The Wheel hits another speed bump

books:


	• Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time, Book 6) Robert Jordan Tor Fantasy, 1995 - 1011 pages average customer review:based on 301 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A lot going on in this book

This is the 6th book in the Wheel of Time series, Lord of Chaos, and several months have passed since the end of 5th book, The Fires of Heaven and it is now nearing winter or what should be winter but the land is going through an unnatural heat wave (in which many characters suspect is the Dark One's doing). Almost 2 years have passed since The Eye of the World.

The Lord of Chaos can be slow-going, there isn't much action (not until the very end), but there is a lot going on with the various characters. Rand gets the most page time in this book, as well as Egwene, with portions told from Nynaeve & Elayne's viewpoint, as well as more page time devoted to some of the Forsaken. Mat and Perrin are given some chapters devoted to them, but not much.

At the end of The Fires of Heaven, Rand has conquered two nations, Nynaeve has captured one of the Forsaken, Moghedien and both Nynaeve & Elayne have found the gathering place of the rebel Aes Sedai, and Moiraine perished with one of the Forsaken Lanfear (or did she?).

In Lord of Chaos, Rand divides his time between the 2 nations he conquered and dealing with the politics that come with it, Nynaeve & Elayne make strides in the One Power and discover an object that could alleviate the weather problems facing the world and head off to Ebou Dar to find it, Egwene is summoned to Salidar, where the rebel Aes Sedai are gathered, and Mat now is commander and general of a unit of soldiers called the Band of the Red Hand.

Throughout the previous book, Rand had glimpses of a past life and memories of a man more than 3,000 years dead, a man that was called Lews Therin, the Dragon. In Lord of Chaos, this manifests as a "voice" inside Rand's head and he struggles with his approaching insanity that comes with wielding saidin, the tainted half of the True Source. Of course, Rand believes this voice is a separate person from himself, but well there are all sorts of theories out there on Rand's sanity. IMO, it is a symptom of touching and wielding tainted saidin.

I feel Lord of Chaos is a turning point for Rand in how he will view all female Aes Sedai from now and into the later books. Rand has never been very trusting of Aes Sedai, but after an event that occurs in this book toward the end, any inkling of trust he may have had has disappeared. In fact, I think he has more hatred and contempt for the Aes Sedai in this book than he has had in previous books. To counter the female channelers, he forms a school devoted to gathering and training male channelers. A false Dragon named Mazrim Taim is given the task of over-seeing the school, and Rand distrusts him immensely (there are also theories on Taim as well, but that is a discussion for later books).

Egwene continues to become more Aes Sedai and I think this character also reaches an important turning point here. She becomes something "more" in this book, and you get a glimpse of Egwene in transition, but you can be sure in the later books she becomes more confident of herself and her position. Besides Rand, Mat, and Perrin I think she is the next most significant character in the series.

Even more so than the previous book, you get more page time devoted to some of the other Forsaken we haven't seen as much, such as Sammael and Graendal. You also learn that 2 Forsaken previously thought dead have been given new life by the Dark One, and no one knows they are alive, not even the other Forsaken as they have been given new bodies. I found it very interesting to read the schemes and intrigues each Forsaken used against the other. Although they all are loosely allied, in that they are all against Rand, they continue to plot against each other because there will be only one that will stand below the Dark One when he breaks free from his prison. And all the remaining Forsaken want the job.

Anyways, from reading the various viewpoints of the Forsaken, it was obvious they were getting conflicting orders from the Dark One on what their orders were in the world in combatting Rand and his allies, and you as the reader are privy to it all. The Dark One enjoys pitting his underlings against the other, and so it made sense in a way they'd squabble, but yet were still able to fulfill their orders. You see more of the work of the Dark One's hand in affairs of the world in creating the chaos (title of the book, Lord of Chaos, some believe the title refers to Rand, others to the chaos the Dark One creates) that is supposed to keep the forces of Light divided so as not to present a unified front of strength to oppose him in the Last Battle. Basically, he's trying to make it as difficult as possible for Rand to gather the people of the world together. So he gets his agents, the Forsaken and other strategically placed Darkfriends to counter Rand.

Like I said before, this book has a lot of events occurring and can be slow-moving, and I have only mentioned a small portion of the whole of this book.LOL. I still enjoyed this book despite the slow pace. If you've reached this far, you still have a long way to go. The next book after this one is A Crown of Swords.

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Very Addicting

This series is very addicting. It is easy to get lost in the characters and world. I love it!

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Another good storie

Except for a bad CD in the set, Amazon customer service just outshines them self on the replacement. I like the story.

The Wheel hits another speed bump

The narrative hits some snags again in this book (as I felt it did in book four), but still results in a strong read by one of the best fantasy writers of our time. Some of the subplots begin to drag on and you don't feel that page-burning speed that is in the other books. There are some great plot twists here that leave you wondering what else Jordan has up his sleeve for future volumes. While the pace of the overall story decreases in this book, Jordan still pleases in the end. Recommended strongly to fans of the series.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

In this sequel to the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Fires of Heaven, we plunge again into Robert Jordan's extraordinarily rich, totally unforgettable world:

On the slopes of Shayol Ghul, the Myrddraal swords are forged, and the sky is not the sky of this world;

In Salidar the White Tower in exile prepares an embassy to Caemlyn, where Rand Al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, holds the throne--and where an unexpected visitor may change the world....

In Emond's Field, Perrin Goldeneyes, Lord of the Two Rivers, feels the pull of ta'veren to ta'veren and prepares to march....

Morgase of Caemlyn finds a most unexpected, and quite unwelcome, ally....And south lies Illian, where Sammael holds sway....

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