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Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time, Book 6)

Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time, Book 6)

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Wheel Slows Down Again
Review: After gaining momentum in books four and five, The Wheel of Time has slowed down considerably again in this installment. With the last two books, the action was fast-paced and there was very little down-time, but Jordan reverts to his long -windedness again in this book.

As for the characters, Rand, The Dragon Reborn, has started a school to train men how to channel. He has also sent Mat and his group to find Elayne and bring her safely to Andor so she can assume the Sun Throne in place of her mother, Morgase. (By the way, what exactly happened to Morgase?)

Egwyne and Nynaeve have been risen to full Aes Sedai, with Egwyne being risen to the Amyrlin Seat of the Salidar Aes Sedai. The Tar Valon group of the Aes Sedai still recognize Eladia as their Amyrlin Seat. Nynaeve has also discovered how to heal stilling, and she cures Siuan, the former Amyrlin who was stilled by Eladia and her cohorts.

The Salidar Aes Sedai and the Tar Valon Aes Sedai are both interested in Rand, and Eladia is determined to have him before the Salidar group. Her group does indeed sieze Rand, and they put him in a cage to be returned to Tar Valon.

Perrin, Faile, and Loial are all brought back in this volume after being left out since book four. I was happy to see these characters returned to the story,as they are some of my favorites.

Unfortunately, the series has slowed down a little again with this book. The series slowed down after book three, but picked up again with books four and five. I was disappointed with this book, and I would rate it as only average. I found myself struggling at times to get through it, and I was glad when I finally finished it. Hopefully, book seven will re-energize the series the way book four did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The struggle to unite the nations for the Last Battle
Review: Book Six of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series, Lord Of Chaos is a two cassette, 2.75 hour, digitally mastered, abridged audiobook that continues the story of Rand al'Thor and his struggle to unite the nations for the Last Battle when the Dark One will break free into the world to spring the snares laid by the immortal forsaken to the detriment of an unwary humankind. Robert Jordan is an accomplished and original author whose popularity increases with every title he writes. Highly recommended, this flawless audiobook production is enhanced with the narrative talent of Mark Rolston.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The struggle to unite the nations for the Last Battle
Review: Book Six of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series, Lord Of Chaos is a two cassette, 2.75 hour, digitally mastered, abridged audiobook that continues the story of Rand al'Thor and his struggle to unite the nations for the Last Battle when the Dark One will break free into the world to spring the snares laid by the immortal forsaken to the detriment of an unwary humankind. Robert Jordan is an accomplished and original author whose popularity increases with every title he writes. Highly recommended, this flawless audiobook production is enhanced with the narrative talent of Mark Rolston.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: My journey is over.
Review: I can make it no further. My journey is over. I loved the first and was enthralled with the second parts of my trip. I began to grow weary and slow down in the third and forth. The fifth was a crawl. The sixth, I had hoped, would revive me but alas, my pace was even slower on this even longer section and I feel I have made no progress at all. My journey to Tarmon Gai'don is over, having never reached the end. Ah, you say, it is not the end, but the journey that matters. I longer care for the journey: the scenery is poor, the way is unclear, my companions are dull, and my feet are tired. The seventh section will have to be undertaken by those stronger and more resilient than I. Good luck.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Wheel of Time ... long, but still fairly interesting
Review: In book 6 of the Wheel of Time Series Robert Jordan has fallen into a groove - the groove he remains in for the next 4 books or so. Book 5 was a little slower then the first 4 books, but the end sped up considerably. In book 6, Jordan reveals his true pace of writing: slow.

After reading the first 5 books of this series I called it my "favorite series of all time". After reading book 6 and visiting a few WOT hater sites my opinion has changed. The series is good, at times VERY good, but it isn't a Lord of the Rings. The reason for this is Robert Jordan's writing style. Instead of describing a room as "A room", he has to include details about the panelling, the flooring, and every visible object in the room. He also loves to describe and give names to every single character encountered in the story. This isn't terrible. But it is monotonous. After reading 6 books of this, many people quit this series, and I can see why. It is - at times - BORING.

