James Rigney, who wrote under the name Robert Jordan, died yesterday from amyloidosis. He’d been ill for a while, but his death still came as a surprise.

I never read the Wheel of Time books. Somehow I missed starting the series, and only found out about it some three or four books in. At that point I thought, well, I’ll just wait until he’s done to start reading them.

My favorite reminiscence I’ve read so far is from George R. R. Martin, who was the Toastmaster at a convention where Jordan was the Guest of Honor. In introducing Jordan, Martin pretended that “Robert Jordan” was really him and took credit for all of the Wheel of Time books.

Godspeed, Jim Rigney.