Sunday night the author of one of my former favorite book series died. Robert Jordan passed Sunday after a long fight with cardiomyopathy.
Thank the gods I stopped reading the Wheel of Time series, because chances are it's done, never to be finished. This is a shame, because the series started strong and should have been done by now. The reason I stopped reading it was that Jordan apparently decided it was a great cash-cow and began to drag the story line out.
The last book I read was Crown of Swords - the seventh book. He was in the middle of writing book 12. All I remember of Crown (and the 2 before it) was that it was a 1000 pages of characters talking about what to do, and about 24 of them actually doing it. To make matters worse, he had started to alternate his writing between continuing the story and writing frakking PREQUELS.
I don't mean to sound insensitive, a good writer has been lost, but he lost my fanship when he obviously started to stretch the story as far as he could, regardless of the impact to the storyline.
My heart goes out to all the fans out there that doggedly stuck with him. I can only hope for those lost souls that Jordan had detailed notes of where the story was going, and the publisher can find a decent ghost writer. If that happens, and if they end it, I may actually re-read the series to see how it all pans out (maybe with the help of some online Cliffs Notes)...
Monday, September 17, 2007
Big wheels stopped turning
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7 comments:
Oh, if only you could have been here at the office when I told Jim. :-D
(Patiently waiting to see what the response is from Biz the next time I see her.)
All I can say is that if Martin falls ill, Biz will want to donate whatever tissue is needed to keep him alive, because if he dies before completing a Song of Ice and Fire I might be extracting said tissue anyway...
Yes! I made it to 9.... but that was it. I think 10 is sitting on my bookshelf.
Damn. I suck. I haven't read a one.
I just wrote up my take on this before discovering you'd written your own. I should have figured you would, though -- I knew you'd read some of the books. (I also knew you'd given them up.)
My very first thought, though, was "poor Jim." No one will EVER be able to get him to read an unfinished series of books EVER again.
Roland - Biz was afraid to tell him.
Anon. - We need to focus on the "Heathly thoughts" - Martin is fine - He'll out live us all (unless he pulls the same crap Jordan did).
Hotfessional - Kudos for making it farther than I did.
HDW - You're not missing anything - next time we get beer I'll fill you in on themajor plot points - should take about 15 minutes.
DrHeimlich - Which is why we all hope Martin lasts long enough - for BIz's sake ;)
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