Robert Jordan RIP

Happy new Year to the Goat Devotees...Sorry I have been slack last year. One post a year is pretty ordinary, even by my pathetic standards. I will endeavour to be a little more diligent with my postings this year...promise!

So, onto this weeks post, Robert Jordan. I often find that the holiday's give me a chance to catch up on my reading and once again, I have turned to the excellent Wheel of Time Series of books by Robert Jordan.

Over the Christmas period I completed the excellent first book "The Eye of the world" and are currently half way through the second novel, "The Great Hunt", also a compelling read.

I still remember picking up these books around 5 years ago and feeling the magic; the well described characters, the plot lines that held such mystery that you had to keep on reading. I also enjoyed the fact that Jordan was a descriptive writer, but that the description wasn't the be all and end all unlike say Tolkien (who seemed to feel the need to describe a tree for what seemed like 20 pages).

Every time a new book was released, I bought it and was amazed to discover that the writing was consistently excellent......
So there was "The Dragon Reborn ", "The Shadow Rising", The Fires from Heaven", "Lord of Chaos" and "Crown of Swords". All equally impressive and up there with my all time favourite fantasy book "Magician" by Raymond E Feist.

Then the wheels started to fall off, After Crown of Swords, the following books seemed more like filler. I stayed true to the cause and read "Path of Daggers","Winters Heart", "Crossroads of Twilight" and "Knife of Dreams". Pretty hard work to get through them. I think Jordan had introduced far too many characters in his universe and was struggling to ensure that their arcs were maintained. Either that or he was writing for the rent money. The first 6 books came out at the rate of 1 per year, but the last 4 seemed to take two years a piece. Maybe the pressure of producing 12 books (each over 700 pages long) was too much. He had lost that loving feeling.

And then the moment that all of his loyal readers feared would happen; he died! With the series incomplete. And the last book is key. Its where we find out what the bloody hell happens to these characters we have grown to love (or hate). The last book is to be written by another author, who will no doubt try his best. It could be a blessing in disguise; a new author could inject some passion into the books again. However, it could all end in tears.

So the moral to the story is clear. If you are an author...write in trilogies. Don't leave the readers guessing