Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series, has passed away. This makes me very sad, and not just because he's one book away from finishing the series that he's been working on for so long. Hearing about his fight against this disease, and reading up on his life, he impressed me as a man of character and determination. I respected and admired both his writing and tenacity.
He had always said that the book would get finished, with or without him. He's left enough notes and such that a decent writer (possibly his wife, who has helped out with much of the editing) could put it together more or less the way RJ himself might have. So, I'm not worried about the last book. I regret not being able to read the next series that he had planned, since that sounded kind of interesting.
Rest in Peace Robert, you'll be missed.
;_; I just read this on my friend's blog. Sadness;;
I was also sad to find no articles on any major news sites as of yet.
:'(
Yeah, I picked it up on Slashdot this morning at work, but I haven't seen anything in the news, either. This makes me almost as sad as when Douglas Adams died.
Wow, there's some news on this... Brandon Sanderson (Author of the Mistborn series, which I now have to read) has been selected to write the last novel of the Wheel of Time series.
I haven't read any of his stuff, though that is now my top priority, but I guess Robert's wife actually picked him after reading his book. In the one interview I read, he seems to be very serious about following Mr. Jordan's notes and outline as closely as he can, and staying true to the vision of the series, which I think is great!
I would have preferred Robert to stay alive to finish it, obviously... but it looks like his series is in good hands :)
I picked up the first Mistborn book today and read a couple chapters at lunch. So far, it's well written and nicely paced. Just enough background is given to get you going without weighing down the story. I am, as of this moment, very hopeful about the last Wheel of Time book :)