The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose…. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time.
But it was a beginning.
But it was a beginning.
Jay (of Blogblivion fame, as well as other palces) reminded me yesterday that I had not yet commented on the death of fantasy authorRobert Jordan, known primarily for his Wheel of Time series.
Jordan was a pseudonym of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. who died less than a week ago at the all too young age of 58.
Via the AP:
He died at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston of complications from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy, his personal assistant, Maria Simons, said Monday. The blood disease caused the walls of Rigney’s heart to thicken.
I found Rigney’s WoT series fairly recently, less than ten years ago, and quickly read all the available volumes. It was an impressive fictional world with engrossing characters and background. Sadly, the series was incomplete at his death. As Ross Douthat at the Atantic notes, it will likely be finished some day by another author, “it will be less than it could have been.” Indeed.
May he rest and peace.
He was actually well into the final volume, and dictated copious notes, then recently sat down for 2 1/2 hours and regaled his wife and cousin with the balance of the story. I have hope it will thus be finished more or less on schedule (it was due out at the beginning of 2024), and reasonably close to as intended. I assume Harriet herself will finish it, but there’s nothing official yet.
It’s funny that once he got sick, he changed his plans. Originally he had standing orders for his hard drive to be purged and any notes to be destroyed, should he die before completing the series. He mellowed a lot.
I figure his wife can wait ten or twenty years and, when she needs extra cash, can auction off the definitive answer to who killed Asmodean to the highest bidder. Didn’t Carly Simon do that with who exactly is so vain, for charity? All the clues we needed by the end of book seven my ass.
Comment by Jay — September 23, 2024 @ 6:07 pm
That’s good to know. Where did you see that?
Comment by Steven L. Taylor — September 23, 2024 @ 7:54 pm