| Author | Message | ||
     Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I've only just learned that Rob died yesterday. He was a very fine writer and a good friend, and a genuinely good person. I'm sure everyone who knew him will miss him. I do. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.47.50.55 |
Wonderful writer and man. I met him for the first time, in January at an event in London, and we had a chat over a pint. Very sad news. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.72 |
Oh Jesus, no. How terrible. I corresponded with Rob (though, alas, my ill health meant I never met him when he was in the region) and he was the soul of generosity. The last I heard he was enthusing about this being a great year for him, with a number of books coming out (one new, the others reissues) and he was relishing the prospect of exploring more of the Mythago Wood... He was a tremendous writer, and his legacy is assured through those wonderful books. The best series novels since Patrick O'Brian's and the best fantasy novels of the last half of the 20th century. But goodness, how I wish he were around to write more of them. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.126 |
Oh dear. His books were always full of such wonderful ideas... | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 212.121.214.114 |
Oh, shit. No. This is terrible news. Truly sorry to hear this. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.106.220.83 |
Very sad news - I loved his work and recall being bowled over by Mythago Wood when it came out. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I'm very sorry to hear this... only ever read 'The Fetch' when it first came out and remember being hugely impressed. The impression I got was of a more adult oriented Alan Garner, especially in the merging of primal mythology with contemporary supernatural horror, and I regret now not getting more into his books. So many books, so little time.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Very sad to hear this; by all accounts he was a very fine human being. I heard about him being ill last week, so fished Mythago Wood out of the pile to finally read it...now I'll do so in his honour. RIP. | ||
| Stevenw (Stevenw) Username: Stevenw Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 194.70.181.1 |
This is a sad day. I remember Rob from the BFS Cons. He was a great fantasy writer and an excellent speaker. Another one lost to us. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I'm not at all familiar with his work or with the man, but it's always tragic when someone dies suddenly and way too young (a virus of some kind wasn't it, according to the BFS site?). RIP. | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.200.116.133 |
I remember being enthralled by his story "The Ragthorn" (a collaboration with Garry Kilworth). Superior work. A superior writer who will be missed. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.247 |
It is sad news indeed - I loved his stories and novels. The Bone Forest was one I enjoyed a lot that nobody has mentioned, I think. He seems to have been a genuinely nice man, as well as a superior writer, judging from the comments of those who knew him. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.143.117 |
This is terrible news. I heard Rob speak (probably at a Fantasycon) about ten years ago, and remember him as a tremendously cultured, thoughtful and likeable man. Rob had been ill for a fortnight with an E. coli infection – a lethal bacterial infection that is very hard to treat. | ||
| Johnny_mains (Johnny_mains) Username: Johnny_mains Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.31.118.252 |
Thinking of Rob's family today - it's been a year today since he died. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
A profoundly brilliant writer. Mythago Wood is a very important novel. | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.195.182.42 |
Coincidentally, I just re-read "Ocean of Sound", a short story of Robert's that had an enormous effect on me as a child. The legacy lives on. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.77 |
Absolutely. I was thinking about him yesterday as the snow fell. 'There is old memory in snow.' Tallis's grandfather, writing a letter to her at her birth, from the opening of Lavondyss. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
I love Mythago Wood. I love the way the action compresses itself as the story progresses, just like the wildwood compresses space and time. I haven't read the sequels yet, but I will do! | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Rhys- Lavondyss is even better, as I recall. Still sad to think he's gone. |