• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Robert Jordan

I hope he makes it and lives longer than the mean with the rare blood disease. He stated that he has many more books to write. I hope they are other than the Wheel Of Time series as it is time to close it out.
 
typical.

i asked the question in another thread a week or two ago - will WOT (and Terry Goodkind's SOT) be completed before they die.. and now this.

i know, sounds bad to be more concerned about the books than the author, but i've been collecting these books since his first in 1990 wasn't it? it's been too long!! i surely hope he at least finishes the story line...
 
muggle said:
I hope he makes it and lives longer than the mean with the rare blood disease. He stated that he has many more books to write. I hope they are other than the Wheel Of Time series as it is time to close it out.

I believe he is begining a new series first.:eek:
 
a new series? he's gotta be kidding! after i've collected 11 books over what, 16 years!! (mumbles under breath about the unfairness of it all.....)
 
GRRM IS POTENTIALLY TERMINALLY ILL.:(

Not good to here of this about anyone. Lets hope the treatment is successful, here is the link. This info doesn't jump out of the web, you have to be quite specific in your search
I have been diagnosed with amyloidosis. That is a rare blood disease which affects only 8 people out of a million each year, and those 8 per million are divided among 22 distinct forms of amyloidosis. They are distinct enough that while some have no treatment at all, for the others, the treatment that works on one will have no effect whatsoever on any of the rest. An amyloid is a misshapen or misfolded protein that can be produced by various parts of the body and which may deposit in other parts of the body (nerves or organs) with varying effects. (As a small oddity, amyloids are associated with a wide list of diseases ranging from carpal tunnel syndrome to Alzheimer's. There's no current evidence of cause and effect, and none of these is considered any form of amyloidosis, but the amyloids are always there. So it is entirely possible that research on amyloids may one day lead to cures for Alzheimer's and the Lord knows what else. I've offered to be a literary poster boy for the Mayo Amyloidosis Program, and the May PR Department, at least, seems very interested. Plus, I've discovered a number of fans in various positions at the clinic, so maybe they'll help out.)

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.

My treatment starts in about 2 weeks at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where they have seen and treated more cases like mine than anywhere else in the US. Basically, it boils down to this. They will harvest a good quantity of my bone marrow stem cells from my blood. These aren't the stem cells that have Bush and Cheney in a swivet; they can only grow into bone marrow, and only into my bone marrow at that. Then will follow two days of intense chemotherapy to kill off all of my bone marrow, since there is no way at present to target just the misbehaving 5%. Once this is done, they will re-implant my bmsc to begin rebuilding my bone marrow and immune system, which will of course go south with the bone marrow. Depending on how long it takes me to recuperate sufficiently, 6 to 8 weeks after checking in, I can come home. I will have a fifty-fifty chance of some good result (25% chance of remission; 25% chance of some reduction in amyloid production), a 35-40% chance of no result, and a 10-15% chance of fatality. Believe me, that's a Hell of a lot better than staring down the barrel of a one-year median. If I get less than full remission, my doctor already, she says, has several therapies in mind, though I suspect we will heading into experimental territory. If that is where this takes me, however, so be it. I have thirty more years worth of books to write even if I can keep from thinking of any more, and I don't intend to let this thing get in my way.

Jim Rigney/Robert Jordan
 
The text above (posted by Carlos) is referring to Robert Jordan's rare blood disease and not George RR Martin's. It's a letter to Locus Publishing from Mr Jordan. It's even signed by him and Jim Rigney, if you read the whole text.
Like you said Carlos, it's not good to hear of this about anyone. And hopefully both Robert Jordan and George RR Martin will live many years still.
 
whoooooooooops.

Launched the wrong thread, saw GRRM's name and went off half cocked in the wrong direction. Admins, any chance you can move this to a RJ thread? Here
 
This is just natures way of telling him to finish the damn Wheel of Time. Best of luck to him all the same.
 
You know, when I read this I have to respond. This is terrible news, and I felt slightly depressed.

I guess this goes on to show when it really comes down to it, all that really matters in life is health and happiness. All this business about him finishing the series or not just gets thrown out the window, as far as I'm concerned.

RJ, I wish you the speediest recovery that is possible under these difficult circumstances, and screw the books, just get well. When you are, we'll get back to the business of bitching about your bloody long-winded books.

Until then, hang in there. There are plenty of us who are praying for you for reasons that has nothing to do with your books.

ds
 
It is with sadness that I post this. A gifted author and an all-round nice guy has succumbed to his illness. He faced his condition with aggressive optimism, maintained his goodwill and good humour despite the obvious physical punishment, determined to triumph against the odds.

I remember the first time I read about his affliction. I remember how I felt as he announced on his blog that he has been diagnosed with amyloidosis, and his declaration that he will fight it.

Let me go back a bit before I continue. During a period of idle pursuits many many years ago, I picked up Eye of the World despite the horrendous cover art, and I was struck by its brilliance. I didn't have any expectations, and it blew me away. This, I thought with pleasure, is how the purest high fantasy should be.

I consumed the series. I literally devoured each subsequent book. I can't remember how long it lasted. There was a point where I picked up a recently released Path of Daggers hardcover while I was training in the States! Hardcover! The bloody book was so heavy my luggage almost grounded the plane, and it was so expensive (the ringgit is weak against the dollar after all), I starved myself at night.

However, even the most fervent of fans would admit to the declining quality later in the series. And I, a fervent fan, called it quits halfway into Path of Daggers.

By the time I read his announcement on his blog, I had stopped reading the Wheel of Time for some time. Telling people in book forums that his best had come and gone. Woe that such a great piece of work degenerated into its current state, a symbol of crass commercialism (deservedly or not). While I never told anyone to *not* read Wheel of Time, I gave warning of the impending lull, just as you would tell someone if a particular restaurant was worth repeat visits. You know, that sort of thing.

But I remembered as I read his announcement and his resolve, that despite it all, Wheel of Time is only a story, is only a form of entertainment, and here is this man finding out that he has been struck by a disease that's almost certainly terminal. I find myself thinking how life can really put things into perspective.

So what if the series isn't finished? So what if the latter books suck? So what if people accuse him of selling out to publishers as he stretched the series as taut as he could to the point of breaking? So what?

I followed his progress with regular visits to his blog. Despite his condition, he updated his fans with news of his treatment, and always he never failed to come across as generous, cheerful, hopeful, encouraging to others who shared his predicament. He talked of completing Wheel of Time for his fans, and of starting another series set in the same world. He set goals for himself. The support he got were not only from fans, but from other human beings who connected and felt touched.

There was this time during his treatment where his progress marker, called the Lambda light chains were well within the normal range, and it was great news. I had thought he'd beat it for sure. His last update was just over a week ago.

But alas. My thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.

He has taught me indirectly to cherish life, and I thank him for that, and I thank him for the period of pure pleasure whilst I indulged in his imagined world.

Thank you, Robert Jordan, and may you rest in peace.
 
Nice tribute.

I never really got into the Wheel of Time series, but still . . . it's terribly sad Jordan's no longer with us. He will be missed.
 
That is sad news. I had heard he was not well, but didn't know how serious it was. I am slowly picking up the Wheel of Time books and hope to actually read them some day.
 
Back
Top