I’m introducing a new series here at MG, one that I’ve been thinking about for awhile. These posts will focus on authors I admire and why. It could be something related to their writing or something they’ve said or done outside of their books. This series of posts will tell you, in detail, which authors I believe are worth the admiration.
The first author would, of course, have to be Robert Jordan. No other author has done more to change my life.
Robert Jordan was the author of The Wheel of Time series. He passed away from illness in September of 2007. The epic fantasy Mr. Jordan left incomplete will be finished by Brandon Sanderson, an author I’m sure we’ll see later on in this series. To read about his life and his passing, in both his own words and those of his fans and family, please go here.
As I said, Mr. Jordan has done more for me than any other author out there. It was his writing that hooked me first. I was going through a bad time in my personal life and I went out and found the longest series with the thickest books that I could find. I don’t believe anyone can deny that The Wheel of Time fits this requirement.
Not only did the story absorb and distract me in difficult moments, but something possessed me to go out into the digital world and try to find a community of people I could talk to about Jordan’s work. I needed, at that moment, to find people of like mind. To be blunt, it was a desperate time for me and I needed friends.
The Wheel of Time community at Dragonmount became that and much more to me. At the forums there, and on the WoT (as fans lovingly call the series) mailing list, I founded friendships that I know will last a lifetime. I adopted two sisters, a circle of friends… And it was there that I met my husband. I would say “love of my life” but that phrase is so cliché as to be embarrassing. (It does not make it less true, however.)
These people helped and supported me while I was busy dragging myself out of the mire of a terrible time in my life. And I owe it all to the words and wisdom of Mr. Robert Jordan.
Of course, maybe your life right now is fine and dandy. So why should you go out and pick up what is probably the most anticipated series in the world – one that’s still not quite finished? The answer is this: because inside the fantasy trope of a young farmer who is trying his best to save the world from evil there is love and laughter, strife and pain, longing and disaster. Mr. Jordan wrote about life in a way that tells you unequivocally that he lived it.
May the Mother’s embrace have carried you home on wings of gold, Mr. Jordan. We still miss you.
