After waiting for aDwD from GRRM these past years, and his attitude towards people who ask about it on his blog, it's very refreshing to follow along with an author like Brandon Sanderson. It has made a big enough impression on me that when Mr. Sanderson publishes Book 1 in his 10 book series I will be at the store to buy it the day it is released. When GRRM starts his next series after aSoIaF I'll pass.
It is my opinion that GRRM treats us like pesky fans. Brandon Sanderson, however, treats us like customers, and for that he has earned my loyalty.
Publius - I couldn't agree with you more. Just this last week I have decided I can no longer recommend friends read GRRM. I've lost faith in him finishing ADWD anytime before 2012 and he seems to have no interest in ever finishing ASOIAF. Too Bad.
Now compare that to Sanderson. He is a prolific writer, he actually enjoys writing, doesn't really have other hobbies to distract him, keeps his work load manageable, keeps his fans/customers abreast of his progress, and on and on and on. What a HUGE difference. That is why I don't recommend GRRM to anyone any more, but I'm always suggesting people try Sanderson's books.
And since this thread is about splitting AMOL, I'll add my opinion on that, just to keep things on topic.
It would be nice to get the rest of WoT at once (one book), but it seems like it's pretty much a done deal that the book will be split. Brandon has stated that AMOL will end up being close to 750K words. The chances of TOR publishing that much in one volume are practically zero. Brandon has said he would ask TOR to print a special edition with both volumes in one, if AMOL is split. I believe that special edition would come out after AMOL volume 2 is published, and that's the best we can hope for ever seeing AMOL printed in one volume.
I like to think of myself as an optimist, so I'm just focusing on the good things that would come out of AMOL being split.
1 - Completing the final draft and review of half the book should take less time than the full book. Hopefully this results in volume 1 being released a little bit earlier than it would take to release the entire book. The sooner I can read more of WoT the better!
2 - I love reading WoT. I really want to find out how it ends, but at the same time I've LOVED the journey. Having AMOL split would just lengthen the wonderful journey that is the WoT!
Hopefully the release dates of the volumes will be VERY close to each other. Like within a month or two!