I just learned from Bernardo that Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series, has died. I had no idea that he had a chronic illness that was hindering his writing for the past few years, and I'm saddened to hear that he has passed. The fantasies he wove brought me many hours of joy, excitement, and wonder. It's especially sad to me that he must have been terribly disappointed to leave his world-renowned series unfinished.
There might be more information at Robert Jordan's blog, but the server is unresponsive at the moment, probably due to overwhelming traffic. Here's TarValon.net's obituary. Man, this is really terrible.
That's too bad- The Wheel of Time series was the first time that I ever read a series of books. I was in my mid twenties, didn't have a car at the time, and I read all of the available books on bus rides back and forth to work every day.
Robert's creation of the character Rand al Thor (at least I think that's what the character's name was) was so realistic; I think these books were instrumental in really turning me on to reading.