My Wife Reads Lord of Chaos - Spoiler Book Discussion

[@GentleGiantJason]

The way RJ creates characters that aren’t perfect and flawed is what I love about this series. They are so real. And in some books you love them and then in other books you wonder “what you are thinking?” 🙂

[@bookwormcouple]

100% I think one of the beauties of WoT is the character work and just how much they change, grow, or stay the same over this huge series. I don't know if it's possible to come out the end without loving these characters.

[@gearomkologenas5458]

Thank You both so much for bringing an unvarnished joy of reading back to The Wheel of Time for me. After being mired in rank Social Media apologia for the abominable TV Show, it's been refreshing to follow your freshman journey through the Volumes of Jordan's Epic. Can I tell you both that when I was done reading Lord of Chaos I COULD NOT CONCEIVE of how The Wheel of Time would be anything other than a Modern Masterpiece of Fantasy Literature. The World & Characters had grown so engrossing in the telling, and book after book kept delivering a depth & breadth of reading reactions that only made the experience richer. Oh Well... Overall, Lord of Chaos is indeed relatively slow and dense, but for me, that added flavour to the standout moments, by giving us some choice mouthfuls of character defining Armagnac Interactions. Tasty little vignettes that Showed us how relationships and situations had changed, instead of just telling us and expecting our acceptance. Moments like Egwene's trip to the Sun Palace to browbeat Rand into interceding on her behalf with the Wise Ones. There was so much Character Realisation in those pages for me, both about reinforcing how practically independent Egwene could be to achieve a goal, and yet how narratively spoiled she remained, in expectation of other's kowtowing to her needs because she knew best. The conversation she has with Rand about Traveling, which eventually leads to her demand for his intercession with The Wise Ones... And generates his Classic Riposte when his own request for her to tell him about Salidar is rebuffed. 'A Cat for a Hat... And Nothing for Nothing.' And I still get a laugh about how Egwene reflects on there being 'no dignified way to spit in a handkerchief.' The character I changed my mind most on through the Series was Nynaeve. While I can understand your growing disdain for Perrin and Faile (with rare exceptions I found her perennially annoying from the moment she was introduced in the series), Perrin at least has some great moments in this book and for mine, perhaps his greatest moment, while interacting with The Wolves while leading the rescue effort to save Rand from the Aes Sedai clutches That scene where he tells the wolves, 'They have caged Shadowkiller' still makes me emotional. 'We Come.' That response from the wolves is so laconically apropos, and contains multitudes. Some of Jordan's best writing. Also to Jordan's credit, is how he takes Nynaeve from a one dimensional harridan into a multifaceted exemplar of character depth, ranging from shallow comic relief and utter lack of self Realisation, to the boundless depth of Power she has, not only rooted in her Magical Abilities but in the unvarnished strength of her kindness and love - even if she doesn't always acknowledge them truly, even to herself. And of course the ending at Dumai's Wells. For mine, the best of the Series by a Long Way, both in terms of Narrative Fulfillment and Character Progression. When the Unstained Tower bent knee to the Forgotten Sign, I really thought I was in Masterpiece territory. Oh well... I suppose there's a reason rollercoasters don't roll or coast on plateaued terrain. I look forward to seeing more and wish you as much strength and patience as you can possibly channel for what follows.

[@bookwormcouple]

First off thank you for the extremely well written comment, and I’m so glad we could bring some joy back into this property for you. I know the Internet can be a rough place for fandoms, so any more positivity we can bring is a win. Lord of Chaos is one of my favorites in the series written by Jordan for sure. We are gonna give Liz lots of time to get through the next few books so she doesn’t burn out on the slower parts. She is definitely invested though so it’ll happen, just maybe a bit slower than it’s been going so far. I love a lot of the points you make but particularly the one about Perrin. It’s very easy to jump on the hate Faile, and by association Perrin, bandwagon. But you’re right, he has some great moments in this book. I get chills everytime I think about his scene with the wolves at the end, one of my favorite moments of his in the series.

[@BlondLanfear]

With how much we have seen of her being awesome and funny on the show it will be so devastating when Alanna eventually does the thing.

