| Author: Robert Jordan | Series: The Wheel of Time |
| Rating: 8.5 | Reviewer: Valashain |
| Genre: Fantasy | Publisher:Tor |
| Pages: 1024 | Orig Pub Date: October 1994 |
| Binding: Paperback MassMarket | Cover Illus.: Darrell K. Sweet |
Lord of Chaos is the sixth book in Robert Jordan's successful Wheel of Time series. I hesitated before taking on this review. As you can see the first five books have been reviewed by TK42ONE and he has a decidedly different view on this series. Where he goes in as a fresh first time reader I have read most Wheel of Time books several times. I have helped run one of the biggest Wheel of Time fan sites on the web, hell, I owe Robert Jordan for meeting my girlfriend. In short I am a fan of this series. That doesn't mean I feel everything Jordan wrote is gold but I certainly wasn't ready for a break at book five. In fact, as far as epic fantasy goes, there aren't that many better books than Lord of Chaos.
By the time Jordan reaches this point in the series, it is such a tangle of story lines that it will be hard for me not to give anything away and still discuss the content in a meaningful way. Obviously I will try to avoid major spoilers but there will inevitably be some. If you haven't read the series up to book five at least you'll probably don't want to continue reading.
At the end of The Fires of Heaven Rand has killed Rahvin in Caemlyn and taken the city. Nynaeve and Elayne have arrived in Salidar where the rebel Aes Sedai faction is gathering and have captured Moghedian, Moiraine and Lanfear have fought their battle of mutual destruction and Jordan has given us one of the most debated riddles of the series, beating the Taimandred debate by a fair margin. Who killed Asmodean? Rand may have established himself as the Dragon Reborn, and a power to be reckoned with, but he has also divided the world. And that, as we will learn in the prologue of book six, is exactly what the Dark One likes to see. He orders the remaining Forsaken to "let the Lord of Chaos rule".
Rand, as he puts it himself, is juggling for all he's worth to manage his affairs in Tear, Cairhien and Andor, all of which seem to be on the brink of rebellion. At the same time he is also building up the army that will be the hammer and anvil between which he means to crush the Forsaken Sammael, who has established himself as a major power behind the throne in Illian. Rand's amnesty for men who can channel has lured Mazrin Taim, one of the false dragons who plagued the world before Rand took the Stone of Tear, to Caemlyn. Rand puts him in charge of the school that will eventually become the Black Tower. With Moiraine gone both factions within the White Tower are trying to tie new strings to Rand, each of them sending him embassies. On top of all that the Seafolk are also demanding his attention.
Egwene is still studying with the Wise Ones to be a Dreamwalker but her time is running out. She is increasingly afraid of someone discovering that she's been posing as a full sister and when a summons from the Hall of the Tower in Salidar arrives she decides to confess to the Wise Ones. Meeting her toh, as the Aiel put it, turns out the be a painful experience but to her surprise the Hall didn't summon her back to face charges.
Elayne and Nynaeve are still in Salidar, trying to get as much information out of Moghedien as they can. Their amazing discoveries earn them some privileges but after having been on the road on their own for so long, the restrictions in Salidar are galling. Especially after they discover a hidden ter'angreal that my help them to fix the unseasonably hot weather. To find it they will have to travel to Ebou Dar and the Aes Sedai are having none of it.
Mat is on the road with his Band of the Red Hand to join the army gathering to smash Sammael. He is in no hurry, Rand wants Sammeal to see it coming. Unfortunately for Mat, Rand changes his mind after learning the location of Salidar and sends him over to keep an eye on Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne. Unfortunately for Mat, Rand's intelligence isn't quite as accurate as he could wish for.
Perrin and his wife Faile have established himself as Lord and Lady of the two rivers. Many things have changed in this isolated part of Andor but the region appears to be flourishing after the battle of Emond's Field. Perrin can't escape being ta'veren however. He soon feels Rand's pull and sets of with a small party of Two Rivers bowmen to find him. A journey that will take him to his next battle, the climax of Lord of Chaos and in my opinion the best battle scene in the series so far, the battle of Dumai's Wells.
If you have come this far in the series the conclusion that Jordan is in trouble is inescapable. It is very obvious that he hasn't planned ahead all that well and that the story has grown way beyond it's original scope. If you rearrange events in The Dragon Reborn just a little bit, he could have finished it in a trilogy. In The Great Hunt he introduces so many new elements in the story that finishing it in three books was out of the question. The Great Hunt is my favourite book in the series just because it is the beginning of a great many story lines but I will admit it is very hard to tell where all of it is going when you read it for the first time. After The Dragon Reborn the story just keeps on growing to the point where even Jordan couldn't tell how many more books he'd need. That is also the point where he starts loosing readers. Quite a lot of them give up somewhere between The Shadow Rising and Lord of Chaos.
The point where he actually looses control of the story is a matter of debate of course. I feel that Lord of Chaos is the last book where he manages to keep the story focussed enough to move the plot forward considerably. Even if it does take him a thousand pages. Lord of Chaos has over 30 different point of views, which is probably too much, but for most of the book we still focus on the main characters. Jordan doesn't spend too much time yet on secondary characters, lengthy descriptions of dresses or braid tugging like he does in his later books. It's long, complex and certainly not a book for the impatient reader but it is still focussed.
That doesn't mean there aren't some things that annoy me of course. The relationship between men and women takes on increasingly ridiculous qualities. I have always felt that some imbalance is to be expected with the male half of the Source tainted but the way these people go about it, it is not surprising the population in their world has been steadily declining. Rand's arrogance is also becoming quite insufferable and unfortunately it will be several more books before someone finds their spine and does something about it. Lord of Chaos already shows the flaws that will lead to the absolute low of the series, Crossroads of Twilight.
Jordan takes epic fantasy to the edge in terms of complexity, he stresses the attention span of the reader to the maximum and, in my opinion, delivers one of the best epic fantasy novels ever. Unfortunately it also marks the beginning of Jordan's struggle to keep his story manageable. If this book had been the conclusion of the series Jordan would have been immortal. As it is Lord of Chaos and the challenge Jordan has set himself, paved the way for a number of other epic fantasy series. I don't think Erikson would have sold his ten volume Malazan series without the Wheel of Time. Or that Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire would have been such a success. The Wheel of Time is a landmark in modern fantasy but also a warning of the pitfalls an author faces when writing such a huge story. Still, the developments later on in the series don't make me enjoy Lord of Chaos any less. This book is Jordan at the pinnacle of his story telling ability. I'd rate it 8.5/10.
Buy it now at Amazon! | View/Post Comments(0)
Other Reviews of works by Robert Jordan
