September 24, 2007

"You Were Right!"

Last week, I received an email from Wendy with that title and smiled. It's usually nice to be right. The optimist in me automatically assumed it to be one of those usual times.

I was wrong. It was not nice to be right. The email reported the untimely death of an author, Robert Jordan, the man behind The Wheel of Time series. Perhaps you know of it. Perhaps you, like me, have spent great huge honking chunks of your always-limited and ever-so-valuable leisure time through the years absorbed in Mr. Jordan's character and stories.

Not that it wasn't time well spent. On the contrary. I don't regret a minute. What I do regret is how many times I predicted he would die before The Wheel of Time finished turning. Eleven books, people. Plus a prequel. A tale more than seventeen years in the telling. Still the story spun on. The question often arose: "Is he is ever going to wrap up this series?"

So here I am much as I ever was, wondering not only if the story will be finished but now more if, by whom? Seems his wife was his editor and there are rumors of outlines... is there enough material left behind to wrap his series up and tie it with a pretty bow? Or is it better to let the series die where he left it? I am torn.

R.I.P, Robert Jordan.
Thanks for sharing your imagination.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn! I have the eleventh book sitting on my shelf. I was refusing to read it until the 12th came out as it was supposed to be the last.

Now I shall just have to read it and wonder.

Reading the first ten books seriously consumed my life for a solid week when I read them in one sitting. Which is why I was stalling.

tiff said...

Haven't read them, but intend to as soon as I finish every last Terry Pratchett book known to exist.

Good people gone too soon is never good though. I'm sorry for your loss.

Anonymous said...

Every now and then someone comes into the world and really changes it for the better. For that, I'm sure he will always be remembered and loved.

Gunfighter said...

I empathize.

I felt the same way upno the Death of Patrick O'Brien and Robert A. Heinlein.

Anonymous said...

I would be perfectly happy if they would just release the outlines. I just wnat to know how it ends!!!