But... (and this is what WOT haters don't include in their wild rantings)

This series does have its moments. Jordan, although he has some major problems with description, creates interesting and detailed characters that live within an interesting and detailed world. He can create suspense, and he can juggle many storylines at the same time without ruining all the careful plotting he has done to build the suspense. I'm not going to go into detail about the world that is the Wheel of Time, but I can say that Jordan does have his moments and so far he has kept me reading the books. Not to say that the Wheel of Time surpasses something like Lord of the Rings - I agree with the other reviewers, quantity does NOT mean quality. In Lord of the Rings Tolkien wrote three books that do more for me then Jordan's stack of 10 books and growing. The Wheel of Time is good - but not good enough to match the "Lord" of fantasy.

For readers new to this series, I recommend that you either read up to book 5 or be prepared to endure the lengthy descriptions in books 6-10. If book 5 annoyed you, don't read any further. If book 1 had you struggling to stay interested, don't even think about reading anything else by Jordan. However, if you can handle Jordan's spread-out storylines, there are some rewards and some great fantasy moments. So my advice is: Read the series, but drop it if it ever annoys you. And don't get too sucked in -- there are many, many other better books out there that deserve your time and attention.

So the ratings are:

BOOK 1 - The Eye of the World - 5 stars
BOOK 2 - The Great Hunt - 5 stars
BOOK 3 - The Dragon Reborn - 4.5 stars
BOOK 4 - The Shadow Rising - 4 stars
BOOK 5 - The Fires of Heaven - 4 stars
BOOK 6 - The Lord of Chaos - 3 stars

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Wheel starts missing some spokes
Review: Jordan has not lost the ability to create wonderful battle scenes or even tension in this book. However his inability to keep his plot lines from getting confused, or having simple too many characters, leaves the reader feeling cheated. The earlier books kept the Rand and Co. together and simplified the story. Now however with the main characters and their supporting caste blown to the four corners of this potentially great land, Jordan is struggling to keep his web intact. Introducing increasingly larger numbers of sub-plots and other characters makes the wheel of time look like a bad hollywood soap opera. I also feel that his constant need to divert to other books and projects while he is busy with this series doesn't help. Its time to focus on making this series better. I don't think Tolkien is in danger of loosing his crown.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best!
Review: Lord of Chaos is an excellent book, and one of the best in the series. Robert Jordan keeps up the strong scheming, action, politics, and emotions. His detailed descriptions and histories intice the reader, and paint a vivid picture of his world. The Wheel of Time series is a little slow, but only in the sense that such a large and intricate series takes a while to get to the end and give closure. In no way is this series boring.

Rand is caught in an ever-downward spiral towards madness, and it is fascinating to read of Lews Therin's personal knowledge of the Forsaken and the One Power. It was also enjoyable to read about Mat, Egwene, and the Aiel. The Aes Sedai take on darker and more dangerous roles concerning Rand in this book. Depending on which characters you prefer, this book may have been more or less exciting compared to the others. To me, it was one of the best.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best novel in the series!
Review: Okay, before all you hard-core Jordan fans beat me blind for daring to give it less than a four star review, or for all those who are disgusted with the series thus far, let me explain. No, I am no blinded by my love for the series; no, I am not angry at having to trudge through a thousand pages all these books. I don't care. I love this series, and I am dreading the day that the final book comes out, and am rooting along with everybody else for Jordan to decide that he actually will write fifteen books instead of twelve (and maybe even more.) I love longer books, and I love detail. Also, I want to point out that Jordan isn't on the same plane of detail as Tolkien was. Tolkien described scenery; Jordan describes actions. That's a bonus on my clock, because I like actions more than scenery. This book was amazing, and shame on the people who said that nothing happened.

So why am I giving it three stars? Because Jordan should have either made this book five hundred pages or two thousand, and I'm beginning to see a pattern here. In the beginning of the series, Jordan took painstaking time to write battle scenes and war scenes. And they were breathtaking, even for me, who prefers characters over war any time. He knew what he was talking about, since he was actually schooled on warfare. Starting with the Fires of Heaven, he's focusing too much attention on the women, who aren't doing anything. Their chapters would better off be blended into one large mother-chapter. If Jordan included half the stuff that goes on in Lord of Chaos, then it would be two thousand pages, and I would prefer ten thousand pages if it included those missing events.

