I predict the stories will be finished by someone else based on whatever notes he left behind, and for decades there will be obscure nerd fights over whether the last books are canonical.
he knew for about the past year that his days were numbered--this was an identified, incurable heart disease that took him out. he left lots of notes, outlines, and recordings in preparation for someone else to finish the work in case he couldn't.
still, yes, canon wars await. pity.
I didn't like his writing much but I guess it's good he helped subsidize a lot of authors I did like at Tor.

He was also like best friends with John M. Ford, one of my favorite authors, so maybe he was a good guy.