The Wheel of Time turns... forever.
For those of you who care and haven't heard, Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan (nee James Oliver Rigney) died last night.
I've had a tumultuous relationship with Jordan over the years. In college, a friend learned that I liked fantasy and recommended two series to me: Jordan's Wheel of Time and Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. I loved the WoT (as it is known colloquially) at first, especially book 4, The Shadow Rising. However, my heart hardened as I progressed through books 5 through 7, and I read the last book I would purchase of the series - book 8, The Path of Daggers - without much interest. Jordan did a lot of things I didn't like that looked like filler (fans will know what I mean - bringing back already-killed characters, creating a "True Power" concept and a mysterious new uber-villain who'd been absent up to that point, etc...), and I was turned off to a great degree.
I moved on to other authors, as well as new series by familiar authors, and even disparaged Jordan when I found many other authors out there doing things similarly, but better.
Then this year, a 'friend' (I kid, I kid, but for awhile, I damned him for giving me the bug again) brought up the WoT in casual conversation, and suddenly gave me the itch to return to that world. So I began a re-read.
What followed was interesting. There are some really good aspects to WoT, and some really not-so-good ones. I can tell when a turn of phrase caught Jordan's fancy, because I would see it used liberally for awhile in a book. I got continually frustrated with his clumsy stereotyping of male/female relationships, and found exhaustive descriptions of dresses to be filler-level.
He was great at creating a magical land with a rich history. It's not as baroque and dry as Tolkien's, nor as lightweight as Brooks' Shannara. His characters develop significantly, albeit painfully slowly, and I discovered in re-reading book 8 that I had unfairly given it short shrift. There's a lot more intrigue, scene-setting, and machination than in any of the prior books, and if there's not enough of Perrin or Mat, well, some of the other things that happen more than make up for it, in my estimate.
I'm sorry he's dead, mostly because my motivation to read the remaining 3 (well, 3.5, counting the unfinished book 12) is now almost nil. If there's not true resolution at the end, what would the point be in seeing all the loose ends almost get wrapped up?
I hope that his estate gets a good ghost-writer to sort out Jordan's notes and finish book 12 (supposedly the absolute last book, come hell or high water, har har har). Sure, it won't be exactly the way Jordan intended it, but it would be closure for the series and the fans.
I also hope this encourages George R. R. Martin to eat healthy, get plenty of exercise and rest, and not take the Jets' and Giants' losses to heart this year... I'll be a sad panda if we lose him with A Song of Ice and Fire unfinished!
I've had a tumultuous relationship with Jordan over the years. In college, a friend learned that I liked fantasy and recommended two series to me: Jordan's Wheel of Time and Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. I loved the WoT (as it is known colloquially) at first, especially book 4, The Shadow Rising. However, my heart hardened as I progressed through books 5 through 7, and I read the last book I would purchase of the series - book 8, The Path of Daggers - without much interest. Jordan did a lot of things I didn't like that looked like filler (fans will know what I mean - bringing back already-killed characters, creating a "True Power" concept and a mysterious new uber-villain who'd been absent up to that point, etc...), and I was turned off to a great degree.
I moved on to other authors, as well as new series by familiar authors, and even disparaged Jordan when I found many other authors out there doing things similarly, but better.
Then this year, a 'friend' (I kid, I kid, but for awhile, I damned him for giving me the bug again) brought up the WoT in casual conversation, and suddenly gave me the itch to return to that world. So I began a re-read.
What followed was interesting. There are some really good aspects to WoT, and some really not-so-good ones. I can tell when a turn of phrase caught Jordan's fancy, because I would see it used liberally for awhile in a book. I got continually frustrated with his clumsy stereotyping of male/female relationships, and found exhaustive descriptions of dresses to be filler-level.
He was great at creating a magical land with a rich history. It's not as baroque and dry as Tolkien's, nor as lightweight as Brooks' Shannara. His characters develop significantly, albeit painfully slowly, and I discovered in re-reading book 8 that I had unfairly given it short shrift. There's a lot more intrigue, scene-setting, and machination than in any of the prior books, and if there's not enough of Perrin or Mat, well, some of the other things that happen more than make up for it, in my estimate.
I'm sorry he's dead, mostly because my motivation to read the remaining 3 (well, 3.5, counting the unfinished book 12) is now almost nil. If there's not true resolution at the end, what would the point be in seeing all the loose ends almost get wrapped up?
I hope that his estate gets a good ghost-writer to sort out Jordan's notes and finish book 12 (supposedly the absolute last book, come hell or high water, har har har). Sure, it won't be exactly the way Jordan intended it, but it would be closure for the series and the fans.
I also hope this encourages George R. R. Martin to eat healthy, get plenty of exercise and rest, and not take the Jets' and Giants' losses to heart this year... I'll be a sad panda if we lose him with A Song of Ice and Fire unfinished!