“The Dragon Is Gone”: Robert Jordan, 1948-2007

Bestselling fantasy writer Robert Jordan, creator of the Wheel of Time series, died Sunday afternoon, after a long bout with amyloidosis. “In the end, he left peacefully and in no pain,” reports his “brother/cousin,” Wilson on the author’s official blog. Fans have known of Jordan’s condition for some time, with many worrying that he wouldn’t be able to finish his epic saga. “I knew when he started writing all those other books in the middle of the Wheel of Time that he’d up and die without finishing the series! I knew it!” runs a typical early online response (although that reader at least seems to possess a self-reflective streak, adding, “Honestly, though, I’m shocked and saddened”). Another fan reacts with black humor: “I don’t mean to sound callous or crude, but goddamnit I did not read thousands upon thousands of pages of wheat going bad to not have an ending.”

Others express their grief in more conventional tones. “Jordan spoke to million with a voice that was complex and beautiful, enthralling them in a world infinitely deeper than most had ever encountered before,” one fan eulogizes, “so richly imagined that it breathed with life within the pages, so meticulously crafted that it withstood the test of time for 17 years as readers waited with bated breath for its conclusion.” The equally mega-successful fantasy epicist George R.R. Martin recalls “a good and gracious man… unfailingly generous towards other fantasists, always ready to offer them support and encouragement,” including Martin, who credits a Jordan blurb on A Game of Thrones with helping the series that novel kicked off find its audience.

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