (which would be the story of Mat and Tuon in Seanchan.) So Perrin would make his way there, eventually. (I don’t know how that would have worked with Perrin’s new obligations.) From here, I stray away from canon (meaning what RJ wanted) and into my own imaginings. I imagine that Rand went to see the world, becoming like Jain Farstrider. Min joined him, and they saw the world. Aviendha and Elayne spent decades, maybe centuries, leading their own people before retiring to join the other two.
I’m very satisfied with his answer to the last question. It’s basically what I had imagined for Rand myself.
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