Covering the Cover - A Memory of Light

Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series has been a work in process for well over 20 years now.  The cover artist for the first 13 books in the series was Darrell K. Sweet, who unfortunately passed away on December 5, 2011, before finishing the cover art for the final volume of The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, who was chosen to continue Jordan's work after he passed away in 2007.  While fans of the series were often divided on the merits of Sweet's work on the various covers over the years, I think most people were sad that he was unable to finish the series that he had devoted so much of his time to over the years.

In February of 2012 Tor.com announced that Michael Whelan had been chosen to create the cover art for A Memory of Light. Michael Whelan is an award-winning science-fiction and fantasy artist who has done some stunning and  amazing work during his long career, including cover art for some of the biggest names in the industry such as Stephen King, Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey and Melanie Rawn, and is also one of my favorite artists.

Today Tor was able to reveal the final cover art, which Wheel of Time fans have been dying to see for months, along with some of Michael's thoughts and sketches as he worked through the project.

 

Michael Whelan manages to capture the style and feeling of some of the previous covers created by Darrell K. Sweet, but at the same time this is unmistakeably a Whelan cover, exuding the light and inner glow that so characterizes many of Whelan's best works.  I personally think it is stunning and simply cannot stop staring at it.

Here's the full wrap-around piece:

 

I love it!

What do you think?