Robert Jordan: Lord of Chaos

Hi

This is the sixth book in The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.
I am rereading the whole series and I plan to read one book every other month.
This one is enormous and has 1017 pages.
It was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1995.
You can find all my reviews on this series here.

* SPOILERS *

This is more of a collection of my thoughts about this specific novel and not really a fully fleshed out review. It’s hard to review book after book in a series so i’m doing it this way for now.

Dear mister Jordan. We’re not stupid. This is the sixth book, there’s no need to retell everything that has happend since the start of the series or walk us through every character. Who would be dumb enough to start the series with this book when you can see everywhere on the cover that this is the sixth book?

The prologue is ridicilously long; it’s more like a novella then a prologue. It doesn’t bother me, but it is rather stupid. Don’t call it a prologue just call it the first chapter.

I love the idea of the schools Rand founded to leave something behind. It’s smart and it shows how it’s not just about him but about the whole world. It will take time to defeat The Dark One and the world has to be ready to face him and move on after this Battle. Rand is preparing the world for that.

Ji'e'toh is a stupid, ridiculous, unconvincing bunch of rules. Aviendha and the Aiel in general  are fullof contradictions.
Sulin calls her behavior meeting her toh? She is sullen, angry and she never wants to do her job, how is that meeting her toh?

The Wise Ones and Aiel Maidens who are trailing Rand everywhere are nowhere to be seen when The Tower Aes Sedai pay Rand a visit. That’s convenient.

The foursome of Rand, Elayne, Min and Aviendha is just awful. All three women see Rand as some kind of dog who’s their property. It’s so wrong!

Elayne and Nynaeve start showing some logical, serious thinking in this novel and their bickering isn’t present as much as it was before. Thankfully; because I hated that.
And another thing; you would expect Elayne to go for the throne, but she doesn’t. No idea why not. She’s a rather stupid, dumb character.

Lews Therin is a very interesting addition to the story. First time readers will wonder what is up with that. Is he real or is Rand going insane? I know because this is a reread but it’s still intruiging.

Herid Fell is a cliché but he’s also a funny and good person. And it’s an easy, not-boring way to give the reader the much needed information without making it into a lecture of several pages.

I love Egwene and she is an amazing Amyrlin Seat. Her scheming for real power is so interesting to read and I loved those parts of the story.

I still hate Faile, she’s super irrational, overly jealous and angry for no reason whatsoever. Aside from his love for Faile I find Perrin to be a very realistic and loving character. He is obviously the reluctant hero. Mat thinks himself a reluctant hero but he actually loves the planning, the bossing people around and attention it gets him. Perrin really hates it; he wants a quiet life in a small town with wife and children. But this side of him makes him a slow character too because he can’t make decisions for the life of him.
And speaking of Mat, I like him a lot more. He was more of a comic relief character in the previous novels but he is actually turning into a normal person with real feelings, doubts and fears.

The battle of Dumai’s Wells is amazing. Jordan is a master in writing battles and fights. It was thrilling and full of action, we see the different characters and their part in it and it is so, so satisfying to read. I loved it.
Aside from being very skilled at writing battles, the politics and maneuvering in this novel are right on point too. I love such thorough world-building and the immense amount of details.

Alanna bonding Rand against his will is the prime example of Jordan’s opinion of women. Women are meddlesome, proud, self-righteous, conceited and self-important and Aes Sedai even more so. Wise Ones too but not as much as Aes Sedai. Every relationship in the series between a man and a woman is just plain wrong. They don’t understand each other, they cannot communicate, they don’t really care for the feelings or thoughts of the other person and they certainly don’t take them into account. Rereading this series in such a short time (my first time took me several years because I had to wait for the books to get published) has made me realize how wrong and disappointing this is in such an otherwise amazing series. It honestly sets my teeth on edge.

The book is interesting and the general plot is amazing but again, it’s too drawn out.
It has an amazing ending too!

4 STARS

Happy reading.
Helena