Lord of Chaos - Review
Lord of Chaos (Book 6) is a great continuation in The Wheel of Time
series. It had its low moments and I had some issues with the structure
of the book but there was some good character development with Rand and
Egwene, awesome reunions between many characters, shocking moments, and
yet another phenomenal finale. This will be a non-spoiler review and it
will be covered in 5 sections. Characters, Plot,
Setting/World-Building, Pacing, and my final thoughts along with a
rating.
The 2 main focal points of this book are Rand and Egwene, with Nynaeve, Mat, and Perrin also getting a handful of chapters. This is the darkest story arc for Rand in the series so far. Not only does he have enemies on all sides and is trying to juggle several problems at once, but he’s also struggling with his grip on sanity with Lews Therin Telamon constantly saying things in his mind, he’s unwillingly bonded to an Aes Sedai, and the things he goes through near the end of this book are just horrific. I enjoyed the Rand/Lews Therin dynamic. It’s such an interesting concept that I’ve never read in the Fantasy genre before and the fact that Rand’s growing more powerful while also becoming more unhinged at the same time makes for such fascinating internal conflict.
Egwene has pretty much just been a bystander in the last few books so it was good to see her having more of a major role in this book. She’s become more hardened after all her time spent with the Aiel Wise Ones, she’s learned how to maneuver politically after listening to Moiraine lecture Rand several times on Daes Dae’mar (The Game of Houses), and she’s always determined to learn new things in order to enhance her abilities and knowledge. Her entire journey from previous books and earlier on in this book has helped her prepare for a shocking change around the 75% mark of this book. My love-hate relationship with Nynaeve and Elayne change from book to book but I despised them in the latter part of this book, especially how they treated Mat. Speaking of Mat, I really liked him and his on-going role as the general/commander for the Band of the Red Hand and I liked his dynamic with Olver as well. Perrin is awesome as always and he’s still my favorite character in the series.
One of the issues I had with the structure of this book is that there are so many new characters that are either introduced in this book or were minor characters who suddenly re-appeared after being gone for a few books, that I’ve forgotten who they were and what their purpose was. I feel like this is the first book in this series where I’ve had trouble keeping track of all the characters that appeared or were mentioned. It also doesn’t help that all these characters have similar names and since Rand is going from Cairhien, to Tear, to Caemlyn, all the names of the nobles of each nation are mixed up in my head and there isn’t a clear distinction. Sometimes in the story when an Aes Sedai is mentioned casually, I couldn’t remember if they were supposed to be from the Salidar rebellion or from the White Tower or if they were one of the Aes Sedai that were revealed to be secretly of the Black Ajah.
I enjoyed every Rand chapter in this book. Rand is jumping around from nation to nation and is trying to maintain Tear, Cairhien, and Caemlyn all at once. He’s meeting with the White Tower Aes Sedai in Cairhien and then with the Salidar Aes Sedai in Caemlyn, while also trying to prepare for war with Sammael in Tear. I loved Rand’s scenes with Mazrim Taim and his school for male channelers. All the political intrigue was great as well. Rand is trying to maneuver around 2 separate factions of Aes Sedai, fending off nobles and struggling to keep a hold of Cairhien, Caemlyn, and Tear as small rebellions arise, all while dealing with Forsaken like Sammael who has made his hatred for Rand known to him, but also other Forsaken who are operating in the shadows (no pun intended). Lord of Chaos is such a fitting title because there’s just total chaos all around Rand.
A lot of the shorter storylines were great as well such as Perrin feeling the Ta’veren pushing him toward Rand, Min trying to help Rand with the Salidar faction of the Aes Sedai, and Queen Morgase’s dealings with the Children of the Light. Although there are only a few chapters featuring different Forsaken, there’s a sparse but great story there of all the Forsaken hearing about The Dark One’s message, some of them having specific instructions, and all of them secretly having their own plans to become Nae’blis.
The ending was just phenomenal. The lead up to the big battle was intense, The Battle of Dumai’s Wells itself was an epic sequence, and the immediate aftermath of the battle was spectacular. The chapter entitled Dumai’s Wells is definitely my favorite chapter/scene in the series so far. This ending felt like a huge turning point in this series, and the epilogue chapter was also insane. It left me shocked, confused, and excited for more. I don’t know how Robert Jordan keeps crafting these masterful finales but it’s a big reason why I’ve binged the first 6 books of this series without needing a break because I just wanted to jump into the next book of the series right away.
The main settings of this book are the city of Caemlyn, the city of Cairhien, and the village Salidar (in the nation of Altara). The setting of this series was already set in an essentially broken world but I love how the weather is now becoming unnatural and is affecting the world because of the Dark One’s seals being weakened. Trees are becoming bare as all the leaves have fallen off, streams and some rivers are dwindling, and the weather around the world is almost boiling hot.
