It wasn't the ending.. but it was AN ending..

[Merusk]

Robert Jordan died, Sept 16.

All of the usual fan sites are getting hammered right now.    The series will now go unfinished.. which some might argue was going to be the case anyway.

[SurfD]

Perhaps some other author will pick it up and finish it for us.  I imagine many fans want closure (ANY sort of closure).

Hell, it cant be THAT hard to come up with a decent finish for the thing.

[Grublet]

Fucker should have eaten more salads. He owed it to me. Fucker.

[schild]

Sad to see him go, but this is why you finish your life's work while you're still alive.

Man, I know a lot of people who are going to be pisssssssssssssssssssssssed come tomorrow.

[Megrim]

Rumour has it that he picked out who he wanted to write the last book for him, before he died, and that the vast majority of the required material is available. Time will tell, i suppose.

[Big Gulp]

I'm sooooooo glad I gave up on that series a long time ago.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but I can't imagine whoever he hand picked to finish the series being a worse writer than he was.

[schild]

In an unprecedented turn of events, Robert Jordan picked a 12-year old illiterate child from Bratislava to finish his series. His last words were, "You'll never forget me now, suckers."

[Azazel]

Not to troll, but who?

[Phildo]

That unbelievable bastard.  He just jumped past George Lucas on my list.

[Simond]

I'm sooooooo glad I gave up on that series a long time ago.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but I can't imagine whoever he hand picked to finish the series being a worse writer than he was.

Kevin

J.

Anderson

[Jain Zar]

I'm sooooooo glad I gave up on that series a long time ago.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but I can't imagine whoever he hand picked to finish the series being a worse writer than he was.

Kevin

J.

Anderson

Dude.  The Young Jedi Knights books were good fun.
Now if you want bad, pretty much 2/3rds of the women writing fantasy and horror, because its more like bad fanfic porn than actual stories. 
I swear every month the Sci Fi Bookclub gets infested with more obvious fantasy and horror porn, usually with a side order of pretty guys doin each other in between the spunky heroine with a cool concept for a story.. UNTIL A MYSTERIOUS MAN SHOWS UP AND SEX HAPPENS SOONER THAN LATER.

Argh.

And I guess I am glad I quit Wheel of Time in the middle of book 8 or so.  Ok the middle of the prologue which by that point was about 100 pages. 
My sympathies to his family though.
And a giant FUCK YOU to the assholes in the Navy who said the series was really good back in the mid 90s.  I should have known people willing to spend 100 bucks for a Magic card and who thought PKing in AD&D was fun weren't people to trust for book advice..

[Ironwood]

Kevin J Anderson is the worst writer in the world.

Good luck with that.

[schild]

Sorry Ironwood, but that prize goes to the author of the book below:

[Xerapis]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Merusk]

Rumour has it that he picked out who he wanted to write the last book for him, before he died, and that the vast majority of the required material is available. Time will tell, i suppose.

I don't know about the writer picking part, but I do know about the required material from my fandom days back in the 90s.   Jordan, while slow as fuck as a writer, mentioned numerous times that he kept extensive notes and journals about the WoT series.  Things like how the whole magic system worked, who was really a darkfriend and their motivations, blah blah blah.  No idea how detailed they were, but the ras-fwj folks from those days seemed to feel they were pretty damn detailed and they were as hardcore as a fan could get. He also (supposedly) had the ending written/ sketched-out before he even started the series, it was just a problem GETTING THERE.

I can't feel too bad for him (or the still hardcore fans) on that bit.  It was obvious he was burned-out around book 6, and here we are at almost 12 books now.  The time between kept getting longer and longer and the cast list did the same as events were forced instead of just 'going with the flow' as it were.

On the topic of bad writers, Kevin J may be bad, but he was far better than Barbara Hambly, Kathy Tyers or Vonda McIntyre when I subjected myself to them.

[Reg]

Only Piers Anthony can pick up where Jordan left off. He's already proven with Xanth that he has the ability to write an unending series where each book is perceptibly worse than the book before it.

[JWIV]

He does also have a good chunk of the last book already written or dictated via voice recorder during these last few months.   So the last book will eventually be finished by a ghost writer and published.

[bhodi]

Yeah; he knew this might happen and planned for it, the book is pretty well documented. It's not like Frank Herbert and the chapterhouse abomination.

It's a shame he didn't make it; though I didn't really like him personally (I've chatted at book signings), I do admire his work. It's a shame the series slowed down in the middle, I think he took exposition a little too far, and I hear the latest two books picked up the pace some.

[HaemishM]

That's sad. I was in a dollar store over the weekend and saw Book 10 in hardcover. So I bought it. For a fucking dollar, why not? I've read through the first 4 and enjoyed them, and have through book 6 or 7 in hardcover, which I plan on reading eventually. But I could tell even in book 4 that shit was starting to get stale, especially with the female characters.

[murdoc]

If George RR Martin ends up being the guy who finishes it, my head may exploded.

[Morat20]

Part of me says "Well, whomever he picked to finish it will have all the notes and since he's trying to finish someone's legacy, will work swiftly to bring the story to a close." And then part of me says "Whoa....the Wheel of Time gravy-train comes to a fucking END when he's done -- he'll drag it out more".

I never read the last book. I have it sitting around somewhere, but frankly I just don't have the heart. I know it'll be like 500 pages of nothing happening, 200 pages of pissed off women, and 100 pages of plot movement.

