RIP Robert Jordan/James Rigney

[Jeff]

http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/en...004990000.html

Wheel of Time Author Robert Jordan Dies

Mon Sep 17,10:25 AM ET


Author Robert Jordan, whose "Wheel of Time" series of fantasy novels sold millions of copies, has died of a rare blood disease, his aide said Monday. He was 58.
Jordan, whose real name was James Oliver Rigney Jr., died Sunday at the Medical University of South Carolina of complications from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy, his personal assistant, Maria Simons, said. The disease attacks the body's major organs; in Jordan's case, it caused the walls of his heart to thicken.
He wrote a trilogy of historical novels set in Charleston under the pen name Reagan O'Neal in the early 1980s. Then he turned his attention to fantasy and the first volume in his Wheel of Time epic, "The Eye of the World," was published in 1990 under the name Robert Jordan.
Jordan's books tells of Rand al'Thor, who is destined to become the champion who will battle ultimate evil in a mythical land. Book 11, "Knife of Dreams," came out in 2005; there was also a prequel, "New Spring: The Novel," in 2004. The other titles in the series include "The Great Hunt," "Lord of Chaos" and "The Path of Daggers." Jordan was working on a 12th volume at the time of his death, Simons said.

He is survived by his wife, Harriet McDougal Rigney.

http://www.dragonmount.com/

[WhiteCrow]

Bugger - I started reading his (Robert Jordans) books in 1993, and thought he was taking his time writing them.

I read an interview with him once which said that on his death his hard disk is to be wiped and smashed, so this means we'll never know the final ending.

Thank God I stopped reading at book 7, waiting until he'd finished the saga. I'm a bit annoyed with him to be honest for not finishing it.

[Jeff]

Sad news, though not unexpected. I have been following his fight in his blog since almost the beginning. I hope if I am ever faced with such adversity, I have the strength and dignity that he did.

[Jeff]

Bugger - I started reading his (Robert Jordans) books in 1993, and thought he was taking his time writing them.

I read an interview with him once which said that on his death his hard disk is to be wiped and smashed, so this means we'll never know the final ending.

Thank God I stopped reading at book 7, waiting until he'd finished the saga. I'm a bit annoyed with him to be honest for not finishing it.

Thats not true. Although he may have said that in an interview once, I don't know about that, he has left extensive notes and indeed, his cousin Wilson wrote in his blog just last week that RJ told him and Harriet the rest of the story to assist them in writing it after he was gone. In fact he was working on the final book throughout his illness, making the bio at the end of his books almost literally true: "He has been writing since 1977 and intends to continue until they nail shut his coffin"

[SiHart]

That's very sad. I've never read any of his stuff, but I know it's incredibly popular. 58 is no age to die these days.

Si xx

[Paul Clement]

That's really terrible news, especially after his having such positive news about his Lambda Light Chains as recently as December 2006.
I've tried to access the Blog on dragonmount.com, but no luck.

[Jeff]

Yeah, I read the blog earlier and then typed out a long message and the server was down when I hit send, and I didn't save it, so I don't guess it posted. It will probably be clogged all day from too much traffic. They don't have the resources to handle that much at once.

[Paul Clement]

I'd describe him as being the best Fantasy writer we've had in the last thirty years at least. His stories had so much going ion in them, I've no idea how he managed to keep track of all the plot strands.

[Jeff]

People complain about how slow moving and 'padded' the later books were, but I don't think RJ ever lost the plot, or was padding them on purpose. He was just making them very detailed.. building his fantasy world and enriching it. I know a lot of people were turned off by the lack of action, but I think he always knew what he was doing. It sounds like he knew how it would all end even when he first began. He may not be the most critically renowned fantasy author, but he is my favorite, and has been since I first discovered The Eye of the World back in the summer of 1991.

[WhiteCrow]

Books 1-5 were a revelation to me, and were company during a dark phase of my life, for which I'll alway be grateful to him.

I really liked his books, but just wish the saga had been a bit more condensed.

[Rob McCow]

Only 58!

That's terrible. Very sad.

[Arisia]

The Wheel of Time series was one of those on my "I really should get around to reading those sometime" list. It sounds like he has left his legacy in caring hands.