Diligence

As many of you know I am a huge Wheel of Time fan. I know many others in guild have read his books and there are some that are as adiment about the series as I.

With that being said, I regretfully bear the news that Mr. Robert Jordan passed away 9/16/07 at 2:45 PM. He had been battleing a very rare disease named Amyloidosis. I don't know a whole lot about it, but it seamed that he was fighting it well and that this news shocked a lot of people.

I decided to post here because I just stumbled across the news myself and had not heard about it so I do not think it is very widespread.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


It truly is a loss for his readers, and of course for his family. I am sure the last book will be published posthumously, but it saddens me that he wasn't able to complete the project before his untimely death.

May the Creator shelter him in the Light.

God that is sad. He was Tav'er'en and he shaped the reality of a series I wont long forget. But on a positive note it is sure nice to see ya pop in and say hi.

Wonder what will happen to the Wheel of Time. And now Goodkind will have to write his own matieral =(

He has been working on the final book of the WoT which was supposed to be released early 2009.

When I met him at a book signing, he started by answering the most common questions that he gets and the main one was does anyone else know the ending of the books should something happen to him. The answer to that was a resounding NO, but there is an ending and yes he knows what it is. Now that was years before he was diagnosed with this disease and the rumors that I have seen is that the last year he has been dictating the final book to people and that it may actually be complete on tape and just needs put on paper and edited.

For those that are interested the main sites I go to are

www.wotmania.com

www.dragonmount.com

Dragonmount is the larger of the two sites and has hosted RJ's personal blog but the site has been down all today when I have tried.

I have read the wheel of time series 9 plus times now and He was definitely one of my favorite authors. Definitely a sad time for his family as well as the series and all of the WoT fans out there. I was told however (This is all second hand info) that his wife and a couple of others are going to finish the book as he had been working with them (telling them what to write) what makes it worse for me is he died on my birthday =(

Trilbane

This is a tragedy in the world of fantasy books. I guess I will have to finish reading the seires, my favorite books being Path of Daggers and The Dragon Reborn. /cry

http://www.tor-forge.com/NewsArticle.aspx?articleId=647


Tor announces that the final novel in bestselling Robert Jordan's legendary Wheel of Time® fantasy series will be completed by author Brandon Sanderson

New York, NY: Friday, December 7, 2007

Tor Books announced today that novelist Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish the final novel in Robert Jordan's bestselling Wheel of Time fantasy series. Robert Jordan, one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th and early 21st centuries, died September 16th after a courageous battle with the rare blood disease amyloidosis.

The new novel, A Memory of Light, will be the twelfth and final book in the beloved fantasy series which has sold over 14 million copies in North America and over 30 million copies worldwide. The last four books in the series were all #1 New York Times bestsellers, and for over a decade fans have been eagerly awaiting the final novel that would bring the epic story to its conclusion.

Harriet Popham Rigney, Jordan's beloved wife and editor, said of her decision to have Sanderson complete the last book in The Wheel of Time series: "I have chosen Brandon Sanderson to complete Robert Jordan's great work, and I am absolutely delighted that he accepted. I will of course be editing this book as I have all of the other books of The Wheel of Time."

President and Publisher of Tor Books, Tom Doherty, also expressed his happiness with Harriet's decision, saying: "I am delighted that Harriet has chosen Brandon to complete Robert Jordan's magnificent and timeless epic."

It is the perfect match for Sanderson, who gratefully acknowledges the role Jordan played as an inspiration to him as a writer. In the tribute piece "Goodbye Mr. Jordan," posted on his blog, Sanderson writes to Jordan: "Personally, I feel indebted to you. You showed me what it was to have vision and scope in a fantasy series--you showed me what could be done. I still believe that without your success, many younger authors like myself would never have had a chance at publishing their dreams. You go quietly, but leave us trembling."

Like Jordan, Sanderson was an avid reader and writer from an early age. His debut novel, Elantris, was an unagented gem discovered after Sanderson, then a college student writing during his late night shift at a local hotel, approached Tor editor Moshe Feder at a fantasy convention. Several months later, after reading the manuscript and deciding he had to have it, Feder tried to find the author, who had since moved. Using the internet, he tracked down Sanderson through a campus directory--and the rest is history.

