Today is the day of the first two events, since the mass market release of the previous book (Toll the Hounds) is already being shipped to selected few.

Here’s the prologue and the cover.

Yet, I no longer regret. For this is as it should be. After all, war knows no other language. In war we invite our own destruction. In war we punish our children with a broken legacy of blood.
He understood now. The gods of war and what they meant, what their very existence signified. And as he stared upon those jade suns searing ever closer, he was overwhelmed by the futility hiding behind all this arrogance, this mindless conceit.
See us wave our banners of hate.
See where it gets us.
A final war had begun. Facing an enemy against whom no defense was possible. Neither words nor deeds could fool this clear-eyed arbiter. Immune to lies, indifferent to excuses and vapid discourses on necessity, on the weighing of two evils and the facile righteousness of choosing the lesser one – and yes, these were the arguments he was hearing, empty as the ether they traveled.

As always, this was followed by my usual rant about the cover (bring me Komarck or Swanland, this “guy on a horse with both guy and horse smiling at the camera under sunset” is as generic and unsubstantial as it could be).

But then another event promptly reminded me that things could be worse. MUCH worse:
– Jordan’s last book to be completed by Brandon Sanderson won’t be just split in two like all bad omens used to tell us, but in THREE. And the cover couldn’t be more hideous.

EDIT: Beside the diplomacy, Sanderson doesn’t sound too happy either.