robert jordan, aka james rigney, R.I.P.

[arguchik]

well, shit. from nihilistic_kid, who reports that robert jordan has died. i have been a reluctant fan of the wheel of time books since about 1995. someone i was working with at the time loaned me his copy of the eye of the world, and i was hooked. i guess there were 5 books in the series at that time, and i read all of them pretty quickly. i liked the first 3 or 4...and they started frustrating me somewhere around book 5 or 6. i kept reading as each new volume was released, every 2 years or so. i felt like i was too far in to give up on it, at that point. i honestly thought it would end at book 7 or 8...then 9...then 10...then 11. i guess it'll be an even dozen, when/if anyone picks up the half-finished "final" book and finishes it. i also kept hoping it would turn "back" into an interesting series, but it didn't. IMO, of course. particularly problematic to me: the fact that the female characters become completely idiotic as soon as they fall in love, along with the whole treatment of gender relations in the novels.

still, i'm sad to see jordan go. i'm especially sad that he didn't get to complete book 12 before he died--i know how much he wanted to accomplish that, and it's a bummer that he didn't. my heart goes out to his family.

Comments

[maeveh.livejournal.com]

I think I stopped reading the series 'round about book 7 or 8. It became soooo convoluted and didn't seem to be going anywhere. I'd start being entertained by a character then they'd vanish from the story entirely in the next book. By the last book I read the only character I cared anything about was Min.

That being said I will probably pick up the series again when the final book comes out. It might be easier for me to get through if I *know* there's some sort of plot resolution in sight.

The wiki page on him claims that his wife and publisher plan on finishing the final book using his notes. Personally, I'd much rather if they published what he wrote before his death and have the rest of the book be his notes rather than attempting to finish it in his style. It would be fascinating to see what his notes look like ...

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

yeah...i started out liking both min and nynaeve. unfortunately the whole "fall in love and become a simpering idiot who's obsessed with her clothes and her hair" thing happens to both of them.

i kind of agree with you about the final book. i'm torn, though, because my interest in the books has always been their value simply as story. i have no academic interest in them whatsoever, and in fact...reading them with my academic cap on (and reading his notes would have that effect, i think) would ruin the enjoyment for me.

[maeveh.livejournal.com]

I just hope to hades that they don't take the "VC Andrews" route of continuing to publish books even when the author has been dead for decades.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

yeah...that's what has happened with frank herbert's dune books, too, thanks to his sons.