The world-building is stellar as always. The magic system is developed and explored more with abilities such as Traveling and Linking being demonstrated and abilities used previously in the series now having names for those abilities such as Compulsion (how Ravhin controlled Queen Morgase) and Illusion (how the Forsaken were able to disguise themselves as other people). The term Nae’blis is introduced early on this book and it explains why the Forsaken all have their own goals and why they rarely work together. Nae’blis is the person who will rule the world one step below the Dark One, and he or she will rule the rest of the Forsaken and all the lands of the world.
I also enjoyed the world-building near the end of the book with Ebou Dar, which is the capital city of Altara. It’s such a minor detail in the grand scheme of things but I loved the whole concept of the Ebou Dari marriage knife. The marriage knife is attached to a necklace of the wearer and a white sheath meant that the wielder was widowed and did not intend to re-marry. A pearl set in the hilt meant she had a son, a firedrop signifying a daughter. The white-enameled setting of the firedrop meant the daughter was dead whereas the red-enameled setting of the pearl meant the son was dead. Those settings meant they died in a duel, or it would have been a black setting. It was such a quirky yet cool concept that adds depth to the Ebou Dari culture.
The pacing is up and down, as always with this series so far, so I’m not sure how to assess the pacing of this book. Nynaeve and Elayne’s chapters were a drag for me because I’m starting to get tired of all the Tel’aran’rhiod (World of Dreams) scenes and aside from a great discovery Nynaeve makes in this book, her and Elayne’s joint story arc was pointless because it had no resolution. The last 300 pages of the book definitely made up for the slower moments though. Whereas the first 3 books of the series were adventure-heavy, Books 4-6 delve more into political intrigue but that didn’t affect the pacing for me at all. The court intrigue and the political scheming is actually one of my favorite aspects of this series.
The overwhelming amount of characters, the multitude of minor plot threads that weren’t as tightly woven together compared to previous books, and some of the terrible character interactions (Nynaeve and Elayne with Mat) made me rate this book lower than it should have been. The overwhelming scale of this book was not the only negative. I had so many questions in this book that were left unanswered and the epilogue chapter left me with tons more. I understand that this is a long series but there’s still so many questions unanswered from previous books and so many visions/dreams to keep track of that it’s all piling up to the point where it affected my enjoyment of this book a little bit. 70% of this book was still great and the phenomenal ending definitely offset most of the negatives I had with this book. I’m taking a short break from this series and then I can’t wait to jump back in with A Crown of Swords (Book 7).
My Book Rankings: https://jaytargaryen.blogspot.com/p/b...
*My Rating System*
5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible
Image: Sammael (1 of the 13 Forsaken).
[Characters]:
[Characters]:
The 2 main focal points of this book are Rand and Egwene, with Nynaeve, Mat, and Perrin also getting a handful of chapters. This is the darkest story arc for Rand in the series so far. Not only does he have enemies on all sides and is trying to juggle several problems at once, but he’s also struggling with his grip on sanity with Lews Therin Telamon constantly saying things in his mind, he’s unwillingly bonded to an Aes Sedai, and the things he goes through near the end of this book are just horrific. I enjoyed the Rand/Lews Therin dynamic. It’s such an interesting concept that I’ve never read in the Fantasy genre before and the fact that Rand’s growing more powerful while also becoming more unhinged at the same time makes for such fascinating internal conflict.
Egwene has pretty much just been a bystander in the last few books so it was good to see her having more of a major role in this book. She’s become more hardened after all her time spent with the Aiel Wise Ones, she’s learned how to maneuver politically after listening to Moiraine lecture Rand several times on Daes Dae’mar (The Game of Houses), and she’s always determined to learn new things in order to enhance her abilities and knowledge. Her entire journey from previous books and earlier on in this book has helped her prepare for a shocking change around the 75% mark of this book. My love-hate relationship with Nynaeve and Elayne change from book to book but I despised them in the latter part of this book, especially how they treated Mat. Speaking of Mat, I really liked him and his on-going role as the general/commander for the Band of the Red Hand and I liked his dynamic with Olver as well. Perrin is awesome as always and he’s still my favorite character in the series.
One of the issues I had with the structure of this book is that there are so many new characters that are either introduced in this book or were minor characters who suddenly re-appeared after being gone for a few books, that I’ve forgotten who they were and what their purpose was. I feel like this is the first book in this series where I’ve had trouble keeping track of all the characters that appeared or were mentioned. It also doesn’t help that all these characters have similar names and since Rand is going from Cairhien, to Tear, to Caemlyn, all the names of the nobles of each nation are mixed up in my head and there isn’t a clear distinction. Sometimes in the story when an Aes Sedai is mentioned casually, I couldn’t remember if they were supposed to be from the Salidar rebellion or from the White Tower or if they were one of the Aes Sedai that were revealed to be secretly of the Black Ajah.
Favorite Characters – Rand, Perrin, Mat, Min, & Davram Bashere.
Image: The Battle of Dumai’s Wells.
[Plot]:
Image: The Battle of Dumai’s Wells.
