Robert Jordan is gone

[Mouseferatu]

http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/

I'll admit, I've never read any Wheel of Time. I wanted to wait until the series was completed before picking it up. Still, I feel bad for the fans who may never know how it would have ended, and for Jordan himself, for being unable to finish the tale he wanted to tell.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Damn.

I wasn't really a fan of the books at all, to the point of almost hate...but damn. Things like this are never good to hear about.

 

[trancejeremy]

Wow. I gave up about 6 books into WoT, but always meaning to finish once he finished the series

OTOH, I think L Ron Hubbard died about halfway into his dodecalogy (whose name escapes me), and yet those mysteriously kept coming out. If he left enough notes, there have been enough "clones" over the last several years that someone could finish it. Sean Russell, for instance, an very talented author in his own right, had a very WoT-ish trilogy

 

[Hand of Evil]

He was in poor health for a long time.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Sad news indeed.

 

[Acid_crash]

They'll probably release the last book someday, somehow, hopefully, putting together his notes...

but if the last book never gets released, well...

this news of his death and all is just deperessing.

 

[Rackhir]

I'm sorry the guy's dead, but he did have plenty of opportunity to have finished the series. The last 4-5 books that came over something like the last 10 years or so could easily have been compacted into a single (admittedly long) book (though no longer than any other in the series). If he was in fact going to finish the series in the next book (personally, I doubt it) then there ought to be sufficient notes for at the worst a "Lost Tales" kind of book that puts the notes together into a volume.

If this had happened 5 or 6 books ago, I'd be crushed. After 4 books and 10 years or so when essentially nothing has happened. I just don't really care any more.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I personally think it sucks. He may have lost the way for a time (though I tend to blame a lack of editorial control) but I had heard the eleventh book was back on track. Even if he didn't have this huge series, I think losing a well known author in the sci-fi fantasy genre isn't any good.

I had heard he dictated notes to his wife as well as other authors. While I'm sorry for her loss, I hope she is not the editor or writer of the book, as her tenure as Jordan's (well, Rigney's) editor was when things went downhill fast, I think.

 

[Enforcer]

There's a similar thread in the General RPG forum.

Apparently he told a cousin how it all ends, so let's hope we at least get a brief summary somehow.

This is emotional. Not emotional on the level of a personal loss, but still emotional. I loved those books, then hated them, and was just coming around to the idea of picking up Book 11 just to see if he was back on track.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Jordan lost a lot of readers around book 5 or 6. The same story is repeated all over the Net that he lost a significant number of his fans about that time.

But the whys and hows of that - I think is a topic for a different day.