RIP - Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan (James Oliver Rigney)

10/17/48 - 09/16/07

We note and mourn the passing of Robert Jordan, author of Wheel of Time {"WoT"} series, due to a rare but deadly heart disease called Cardiac Amyloidosis.

He is also the apparent coiner of at least one acronym : "RAFO" ("Read And Find Out").

WoT's To Like...
The Wheel Of Time series has thrilled a great many fantasy readers, myself included. Set in an incredibly-complex passing of one age to the next, you have the standard Tolkienesque characters - the Ultimate Evil (The Dark Lord), who's about to become All-Powerful; his 12 Almost-As-Evils (The Forsaken); the reluctant pre-ordained Hero (Rand al-Thor; The Dragon Reborn), and his friends and colleagues, who intentionally and unintentionally further the progress and the prophecies concerning our hero.

All standard fantasy schtick, you say? Well, what sets Robert Jordan apart is his penchant for details, character development, and a mind-boggling set of sub-plots that somehow all seem to be part of a predestined plan.

WoT's Not To Like...
Hmmm. Well, at times the plot/progress seems to drag to a halt. The early books seemed to follow a fixed equation - Rand al-Thor bumping off two of The Forsaken per book. The math-types like me quickly calculated that we were looking at a 7-book series here, assuming the final book to be the Armageddon-ish battle with the Dark Lord, hmself.

Jordan must've decided that was too short, so he started to bring back the vanquished evilnesses in later books. So you eventually found that you'd invested a lot of reading-time, and hadn't really gotten anywhere. Indeed, a rough adding-up of the first eleven books shows I've read about 9,600 pages and 3.4 million words.

Then there's the small matter of loose ends. After eleven books about an ever-expanding universe, you got the feeling that Jordan had lost control of the storyline, and that he'd never be able to bring it to a coherent conclusion. I've seen this happen before - most notably with Robert Asprin and his "Myth" series. And it's happening with Eric Flint's "163x" series as well.

Jordan promised to tie everything up in the next book ("A Memory Of Light"), even if it took 1500 pages. Alas, that won't happen now, even if someone ghost-writes the last book. But to be honest, I seriously doubt Jordan himself could've accomplished that. There are simply too many sub-plots.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass...
I'll resist the temptation to heap tons and tons of accolades on Robert Jordan. He was a good writer, maybe even a worthy successor to Tolkien. One grew to love the characters in his books, and to marvel at sub-stories he wove. Even when the plot stalled, the books were an interesting read.

We will miss him, and the WoT universe.