Robert Jordan

What everyone is emailing me today.

I didn't start reading fantasy until I started high school, having preferred historical fiction and biographies up til then. But it didn't take me long to find Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I guess that means it has been about 14 years since I started the series, always anxiously awaiting the next installment. I recommended both the series to both my uncle and brother-in-law, as well as countless friends. Before I even heard he was sick I worried that he would die before his work was finished. Yesterday he did. And I feel selfish when I feel sorrow at the passing of all future books he might have written, instead of the passing of an interesting man.

Eleven books strong, the Wheel of Time series, begins as a complicated tale of Rand al'Thor and his friends Perrin and Matt. And it only grows more complicated with every page, the cast of characters growing exponentially. Of all the things I like about the story, one of the things I like the most is the multitude of strong female characters.*

Though the series is not without it's weaknesses, Wheel of Time readers are plentiful. I can't seem to go to a party of readers without Robert Jordan's name being mentioned. I do not know what will happen with the series now, as certainly it is too early to ask. However, I do know that I am not alone in mourning the author and his unwritten books.

* The audio versions are a delight. A male and female reader share the duty, only reading the chapters written from the POV of characters with like gender.