Jordan writes the afternoon-tea well, I'll give him that. I'm not saying they suck. But when that's the majority of what we're getting, it starts to become a problem for me. Random arguments between husband-and-wife, petty insults between women, are just not Jordan's forte; or not nearly as well as he does battle, as he proved to me when he wrote the last chapter. Those events let you see more of the character's personalities, of course, because of how they react to the situation. But the situation itself is what makes it all useless, irrelevant filler. They could have been nice laughs if they were tossed in here and there, but Jordan is starting to give details on things that he shouldn't be going into so much detail on, and summarizing things that deserve a long and decent chapter.

Less time is being devoted to the Last Battle, and more time is being given to the personal issues that are dragged on far too long (Faile's argument with Perrin goes on for chapters on end). Jordan takes a particular interest in describing the problems the characters are having with love, but as he does with all other personal situations, the situation itself is ridiculous. Where did Lan and Nynaeve's love come from? I still haven't figured that out. What happened with Egwene was the final straw for me; no time is spent to the actual falling in love; it's always love at first sight. Jordan has lost about ninety percent of the urgency that was shown in the first three books. The characters are dawdling, loitering, and mingling with other characters. They aren't doing anything. And when they are, in order to complete it, they need to do more dawdling, loitering, and mingling (the siege at Tar Valon, the Bowl of the Winds...)

I would recommend this book, because all in all it's a good read. It's just not the best of Jordan's capabilities, skirting the important issues, and tracing the unimportant. I don't know whether Harriet is editing too much out, or if Jordan is just neglecting to write more, but either way, he's chopping off far too much things that are happening in his books, and I'm hoping that maybe he's going to start collecting those fallen pieces and continue on his streak of breathtaking battle scenes.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: So, So Many Words
Review: Surprise of surprises, the 6th book of the seemingly never ending Wheel of Time series is not nearly as ridiculous as the previous two. While a bit wordy, and ultimately anti-climatic considering the buildup, this book does a better job keeping the narrative moving, while not making the same mistakes he made in the previous two.

As I said above, this is the 6th book in the Wheel of Time series. If you are reading this review, I can assume you recently finished the fifth book and are seriously considering giving up. Well, six is better than five, for what that's worth. Overall, it does little to move the story in a direction I would call forward; lateral might be a better description. Considering the nearly 1000 pages of text, this is a considerable feat. Still, the lateral movement does enough to keep you interested in the characters. If you are wavering, it might be worth the investment, since you've read 5 books already.

The good? To start, the book is well written. I don't think Jordan lacks the ability to put words together in a very readable way. When you pick it up, the words flow. Granted, he goes a little overboard at times and proceeds to describe absolutely nothing in 5-10 pages. Still, words are a strength of his in this book. Additionally, there are fewer instances of blatant nudity in this one, though his gratuitous references still exist. Nevertheless, the story is compelling enough to keep you reading.

The bad? Well, my biggest complaint would be that nothing is remotely close to wrapping up. The intricate weave of tales only grows, and nothing ever comes to a resolution. With the sheer number of story lines, it would help the reader keep his sanity if some of them were spun out. Also, the near-neurotic immaturity of some of the women in this book is beyond absurd. It's his biggest downfall as a fantasy writer, IMO.

Overall, it's a decent fantasy narrative. The story moves quickly enough with a few bumps here and there. As I mentioned, many of the problems present in the preceding books do not manifest themselves in this one. Plus the story does move, albeit sideways a fair amount of the time.

The book is decent, probably worth reading if you're on the fence after the fifth one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Waste of Time and Money
Review: The Wheel of Time series is "New Age" fantasy. Channeling, a new age technique, is the only form of magic in this series. The series GARBAGE! I've read much better fantasy than Robert Jordan. For example, Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is 100 times BETTER than the Wheel of Time! I wasted my time reading the 1st 6 books, and I am glad I had the sense to stop there! Don't waste your money buying JUNK! Don't waste your time reading this JUNK!


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