I hadn't noticed anyone posting this here so...

Quote:

Sad news from the world of fantasy literature. Robert Jordan, known best as the author of the “Wheel of Time” series of books, died on the afternoon of Sunday September 16th after more than a year battling cardiac amyloidosis. The news comes from a message left on the author’s blog. The site says, “”It is with great sadness that I tell you that the Dragon is gone. RJ left us today at 2:45 PM. He fought a valiant fight against this most horrid disease. In the end, he left peacefully and in no pain.” Funeral arrangements will be posted later on the blog, and for fans interesting in sending his family their best wishes, the comments section on Jordan’s there seems to be the place to do it. Robert Jordan was a prominent voice in modern fantasy literature. The author’s massive Wheel of Time series has long been a top seller, and with his death he leaves the series’ twelfth book unfinished and his story painfully incomplete. It was the twelfth book which was supposed to end the series, finally finishing the story of Rand al’ Thor and his friends, a finale in the making since the publishing of the first WoT book “The Eye of the World” back in 1990. As someone who’s read all eleven books, this hurts. Not just because now we’ll never know how 17 years worth of character development ends, but because Jordan seemed like a genuinely good person who loved what he was doing and loved his fans. Right now my thoughts are with his family and friends, but from now on whenever I look at his spot on my bookshelf it’ll always be to selfishly wonder what might have been.

http://www.cinemablend.com/celebrity/Wheel-Of...-6375.html

I've been irked by Jordan for years, ever since that ridiculous Path of Daggers (or was it Winter's Heart) book where he appeared to decide that he was simply going to turn the series into a cash cow and milk it for all it was worth. Of course now I will wonder if he was already being affected by his disease. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the first 5 books of his series and always thought he seemed to be a decent human being, my condolences to his family and friends.

Thanks Russ, for posting this. I almost gave up on Jordan during Crossroads of Twilight (where NOTHING happens for 1200 pages!), but had just gotten around to forgiving him and getting back into the books (the first five of which, as you mentioned, were very good, with an amazing metaphorical and symbolic depth; well, to me at least...). I am as much distraught for the loss of a (for better or worse) leader in the field and a good writer as I am at the thought that we'll never get the finale that Jordan wanted to show us.

Zak

Wow. I suspected that this would happen, but it still hurts. I have loved this series ever since I started it nearly 6 years ago. I read all of the books that were out at that point over the course of one summer and voraciously devoured the new ones.

From what I can gather things do look hopeful for the series. I hope that this is true, as I dearly want to know how it ends.

It's my understanding that Jordan claimed, at least, to have the ending in mind from the time that he wrote the first book. If that was the case one can't help wondering if he knew that his demise was imminent if he might not have put down some notes or something. If. A big if. I'm guessing someone will finish the series there's to much money to be made for it not to happen. Hopefully they will do a good job with it. Jordan did convince me that I would never start an unfinished series again... and then I friggin started freading Martin's work... :wtf:

I keep hoping I'll see another note where he's on and states that the rumors of his demise are much overstated, as he had to do several years ago when he had supposedly been run over by a bus.

The last I had heard was that he was working on two prequel novels as well as the final book, which to me leaves a bit less hope for anything more than a detailed outline. Considering how many threads were left unresolved at the end of the last book, well, it kinda hurts.

Russ, I'm with you, but if its not a hoax, the genre has lost a very good writer and many others have lost a good friend.

Jean, the first five are great, and then the scope of what he is trying to do really opens up, which causes a lot of changes that a lot of people didn't care for. Towards the end, it seemed that he wanted to squeeze in another couple of sub-plots that didn't need to be there, which makes this all the more painful - he really was ambitious as to the scale of the project.
Zak

I also gave up after five or six volumes... I just about had it with the repetition of the Aes Sedai tugging on her braid every other page... the first three volumes held up quite well with a few interesting turns here and there, a wink of the eye towards north american indian culture mixed in with the usual rogues, orcs and gypsies, with the spice of princes & princesses mulled with magic and matriarchy, but then it just got repetitive. As the series went on (and on) I sometimes wondered if it got back on track but decided to spend my reading hours otherwise (Cornwell, Whyte et al) where the story line was quasi-historical and things got wrapped up in three or four volumes. I'm sorry for Mr. Jordan's passing and hope that his loved ones find solace in the thought that he enjoyed to the fullest his turn in the Wheel of Time.

I, too, gave up on the series after abandoning Crossroads of Twilight mid-way through. I found myself wishing that he would just go ahead and finish it up, and getting frustrated that he would continue to write prequels and the like when the main storyline of WoT became stagnant. I remember the thought crossing my mind that he would pass away before finishing it (not hoping he would do so, of course.).

It's sad that he left such a great deal of his life's work unfinished. As we are often shaped by the work that we do, I hope that his legacy won't entirely focus on the fact that WoT will likely remain incomplete. My thoughts go out to his family. And, I'll drink to the memories that the first 5 books left me with, and also know that RJ is not suffering from his illness anymore.

That's unfortunate. I gave up on the series after it became clear that it was an endless string of pointless side quests with no overall movement towards resolution, but I had planned to go back and read them again once the series was completed.

Let this be a lesson to all writers! If you have a story to tell, tell it! Do not drag it out unnecessarily just to milk your audience for more money. For your thread may be cut, and your legacy will remain forever incomplete.

But lest I lose perspective and dwell too much on the literary aspect, I will remember that a man has died of a horrible disease. My thoughts are with his family.

According to my wife (who is a huge fanatic of Robert Jordan's) he had the last book more than half written at the timeof his death and had told his sister and brother-in-law how it was supposed to end. I think give this that there is a more than reasonable chance for us to see the final book.

It is sad to hear of the death of any good writer, though I have only read a few of his works. I have the WoT series at home but I have not read them as of yet. He was not one of my favs.
My most read books is by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) , Robert E. Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936), Elizabeth Moon, or Gardner F Fox.

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And no, I'm not THAT old.