Fantasy author Robert Jordan died today, according to his website. I originally spied the news over on metafilter.

For a while there in the early to mid-90s, I was absolutely rabid about his books. I bribed friends to read him, evangelized his Wheel of Time series to total strangers, and was convinced he was the second coming of J.R.R. Tolkien. Even though I eventually lost interest due to the length and lack of inertia in the series, I proudly own the first six novels which hold up wonderfully against any other fantasy series you could possibly name. Hell, one of the reasons for discovering Usenet on my AOL account around 1993 or so was to comb through the posts on rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan for hours upon hours, unraveling theories and conspiracies and making my first timid internet posts.

Thanks, Mr. Jordan, for bringing hours of reading pleasure into my life. And thanks for continuing to write while battling illness.