Posted Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Actual Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

As originally posted on my book blog, Reviews of a Self Proclaimed Bibliophile.

Out of courtesy for those who have not yet read this novel and are coming across my review, I will be placing specific portions of my review behind a spoiler tags: Read them at your own Risk!

This book…this book made me feel so many different things that I am not even sure if I can properly articulate all of my thoughts in a way which will be meaningful. Once I finished this book one of my initial thoughts was that while there are some significant events which have happened over the course of this novel, there really wasn’t all that much going on. It felt as if the majority of the time spent in this book dealt more with planning and discussing rather than acting, it led to the book feeling somewhat slow overall but once the action got underway it didn’t stop. The planning and discussing did make a lot of sense though because from what I can gather of Rand’s plans, he is looking to unify all nations under one leader before Tarmon Gai’don – the prophesied apocalyptic battle between the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One. It is a noble yet delicate venture, especially since the political dealings always feel incredibly slow and frustrating due to everyone and their seeming need to manipulate everyone else in order to somehow garner more favor. It is going to be interesting to see just how much Rand has impacted the political movements of the world since returning from the Aiel Waste.

He is currently in control of Tear after defeating the Forsaken Ishamael, Cairhien after defeating the Shaido, and is holding the Throne of Andor in Caemlyn after defeating the Forsaken Rahvin (likely for Elayne since he doesn’t know what has happened to Morgase, thinking her killed by Rahvin) which constitute large portions of the population, but not all. The political stresses of attempting to govern so many people and garner their support is going to be incredibly difficult for Rand in the coming novels, especially now that Moiraine is no longer at his side to advise him.

Moiraine, I just can’t believe the amount of subtle impact she had over the course of events in this novel. If you remember, she traveled into Rhuidean and was shown prophecy of what was to come and in order to bring about the most optimal future for all she willingly sacrificed herself in many ways and ultimately her own life to save Rand from Lanfear. Moiraine and Rand had a difficult relationship at the best of times and disagreed on much, but she held to her word to listen to him, to follow him, to advise him as he needed sacrificing much of herself – almost belittling herself in order to ensure the future she wanted would come to pass. Granted, the whole altercation with Lanfear felt so much like a lovers spat that I was giggling to myself while reading it. Lanfear appears to her informant among Rand’s large group and this informant feeds her information that he thinks is relevant, except he tells her that Rand is now bedding Aviendha – he tells her this without any knowledge or confirmation of its truth and sends Lanfear into a jealous rage whereby she begins to channel damaging Cairhien and fighting against Rand, Egwene, and Aviendha. The events took place as Moiraine saw and she was able to sneak up on Lanfear, the two of them then struggled and ultimately fell through a ter’angreal – whether they are dead or not remains to be seen, however, Moiraine’s bond to Lan was severed upon her entering the ter’angreal which lends evidence to the argument that she has died. While I feel that perhaps Moiraine has the potential to be so noble as to ultimately sacrifice her life – I don’t think that is what happened and that she and Lanfear are still battling on the other side. Hopefully we will find out what ultimately happened to Lanfear and Moiraine in future novels.

I enjoyed following the story of Elayne, Nynaeve, Thom, Julin, and eventually Birgitte (ripped from Tel’aran’rhiod [the dream world] during an altercation between Nynaeve and Moghedein, now bound as Warder to Elayne) because their story never feels as if it is any less integral to Rand’s success though they aren’t able to have a consistent positive impact by fighting at his side. I love the banter between all of them, it definitely eases up on some of the heaviness these novels tend to have. Nynaeve continues to be a surprising character, we know of her block which prevents her from channeling unless she is angry yet she is still quite innovative in her manipulation of it. Specifically, chasing Moghedein in Tel’aran’rhiod and then tricking her so that she could ultimately bind her with an a’dam (a Seanchan item which allows a woman who can be taught to channel to control another woman who can channel). This decision, this trap is what ultimately led to the success of Rand defeating Rahvin in Caemlyn because Nynaeve was able to channel through Moghedein in order to help Rand defeat Rahvin – without Nynaeve, I don’t think that the battle in Caemlyn would have been successful for Rand at all. I am very curious as to how their story is going to progress having been reunited with Siuan Sanche, Leane, Min, and some Shienaran soldiers and arriving in Salidar (the current safe haven for Aes Sedai who rebelled against the Tower after the wrongful stilling of Siuan and Leane). While being back under the strict rules and politics of Aes Sedai is going to be somewhat difficult for Elayne and Nynaeve (who have been able to govern their own choices since leaving the Tower under Siuan’s direction), I am hoping that they will gain more strength in the power and will attain their goal of becoming Aes Sedai in truth.

TL;DR REVIEW: Overall, I really liked this novel and I appreciate how Jordan treats his characters – each and every one of them serves some sort of purpose either to the benefit or detriment of Rand al’Thor and I think that is an important factor in an epic saga such as this with so many characters and so many different points of view. While I felt that not a lot actually happened in this book, I will reiterate that once things started happening there wasn’t much of a break to catch your breath because the story just took off for those last couple hundred pages. I am especially looking forward to seeing what the future holds for these characters in Lord of Chaos.