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Kuje
Great Reader
USA
7915 Posts |
 Posted - 26 May 2008 : 04:28:51
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I wasn't sure where to put this but for the few people, like me, who read his M.Y.T.H series and his other series, thought it might be something people wanted to know about. There are times when I wish we had a general NONFR board. :)
From the SCA mailing list: "I write this with a heavy heart. Today, sometime between 2 pm and 5 pm, Yang the Nauseating [ed: Robert Aspirin's SCA name] passed away.
I spoke to him around 2 pm - to confirm that I was to pick him up at 5 pm and take him to the airport. He was to go to a convention in Ohio this weekend - MarCon. At 2 pm, everything was fine. When I arrived at his house, he wasn't outside, didn't answer his cellphone, didn't answer his landline. Of course, as I was trying to figure out what to do, someone came up behind me and I had to drive around the block. (The French Quarter.) I called him again as I made the block, but still no answer.
I *thought* I had a key to his house, but I wasn't certain I had it with me. I tried to call another one of his close friends (who works in the Quarter), because I knew that he would have a key, but I couldn't get him. So I parked the car and dug through my briefcase and found the key that I thought was for his house. I did get in with the key, but it took some tugging and pushing.
I found Yang lying on his bed, with a book in one hand (a Terry Pratchett book, no less) and his other hand by his side, his glasses just beyond. To all extents and purposes, it looks as though he had decided to take a nap. But I could tell he wasn't breathing and he had no pulse. I called 911.
The paramedics and firemen arrived quickly and were quite nice and very good. They actually worked on him for 30 minutes, which sort of surprised me, because there was no activity on the heart monitor when they hooked him up. It might have been standard protocol. Whatever the case, they tried very hard, but couldn't bring him back.
I have been in touch with his literary agent, who in turn notified his family. Because Yang was also an author, the news is already spreading very quickly. I am very sorry to have to share this news with my SCA family, but I wanted everyone here to hear it from me before you read it on some sfnet board.
Yang was 62 years old, born June 28, 1946. He had no obvious health problems, but he was also notorious for avoiding doctors. To those who knew him "way back when" - Isolda, John the Bearkiller, and many others - he was very pleased with how the SCA has developed since the "bad old days" of freon can helms with women not allowed to fight in the lists.
He would have come and played with us more if he could have.
- Lady Alsinda de Rochabaron"
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For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 05:00:25
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Sad news indeed.
I used many a pun in my old GH games inspired by him - he will be missed. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31772 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 05:47:10
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Oh, no. 
Though I've not read the various "MythAdventures" for years, they were always among the books I'd come back to when I needed a good laugh.
He will be missed. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 11:29:33
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| I don't know what to say other than that I loved the MYTH books and that they were actually among the first fantasy books I had read, early on in my youth as I was just starting to get into the Hobbit, Arthurian legends, and D&D. I can still remember reading one of these books out in the front of my grade school when everyone else was playing games. I just sat under the big tree and read, and wished our recess was longer. |
Edited by - KnightErrantJR on 26 May 2008 11:47:32 |
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GRYPHON
Senior Scribe
USA
527 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 14:43:51
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| Another great writer gone to the beyond... |
'Everyone dies...I only choose the time and place for a few.' --Eric Destler |
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Kuje
Great Reader
USA
7915 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 17:43:56
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| Indeed. :( I'm still a bit sad that he has passed. I even picked up two of the three M.Y.T.H books that I'm missing and now there might never be another one. :( |
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium |
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Dart Ambermoon
Learned Scribe
Germany
253 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 18:06:15
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| This is sad news indeed. I, too, have fond memories of some of his books and remembering how I got my first two books by him from a Canadian soldier stationed where I live. He will be missed, indeed. |
~ In Finder I trust, for danger I lust ~ |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 22:01:29
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| I didn't know of him, but nevertheless I'm sad to hear of his death. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Rollo Ruttikin
Acolyte
USA
26 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 22:43:07
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It seems 2008 is turning into a very bleak year for us all.
For Robert Lynn Aspirin I can only quote G.K. Chesterton, the final verse of "The Last Hero."
Know you what earth shall lose to-night, what rich uncounted loans,
What heavy gold of tales untold you bury with my bones?
My loves in deep dim meadows, my ships that rode at ease,
Ruffling the purple plumage of strange and secret seas.
To see this fair earth as it is to me alone was given,
The blow that breaks my brow to-night shall break the dome of heaven.
The skies I saw, the trees I saw after no eyes shall see,
To-night I die the death of God; the stars shall die with me;
One sound shall sunder all the spears and break the trumpet's breath:
You never laughed in all your life as I shall laugh in death.
Rest in Peace.
Rollo |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2008 : 23:48:48
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Beleve it or not, I never read ANY of his 'Myth' stuff... but I was hooked on his Xanth novels. As I said, I ran my GH games based on his writing (I think torturing players with bad puns is an excellent way to punish them - much more effective then character death).
I'll have to go up in the attic now and see if I can dig those out. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Foxhelm
Senior Scribe
Canada
592 Posts |
Posted - 27 May 2008 : 03:53:37
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Beleve it or not, I never read ANY of his 'Myth' stuff... but I was hooked on his Xanth novels. As I said, I ran my GH games based on his writing (I think torturing players with bad puns is an excellent way to punish them - much more effective then character death).
I'll have to go up in the attic now and see if I can dig those out.
Robert Asprin-- Myth series, Phule Series, plus more I don't know about likely.
Piers Anthony-- Xanth series, Incarnation of Immortality Series, Mode series, Adept series, plus more
Both pun using humourist Fantasy writers, but different ones. Also Piers is still alive as far as I know and has his web site Hipiers with it's bi-monthly newsletter online.
Just a correction. |
Ed Greenwood! The Solution... and Cause of all the Realms Problems! |
Edited by - Foxhelm on 27 May 2008 03:54:29 |
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Fillow
Master of Realmslore
France
1608 Posts |
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Kuje
Great Reader
USA
7915 Posts |
Posted - 27 May 2008 : 16:16:43
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quote:
Originally posted by Fillow
One more author who leaves us. Sad news.
I'm shamed but I believe that Robert Lynn Asprin have not been translated into French and I did not know him.
What would be a novel to be read to taste his humoristic style ?
I've never read any of his other series but as I mentioned a few times in this thread, I enjoy his M.Y.T.H novels. There's about a dozen or so of them now, so I'd say start at the beginning and work your way through them. :) |
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium |
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Hawkins
Great Reader
USA
2131 Posts |
Posted - 27 May 2008 : 16:46:10
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| This sucks. What is this, Year of the Dying Authors? |
Errant d20 Designer - My Blog (last updated January 06, 2016)
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Aulduron
Learned Scribe
USA
343 Posts |
Posted - 28 May 2008 : 00:08:12
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| That sucks, I loved thec MYTH books. |
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RIP Robert Lynn Asprin
