Robert Jordan passed away.
My sympathies to his family and all that.
No disrespect intended but I sure hope he finished that last damn book in the series!
Oh, damn.
I’m sure a ghostwriter will fill in the rest of the last book, even if the publisher has to chain an intern to a desk to do it, but that hardly matters.
Regardless of how good his writing may or may not be, it really sucks that he couldn’t see his life’s work completed before he was due. 
I’m a big angry with myself that the first thing I feel is anger about the series not being finished. I guess that’s the monkey sphere for you. From what I hear, he was a good enough guy. This sucks in a lot of ways.
Here’s the link to the blog.
I have a love/hate relationship with the series. I liked the first few books, got attached to a few characters, hoped some others would grow some brains but I kept reading. He kept adding more characters and more and more subplots and dragging the story out more and more. But I kept reading because I had already invested myself in the story and characters. I got pretty annoyed by it but I still read it. In 2005 I went to see a panel he was on at Dragon*Con and he promised to finish the last book despite his illness. He did say he could end up being 1500 pages long. With the promise of an ending of the series coming soon I still did not give up on it. There are rumors it was essentially complete in rough draft form. But even if it was it will probably still be a while before it’s published. Well, I’ve waited this long …
I have rarely been as gripped and enthralled by anything as I was by the first 5 books of the Wheel of Time. Whatever his flaws as a writer, he brought a lot of happiness into a lot of people’s lives.
Hmm, 14 years ago after I put down book 5 I vowed never to read another series until the author had finished it. How sad that now it will never get its proper ending. I’m sure they’ll have some one finish it up and I bet he has tons of notes and outlines as to how its supposed to go but it wont be the same.
RIP RJ.
I have more affection for those first five books than almost anything else I’ve read - reading them as a teenager just perfectly cemented them in my mind as great epic fantasy. The series definitely tanked after that, though I’ll still read the final book just to see how it all turns out.
RIP, RoJo. Shitty way to go.
We always joked years ago that something like this would happen (and that was back in the mid-90’s, even). It’s sad that’s the way it actually turned out.
When he wasn’t dragging things out he was a pretty decent writer. I was really hoping he’d wrap the series up and move on to another series where he could stretch his legs more.
Ah, well. I’ll miss him, even if I was more than a little fed up with where the WoT had in the later books.
First David Gemmell passed mid series, now it’s Robert Jordan. I hate having the selfish what about the last book response, but there you go.
(Damn. If George R. R. Martin passes on, I’m going to give up on reading series-in-progress entirely.)
I can’t remember a time when WoT wasn’t my comfort food reading. It’s just always been there. Very sad to hear of Jordan’s passing.
I’m an Avid Fantasy reader and I didn’t care much for the series (nor his Conan books). He has influenced Fantasy greatly though and he will be missed. His death may be one among many of great writers passing on this year, but it in no way cheapens his life, nor his accomplishments.
I’m sorry that he is gone, but I have never heard of these books and now I want to read them.
I think I remember reading on his blog that he had given permission to his wife to finish the series if he died with detailed files on all of the major plot points. So at least there’s that.
I’m sad he died though it would have been nice to read the next series he planned on writing.
I too was sad to hear of his passing.
I too was a little selfish in my gut reaction. I apologise for it. It concerned what I felt at the time was the time wasted on the prequel novel New Spring. While the book wasn’t bad (and finally brought us the test for the shawl, which is a good reason to read it if nothing else) I can’t help feeling it cut into his time with the main plot.
I have heard rumours that his wife Harriet will complete the book. She’s in a good position, since she served as his editor for quite a while, and is thus likely to have the very best insight into his progress and plans.
I just hope clueless morons don’t put her off by demanding she get the papers out and start on it by the end of today.
Why would it be selfish to worry about not being able to completely read the series? I’m sure he was a good guy and I’m sorry he passed but the only way I know him is through his work. I’m 29 now and started reading his books in high school. I often joked to people that if he died before finishing it I’d be at his funeral telling them they better prop a keyboard under his hands before they bury him (this was before he got sick but I never stopped making that joke)
My sadness for his passing is 25% for the man and his family 75% for the series not being properly ended and I don’t think that’s something that’s selfish just natural.
Wow, in the Wikipedia article, there’s a section on his illness. I figured he’d been on Revlimid from the little information he had up a while ago (it’s one of the few drugs big in amyloidosis research right now), but seeing confirmation of it is kind of crazy. I helped Revlimid get approved for multiple myeloma and still work with it every day.
Anyway, RIP. I loved the first several WoT books and am sad that he won’t be around to see his work finished.
Ah well, I think it’s a natural response. It certainly was MY response when I saw the title of this thread. But RIP, regardless.
Sad. On many levels.
At least he got his act together in the last book, and wrote some compelling stuff again!!
I too suffered a slight pang of “What about the last book?” moment on hearing this. But I sortof expected this when I heard what his diagnosis was.
Kudos to you RJ, for coming up with a fantasy series which I’ve happily reread probably as many times as there books in the series. We’ll miss you big guy.