mancanfly

I started reading the series in the year 2000. Some guys in high school were trying to race through the books to see who could read them the fastest. The Eye of the World was so fast paced, I managed to devour it immediately, but by book two, I had to drop out of the race. I fell so in love with the story, I could not just read it for the sake of reading. I wanted to absorb it and be absorbed by it. The books became an escape from the angst and drama of high school adolescence. I feel to this day as if I grew up with the characters; as if I knew them personally.

Even as a native of Charleston, SC, I was unaware that the author was local. Right after senior graduation, I enlisted in the Marine Corps and the books remained my safe haven. They were an escape from a new kind of stress and even anger. It became a tradition that my Nanna would send me a hard back copy of a newly released book where ever I was. I sent my books home for safekeeping as I read them and one year, when I managed to get home on leave for Christmas, I was surprised to find that a family member had taken them to a signing by Mr. Jordan, each one penned, "For Caleb, Best wishes, Robert Jordan." It was a wondrous gift. My only regret is that I never got to meet him personally.

When I learned of Mr. Jordan's death, I was heartbroken. My mother told me about it over the phone and even saved the articles from a Charleston paper for me. One day, Mr. Jordan was quoted that he was on the mend and ready to get back to work. A few days later, he was gone. I was halfway through Knife of Dreams, and I couldn't bring myself to finish reading it. I was shocked and sad, and also selfishly worried that I would never know how the story ended. I felt that my veritable Fortress of Solitude had been demolished.

When I discovered the series was to be finished by a ghost author, I had mixed feelings of joy and anger. I couldn't read the story written by someone else! The Gathering Storm came to me one Christmas and sat untouched for a number of months. I was worried to read it would be to risk disappointment. I eventually decided to re-read the entire series. Now an adult, I picked up on so much that I must have missed reading the series as a teenager! I loved it all the more and reluctantly cracked the cover to book 12. It read differently, as I expected. There was a word in the first sentence of the prologue that I am convinced to this day that Mr. Jordan would never have used; "porch." Although I don't know what word he would have used, it just didn't sit well with me and I put the book down for a week or so. But it had been like cracking the lid of Pandora's Box. I dove into it head first and tried to ignore the sense that I was doing Mr. Jordan a disservice.

The long and the short of it is this: the final three books were phenomenal. I cried at numerous turns of page; yes, this grown man who was once a Marine. Mr. Sanderson took on a monumental task and had impossible shoes to fill. I cannot imagine the pressures associated with completing such a legacy and fulfilling the wishes of millions of fans worldwide. He did it and he did it well.

Laugh if you like, but whenever I meet someone and learn they are fans of the series, I have a sense that we are somehow related. I have only every experienced this kind of kinship with fellow Marines. I make a point of offering to buy a paperback copy of the first book for anyone I talk to who seems interested in the genre. It is my hope that Mr. Jordan will still have a chance to enrich lives of others as he has enriched mine.