Lord of Chaos

I’d say this is where the rot sets in, but given the how the series was put together, I don’t think that’s entirely fair. This is, after all, the sixth novel of a series that was intended to be ten volumes long, but that length wasn’t decided until after the second volume… You can just imagine how the conversation went – RJ: it’s three books. Publisher: make it one. Publisher (later): it’s going really well, we’ve sold loads, how does ten books sound? RJ (Ker-ching!): Shit shit fuck fuck fuck. RJ (later): this ten book thing is not working out, can we make it a few more? Publisher (ker-ching!): no problemo. It doesn’t help that the title of this book is a title assigned to series hero Rand Al’Thor that has never show more been mentioned before. Because, of course, why would it? Jordan only invented it when he set out to write this installment. Meanwhile we have the rest of the cast doing exactly what they did at the end of the last book. With added recaps. Lots of fucking recaps. If, perhaps, we’d not read the preceding five books, these might be useful. But we have! Because who the fuck starts reading a fantasy series at volume six? And, if we had, Jordan explains what happened in the preceding five volumes. Several times. I seem to remember from my prior read back in the late 1990s that book seven was where things started to go downhill, but I’d thought book six, Lord of Chaos, was one of the last good ones. Only, it turns out it’s the first of the bad ones. Although, to be fair, that term is relative. I have this desire to complete the Wheel of Time, and there’s no way I’m going to do that based on my readings of the books from the 1990s. So I have to reread them all. It’s proving, entirely predictably, easier said than done. Sadly. show less

There is good stuff here like a detailed dance scene with a charismatic barmaid named Betse Silvin, wetlander women culturally appropriating from Aiel spear maidens, an academy of eccentric scholars and inventors, a new faction of black-clad battlemagefarmers, an Ogier trying to avoid getting hitched, a warp-speed horseback ride through the realm of dreams, forbidden romance in Cairhien, a topless coronation, and a ruler trying to hold court while a woman sits on his lap. (This stuff is erotic.)

But this book was an even bigger slog than its predecessors. Although I found it helpful to read the book while listening to the audiobook, I was still annoyed by repetitive scenes of indistinct characters getting on each other's nerves for no show more reason. This book took me the longest to read of any in the series so far. (7 months!) I was ready to tell you that I hated it.

But then ... the ending. The final 50 pages of heartstopping, gory comeuppance, culminating in poetic, ass-kicking words that will change the world. It rivals book 2 for best ending yet and made the whole damned read almost worthwhile. show less

Rather than go on again about the emotional paralysis that governs every single character and causes 90% of the drama in this series, I'd like to mention something more positive. I am truly enjoying the cultures of WoT. While it's true that the Aiel warrior people have the most richly explored culture so far, there is a real sense that every single culture in Jordan's world is just as nuanced, just as riveting, and just as impenetrably odd.

On the surface, each of the peoples seem to have distinctive body types and facial features, not unlike the Arabs, Asians, Indians, Americans, and Europeans of our own world. In fact, some of the races seem to draw their inspiration from these Earth cultures. But Jordan goes much deeper than that, show more exploring their economies, their music, social graces, class systems, and many other aspects. And each time he touches on one such issue for one race, you realize that the same facets probably exist in all the other races, too.

In my mind, Lords of Chaos marks a turning point for the series. It's a small shift, and subtle, but it's important. In this instalment, we finally see the characters beginning to shift from the defensive to the offensive. Not a lot, and not in any grand, trumpeted way. But it has happened. Will this be the end of the secret-keeping and the inner hand-wringing? Probably not. But at least they aren't acting like punching bags any longer. Or at least, not much. show less

I have massively sped up my listening speed on these books and I think that helped as I didn't find this one quite so annoying in the plot & character stakes. There was more Rand and less Nynaeve etc which also helped. But Perrin's return also brought the return of Faile who is possibly the most annoying character ever written (please someone kill her!) - is she meant to be so appalling or is this author failure to recognise it? It also makes Perrin look like an idiot & I doubt that was the intention.
Jordan's style is obviously plod, plod, plod then big finale.

What a great idea to shake up the series nearly halfway through: the Dark Lord commands his minions to "let the Lord of Chaos rule". The Forsaken and their minions are to sally forth and sow the seeds of chaos, for bountiful harvests of all the synonyms thereof: disorder, confusion, anarchy, pandemonium, turmoil, turbulence, disruption. The newest evildoing newcomer on the scene, Moridin, seems particularly enthusiastic about this, and it was in one of his POV scenes that I got a chill: he didn't care whether there was a cause and an effect in his actions. Unlike in most of the scenes featuring the Forsaken, there was no plotting and pulling of strings and setting up of chess pieces. Moridin had his plans and plots, but he was also show more acting in the moment, without a care as to whether a given action would further his aims or not. He didn't care what the result of his actions was, as long as the result involved chaos. That's a little terrifying. The careless, casual destruction that could have occurred under the directive "let the Lord of Chaos rule" could have swept civilization off the chessboard entirely.

But it didn't. A quick, abortive–because–Spoilers search on the phrase makes it seem as though the phrase will come back into play again shortly, but here, in the book whose title comes from the phrase, there just isn't that much random anarchy and disruption. It felt like a huge missed opportunity.

This is much of a muchness with the other middle books of the series, although rather more happens here than in others. To inappropriately quote an 80's sitcom theme song, "You take the good, you take the bad, you take 'em both and there you have – " The Wheel of Time. (Which applies to both the series and the, you know, actual Wheel of Time…) show less

While "Lord of Chaos" advances the character arcs of the major characters of the series, there is little advancement of the major story arc. In fact, the anticipated battle of the main protagonist Rand al'Thor against Sammael, the next Forsaken (minion of the Dark One) as set up at the end of the previous novel does NOT occur -- and this is actually a refreshing break from the repetitive plot structure that Jordan used in the first five novels in the series. "Chaos" among the peoples, nations, and male and female Power Users who will need to be allied with Rand before the Last Battle is the subject of this narrative, and Jordan, through the voice of the Dark One himself in the opening pages of the book, forewarns the reader of this. show more Despite, at times, a slog to push through, with Jordan's overly abundant and too often bland descriptions (e.g. with exhausting detail of seemingly every article of clothing worn by every character in every scene), the empathy for his characters that Jordan evokes from readers now into this sixth novel of fourteen makes it a page-turner. As much as I wished he'd "get on with it," he's artfully invested my interest, and the change in the narrative arc in this novel was fresh and enjoyable. My only other pet peeve is the pervasive depiction of men and women as nearly separate species, unable to understand the other sex, and belittling each other because of it. This can be seen in a number of the aphorisms Jordan's intersperses throughout the text while others provide varying degrees of insightfulness (see QUOTES in Comments below) show less

How to handle problems in the Lord of Chaos world: Don't talk to anyone about anything important, lose your temper whenever you can, sit around and do nothing for a while, spend all of your time trying to convince everyone else that you are the boss rather than trying to solve actual problems, and blame others for your problems rather than face them head on.

Oh wait, some awesome things do happen. Nynaeve heals Suian, Leanne, and Logain (one of the more awesome things she does), Egwene becomes Amyrlin and finally moves past her stupid Hermione-to-the-twelfth-power stage, and Perrin comes back (though, aside from the few paragraphs in the prologue, we have to wait till page 800 to see him). I must admit, as crazy as the Saldean culture show more is, I enjoyed the "meet the in-laws" segment. show less