Sanderson has since gone on to establish a loyal fan base as the author of three critically acclaimed fantasy novels: Elantris, Mistborn, and The Well of Ascension, as well as a YA novel, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. Publishing trade magazines Publishers Weekly and Library Journal gave Elantris starred reviews and it was the winner of the Romantic Times Award for best epic fantasy. The Washington Post also praised Sanderson for his creation of "a fascinating world" in Mistborn.

Sanderson will have large shoes to fill in his role bringing A Memory of Light to publication but will work very closely with Jordan's longtime editor, Harriet Rigney, to be sure that the writing stays true to Jordan's voice. Jordan himself worked on the novel almost daily for the last few months of his life and according to Harriet: "Some scenes were completed by Robert Jordan, and some exist in draft form; he left copious notes and hours of audio recordings."

Jordan had known the ending of the series for a long time and, according to a blog posting by his cousin, Wilson W. Grooms, Jr., on the popular Jordan fan site www.dragonmount.com, Jordan had a few months ago revealed secret details about the end of the series to close members of his family which he had never discussed before. Grooms wrote: "During a recent family sit around, he [Jordan] became the Gleeman and told the bones of it ALL to Harriet and me. You read that right, I did say ALL. Don't ask, ain't telling. Two and a half hours of story telling by the Creator himself went by in the twinkling of an eye."

Sanderson knows that fans are very anxious to read the last novel in The Wheel of Time series and says, "I'm both extremely excited and daunted by this opportunity. There is only one man who could have done this book the way it deserved to be written, and we lost him in September. However, I promise to do my very best to remain true to Mr. Jordan's vision and produce the book we have all been waiting to read."

At a recent Toastmaster's address at the World Fantasy Con this past November, author Guy Gavriel Kay saluted Jordan's enduring legacy, stating that his "impact on the place of fantasy in the culture is colossal."

Jordan has also often been referred to as Tolkien's heir and in an article about The Wheel of Time series, The New York Times lauded Jordan for his extraordinary story-telling ability: "The books' battle scenes have the breathless urgency of firsthand experience, and the ambiguities in these novels--the evil laced into the forces of good, the dangers latent in any promised salvation, the sense of the unavoidable onslaught of unpredictable events--bear the marks of American national experience during the last three decades, just as the experience of the First World War and its aftermath gave its imprint to Tolkien's work."

John Clute said of Jordan's magnum opus, "when complete, the sequence will almost certainly constitute one of the major epic narratives of modern fantasy."

Now Brandon Sanderson has signed on to complete A Memory of Light, with scheduled delivery of the manuscript in December 2008 and a planned publication date of Fall 2009. "The Wheel of Time turns and ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time?"

For more information about Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson, please contact Tor Publicity Director Elena Stokes at: torpublicity@tor.com

Please Note: Content in the Press Room has been cleared for reprint use by accredited media, booksellers, and librarians. Please include credit and copyright notices where indicated, most notably with author photographs.

While I am glad that some progress has been made, the fact that it will be 4 years after teh last book is inexcusable. Book 11 came out in Oct. 2005, book 12 due Fall 2009 (as if any Jordan book has EVER been released on schedule).

I know he got sick, I know he had high standards, but his wife edited every single book, and his family knew the endings, how long could it possibly take? Had he done NOTHING to advance the last novel?

Dude.. He was dying. When my mom got cancer do you think she was worried about a future thing like a book she was writing? Nope. She was worried about getting her health back so she didn't die. It's not like he was sick with the flu.. The disease he had KILLS. I think if it was a more known disease like cancer, people would be less likely to judge.

That has to win the most heartless comment of the year award rofl.

His family actually did not know the ending until very, very recently. He always stated that no one knew it. Over the last year he had begun transcibing his thoughts for the book in case of what happened. I am still sadened for the loss but am as anxious as anyone to have closure to the series.