Lord of Chaos

Rating 4 of 5

Lord of Chaos is the sixth book in Robert Jordans famous Wheel of Time book series.

My reviews of the series

• The Eye of the World
• The Great Hunt
• The Dragon Reborn
• The Shadow Rising
• The Fires of Heaven

As these stories are rather long, rather then review the plot I’m just going to refer Wikipedia for a plot summary.

I rather enjoyed Lord of Chaos and found the story exciting. I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did because I’ve heard that the books decline in quality as the series progresses.

I thought it was interesting reading Rand jump band and forth between Camelyn and Cairhien and the tension between him and the Aes Sedai embassies. His meetings where the Aes Sedai embassies were good plot points and you couldn’t tell who he was more interested in dealing with.

The final battle at Dumai wells is hugely exciting. An Perrin’s character is given a lot o depth as he marches to try to save Rand. The battle itself is chaotic and intense and when Rand breaks free and starts fighting the Aes Sedai who have captured and tortured him you feel a huge relief.

The raising of Egwene as the rebel Amyrlin seat is not as far fetched a plot point as I expected. Her dynamic trying to be more then a puppet is interesting to read.

The introduction of the Children of Light and their leader Pedron Niall introduces new interesting “villians” for the characters to struggle with. The political intrigue around the Children of Light broadens the story arc and makes you interested in what comes next.

What I didn’t enjoy was most of the Nynaeve and Elayne story line. The Nynaeve character totally grates on me and Elayne is not much better. Even from their own point of view they are arrogant and full of themselves and frankly rather boring. At times I think they just exist as a plot point ot make the Mat character more likeable.

I also didn’t care for the resurrection of Osan’gar and Aran’gar. It just felt kind of lame. Thats not how people are “reborn” in the wheel of time and it feels odd that the “Dark One” can just resurrect these people. I think the story didn’t need these characters and they’ll just muddy the water.

The final part of the story I don’t care for is that Rand is becoming a very frustrating Character. He’s starting to feel whiney and entitled and arrogant. His whole women should not be endanger personality trait is a bit cliche and tiresome. He’s just not treading to be a character you really like or want to win sometimes.

All these complaints aside Lord of Chaos is good book fantasy novel which is impressive considering its the sixth book in the series.