<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jordan">James
Oliver
Rigney, Jr.</a>, died today at 2:45PM eastern time, from complications
from his <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_amyloidosis">cardiac
amyliosis</a>. He was best known for his pen name, Robert Jordan, and
was the author of the 11-volume unfinished work, "The Wheel of Time."
The twelfth and final volume was unfinished at the time of his death.
The first book in the series, "The Eye of the World," was published in
1990 by Tor Books.
I started reading the series when the first book was published back in
1990, and I was still in the Navy and remember buying it because it had
a cover by the artist, Darrel K. Sweet, who had done the covers of Piers
Anthony's "Xanth" series of pre-teen humor fantasy. I remember thinking
that the first 200 hundred pages were so dreadfully slow, but then wham,
the story suddenly was lurching along at breakneck speed, with all kinds
of complex plots and sub-plots developing, and I was hooked. These
books have been a part of forty percent of my life, and I would take
months of re-reading the entire series right before the next book in the
series was published. Yes, the quality of the books started to slowly
decline after "The Shadow Rising," although "Lord of Chaos" has my
all-time favorite WOT scene in it, the chapter titled Mashiara.
According to the Wikipedia article of "The Memory of Light," Jordan
stated that he had been generating enough notes to ensure that if he did
die, that someone would be able to finish the book the way he wanted it.
<q>may the last embrace of the mother welcome you home.</q> Rest in
Peace.
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