[Plot]:
I enjoyed every Rand chapter in this book. Rand is jumping around from nation to nation and is trying to maintain Tear, Cairhien, and Caemlyn all at once. He’s meeting with the White Tower Aes Sedai in Cairhien and then with the Salidar Aes Sedai in Caemlyn, while also trying to prepare for war with Sammael in Tear. I loved Rand’s scenes with Mazrim Taim and his school for male channelers. All the political intrigue was great as well. Rand is trying to maneuver around 2 separate factions of Aes Sedai, fending off nobles and struggling to keep a hold of Cairhien, Caemlyn, and Tear as small rebellions arise, all while dealing with Forsaken like Sammael who has made his hatred for Rand known to him, but also other Forsaken who are operating in the shadows (no pun intended). Lord of Chaos is such a fitting title because there’s just total chaos all around Rand.
A lot of the shorter storylines were great as well such as Perrin feeling the Ta’veren pushing him toward Rand, Min trying to help Rand with the Salidar faction of the Aes Sedai, and Queen Morgase’s dealings with the Children of the Light. Although there are only a few chapters featuring different Forsaken, there’s a sparse but great story there of all the Forsaken hearing about The Dark One’s message, some of them having specific instructions, and all of them secretly having their own plans to become Nae’blis.
The ending was just phenomenal. The lead up to the big battle was intense, The Battle of Dumai’s Wells itself was an epic sequence, and the immediate aftermath of the battle was spectacular. The chapter entitled Dumai’s Wells is definitely my favorite chapter/scene in the series so far. This ending felt like a huge turning point in this series, and the epilogue chapter was also insane. It left me shocked, confused, and excited for more. I don’t know how Robert Jordan keeps crafting these masterful finales but it’s a big reason why I’ve binged the first 6 books of this series without needing a break because I just wanted to jump into the next book of the series right away.
Image: Shadar Logoth.
[Setting/World-Building]:
[Setting/World-Building]:
The main settings of this book are the city of Caemlyn, the city of Cairhien, and the village Salidar (in the nation of Altara). The setting of this series was already set in an essentially broken world but I love how the weather is now becoming unnatural and is affecting the world because of the Dark One’s seals being weakened. Trees are becoming bare as all the leaves have fallen off, streams and some rivers are dwindling, and the weather around the world is almost boiling hot.
The world-building is stellar as always. The magic system is developed and explored more with abilities such as Traveling and Linking being demonstrated and abilities used previously in the series now having names for those abilities such as Compulsion (how Ravhin controlled Queen Morgase) and Illusion (how the Forsaken were able to disguise themselves as other people). The term Nae’blis is introduced early on this book and it explains why the Forsaken all have their own goals and why they rarely work together. Nae’blis is the person who will rule the world one step below the Dark One, and he or she will rule the rest of the Forsaken and all the lands of the world.
I also enjoyed the world-building near the end of the book with Ebou Dar, which is the capital city of Altara. It’s such a minor detail in the grand scheme of things but I loved the whole concept of the Ebou Dari marriage knife. The marriage knife is attached to a necklace of the wearer and a white sheath meant that the wielder was widowed and did not intend to re-marry. A pearl set in the hilt meant she had a son, a firedrop signifying a daughter. The white-enameled setting of the firedrop meant the daughter was dead whereas the red-enameled setting of the pearl meant the son was dead. Those settings meant they died in a duel, or it would have been a black setting. It was such a quirky yet cool concept that adds depth to the Ebou Dari culture.
[Pacing]:
The pacing is up and down, as always with this series so far, so I’m not sure how to assess the pacing of this book. Nynaeve and Elayne’s chapters were a drag for me because I’m starting to get tired of all the Tel’aran’rhiod (World of Dreams) scenes and aside from a great discovery Nynaeve makes in this book, her and Elayne’s joint story arc was pointless because it had no resolution. The last 300 pages of the book definitely made up for the slower moments though. Whereas the first 3 books of the series were adventure-heavy, Books 4-6 delve more into political intrigue but that didn’t affect the pacing for me at all. The court intrigue and the political scheming is actually one of my favorite aspects of this series.
[Final Thoughts & Rating]:
The overwhelming amount of characters, the multitude of minor plot threads that weren’t as tightly woven together compared to previous books, and some of the terrible character interactions (Nynaeve and Elayne with Mat) made me rate this book lower than it should have been. The overwhelming scale of this book was not the only negative. I had so many questions in this book that were left unanswered and the epilogue chapter left me with tons more. I understand that this is a long series but there’s still so many questions unanswered from previous books and so many visions/dreams to keep track of that it’s all piling up to the point where it affected my enjoyment of this book a little bit. 70% of this book was still great and the phenomenal ending definitely offset most of the negatives I had with this book. I’m taking a short break from this series and then I can’t wait to jump back in with A Crown of Swords (Book 7).
Rating: 8/10
My Book Rankings: https://jaytargaryen.blogspot.com/p/b...
*My Rating System*
5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Really Good to Great
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible
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