Sadly, yesterday, I heard of the death of my favorite author Robert Jordan. While, I am sure, he will never be discussed by the intelligentsia in any graduate level literature class, he was a master at storytelling. His words made a world rich with detail come alive. Unfortunately for his adoring fans, his final book, the culmination of a huge series, has not been completed.
There are of course rumors about its completion, etc., but for now, all I know, is that the world of literature has lost a genius. A man who was better able to fill a world with intense detail than anyone since Tolkien.
As anyone who knows me well has seen, I adore his books (owning them in both hardback and paperback). His death is quite a loss.
3 comments:
Sorry to hear about the loss. Even though you and I have bantered about literature, I know he contributed a lot to the world of fantasy. Oh, and there are more fantasy classes being offered in universities these days. I am sure he is discussed in such classes.
Just to let everyone know. I am so mad at Dan. This was my fear when I started reading Robert Jordan's 11 large books. Rumurs aside. I may never know what happens. Thanks alot.
We all knew (okay, feared, but almost knew) that this would happen, back when the series got up to six or eight books and there was no end in sight.
I heard late, and I was saddened. I like the series, too, and I want to see how it ends; it won't be same written by someone else.
However, I disagree about Jordan's storytelling abilities. Jordan's great - even monumental - talent was worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is one of a tiny handful of talents that make for a successful fantasy writer, and he had it is spades. I know of only a tiny handful of writers that equal him in this regard - Tolkien possibly, probably Martin and Mieville, maybe Wolfe or one or two others.
However, I would rank Jordan's actual writing ability much lower. Sometimes much, much lower. Building a fascinating world is important, but writing well is too, and in that regard Jordan only occasionally excelled. His verbal ticks and overused narrative crutches were numerous and too obvious.
So, despite his imaginative brilliance, his failures as a writer do not put him in the same rank with other fantasists who, even though they may not have reached the same dizzying pinnacles in building their worlds, simply had much more potent literary tools at their disposal with which to describe the still-fascinating worlds they invented.
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