Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan
File:Rigney sandiego.jpg
Born	(1948-10-17)October 17, 1948 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A.
Died	September 16, 2007(2007-09-16) (aged 58)
Occupation	Novelist
Genre	Fantasy

For other people named Robert Jordan, see Robert Jordan (disambiguation).

Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (October 17, 1948–September 16, 2007), under which he was best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series. He also wrote under the name Reagan O'Neal. He died September 16, 2007 from complications from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (cardiac amyloidosis).

Biography

Jordan was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He served two tours in Vietnam (from 1968 to 1970) with the U.S. Army where he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with "V" and bronze oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm. After returning from Vietnam he attended The Citadel where he received an undergraduate degree in physics. After graduating he was employed by the US Navy as a nuclear engineer. He began writing in 1977. He was a history buff and enjoyed hunting, fishing, sailing, poker, chess, pool and pipe collecting. He lived in a house built in 1797 with his wife Harriet McDougal who works as a book editor (currently with Tor Books). He had deep faith in God, described himself as a "High Church" Episcopalian, and received communion more than once a week.

Illness

On March 23, 2006, Jordan disclosed in a statement in a firm and optimistic tone that he had been diagnosed with primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (cardiac amyloidosis), and that, with treatment, his median life expectancy is four years, though he said he intended to beat the statistics. He later posted on his Dragonmount blog to encourage his fans not to worry about him and that he intended to have a long and fully creative life, working for another 30 years.

He began chemotherapy treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in early April 2006. Jordan was enrolled in a study using the drug Revlimid just approved for multiple myeloma but not yet tested on primary amyloidosis.

On January 22, 2007, Jordan's blog announced that the Lambda light chain levels had dropped to a rating of 2.70. This reduction was sustained throughout another break in Jordan's use of Revlimid, which he briefly came off again due to side effects attributed to the drug. It should be noted that for the first time since his diagnosis in March 2006 Jordan's Lambda light chains were within the normal limits.

Jordan succumbed to his illness on 16 September 2007 and died at about 2:45pm.

Origins of the pen name

It has been speculated that the pen name is from the main character of Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, but Robert Jordan had clarified on his blog that his pen names had all been chosen from three lists of names using his real initials, and that one of his pen names managed to contain all three of his initials in both the first name and the surname.

Bibliography

Fallon

(under the pen name Reagan O'Neal)

• The Fallon Blood (1980)
• The Fallon Pride (1981)
• The Fallon Legacy (1982)

Conan the Barbarian

Jordan is one of several writers who have written new Conan the Barbarian stories.

1. Conan the Invincible (1982)
2. Conan the Defender (1982)
3. Conan the Unconquered (1983)
4. Conan the Triumphant (1983)
5. Conan the Magnificent (1984)
6. Conan the Destroyer (1984)
7. Conan the Victorious (1984)

Some bibliographies also include Conan: King of Thieves; this however, was actually the working title of the second Conan movie, Conan the Destroyer, and hence Jordan's novelization. Jordan had already been hired to do the novelization and Tor had already applied for an ISBN when the title was changed to Conan the Destroyer.

They were packed into two separate volumes:

• The Conan Chronicles
• Further Chronicles of Conan

Jordan also compiled a well-known Conan Chronology.

The Wheel of Time

Eleven books of a projected twelve total comprising the main sequence were published before his death. Reviewers and fans of the earlier books noted a slowing of the pace of events in the last few installments due to the expansion of scale of the series as a whole. This slowing culminated in the tenth book Crossroads of Twilight which started on the same day for all the plot threads of the book. Jordan later said that:

"The only thing that I wish I hadn't done was use the structure that I did for CoT, with major sections beginning on the same day. Mind, I still think the book works as it is, but I believe it would have been better had I taken a more linear approach. When you try something different, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't."

Chapter summaries for the first eleven Wheel of Time books can be found here.

1. The Eye of the World (15 January 1990)
2. The Great Hunt (15 November 1990)
3. The Dragon Reborn (15 October 1991)
4. The Shadow Rising (15 September 1992)
5. The Fires of Heaven (15 October 1993)
6. Lord of Chaos (15 October 1994)
7. A Crown of Swords (15 May 1996)
8. The Path of Daggers (20 October 1998)
9. Winter's Heart (9 November 2000)
10. Crossroads of Twilight (7 January 2003)
11. Knife of Dreams (11 October 2005)
12. A Memory of Light (uncompleted)

In addition to the main sequence, Robert Jordan also wrote some accessory works:

• The World of Robert Jordan's the Wheel of Time (13 November 1998, reference book, written in collaboration with Teresa Patterson)
  • This reference book includes "The Strike at Shayol Ghul", a short story published online in 1996 which was republished in print as part of this reference book
• New Spring (February 2000, novella, published in volume three of Tor's Legends anthology, edited by Robert Silverberg)
  • New Spring (January 2004, novel, an expanded work superseding the earlier novella)
• From The Two Rivers, a repackaging of the first half of The Eye Of The World for a younger market, includes an additional prologue titled Ravens.
• To the Blight, a repackaging of the second half of The Eye of the World for a younger market.

Jordan also spoke of plans to write two other prequels and several outrigger novels after finishing the main sequences, which reversed his previously-made comments that he would conclude his work on the world with prequels.

Final volume

On October 18 2005, at a book signing in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Jordan gave the working title of the 12th book as A Memory of Light. As one of the attendees told Dragonmount.com, Jordan also warned that the final volume of the saga "could be a 1500-page monster" because he has so many dangling plot threads to wrap up in a single volume. He maintained that A Memory of Light would remain one volume "whether it is 1500 pages long, Tor has to invent a new binding system, or it comes with its own library cart". Due to his health problems, Jordan did not work at full force on the final installment, but blog entries confirmed that he continued work on it until his death, and he shared all of the significant plot details with his family not long before he died.

Infinity of Heaven

Jordan mentioned several times that he planned another fantasy series set in a different kind of world. He said that it would be a Shogun-esque series about a man in his 30s who is shipwrecked in an unknown culture and world. The books would detail his adventures there, and would have been titled Infinity of Heaven.

He said that he would have begun writing these after finishing his work on the twelfth and final main sequence book of The Wheel of Time. Jordan said, "Infinity of Heaven almost certainly will be written before the prequels, though I might do them between the Infinity books." Also according to Dragonmount.com, Jordan planned to write some side-story novels, before completely abandoning his decades-long work. Jordan had particularly stressed that this series would be significantly shorter than the Wheel of Time saga (about 6 books long and essentially two trilogies), despite the resulting irony in the series title.

Other works

• Cheyenne Raiders (1982, under the pseudonym Jackson O'Reilly)

Quotations

• "Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain,"   — The Great Hunt (Used by Jordan, but derived from the First Precept of the Imperial Rescript to Japanese Soldiers and Sailors)

• "That mountain can grow awfully heavy sometimes," [Rand] sighed, taking a spear and buckler from Rhuarc. "When do you find a chance to put it down awhile?"

"When you die," Lan said simply.   — The Shadow Rising

• "Who would sup with the mighty must climb the path of daggers,"   — The Path of Daggers

• "He found what he was looking for but not at all what he wanted to find." --The Wheel of Time series

• "If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips" --The Fires of Heaven

• "The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning." The Wheel of Time series

• "Blood and bloody ashes!" The Wheel of Time series

External links

• Robert Jordan's Official Blog (hosted by dragonmount.com)
• Robert Jordan Discussion Forum
• Robert Jordan Bibliography at Fantastic Fiction
• Interview at SFFWorld.com
• Robert Jordan at SciFan
• Robert Jordan at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Robert Jordan at the Internet Book List

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