[HaemishM]

Thing is, we've already SEEN the ending. It was the very first fucking pages of the very first book. He's practially hammered us over the head with it in all the books I've read. WHEEL of time, as in circle as in shit happens again and again and again. Rand breaks the world all over again, becomes the big bad guy Shadow and the cycle starts anew.

[Rasix]

This is very disappointing. 

I started rereading WoT a little while back.  When I moved to my new house, I lost every book but 8 & 9.  I remember previously stalling out on 9 and it's 70+ page prologue.  I'm up to 6 right now, and I can safely say this is where the books start going downhill.  Up to this point it's been very enjoyable and I've understood the books a lot better this time around (I think I may have read them a bit too hastily the first time).  He just gets bogged down with the gals in the book and every chapter focusing on a female character is usually 100% shit.  The character motivations are starting to get to me also.  For large expanses, no one's actions make any sort of sense. 

Blah (if you start focusing on the negatives in WoT, you'll never lack finding more), despite this, I was determined to get caught up.  I'm not sure anymore.  I may finish 6 (nearly done), but after that I'll likely hold off on repurchasing 7 until I hear the series is done. I'm just not really up to slogging through 9 and 10, which I hear are extremely vile, if there's not going to even be a badly written payoff. 

It's too bad he died.

[Murgos]

I just finished re-reading the entire series over the last two years or so.  The last book published was actually not horrible if still not as good as the first 4.  Sure, we all know that everything is a cycle in these stories and Rand was doomed from the outset.  Heck, Rand knows he's doomed from the outset and alludes to breaking the world again at least once.

I have no more vitriol for Jordan, he started off strong and got in over his head.  I imagine that if he had been stronger physically his books may have had more force of direction and the middle-end books probably are as much a reflection of his own mental state as anything else.

Hopefully, the wheel doesn't try and spit him out again in Tibet, the Chinese would probably try and pull another bait and switch and the story will end with a glorious peoples uprising led by the serving women as they sniff, snort and hair pull their way to world dominance.

[FatuousTwat]

I'm pretty sure I read in an interview with him that his wife is going to finish it, she has also been his editor for all the other books.

[Megrim]

Part of me says "Well, whomever he picked to finish it will have all the notes and since he's trying to finish someone's legacy, will work swiftly to bring the story to a close." And then part of me says "Whoa....the Wheel of Time gravy-train comes to a fucking END when he's done -- he'll drag it out more".

I never read the last book. I have it sitting around somewhere, but frankly I just don't have the heart. I know it'll be like 500 pages of nothing happening, 200 pages of pissed off women, and 100 pages of plot movement.

Actually, the last book was quite good, as far as his writing goes. My impression upon reading it was that he had actually hired a proper editor (not his wife) at some point before publishing it. Plus, you know, stuff really DOES happen.

[naum]

Is the 12th (unfinished) supposed to be the last?

I have the first 8, but like was stated earlier in the thread, around #6 or so, the series really started to turn stale, and it just seemed like Jordan was dragging it out just for the sake of extending an epic saga… …never did finish the 8th one, it's like half way read still…

[Phildo]

Supposedly it was going to be extremely long, but Jordan had planned on finishing up with the next book.  Mostly because he knew he wouldn't have time for another one.

[bhodi]

Just read the 90 page book summaries and save yourself a ton of time. I enjoyed them better than reading the middle books themselves

[Morat20]

Thing is, we've already SEEN the ending. It was the very first fucking pages of the very first book. He's practially hammered us over the head with it in all the books I've read. WHEEL of time, as in circle as in shit happens again and again and again. Rand breaks the world all over again, becomes the big bad guy Shadow and the cycle starts anew.

Nope. Six ages (or five, or some shit).

They make a circle -- so whatever the NEXT age is, isn't like that last one. And sooner or later, it has to go back with the Satan-guy back in his cage (with no hole, mind you) for at least an Age or two so people forget about him.

They made that point early on -- if there's a patch in his cage, if he's got flunkies around, people will remember he's there no matter what. Only when he's 100% sealed up with no influence will people forget, leading to a bunch of idiots drilling a hole into his cage and letting him loose.

So whatever the hell Rand does -- which could include another breaking, leading to total loss of civilization and savagery -- won't cycle back like that. Rand's the Fisher King guy -- a forgotten reference in a game that was old and forgotten on the previous cycle.

(Which leads me right back to "When the hell did Terry Brooks decide to link his "Running with the Demon" books with his "Shannara" books?")

[Calantus]

I think everyone but his most rabid fans made peace with the series a long time ago. I would like to see it end, but I have already gone through being annoyed that it never will and into acceptance.

[Grublet]

Rand needs a face-off with Drizzt.

[Furiously]

I'd rather not see it end... Re-release book the first book and change all the characters names! I mean it's the wheel of friggin time, it's keeps rolling...

[WayAbvPar]

Sorry Ironwood, but that prize goes to the author of the book below:

I will see that and raise you this-




Sorry to hear about Jordan. The first 6 books were so good (6 slipped, but Dumai's Wells made up for it. Definitely my favorite scene in the whole series, methinks), and the rest so frustrating, but I was invested in the story and wanted an ending. However, I think a decent writer with Jordan's notes, etc. could make it happen, and NOT leave me reading 400 pages about dresses and women who sniff and cross their arms under their breast every 5 goddamned seconds.

[schild]

OH SNAP.

Forgot about Salvatore.

I weep.