*As per usual, I write this review immediately after having read said book**Also, since this is the second book in the series, I will write on how it continues and develops the series as a whole as well as how it stands on its own*So the Great Hunt, the second installment of the Wheel of Time series. It has become surprisingly apparent to me how many chords this series has been striking with me. It may be relating on a more personal note, but I have always desired to write an epic fantasy and I will finish it one day, but it surprises me how many times our paths cross when it comes to Robert Jordan and I's vision. For example, the climax and ending of this book, I strive to write something as intense as they were. Truly, it shocks me as to where we could possibly go from here. Anyhow, now that I have spoken how this books speaks to me personally, let's dive right in. “Some men choose to seek greatness, while others are forced to it. It is always better to choose than to be forced. A man who is forced is never completely his own master. He must dance on the strings of those who forced him.” Something that this series has done extremely well is convey a sense of journey. Lord almighty, this feels as though I have gone back to my childhood where I played RPGs like Final Fantasy where there would be magic and warriors and a great evil to be fought. I don't think I've experienced something akin to this for a long time. There is not only a sense of journey in the physical sense, but of emotional as the characters develop and even, oddly, a world journey as we learn of the world and see it begin to transform before our very eyes.But first, let's get the cons out the way so I can fangasm freely. Where the hell did the Seachan come from? This was the one case of world development that was brilliant by the end of the novel, but infuriating and confusing upon its introduction. This culture of people come out seemingly NOWHERE, unless I somehow missed it. They are foreshadowed in a chapter and immediately appear in the next chapter, AND THE WHOLE WORLD ACTS LIKE THEYVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE. WHERE WERE THEY BEFORE THIS?????? They appeared from freakin' thin air from my viewpoint.Also, can we please not have Mr. Jordan constantly beat us over the head with Rand saying "I AM JUST A SHEPHERD! I am not the dragon reborn! I will not be used!!!!!" Like we get it, Al'thor. We get that you want to go back to Emond's field to a simple life of farming and everything so can you just like shut up!This would have been a good point to develop Mat and Perrin a bit more too. They had things thrown at them in the first book, most likely because it was the first book, but it was as though they were just there during this book. DO SOMETHING RELEVANT! They do participate, but it just seems more to me as though they come along in the journey just because they are part of the principal cast more than anything else. That is literally all the cons. Maybe they are minor gripes, but let me preach for a bit about the wonders of this book's love. “He was a soldier. He was a shepherd. He was a beggar, and a king. He was a farmer, gleeman, sailor, carpenter. He was born, lived, and died Aiel. He died mad, he died rotting, he died of sickness, accident, age. He was executed, and multitudes cheered his death. He proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn and flung his banner across the sky; he ran from the Power and hid; he lived and died never knowing. He held off the madness and the sickness for years; he succumbed between two winters. Sometimes Moiraine came and took him away from the Two Rivers, alone or with those of his friends who had survived Winternight; sometimes she did not. Sometimes other Aes Sedai came for him. Sometimes Red Ajah. Egwene married him; Egwene, stern-faced in stole of Amyrlin Seat, led Aes Sedai who gentled him; Egwene, with tears in her eyes, plunged a dagger into his heart, and he thanked her as he died. He loved other women, married other women. Elayne, and Min, and a fair-haired farmer's daughter met on the road to Caemlyn, and women he had never seen before he lived those lives. A hundred lives. More. So many he could not count them. And at the end of every life, as he lay dying, as he drew his final breath, a voice whispered in his ear. I have won again, Lews Therin. Flicker.” The above is an excerpt from Chapter 37, my favorite chapter in the series to date which brings me to my first pro. Rand's development is astounding, it has been since the first page. He goes through all these events that change him, meets all these people that change him, and does a lot of things that change him himself. From the Great Game, to the Great Horn, to the Portal Stones, to accepting Lan's unforgettable words Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain , Rand goes through some phenomenal development here. Also, Chapter 47 is the second best chapter of the book. Rand is not the only to receive great character development