[@bookwormcouple]

RIGHT?! She is one of our favorite parts of the show

[@davidcardoso3525]

Good stuff. My first read through I started Book 8 and found myself so lost as to who was who that I went back to Book 1 and re-read the entire series.

[@bookwormcouple]

Whoa you have the patience of an Aes Sedai, that's impressive.

[@davidcardoso3525]

@@bookwormcouple Thank you (Brown Aja, more than likely) To be fair, I read through Book 7 & had to wait 6-ish months before Book 8 came out.

[@xLaz21]

i havent read the Wheel of Time yet, but when i do ill binge all this videos!

[@heatherqualy9143]

Saying she really likes a character that most people probably don’t like: names the character many many many many manymanymany people rate as the best character of the entire series. 😂

[@GentleGiantJason]

One my favorite books in the series.

[@aldan7812]

Liz is absolutely awesome and a delight - and my god NO there is no such thing as a wrong way to read a book!! Especially these bad boys, thats the beauty of them :-) Theres so much in them, that every person in the world reads them in different ways and for different reasons - they are spectacular. This book, remains, my favourite RJ penned it's just peak RJ. Hey if you DO find the next few get rough at times, I recommend spacing them out with Dresden files books inbetween.

[@bookwormcouple]

Absolutely! I'm very curious to see how she feels about the slog, but I think we will give her time to read some other things in between them which will make it easier for her. Dresden files is an interesting suggestion, neither of us have read them before but it's on my (Robby) TBR to start before the end of the year.

[@aldan7812]

@@bookwormcouple Yeah its so good to see her get what she is getting out of the story man, when you see that as a Randland fan you know that person HAS to get to the end despite the slog coz its so worth it, no ending like it - as you know lol - Yeah i suggested Dresden for a couple of reasons a) they are super easy reads b) 1st person pov so it hits different and c) the Audios are still the best ever done by anyone, ever. To the level that it's probably the only series that i say to ppl Audio is actually better. James Masters, Spike form buffy is the narrator and it is criminal how fantastic his work is.

[@BlondLanfear]

It's box time 😬 And the only wrong way to read a book is if you hate doing it, as long as you overall enjoy yourself reading you are doing it right

[@lucasoliver2571]

Congratulations on being able to post a video in a very busy week, I hope you are doing well mentally. By the way, congratulations on the video too.

[@jarock-wh9lj]

One thing you got very wrong in the Mat busting in to save them in Tear - they weren't free at the time. Nor could they free themselves at that point even though they'd disabled the guard. They actually needed Mat to open the door and they treated him like shit for it. It absolutely was not one of the girls best moments.

[@aldan7812]

Yup, Faile is the WORST. Perrin should have picked the Hawk, oh how he should have picked the Hawk.

[@lightblindedfool9510]

Have you seen the Dumai's Wells WoT parody song on KZbin yet? If not it's a must see - no spoilers! It's set to Guns n Roses Welcome to the Jungle :-D :-D

[@bookwormcouple]

We just watched and are dying. "Rand in a box" really got us

[@lightblindedfool9510]

@@bookwormcouple lol the one that got me was "even Loial gonna slay" and he's wielding a book :-D :-D :-D Yeah, WoT Idol is a yearly fun event - plenty more parody songs where that came from but some are spoilery :-D

[@lightblindedfool9510]

Another one you can look up by googling "ilyena wot parody" is hilarious - winner of the first WoT idol in 2021 and non-spoilery - plenty more with no spoilers but you might want to vet them 😀

[@mcina001]

I love how you’ve flipped on who you like and who not. A lot of people do that with Rand and Faile. And I wouldn’t be surprised if you change your minds on these and others in future books. One piece of advice re: Faile is to remember that, yes, Perrin is an idiot sometimes (most of the time?), and everything we think we know about Faile is from his perspective. Including his emotion-smelling take on things, with terrible verbal communication skills, and little insight into another’s culture.

[@bookwormcouple]

This is very valuable advice, I will be sure to do my best to reminder her of this as she continues on in the series. At this point I'm just still excited she likes Rand for now lol

[@mcina001]

@@bookwormcouple Agreed! Rand is a fascinating character. Whether someone likes him or not, most readers agree that his evolution is unique, his plight fascinating.