From The Charleston Post and Courier

"Charleston novelist James Oliver Rigney Jr., 58, known to millions of readers by the pen name Robert Jordan, the best-selling author of "The Wheel of Time" fantasy series, died Sunday after a fight with the rare blood disease amyloidosis, a progressive disorder first diagnosed in December 2005 at the Medical University of South Carolina."

I'm really sad at reading this. Like many others, I loved the first 4-5 Wheel of Time books, and even though I stopped reading them, I wanted Jordan to finish the series.

My deepest condolences to his family and friends.

This sucks. I wish the best for his family.

Wow, that is young. I haven't read his books, but hopefully he left enough material behind so someone can wrap it up.

Wow, wasn't he working on the last book, too?

Man, that sucks for his family.

Also, I was actually looking forward to the next book, as the last was a marked improvement.

I was shocked when I heard this. I never read any of the series, but it was always one of those that I was planning to pick up and start.

Wow, that sucks. Last I had read, he was actually beating the disease.

I, too, was looking forward to the conclusion of the series.

Wow, that's too bad.

That is seriously a shame. Not to compare Harry Potter with Wheel of Time, but imagine if Rowling had died before completing Book 7! That SUCKS that he never got to finish his story...

A couple of sites I looked at today said that a) he was working on Book 12 and b) that he told his family most/all of the major plot points before he died.

Until today I'd never read much biographical material about the gentleman but it sounds as if he and his family have been helped by their religious faith during this difficult time.

From what I have read, he dicatated all the plot points and there were already writers working on what he dictated. He has written almost 2 years on A Memory of Light, although much less than he would have if not sick. He apparently wrote most if not all of the prologue if not some other parts. The last book will be released with the plot Jordan wanted intact.

For years, he's said he knew exactly how the series would end, so let's hope he also wrote the last chapter himself before he passed.

That sucks. Almost as if Stephen King had died in that car accident before finishing The Dark Tower.

Through various attempts over the years I've tried to read The Wheel of Time series and I don't think I got beyond book 7. It started out so well, as if he had a great epic trilogy planned and then realized halfway through the third book he had made a tremendous amount of money on the first two and needed to keep it going. It just seemed like less and less happened each book. Terry Goodkind also suffers from this “milking it syndrome”.

I think David Eddings (the first of the mega fantasy series writers) was the only writer ever to be able to pull off a 10 book series comprising one major story arch.

To be fair, David Eddings wrote 2 different series with the same characters and the plots were pretty similar. Thats is if you are talking about "the Belgariad" and "the Malloreon" series.

I think Steven Erikson will be able to finish his Malazan Empire books (planned as 10 books). He is up to book 7 already.

This is really terrible news I stopped reading the WoT series somewhere in the middle of book 4, but I still hate to hear that he'll never finish it. It sounds like maybe he knew this was a possibility though, and planned for friends/family to finish the series for him.

I hope George R.R. Martin can finish his SoIaF series!

is he's written the entire thing already plot-wise, he's just fleshing out the story itself as he goes.

This is really sad. I have absolutely loved the WoT series warts and all and have been buying them on the first day of release since 1991. That's hard for me to come to grips with even as I write it.

My brother was into Jordan even more than I was, pointing me to his blogs on Dragonmount. We are getting together this weekend and will kick around some favorite WoT moments. I've never done that with an author, feels kinda like a friend is gone.

Wow. That is terrible news. Last I heard he was doing better and beating the disease. Im sorry for his families loss. He was the author that brought me into loving fantasy. I loved all his books, even the slower ones. I really hope someone will be able to bring closure to the series. It would be such a shame to let such a great story go unfinished.

Looks like Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish the last book. Anyone familiar with his work?

I'd never heard of him before but I've not been keeping up with what is going on in the SF&F field.

If you scroll down, there is a longish interview here:

http://www.dragonmount.com/Books/Mem...terview_01.php

Found this interesting story about the upcoming books. The long awaited "final" book has now become three....with at least a year to wait in between each one. This series will have taken more than twenty years of my life before its done. I'm glad he's making the effort to do it right, but damn....

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/arti...Splitting-AMOL

RIP Robert Jordan

Wow, they're really stretching these books out. I haven't read any (I know the basic plotline), but I've heard the series kind of "drops off" after the third or fourth book.