either. Egwene, Min, Nyavene, and other side characters are brought to new light. They have spotlight shone on them with their own story lines that enhance the overarching plot as well as their own personal stories. If you are not sold with the characters by this point, leave. I remember I loathed Egwene in the first book and one of my cons was that her character and Rand and hers relationship wasn't believable or well executed in the Eye of the World, but Mr.Jordan has royally bitch slapped me. I take it all back, I love these characters. Please don't George R.R Martin me, man. “A young wolfhound must meet his first wolf someday, but if the wolf sees him as a puppy, if he acts the puppy, the wolf will surely kill him. The wolfhound must be a wolfhound in the wolf's eyes even more than in his own, if he is to survive.” Onwards, The Great Hunt features a whole lot many more POVs than the Eye of the World. While EOTW was 75% Rand's POV, this book would probably be 50% with a whole lot more characters sharing the remaining. This really does solid work for the book as climatic scenes are complimented by having additional characters participating, thanks to POV usage. There's nothing better than having characters ending up in the same place because of well written plot threads.Also, Selene. From the 50 pages or so she was there, she was constinuously a question to me. What is her purpose? Why is she here? Why does she know so much? She is a really welcome addition to the story, (view spoiler)[ so help me god if she is the forsaken Lanfear that appeared at the end like I believe she might be (hide spoiler)]
This was nowhere near as good as the first novel in the series; it completely lacked the initial plot driver that its predecessor wielded. Previously, the innocent, and young, protagonists were taken away from their home as they were forced to flee for their lives. I wanted to find out exactly why this was going on; thus, I stormed through it. Instead, this premise of this book is Rand attempting to escape from his destiny, which, of course, is pure folly because one does not escape fate: one does not escape the wheel of time. Reverse character development I was a little disappointed with this because I just don’t like reluctant heroes. Well, at least not in this sense. Rand began to annoy me so much at the start of this because by the end of the last novel, I felt that he had found his courage, and he’d overcome his reluctant nature; it was like his character development had gone backwards and taken him to an early state of the previous novel. Thankfully, this didn’t last too long as the wheel forced him to act; he had to become the dragon reborn otherwise he would have fallen to his enemy. I’m glad he found his bravery, again. But, I felt like he had already gained it, and that this novel was padded out with development that had already been achieved.Rand’s full potential is obviously something his not fully aware of, although it is clear to the reader and every other character he may encounter of what he will day be able to do. It’s like he is the only person in this world who doesn’t truly see what he is, and what he is capable of; it’s beginning to feel a little idiotic. When he chases after the horn, during the great hunt, the depths of his powers begin to unravel along with the true nature of this series. He is learning who he is, again, for the second time. I do hope the author doesn’t back track like this again because I want to enjoy this series completely and whole heartedly instead of having my precious reading time wasted with repetetive material. This isn’t just Rand’s story, thankfully. Many of the side characters form the last novel are beginning to develop more of their own personal story arcs. I think this made the story much stronger because if this was just about Rand, exclusively, I’d honestly stop reading. Through doing this the author is slowly revealing some of the mysteries of his fantasy world. Nynaeve had many point of view chapters, as did Egwene. I think this is the start of a transition away form a Rand central novel. Hopefully, they will be just as important to the overall plot as this reluctant hero. He’s a rather tepid protagonist, and at this point I think he needs a reason to face his destiny. Perhaps, he’s relatives should die, or one of his friends, to give him a reason to fight. However, despite more point of view characters, I think the chapter placement was incredibly poor, and plain frustrating. What I mean is that there were four to five chapters of Rand’s story in one massive bulk; this was then interrupted by a single, or sometimes double, chapter from another point of view. It would then go back to Rand. I think the story would have flowed much better if Rand’s chapters were broken up a little more, and had no more than two or three chapters together. The result of placing chapters in the way that Jorden did is not seeing what happened to Mat and Perrin for almost three hundred pages. I found this very annoying. I