Sunday, September 23, 2007

So long, Robert Jordan


A legend has passed away.

My friend Lauren, who I got hooked on the fantasy series The Wheel of Time, called last week to let me know that the series' author, Robert Jordan, had passed away unexpectedly as a result of a rare blood disease.

Robert Jordan had written 11 of 12 books for his Wheel of Time series. The final book, "Memory of Light," was currently in the works.

What we're talking about here is one of the most complex series of all time. With five volumes more than Harry Potter, thousands of characters who weave in and out of each, a mind-boggling world of magic, politics, and intertwined classic myth, this was a series that you had to be truly devoted to in order to appreciate. Most fans of the series had speculated and worried that Robert Jordan might die before the last book was finished. No one seriously thought it would happen, because in their minds, the series had to have a conclusion and the author just simply could not die.

It may be that one of his family members will finish the book for him (though I believe his wife is the only one who knows the whole story and would be capable of such a feat), but it may also be that the book will never be written, and fans like myself who have waited for years and years for each new book, will have to come to face the hard truth that we devoted perhaps a little too much of our time to something that in the end was just as ephemeral as the mist of dawn--gone in an instant.

Best wishes to Robert Jordan's family.

-Robert

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