Conquer Club

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP) -- Author Robert Jordan, whose "Wheel of Time" series of fantasy novels sold millions of copies, has died of a rare blood disease, his aide said Monday. He was 58.

Jordan, whose real name was James Oliver Rigney Jr., died Sunday at the Medical University of South Carolina of complications from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy, his personal assistant, Maria Simons, said. The disease attacks the body's major organs; in Jordan's case, it caused the walls of his heart to thicken.

He wrote a trilogy of historical novels set in Charleston under the pen name Reagan O'Neal in the early 1980s. Then he turned his attention to fantasy and the first volume in his Wheel of Time epic, "The Eye of the World," was published in 1990 under the name Robert Jordan.

Jordan's books tells of Rand al'Thor, who is destined to become the champion who will battle ultimate evil in a mythical land.

He is survived by his wife, Harriet McDougal Rigney.

He was one of my favourite authors. He had had the blood disease for a while now though...

He was by and far my favorite author. I had been pulling for him for over a year now to beat the blood disorder he had. He had been making some good progress from the news I had heard.

This is a sad day in the world of fantasy fiction. He was a great author who built a world of epic proportions with his Wheel of Time series. It's too bad he won't have the chance to bring us the conclusion to that epic tale, but may he rest in peace after a life filled with imagination and creativity.

He put up a valiant fight.

My Regards, Optimus Prime

Such a great writer, done in by a disease, with millions of fans, and an incredible book series. He was my favorite author, and for a good reason, the wheel of time series is easily one of the best I have ever read. It saddens me that not only did he not finish his great series, but I don't think anyone else will know how it ends except for him.

muy_thaiguy wrote::( Such a great writer, done in by a disease, with millions of fans, and an incredible book series. He was my favorite author, and for a good reason, the wheel of time series is easily one of the best I have ever read. It saddens me that not only did he not finish his great series, but I don't think anyone else will know how it ends except for him.

According to his website his wife has been his editor for years. He also had the final book more than 2/3 of the way done before he died. His nephew made a statement on September 9th that Robert Jordan had sat down with his nephew, his wife and his son and gone through a 3 hour marathon storytelling session to make sure the book would be finished.

Target release date is sometime in 2008-2009.

too bad i read the first 5 wheel of time books. did he ever complete the story?

Kid_A wrote:too bad i read the first 5 wheel of time books. did he ever complete the story?

Yes. He has completed the story and it will be released sometime in the next 18 months or so.

If you have only read the first 5 you have missed out on all the really good action. His storytelling only gets better the further along you go.

Optimus Prime wrote:

Kid_A wrote:too bad i read the first 5 wheel of time books. did he ever complete the story?

Yes. He has completed the story and it will be released sometime in the next 18 months or so.

If you have only read the first 5 you have missed out on all the really good action. His storytelling only gets better the further along you go.

Yeah, I eagerly await the last one. I have already read the first 11 2-3 times already, and I only started reading it about a year ago.

Dang he was a good author. I got myself the 11th book as well.

He was a good author, not a great one in my opinion. He started out really well on his wheel of time series but the books towards the end have been getting slower and slower and I think he's started to focus too much on details.
I've come across extremely few authors who were able to keep a description of any random object you can name interesting for more than 2 lines. Jordan was not one of them, while certainly very good at plot development and management (how many groups of people at once? at least 5 or 6 at some points I think, and you never get confused) and pretty good at creating characters his descriptions never manage to captivate me. And I don't think that's my fault either, I've come across authors that have described one single room for more than half a page without making me wonder if they'll ever get on with the plot.

MeDeFe wrote:He was a good author, not a great one in my opinion. He started out really well on his wheel of time series but the books towards the end have been getting slower and slower and I think he's started to focus too much on details.
I've come across extremely few authors who were able to keep a description of any random object you can name interesting for more than 2 lines. Jordan was not one of them, while certainly very good at plot development and management (how many groups of people at once? at least 5 or 6 at some points I think, and you never get confused) and pretty good at creating characters his descriptions never manage to captivate me. And I don't think that's my fault either, I've come across authors that have described one single room for more than half a page without making me wonder if they'll ever get on with the plot.

I stopped after book three for just that reason... He was worse than freaking Tolkien about going on for three pages about the pattern on some chicks dress.

Near the end of the series he was getting sick and was focusing on developing the "political" side of the story before jumping back into the action.

Poor guy. this is terrible.I've read the first 8 books and i've always thought he was some sort of not-very-good pervert, because he spends enormous amount of time going over the details of the dresses the attractive girls wore. And they were all way way low. And that always seemed to surprise him.

But, good story though. Although I have to say, the first book was by far the best.

Truly a man of great proportions, His legacy will forever live on with his words and stories.

Avron wrote:Truly a man of great proportions, His legacy will forever live on with his words and stories.

^^^^^^^^what he said^^^^^^^^^^

heres an article if anyone would like to read more.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=18&objectid=10464451

Wow, thats terrible... It seems some of the best of all my hobbies are dying lately, first Collin McRae then Robert Jordan.

R.I.P.