Lord of Chaos begins by taking us to the Shayol Ghul, where the Dark One waits held in his weakening prison. Throughout the novel, we return to the futile feeling that the end is coming and nothing can be done about it. Its this feeling of impending doom that flavors the novel’s action and characters. Its hard to feel hope for the characters when they’re prophesied to die, but the ending of the book sets up a nice picture of the world to come.

The characters in Lord of Chaos develop from their roles in the earlier books, even returning from the limbo they were banished to in the Fires of Heaven.

Perrin returns as the wayward hero-lord of Two Rivers as does Lan after his exile, though briefly. These two characters represent the hardness of Jordan’s developing conflict. Perrin is forced to protect his homeland, and has fostered an almost loathing of his elevated position. Lan strives for death through his constant battles, even though his love for Nynaeve ties him to this world. Lan is conflicted by love as Perrin is strengthened by it. With Perrin’s marriage to Faile, Perrin has something to hold on to as he is dragged into conflict because of his ties to Rand.

Rand, in my opinion, is the weakest link in this volume of the series. The former farmer and now living legend, Rand’s complacent self-deprecation seems a crutch for Jordan to cling to keep Rand from developing. As one of the world’s Power wielding men, Rand should attempt a continuing development of scope and control—which Jordan seems to undercut at every opportunity. Riding along in Rand’s head is a reminder that men of the world go mad, the villain who broke the world is acting as Rand’s id. It’s this set up that undercuts Rand’s development, having a main character that questions himself and his abilities for so long weakens the plot. Main characters can question themselves and their abilities, that isn’t the issue, it’s the three books of “am I going mad” that smacks of poor characterizations. Hopefully Rand develops a system of coping with his inner madman, or else the series will suffer.

Rand’s plight of madness and memories from other men also appears thematically in the character of Mat.

Mat is, to me, the second most likeable male character in the book. Mat is a grumbling, laughing bipolar gambler with dreams of release from his ties to Rand. Acting in the role of general, due to his multi-person memory, Mat acts in this book as a plot device to slowly connect the wayward characters together and get them driven to where Jordan wants them in by the time the book ends. By using Mat, Jordan gets to showcase more of his world, and even gets to drop some foreshadowing of things to come.

Loial the Ogier, to me, is the most likeable male character in the book. He is the quintessential adventurer taken from J. R. R. Tolkien’s book. Jordan hides his hobbits in tuffed ears and massive frames, but the Ogier are hobbits. Loial can never be found without his comfortable books and game of stones. Appear to placate most of the audience’s need for a fantasy race in the otherwise human dominated world. In Lord of Chaos, Loial represents Jordan’s call that the order of the world is unraveling, as Ogier tend to stay put and “never go on any adventures…”

The female characters get better treatment in this novel then the first few of the series, though the “arms crossed beneath her breasts” creeps back in towards the end, a step backwards, in my view.

Though the men take up a great deal of the action in the novel, it is the women that keep things together. By their actions, or inactions in case of some of the Aes Sedai, the events of this book unfold.

The events in this book are tied to the unraveling that began in the Fires of Heaven and the Shadow Rising. Mat and Rand’s minds are unraveling, Mat is loosing track of his own self in the sea of memories, as Rand is fighting to maintain his control over his id Lews Therin.

The world’s weather system matches that of the character’s plight. As the characters are forced into chaos, the world’s weather is unseasonably hot. It’s this stagnant heat that makes the characters irritable and snippy. It’s the heat that keeps the pieces of the novel feeling together, though the action takes place in three or four places around the world—including the spirit world.

Lord of Chaos is a solid book in the series and builds from the previous volumes. It’s too bad that Jordan hit his writing stride too late as this novel would have done well to keep a number of readers interested had it came earlier in the series. For those who’ve read the novels so far, it’s a nice reward on our way to the end of the series.

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