Reviews

Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan

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dnandrews797's review against another edition

4.0

The pacing for this book was a lot better than it’s predecessor. All events large and small were spaced out enough to keep me interested and invested the point of view shifts were quicker and more engaging than the previous book. All the characters, but especially Egwene and Nynaeve have a lot of character growth and events have become more serious and more tense. All in all, a great read. I hope the next book can live up to this one.

dda9's review against another edition

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3.0

My strongest impression of "Lord of Chaos" is that the entire book seems like an illustration for what happens when people are prideful and don't communicate with others. At times it was actually really frustrating for me as a reader because I could see things going badly when the good guys had all the necessary information to accomplish their goals, but their pride kept them from working together and just about cost them everything.

I must also admit, that this book seemed to drag in the beginning and through the middle. Chapters often seemed to have not real purpose in advancing the plot. Despite this, the ending of the book was good enough to leave me feeling excited when I finished. My plot frustrations went nearly to the boiling point, but Jordan then took that frustration and seemed to focus it into the plot resolution in the final chapters. It was a great ending-- probably the most satisfying ending of the series so far.

rosiebelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

daumari's review against another edition

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4.0

It feels like I've been attempting to reread this for a while but really only two months (I remember when I would spend a matter of days on these as a teen, but I had significantly fewer responsibilities then).

Lord of Chaos is a pivotal book for many reasons in the series, which is why I'm fascinated when my husband remembers it as largely being boring. I believe that comes from so many moments of awesome (specifically, beats for Nynaeve and Egwene come to mind for me plus Mat stepping into the role most know him as) being surrounded by lots of chapters of characters investigating, or figuring things out. Rand in particular is very reactive, and we see him juggling a lot on his plate but feeling like he's spinning wheels, hopping between location to location. Perrin is briefly seen in the prologue before reappearing 800 pages later. If there's anything the adaptation can do better, it's to juggle an ensemble cast and trim what's needed.

The iconic Dumai's Wells chapter and the leadup to it is all in the last 100 pages of a 1011 page mass-market, which surprised me. It looms so large in fandom memory but the chapter itself is maybe 25 pages at most. The lines "Asha'man, kill" and "Kneel and swear to the Lord Dragon," he said softly, "or you will be knelt." often come up as favorite quotes, or lines that made readers feel goosebumps, and for the mostly-male crowd who posts them (and the bias could be because Facebook groups) I wonder if it's because Taim is unleashing raw violence on the world and punching down women who until recently were the most powerful humans in the world. There's no 'correct' way to feel about a scene, but I'll err on the side of Perrin and dislike the mechanism. It's a pivotal line in what feels to me like a Vietnam War flashback, and Robert Jordan has previously discussed his Vietnam experience and how his killer self couldn't come back stateside.

Also: definitely one of the worst original covers as it looks like a romance novel. I'm not sure who the Blue sister is supposed to be, and maybe that's rand on the cover but why does he have a blouse when I definitely figure he's probably shirtless in the box? idk. This is one where the Tor ebook redesign in the 2010s was excellent.