Robert Jordan

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-06

Robert Jordan, born James Oliver Rigney Jr. on October 17, 1948, in Charleston, South Carolina, was an American fantasy author who began his writing career in 1977. After a year at Clemson University he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving two tours in the Vietnam War (1968-1970) as a helicopter gunner and surviving a helicopter crash at age 19; he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with V and oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm. He earned a BS in Physics from The Citadel in 1974 and worked as a nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy before writing full-time. He is best known for The Wheel of Time series, comprising 14 books plus a prequel novel and selling roughly 90 million copies, and also wrote seven Conan the Barbarian novels (1982-1984) and other fiction under pen names including Reagan O'Neal and Jackson O'Reilly. He died September 16, 2007, in Charleston at age 58 of cardiac amyloidosis, and was posthumously inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 2008.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Eye of the World (1990) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• The Great Hunt (1990) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• The Dragon Reborn (1991) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• The Shadow Rising (1992) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• The Fires of Heaven (1993) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• Lord of Chaos (1994) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• A Crown of Swords (1996) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• The Strike at Shayol Ghul (1996) · Wheel of Time Expanded Canon
• The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (1997) · Wheel of Time Expanded Canon
• New Spring (novella) (1998) · Wheel of Time Expanded Canon
• The Path of Daggers (1998) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• Winter's Heart (2000) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• Crossroads of Twilight (2003) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• New Spring (2004) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• Knife of Dreams (2005) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• The Gathering Storm (2009) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• Towers of Midnight (2010) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• A Memory of Light (2013) · Wheel of Time Core Canon
• The Wheel of Time Companion (2015) · Wheel of Time Expanded Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 15 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 1 (1 finalist mention)

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