Jordan, Robert 1948-2007 [A pseudonym]

(Robert K. Jordan, Chang Lung, Reagan O'Neal, Regan O'Neal, Reagan O'Neill, Jackson O'Reilly, James Oliver Rigney, Jr.)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born October 7, 1948, in Charleston, SC; died of amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy, September 16, 2007, in Charleston, SC. Fantasy novelist. James Oliver Rigney, Jr., spent most of his literary career immersed in the homeland of the hero Rand al'Thor, where he was known to a loyal fan base of all ages as Robert Jordan, creator of "The Wheel of Time." When he opened that series with The Eye of the World in 1990, fantasy fiction of the sword-and-sorcerer genre had not yet captured the attention of serious literary critics, but by the publication of the eleventh title,Knife of Dreams, in 2005, sales of the series nearly matched the sales of best-selling authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and Stephen King, and reviewers had taken notice. Jordan was commended for the complex and believable world he created, populated with characters of great depth, who faced challenges of heroic proportions through thousands of action-filled pages. At the time of his death, he was reportedly finishing a twelfth and final volume A Memory of Light, along with detailed notes, and he promised fans that the novel would indeed be published someday by someone. He had also begun, with New Spring(2004), a series intended to serve as an introduction or "prequel" to the epic saga, which would answer many of the unanswered questions and address some of the amorphous details that arose from the original series. Jordan was less known for his seven contributions to the "Conan the Adventurer" series, but one of the more successful ones,Conan the Destroyer, was based on the feature film of the same title with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the starring role. Jordan/Rigney was a full-time novelist for most of his adult life, after a brief period as a nuclear engineer at a naval shipyard in the 1970s. Before that he had been an army helicopter pilot in Vietnam, for which his decorations included a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Bronze Star medal. He once commented that writing fantasy fiction enabled him to look at good and evil in black and white, rather than the murky gray of mainstream fiction set in the real world. His other writings include a few historical novels under the pseudonym Reagan O'Neal and books under several other pseudonyms. His books have also been translated into more than twenty foreign languages.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2007, p. B10.

New York Times, September 18, 2007, p. C14.

Times(London, England), September 19, 2007, p. 65.

Washington Post, September 18, 2007, p. B8.