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

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

List Price: $16.45
Your Price: $16.45
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: An amazing novel
Review: Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan is a great novel. The ending is one of the most dramatic he has written. I even think the bulk of the book has a stronger plot than the books four or five. Jordan still writes annoying conversations between Nynaeve and Elayne, but they seem to be doing something important for the first time....ever. Perrin character seemed to completely change. I don't think Jordan has the same mindset for him in book six as he did in book one, but Perrin and Failes parts of the novel were also better written than usual aside from Perrin's conversation with Faile's father. I also enjoyed the increased focus on Matrim Cauthon. He is becoming the most interesting character. And the best part of the novel is that we no longer have to read about Aveindha sharing Rand's bed chamber.

What happens. Rand travels around, and the black tower is created. Rand doesn't accomplish much beside learning not to trust Aes Sedai. Mat is a decoy headed to Fight Sammuel but ends up in Ebou Dar. Egwene joins Elayne and Nynaeve. Nynaeve and Elayne make amazing discoveries. Perrin is pulled to Rand. Not much really happens.

I also noted something about Loial's speech. He speaks Noun, Verb, Rest of sentence. Every sentence, that makes him sound different compared to the rest of the novel. Just an observation. Good book, I hope the next one is as good.

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: Great Book!!
Review: Lord of chaos is the book that truly defined the wheel of time series. It does not just follow Rand, Mat, Egwene, Elayne, Nynaeve, and the others, it truly opens your eyes to the darkness surrounding them all. It shows what the Dark One can do as the Lord of the Grave with resurrecting the forsaken. I read this book in five days. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is the BEST ONE YET!!

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.


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