Dear Robert,
I’m 7 hours away from the end of Lord of Chaos and here’s what’s happening:
Min makes it to Caemlyn to meet with Rand, and nearly swoons at the sight of him because she’s so in love with him. She senses an aura from him that some Aes Sedai mean him harm, and she doesn’t know if it’s from the rebel Aes Sedai in Salidar or the red sisters in the white tower. Rand goes to the farm where he’s keeping the men who can channel and notices how much the farm has changed. The recruits are now calling the commune “The Black Tower,” which is totally not sinister at all! He sets up a promotional structure similar to the White Tower’s novice-accepted-Aes Sedai, only his is soldier-dedicated-Asha’man (which means “guardian” in the old tongue.)
The White Tower Aes Sedai are scheming some more. Verin and Alanna are heading back to the White Tower with a bunch of girls from the Two Rivers who have the power to channel. I think there are some other Aes Sedai scheming with them. Some of them, without saying it out loud, equate Alanna’s bonding Rand as her warder to rape. It’s mentioned twice, and I found the use of that word a little spicy for what it was describing. Alanna talks about being able to feel Rand’s unhealed wound, and suggests it’s extremely painful, even though she can only feel a fraction of his pain.
Mat is up to some nonsense in Salidar. He has a bunch of Aes Sedai offer to bond him as a warder to them. This sequence was kind of exasperating because Mat is one of my least favorite characters and A BUNCH of women were throwing themselves at him. Egwene sends Mat, Elayne and Aviendha to Ebou Dar to look for a ter’angrial. Mat behaves like an ass, and when he’s not behaving like an ass, he acts entitled to respect from women simply because he’s not being an asshole. I truly cannot stand the scenes with him in them.
We haven’t heard from Perrin in a while, and it turns out he’s in Caemlyn! He took Faile and a bunch of his servants and soldiers and rode for two months (or 800 pages). Faile’s father, Bashir, is one of Rand’s generals. Robert Jordan is still writing fantasy set in a theoretical matriarchy, but somehow old fathers still sit down with their sons-in-law to ask what their intentions are with their daughters! Tale as old as time! Bashir threatens to kill Perrin if he ever hurts Faile, and says that women need to be treated like gentle doves! Then the two go to see Faile and her mother, and they’re both literally slapping each other silly. Faile’s mother tells Perrin that women need a strong man with a firm hand, and that’s what Bashir had done to her! (alluding to physical violence and how she had appreciated it. Robert Jordan isn’t specific.) Perrin says he lets Faile do what she wants because he wants to see her smile and that he has no interest in hurting her. This part was super cringey! It’s possible Robert Jordan was drawing on his own personal experiences with gender dynamics in marriage between one generation and the next. Perrin’s willingness to see Faile happy shows he wants to break the cycle of violence and the need to control one’s partner.
Overall, this stretch of the book felt like a wind-up to the final bit of action. There were plenty of descriptions of horses, traveling, wry glances and punch-drinking.
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