Prolific fantasy author James Oliver Rigney (Robert Jordan) passed away this sunday after battling cardiac amyloidosis "stiff heart syndrome" for more than a year. Though not complete, substantial notes exist to bring the final novel in his popular Wheel of Time series, "A Memory of Light", to shelves.
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Where I may not have read more than the first book myself, it's easy to admire the ambition of Robert Jordan. Each of the 11 current novels have no less than 600 pages. And "A Memory of Light" could very well play host to more than 1500. Reading a Jordan novel was an epic encounter with the written word.

Fantasy literature will miss Robert Jordan. But atleast we'll have a large section in the fantasy aisle of most book stores to remind us.

Very sad news indeed, I just reread the series recently (one book right after the other, took me about 2 months) because i enjoyed it so much. I really hope that they are able to put out the final book, both so that i can finish the series and so his legacy ends intact.

Though not a Jordan fan it is always a loss when talented writer of the genre passes. One less dream to share, one less road to travel.

May his way be bright as his he has earned his rest.

I've been reading the Wheel of Time books for about 10 years now, this was quite a shock when I found out yesterday. It's one thing to read about his health problems, another to get slapped in the face by the trout of reality. Time to dust off the books and read the series again, this time in memory of their creator.

At 25 years of age, I've been reading Robert Jordan books since I was in 7th or 8th grade. They were a staple series that always had a space on the shelves of myself, and two other members of my family.

Although I considered many of the middle books mediocre at best, I was looking forward to his last book to hit the shelves sometime (supposedly) next year. On a purely selfish note, I hope that he left authorization for someone to continue his work based on his notes.

Regardless, it is always sad when someone passes away, especially someone of his renown.

I loved his novels when I first started reading them, but as the series preceded, I became a little tired of reading every 2 pages about how female character X smoothed her skirts that didn't need smoothing, or reading a page for every female character describing her dress color, how well it set off her eyes, how she wore her hair, etc. I didn't need to be reminded every single time that, since she was a Tarabon woman, she wore her hair in braids with beads in it. After the 20th female Tarabon character, I kinda remembered that.

The world is INCREDIBLE, and stayed that way throughout the entire series, but it seemed like, as the series went on, each book seemed to move the plot forward less and less. It felt more like every other page was generated by a clothing and hair macro package. He had an excellent story to tell, I just wanted the story to finally end.

When I read his prequel novella that was part of the Legends collection, I was blown away. The story moved, it moved fast, it came to a conclusion and BAM it was over... I didn't think he could write like that anymore! Then, instead of finishing the Wheel of Time series, he takes time out to expand that novella into a novel?! That could easily have been done after the series was done. There are limitless stories for him to tell in that world, if only he'd had more time...

The Citadel has lost one of its best alumni.

Go Dawgs!

John '88

yeah, man. This hurts. first heard of it from my [people] at wotism.net. I couldn't say too much at the time, but a little bit later one of the members said it best in a single quote.

"I will find the song, or another will find the song, but the song will be sung this year or in a year to come. As it once was, so shall it be again, world without end."

I have the read the Wheel of Time series for quite awhile now and I truely believe the author is one of the greats. I totally agree with the quote as written.

It will be with fond remembrance to the authors credit that we remember him. With deepest sympathies to his loved ones.

This is sad news indeed. I've been reading the Wheel of Time for the last year or so, and Robert Jordan has amazed me with the depth of the story. It's a terrible loss for the fantasy literature world.