frodo potter
09-18-2007, 01:14 AM
In 1997, when I graduated from high school my then girl friend gave me a book to keep me busy over the summer.
The book, all 1000+ pages of it, was The Eye of the World. I read the whole thing in less than a month and was forced to buy all the other books in the Wheel of Time series.
Thus began my love affair with the works of Robert Jordan. At the time I joked with her that I hated reading unfinished series incase the author died before the end leaving the world unfinished and the reader unfulfilled. Little did I know how prophetic my words would prove. :(
In college, every time I would get a new book, or when one would come out, I would reread the whole series to that point to be up to date on what was going on. I have probably read the Eye of the World 10 times in the last 10 years and yet still it entertains.
Jordan's stlye, if you have not read any, is at once deceptively approachable and fiendishly dense. The shear scope of the series, close to 10,000 pages of written word, is awe inspiring. Indeed, I have reached a love hate relationship with the series where I need to reread the whole thing to figure out what is going on but cannot take the 3 months such an activity would entail. Yet for all of that the richness of Jordan's world and the depth of his love for it, is a thing of beauty and lend a genuineness to the series that is matched by few authors.
All of this is just to underscore the tragedy today of Robert Jordan's death at the age of 58. He died of a rare blood disease in his home town of Charleston where he had lived most of his life. The death while not sudden, he was diagnosed in early 2006, was still a shock to all and a loss to the Fantasy Genre.
His great series remains incomplete at the time of his death, still purportedly 2 books away from the conclusion, as it has been for the last 2 books and probably would have been for a few more. Jordan was always striving for perfection in his work and vision in his tale.
Will his estate go the way of Tolkien and publish posthumously, or leave his life work the way he left it? Only time will tell, but for now we have lost a great voice and we will miss him.
The book, all 1000+ pages of it, was The Eye of the World. I read the whole thing in less than a month and was forced to buy all the other books in the Wheel of Time series.
Thus began my love affair with the works of Robert Jordan. At the time I joked with her that I hated reading unfinished series incase the author died before the end leaving the world unfinished and the reader unfulfilled. Little did I know how prophetic my words would prove. :(
In college, every time I would get a new book, or when one would come out, I would reread the whole series to that point to be up to date on what was going on. I have probably read the Eye of the World 10 times in the last 10 years and yet still it entertains.
Jordan's stlye, if you have not read any, is at once deceptively approachable and fiendishly dense. The shear scope of the series, close to 10,000 pages of written word, is awe inspiring. Indeed, I have reached a love hate relationship with the series where I need to reread the whole thing to figure out what is going on but cannot take the 3 months such an activity would entail. Yet for all of that the richness of Jordan's world and the depth of his love for it, is a thing of beauty and lend a genuineness to the series that is matched by few authors.
All of this is just to underscore the tragedy today of Robert Jordan's death at the age of 58. He died of a rare blood disease in his home town of Charleston where he had lived most of his life. The death while not sudden, he was diagnosed in early 2006, was still a shock to all and a loss to the Fantasy Genre.
His great series remains incomplete at the time of his death, still purportedly 2 books away from the conclusion, as it has been for the last 2 books and probably would have been for a few more. Jordan was always striving for perfection in his work and vision in his tale.
Will his estate go the way of Tolkien and publish posthumously, or leave his life work the way he left it? Only time will tell, but for now we have lost a great voice and we will miss him.