Lord of Chaos

by Robert Jordan

Reviewed by Coral

With the Forsaken Sammael firmly entrenched in Illian, Rand sends an army against him. The surviving Forsaken plot against him, while receiving orders to let loose the Lord of Chaos.

Having offered amnesty to all men who can channel, Rand is still surprised when the False Dragon Mazrim Taim offers his services to Rand, which can potentially alienate his new allies from Saldaea, the land Mazrim Taim terrorized.

Rand also faces a choice between the White Tower and the rebel Aes Sedai, as each have sent representatives to him. But can Rand really trust any of them to leave him in peace?

I really hated this book.

I tend to dislike bait-and-switch plots, where you think you are building to one thing only for the story to go in a completely different direction. I hated Gangs of New York for this reason; the whole time I thought we were building to a fight between the two factions and then the story goes in a complete different way. In this book, a lot of time was spent with Rand worrying about the Forsaken and, considering there is an army being sent against him, it seems like Sammael will be where the story ends, but all of a sudden the whole direction of the story changes.

There where long stretches where nothing happened in the book. At some points it felt like I had read almost the entire thing with nothing happening. After Taim’s introduction at the beginning of the story, it wasn’t until almost the 500 page mark before there was an attempted assassination, then a few more hundred pages until there was an important Healing and then a few more hundred pages until a kidnapping.

Sometimes I think the only reason for the characters to make the dumb decisions they make is to prolong the plot. Why does Rand seem to go out of his way to antagonize Mazrim Taim, when he needs Taim to teach other men to channel? Why does Rand avoid meeting with the representatives of the Atha'an Miere? (Seriously, the only reason he has is that they aren’t mentioned in prophecies so he hopes by ignoring them they will be spared in the final battle.) Why does no one ever believe anything they are told (mainly Elayne, who never seems to believe anything she is told about her mother)? And what is it with people ignoring the stranger things that are happening when they know the evil that is loose in the world? I don’t know if anything will come of Aludra not knowing who Thom was, but you think it would worry Thom. Instead he just dismisses it. Why doesn’t Rand have Min take a viewing of all of the men who can channel who have come to claim Rand’s amnesty? If he’s so worried about one of the Forsaken slipping in to their ranks, having Min take a viewing of each of them would be able to tell him who he can trust and who he shouldn’t.

Faile and Perrin are back in this book, but I almost wish they weren’t. Their relationship in this book is disturbing. Faile is finally given a chapter from her point of view, but that only lead to a line where she mentions locking herself in her room to wait out Perrin’s temper. Her parents advising Perrin that a woman wants someone stronger than her to dominate her is also very disturbing. Faile thinking she can hit Perrin all she wants to get him to do what she wants is also very disturbing. Perrin thinking about teaching Faile a lesson by spanking her (with the implication that it has happened before) is even more disturbing.

I remain convinced that Robert Jordan is not great at writing romantic relationships. Back in the first book I thought Nynaeve and Lan kind of came out of nowhere. In this book it seems like Egwene is suddenly in love with Gawyn.

The less said about Rand and his romantic relationships the best, but I do have to comment on Elayne. I can’t believe that she spent more time on page worrying about Min going to see Rand than about her mother possibly being dead. At one point later on in the book she mentions that she has mourned her mother and all I could thing was ‘when’?

When Rand finds out who is mother was before coming to the Aiel, he worries that he and Elayne are related. Once he realizes it’s only distant cousins at best he’s relieved. Myself, I am a little worried that they share a half-brother, but Galad is never mentioned in Rand’s thoughts.

Even though I am not loving the books the way I did when I first read them, Mat Cauthon was my favourite character then and he is still my favourite character now. Which is why I really hated how Nynaeve and Elayne behaved towards him in this book. Telling other people (like Thom, who has travelled with Mat before) not to talk to Mat is beyond childish. And I didn’t like how Elayne wanted to take Mat’s amulet or that she planned on coercing his mind once she got it away from him. Much like characters making stupid decisions I think having these characters – especially the ones who grew up in the same village – not working together is just to prolong the plot.

I hate that the author has written so many of the women getting jealous at other women who come near the men they love. Faile gets jealous of Min. Everyone is jealous of (or treats her badly because of other people’s jealousy of) Berelain.

The only thing about this book that I liked was finally meeting Mazrim Taim, if only because I have a feeling he may be an important character down the line, given both how long he was talked about and his actions at the end of the book.

Grade: D