Wheel of Time Archives - Martin's Booklog

Lord of Chaos – Robert Jordan

Published on March 29, 2008

Cover of Lord of Chaos

Lord of Chaos
Robert Jordan
1035 pages
published in 1994

Lord of Chaos is the sixth book in Robert Jordan’s ever expanding Wheel of Time series. For me it’s the book in which the series’ flaws start to overwhelm its virtues. It starts with the cover, which is more suited to some fifth rate romance novel. Darrel K. Sweet never was a very good illustrator, though he inexplicably keeps getting assignments, but here he excelled himself in putting people that look nothing like the characters, in scenes that occur nowhere in the book, with anatomy that suggest they’re not quite human, or suffering from some severe physical disability.

The novel itself is not very good either; in my opinion its the worst entry in the series, the one where the series really went off the rails for a while. It’s also the longest in the series, which many fans think is not a coincidence. The rot actually set in with the previous novel, Fires of Heaven, but it’s fully visible here. The plot sprawled out of control in all directions, but without moving forward, more new viewpoint characters were introduced and worse of all, Lord of Chaos also saw the return of several supposedly defeated villains. The latter especially raised the spectre of a never ending series. Fortunately, Jordan managed to rein
himself in with the next books, but it was a close shave.

The Fires of Heaven – Robert Jordan

Published on February 1, 2008

Cover of The Fires of Heaven

The Fires of Heaven
Robert Jordan
989 pages
published in 1993

The Fires of Heaven is the fifth book in the Wheel of Time series, following on directly from The Shadow Rising. It’s the first book of the series not to star all three of the main protagonists, with the Perrin storyline in the Two Rivers left until the next book in the series. As such it’s another indication of how out of control the series has grown by this point, with only three out of the four (!) storylines from The Shadow Rising continued here, none of which come to a real conclusion here either.

However, this is still one of my favourite volumes in the series, as it shows Rand and Mat kicking some serious ass and while plotlines don’t conclude here, they do seem to progress, something missing in the next few volumes. Reading this only took me two days or so, which is testament to the way Jordan was able to keep your attention if you’re willing to be drawn in.

The Shadow Rising – Robert Jordan

Published on October 22, 2007

Cover of The Shadow Rising

The Shadow Rising
Robert Jordan
1006 pages
published in 1993

The Shadow Rising is the fourth book in Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. In my view it’s the point where the series really started to balloon. For a start it’s some 300 pages longer than the previous installment, but the plot as well gets bigger and more complicated. The most common criticism of the Wheel of Time (apart from those who, perhaps unfairly, reject it out of hand as sub-Tolkien crap) is that the story stopped progressing halfway through the series; the seeds for this are sown here. In many ways this is the watershed in the series, between what Jordan started with, a fairly linear story in the Tolkienesque mold and what it ended up being, perhaps the most complex fantasy series ever written weaving half a dozen separate storylines together into an almost coherent whole. This is the first book in the series in which the various plotlines do not come together neatly at the end of the book, nor are intended to.

But this is not the sole reason as to why this is a watershed in the series. The character of the series also changes, from being largely a quest based story to one of a more political nature. Rand al’Thor has declared himself the Dragon Reborn, drawn the sword that’s not a sword and the unfallen fortress has fallen. From now on he has a nation and a army behind him, he has revealed himself to the world and the stakes have gotten that much higher. From now on he can no longer led himself be lead, he has to lead himself. And while his friends may still be his friends, their interests and his may no longer completely match…

The Dragon Reborn – Robert Jordan

Published on October 20, 2007

Cover of The Dragon Reborn

The Dragon Reborn
Robert Jordan
699 pages
published in 1991

The Dragon Reborn is the third book in the Wheel of Time series and as such it does not quite have the worst artwork in the series. That honour is reserved for either the previous book The Great Hunt, with its depiction of Trollocs as humans with curved helmets or the sixth book, The Lord of Chaos, with its incompetent romance novel cover. No book in the series however has what you can call good art, or even art that bears much resemblence to the books its used on. That’s not unusual for any book of course and normally I don’t care too much about what’s on a cover, but the Darrell Sweet artwork on these is just too embarassing, especially when read in public. But never mind eh? It’s still much, much better than reading Dan Brown where people can see you.

Moving on to what’s between the covers, The Dragon Reborn is the last book in the series to duplicate the quest structure of The Lord of the Rings and also the last book in which the various storylines neatly come together in the end. It’s not the end of the series, as
the series has no end, but it’s a end. From the next book, The Shadow Rising onward, things would be much more complicated. It’s also a sort of beginning, as this is the first book which is not dominated by Rand as the main character; in fact he’s hardly in it, with much of the action focussing on Perrin, Mat and Egwene/Nynaeve/Elayne in three different storylines, which come together at the climax of the book, just as with the previous two books.

The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan

Published on October 15, 2007

Cover of The Great Hunt

The Great Hunt
Robert Jordan
707 pages
published in 1991

I said so, didn’t I, that Robert Jordan hooks you into the story? Here I was determined just to reread The eye of the World to mark his passing, so why did I immediately reach for The Great Hunt? Because I wanted to read more of course. It had been almost a decade since the last time I read through the entire series after all. Not to mention that the weather has turned decidedly autumnal, always the best season to read a great epic fantasy series.

Now as I understand it, The Eye of the World was deliberately written as a standalone novel, in case the series didn’t take off. So all the plot threads resolve neatly at the end, and the plot itself is fairly linear and straightforward. From The Great Hunt onwards this is no longer the case. The plotlines start to unravel, with the various main characters going their own ways having their own adventures only to come together at the end and with some plot threads continuing in the next book. Unlike the later books though, where the plot threads multiply unchecked and drag themselves from book to book, here Jordan still has a tight grip on things. It’s just more clear that this is a part of a series.

Everytime I’ve read The Great Hunt I’ve had difficulty in getting started, with the first 100-150 pages or so being just pure torture to get through. Absurd of course; there’s novels that finish in fewer pages, but that’s the way it is with fat fantasies. As for why this is so hard to get started, it’s because the main character behaves like an idiot and the plot seems to crawl at first. Spoilers follow.