Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan created one of the largest and most detailed imaginary worlds in the history of fiction — a world of channelers and Aes Sedai, of ta’veren and the Dark One, of the Dragon Reborn and the Last Battle — that spans fourteen massive novels, a prequel, a companion encyclopedia, and over eleven thousand pages of text. The Wheel of Time is the definitive epic fantasy of the post-Tolkien era: a series that took the template established by The Lord of the Rings — a chosen hero, a world-threatening evil, a quest narrative of enormous scope — and expanded it into a sprawling, intricate, character-rich saga that influenced virtually every epic fantasy writer who followed.

The Vietnam Veteran

James Oliver Rigney Jr. was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1948. He served two tours of duty as a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star with “V” device, and returned to the United States with experiences that would inform his fiction’s treatment of violence, trauma, and the psychological cost of battle. He studied physics at The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, graduating in 1974.

Before The Wheel of Time, Rigney wrote historical novels under the pen name Reagan O’Neal and a series of Conan the Barbarian novels under the house name Robert Jordan — a name he kept when he turned to original fiction.

The Eye of the World

The Eye of the World (1990) introduced readers to the world of the Wheel of Time: a universe in which time is cyclical (the Wheel turns through seven Ages, each Age coming again as the Wheel turns), in which the One Power — the force that drives the Wheel and that can be channelled by gifted humans — is divided into male and female halves, and in which the male half has been tainted by the Dark One, driving all male channellers insane.

The novel follows Rand al’Thor, a young man from the isolated village of Emond’s Field, who discovers that he is the Dragon Reborn — the reincarnation of a legendary figure prophesied to fight the Dark One at the Last Battle and either save or destroy the world. The early volumes follow the template of Tolkien’s quest narrative, but Jordan quickly expanded beyond it, developing a vast ensemble cast, a complex political landscape, and a magic system of unprecedented detail.

The World-Builder

Jordan’s greatest strength as a writer was his world-building. The Wheel of Time world is imagined in extraordinary detail: its cultures (the Aiel, the Seanchan, the Sea Folk), its political systems (the White Tower of the Aes Sedai, the Children of the Light), its magic system (the One Power, with its Five Powers of Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Spirit), its history (three thousand years of recorded history, including the Breaking of the World), and its mythology (the Age of Legends, the Forsaken, the Horn of Valere) are all developed with a depth and consistency that reward close reading and sustained engagement.

The series’ middle volumes — particularly Crossroads of Twilight (2003) — were criticised for their slow pacing, the proliferation of subplots, and Jordan’s tendency to describe minor characters and settings in exhaustive detail. But the best volumes — The Shadow Rising (1992), The Fires of Heaven (1993), Lord of Chaos (1994), and Knife of Dreams (2005) — are masterpieces of epic fantasy, combining grand-scale action with genuine psychological complexity.

Death and Completion

Jordan was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis in 2006 and died on 16 September 2007, with the final novel unfinished. Before his death, he left extensive notes and recordings for the conclusion of the series, and his widow Harriet McDougal chose Brandon Sanderson to complete the work. The final three volumes — The Gathering Storm (2009), Towers of Midnight (2010), and A Memory of Light (2013) — were completed by Sanderson using Jordan’s notes and are considered a worthy conclusion to the series.

Collecting Jordan

The Eye of the World (Tor Books, 1990) in first edition with dust jacket is the key Jordan title. First editions of the early Wheel of Time novels (through Lord of Chaos, 1994) are more scarce than later volumes due to smaller initial printings. Signed copies are available from Jordan’s extensive book-tour signings. The complete fourteen-volume series in matching first editions is the ultimate Jordan collecting goal.