Anyone read the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan?

[Brewhaha]

If so, you may already know this but he passed a way a few days ago. He is best know for his huge fantasy series (11 books so far). The entire series, which started in the early 90's, was supposed to be completed with book 12. He has been very sick.

To give you some perspective, his passing to the fantasy book world would be like J.K. Rowling passing before completing book 7 of Harry Potter.

It remains to be seen if the 12th and final book will be published. I'm pretty sure that it will. Supposedly he has dictacted the main ideas to his wife and cousin and they (plus others) will complete it.

[Cirrus2000]

Yep, we were just talking about this minutes ago at work. My wife was at his website a few days back, wherein he stated that he was "still kicking". His demise was not unexpected, but I think it came a little more suddenly than some folks thought.

I read the first 3 books of "The Wheel of Time" voraciously. I waded through the next 4 or so. Then I gave up. Nothing was happening anymore. *yawn* When the final one is released, I may go through the whole series once more - easier to do start to finish in one go.

By the way, we named our son after one of the characters in the series...

[Deathcricket]

Oh man, I'm soo sad to hear this news. My condolences to his wife and family. His books are loved by millions and probably one of the most popular fantasy books out there. I actually met him at the comic-con in San Diego, years and years ago(7?). He was really nice and very easy to talk too. He seemed so young and vigorous, but that was quite a while ago.

I'm in the same boat as Cirrus2000 though. I read the first 3 maybe 4 books and gave up. They are soo boring for 600 pages, but those last 50 are incredible! Really good character develpoment, I also like the way he handled the magic system. But just not enough action.

(while we're talking books)
Anyone looking for good books I highly recommend anything by R.A. Salvatore. The Dark Elf series is probably the best stuff I've ever read. It's really "dark" (no pun intended) though so be warned. If you are squeemish like my wife, do not attempt. I've also read the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind and would recommend that highly also, especially "Faith of the fallen".

[Alex]

I got quite far into Wheel of Time, maybe 9 books? But like the rest, I got bored, not enough action and too much weirdness started to happen.

I have the whole series on audio books if anyone is interested.

The series I'd recommend if you liked WoT:

1. Sword of Truth (author Terry Goodkind)
2. The Last Kingdom (by Bernard Cornwell)
3. Casca series by Barry Sadler <-- My most favorite series ever, a totally awesome story, best I have ever watched/read/heard. I have it all (24 books) in mp3 format too

Sad to see Robert Jordan go, best of luck to him up there, maybe he is in the Wheel of Time now?

[brookiekiller]

I had the same thing - got to book 6 and quit. That is too bad that it had to be this tragic - I hope they get the 12th book finished somehow.

If this same thing happens to George R.R. Martin, then I would truly be crushed. It is taking him a long time with the Ice & Fire series.

[Cirrus2000]

If this same thing happens to George R.R. Martin, then I would truly be crushed. It is taking him a long time with the Ice & Fire series.

I love this series - George is unafraid to keep it interesting, throwing great curves at you, and even killing off major characters. He'd better get the series done!

Lost another of my favourite authors a year ago, too - David Gemmell. Historic/heroic fantasy. Not great literature, but definite page turners. I enjoyed - devoured - every one of his books, but 2 days later I couldn't remember a single thing about them. It was kind of like chinese food for the brain.