Yeah, Nick and I get a ton of ARCs. It will be interesting to see if we get a WAY OF KINGS review copy. I mean, I've already read it and all...
guessingo--Yeah, the book needs to be completely finished before it is published. Publishing an unfinished book would be a bad thing...it would be like the movie Elf where the guy publishes a kids book without the last page.
As for reviews, if ARCS have been sent out, the book is going to be released 99% of the time. If it gets bad reviews, it gets bad reviews. Typically however, certain books will be sent to places where they get favorable reviews. Brandon's novel will probably be sent to places that really like SF & F, and places that liked his prior novels. His novel will probably be sent to people who will say, "This novel is what WoT fans should be reading with their Robert Jordan novels." I got to be a reviewer because my good buddy Nick and I decided to start a review blog. I then contacted all the industry contacts I had and told them what I was doing (they all jumped for joy and sent a bajillion ARCs).
As for Brandon's class at BYU, who the heck knows why they dont want the classes posted online. It's really the University's business, and I can see possible motives. For his class, Brandon usually has the class pick a few novels to read. I've seen Elantris, Sabriel, Mistborn, Old Man's War, Name of the Wind, and some other random SF novels. Usually the class picks novels that are important to the concepts Brandon wants to discuss in class. If you want to know what he talks about, go to Writing Excuses where Brandon, Dan Wells and Howard Tayler podcast a bunch of writing tips and stuff.