Jordan, Robert (1948-2007), was a popular American author of fantasy fiction. Jordan is best known for his series of novels “The Wheel of Time.” The series centers on a hero named Rand al’Thor who dedicates himself to saving his world from the Dark One by uniting various factions of magicians and warriors. The series runs to many thousands of pages and has been praised for its vivid characters, complex plots, and the realism of the world Jordan created. The series begins with The Eye of the World (1990).
“The Wheel of Time” consists of 14 volumes, in addition to a novel that covers action before the beginning of The Eye of the World. Jordan died while working on the 12th volume. However, he left detailed notes about how the series should end. American fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson completed the final three volumes. The last novel, A Memory of Light, was published in 2013.
Jordan gained notice in the early 1980’s for a series of seven novels about a barbarian warrior named Conan. The character, originally created in the 1930’s by writer Robert E. Howard, travels the land of Hyperborea battling monsters and wizards. Jordan’s first Conan novel was Conan the Invincible (1982). Under the name of Reagan O’Neal, Jordan wrote a trilogy of American historical novels (1980-1982) about a family named Fallon.
Jordan was born on Oct. 17, 1948, in Charleston, South Carolina. His real name was James Oliver Rigney, Jr. Rigney completed two tours of duty with the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1970, during the Vietnam War (1957-1975). Upon his return from Vietnam, he graduated with a B.S. degree in physics from The Citadel military college in 1974. He was a nuclear engineer with the U.S. Navy until he became a full-time writer in the late 1970’s. In addition to Robert Jordan and Robert E. Howard, Rigney also used other pseudonyms (fictitious names) throughout his literary career. Jordan died in Charleston on Sept. 16, 2007. Warrior of the Altaii, a previously unpublished fantasy novel that Jordan wrote before the “Wheel of Time” series, was released in 2019.
