RIP Robert Jordan: The Wheel of Time stops turning

RIP Robert Jordan: The Wheel of Time stops turning

Posted on Monday September 17, 2007, 14:03 by Helen O'Hara in Empire States

This isn't strictly film-related, but today saw the sad passing of fantasy author Robert Jordan (real name James Rigney Jr.), the man behind the Wheel of Time series - and since said books were optioned for the screen a few years back, I thought we should acknowledge it.

Jordan had been battling cardiac amyloidosis for over a year, and was in the process of writing the twelfth (and final) Wheel of Time book at the time of his death. Aside from being an author with the sort of devoted fanbase more usually associated with Star Wars films and Doctor Who, Jordan was also a former Army officer who served two tours in Vietnam, a physics graduate, a history buff, and an author who made enormous amounts of time for his fans even as he wrote the biggest saga in modern fantasy.

But while my deepest condolences go to his family and everyone who knew him, I must admit that my initial reaction to his death was more connected to the fact that he won't get to write the last of a series I've been reading since I was about 12; that he'll never write those other two prequels; and that the fate of one of the most enthralling series I've ever read is left completely up in the air. In other words, I'm personally gutted. We're told that his last book, A Memory Of Light, is incomplete, and while there is some suggestion that he's left notes and had extensive discussion with family about finishing it for him, there remains the ghastly prospect that we'll never know how it ends.

For those of you not initiated in the WOT cult, allow me to elucidate - there are eleven books and one prequel, with an average length of over 500 pages each, 1,500 named characters and one continuing storyline throughout. There are no Next Generations involved, no "Twenty Years Later", no complete resolution at any point. It's true that, after book five, the pace did slow and a lot of people switched off, but if (like me) you'd already fallen in love with the characters that didn't matter as much as it might have done.

The hero, Rand al'Thor, is a shepherd whose destiny it is to save the world. Only problem is that he's likely to go mad and die in the process - which is a bit of a worry, given that he has the power to move mountains. Meanwhile, his friends from the village where he grew up try to help him unite the disparate countries of the world to fight the Dark One (there's always one) while facing their own challenges. Only they also manage to make things complicated because no one ever bloody communicates like they should. And they spend a little too long discussing dresses and facial hair. And don't even get me started on the bloody kidnapping of bloody Faile!

Ahem. Sorry, a wave of geekery just knocked my feet out from under me for a moment. But the rest of the books boast great characters, fascinating cultures, plots (in both the storyline and conspiracy sense) as intricate as lace and some fantastic set-pieces. The central characters genuinely grew and changed as the saga continued, evolving with both books and readers - and there are endless hours of entertainment to be had from reading the conspiracy theories behind certain characters' motives and identities online (Bela the pony is God is a particularly good read).

The point is that this is like George Lucas dying halfway through making Jedi, or Peter Jackson quitting due to illness during The Lord of the Rings, or when Steve Guttenberg left Police Academy. It's absolutely tragic news for fans on several levels, both because the world of fantasy has lost a smart, kind and talented writer and because his work may never be completed. Rest in peace, Mr Rigney, but if your ghost could see fit to come back and inspire your ghost writer (ahem) we'd appreciate it.