Robert Jordan ill
I’ve never read any of his books, but I know he has a large following and is well-respected. I was sorry to read this over the weekend.
From his publisher’s website:
Now in my case, what I have is primary amyloidosis with cardiomyapathy. That means that some (only about 5% at present) of my bone marrow is producing amyloids which are depositing in the wall of my heart, causing it to thicken and stiffen. Untreated, it would eventually make my heart unable to function any longer and I would have a median life expectancy of one year from diagnosis. Fortunately, I am set up for treatment, which expands my median life expectancy to four years. This does NOT mean I have four years to live. For those who’ve forgotten their freshman or pre-freshman (high school or junior high) math, a median means half the numbers fall above that value and half fall below. It is NOT an average.
In any case, I intend to live considerably longer than that. Everybody knows or has heard of someone who was told they had five years to live, only that was twenty years ago and here they guy is, still around and kicking. I mean to beat him. I sat down and figured out how long it would take me to write all of the books I currently have in mind, without adding anything new and without trying rush anything. The figure I came up with was thirty years. Now, I’m fifty-seven, so anyone my age hoping for another thirty years is asking for a fair bit, but I don’t care. That is my minimum goal. I am going to finish those books, all of them, and that is that.
April 24th, 2006 at 8:13 am
I am a huge fan of his “Wheel of Time” series and was very saddened when I got this via his email list a few weeks back. My first thought, as horrible as it sounds was, “I hope he gets to finish the last book.” (I’m sure I was not the only one thinking that though…) And then I realized how heartless that sounded and that I should think more about his health and not if he finishes his series or not. I just hope he is able to beat the odds and live for a long time and write many more novels, as he hopes as well!
April 24th, 2006 at 11:33 am
I don’t read his stuff, but I was very sorry to hear about Jordan’s illness. It had been a running gag in the science fiction/fantasy groups I read as to whether Jordan would live to finish the seemingly unending WoT. But nobody thought or wished it would literally be an issue. (And of course it’s not the important issue, in the scheme of things.)
April 24th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Stephen King deliberately finished up his Dark Tower series after his near-fatal accident for this very reason–he was haunted by the notion that he’d die before finishing the story. I read only the first WoT book and part of the second, so have no idea how close or not it is to being finished, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the thought’s occured to Jordan as well.
April 24th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
He is currently writing the last book in the series, so it should be finished soon. He began a prequel trilogy, and has only completed one of those so far. Really good stuff though.