Robert Jordan Is Dead
He’s gone.
Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney Jr. was his real name), author of the incredible The Wheel of Time series died on Sunday of a rare blood disease. He was 58 years old.
I was about 15 years old when Krish Raghav introduced me to the series. At first I didn’t know what to make of it but I reached the chapter called Winternight in the first book The Eye of the World and I was immediately hooked. He built a whole new complex fantasy world and the best part was that it didn’t resemble The Lord of the Rings simply because he put so much effort into describing the customs and practices of each group of people in the series.
After 11 books of an epic battle between Darkness and Light, the series was set to conclude with a monstrous 2000 page final book. But Jordan’s gone. What will happen to us now?
And it shall come to pass that what men made shall be shattered, and the Shadow shall lie across the Pattern of the Age, and the Dark One shall once more lay his hand upon the world of man. Women shall weep and men quail as the nations of the earth are rent like rotting cloth. Neither shall anything stand nor abide…
Yet one shall be born to face the Shadow, born once more as he was born before and shall be born again, time without end. The Dragon shall be Reborn, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth at his rebirth. In sackcloth and ashes shall he clothe the people, and he shall break the world again by his coming, tearing apart all ties that bind. Like the unfettered dawn shall he blind us. And burn us, yet shall the Dragon Reborn confront the Shadow at the Last Battle, and his blood shall give us the Light. Let tears flow, O ye people of the world. Weep for your salvation.
–from The Karaethon Cycle:
The Prophecies of the Dragon,
As translated by Ellaine Marise’idin Alshinn,
Chief Librarian at the Court of Arafel,
In the Year of Grace 231
Of the New Era, the Third Age
September 17th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Good riddance. No more costly books that I cannot afford even though it was in Landmark’s end-season clearance sales.
September 17th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
What do you know? It’s one of the best series I’ve ever read. Totally worth the money. However I borrowed the books from Krish and Suren.
September 17th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
1500 he said, not 2000.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Wasn’t one of his family member supposed to write it in case he died? He let them know the plots, didn’t he?
September 17th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Yes, that’s what he said.
I’m sure he said 2000 plus pages.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Just a few pages mentioning who dies, who lives, who is maimed, who wins and who loses are enough for me.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Not good enough. I want answers to every single thing that happened and only Jordan can do that.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
[...] Marc: Remember what you said Vijayalayan said? Well, [...]
November 9th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Count me in as a fellow mourner – Wheel of Time was one of the best series I ever read.
November 9th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I would give that distinction to the Night’s Dawn Trilogy but the Wheel of Time was a grand and complex world that is amazing in its own way.