A Middle-Point Fantasy Entry Heavy on Foreshadowing: Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan

Lord of Chaos is Robert Jordan's sixth entry into the Wheel of Time series, following the events of The Fires of Heaven. 

"On the slopes of Shayol Ghul, the Myrddraal swords are forged, and the sky is not the sky of this world..." 
- Lord of Chaos

Before my return to Jordan's exquisitely expansive world, I had caught wind of some pretty despairing reviews of the later entries of The Wheel of Time. The gist seemed to be that, from the point of The Fires of Heaven (or The Shadow Rising, depending on who you listen to), the Wheel of Time starts to become less Trolloc-slaying fun and more cool, political intrigue with a dash of the occasional swordplay and world-bending magical feats.

Such critique of Lord of Chaos is not - as much as it pains me to admit - entirely undeserved. Indeed, the novel reads as being less committed to narrative progression than its predecessors, and instead functioning as a point of connection between Acts. However, for those of us who appreciate fine description, there is still a great deal of beauty to be found in Jordan's prose to make up for any such deficiencies.

As with every Wheel of Time novel, as far as I remember, if the pacing was not to your liking throughout the main body of this commendably bulky work, you're in for one hell of a shock come the final thirty or so pages. Resisting the urge to be loose with the details, I could only compare the finale to the Wheel of Time's sixth instalment as being caught napping at the peak of the Verrückt only later to be shoved abruptly down the slide.

​- Farrell