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Bewildering Stories

Robert Jordan Passes

I've often wished that Robert Jordan would just finish his "Wheel of Time" series and move on to something else.

Well, sadly that isn't going to happen now, because Robert Jordan died today. He was born in 1948, which makes him two years younger than me. Heart failure caused by cardiac amyloidosis. It is sad when someone is taken from us early, and 58 is early. He'd evidently been sick for several years, but he's been chunking away on the "WOT" as it is called. The 12th and final novel in the series, A Memory of Light is uncompleted as of this date, but no doubt there will be a bevy of qualified fantasy writers itching to finish it..

We hate it when someone like this who impinges on our lives has the nerve to die, I mean really... "He owes us that last book!"

Another prime example is Gordon Dickson, who never finished his "Childe Cycle". However, a new book in the cycle was just published, though I haven't read it yet. So perhaps we'll see Childe after all.

Our condolences go out to the family of Robert Jordan (whose real name was James Oliver Rigney Jr.), and to his friends. Life is short. Even at 80, 90, or 100, it is short, but 58? Just not fair.

Copyright © 2007 by Jerry Wright

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