don’t think this book was well paced at all. Is this still perfect fantasy? Despite my grievances with the protagonist and chapter placement, I still think this is a great series. This is everything I like in epic fantasy, and hopefully will continue to be so. The magic system is complex and interesting, and the different races are diverse and well thought out. The complexity of this fantasy universe is what makes this series enjoyable for me. I just hope that Rand retains the character development he has gained twice because if I have to read more about his reluctant nature, and him trying to run away, I may come to view this series as unnecessarily packed out. Hopefully that won’t happen, but time will tell. This was not as accomplished as the first novel, but was enjoyable to an extent; it may be just the side characters that saved this book for me. However, I do think this series creates a lot of apprehension to how it will all end, and where the characters will end. I find books like this tend to be somewhat predictable, but I haven’t that with the Wheel of Time so far. I’m not entirely sure how it will end, but I do want to see Mordeth again. And it would also be nice to see more of Perrin, my favourite character, because in this novel he felt like furniture. The Wheel of time: 1. Eye of the World- An unoriginal five stars2. The Great Hunt- A reluctant three stars "And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died. And men cried out to the Creator, saying, O Light of the Heavens, Light of the World, let the Promised One be born of the mountain, according to the prophecies, as he was in ages past and will be in ages to come. Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time."
Do You like book The Great Hunt (1991)?
I'm not writing a review for this either, but here's a few notes:1) I can't wrap my head around the imagination, and dedication, required for this series. 2) Matt is pissing me off so much that I almost want him to die. What does he not understand about keeping his mouth shut about certain things? He makes me want to punch him almost every time he's on screen.3) I thought it would really annoy me if there wasn't resolution to the main conflict, but it turns out that the building of the story is so gratifying that I don't mind how long it's taking.4) Speaking of writing, this is fabulous- really. It's wicked long, I know, but it doesn't feel like it when I'm reading. I love being with these characters as they develop at a more natural pace, not at all like so many of the other kinds of books I read (not all, of course, but a lot). 5) I would freak out if this series was made into a show like Game of Thrones was! How awesome would that be?!
—Brandi
The second book in the series, some people complain there are some influences of J.R.R. Tolkien in the first book; this book is where Robert Jordan found his own voice. For the first time in centuries The Great Hunt is called; its purpose is to find the legendary Horn of Valere which calls the greatest heroes of all times to the battle yet again. Countless number of people wander around looking for it. Rand and company know exactly where the Horn is, but they might have trouble reaching it. It does not help any that there is a prophesy - coming from the bad guys, no less - which talks about the Daughter of the Night (think female Darth Vader) being set loose upon the world again. What really stood out during my reread is the development of Rand as the character; Mat and Perrin take backseat to this, but Rand is fascinating. The majority of the book is spent on his POV and his struggle to remain independent and to reject the leadership role thrust upon him; unfortunately he has little or no choice in the matter. I also realized I like Nynaeve and have great respect for her. Yes, I said this. She was the most annoying character during my first read, but now I know how she will develop. Without giving any spoilers, she will be the only Aes Sedai who never tries to manipulate anybody - she bullies some of the people instead. Egwene gets some much-needed lessons in humility which unfortunately will be lost upon her in the future books. This is the last book where Elayne and Gawin behave like normal human beings, and not people with some (sometimes severe) mental deficiency. These two as well as their mother and half-brother are among the worst good guys in fantasy.In the conclusion this book is worth 5 very solid stars. The first 5 or 6 books are a must read for any fantasy fans; even if you do not like it you have to see what all the fuss about the series is about. I also noticed something during my first reading as well as reread: the length of the books seems daunting in the beginning, but by the middle of each book it is really hard to put them down as they really pull you in their world. You owe it to yourself to check the series.
—Evgeny
I read the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan because both my husband and best friend had read them. The best friend highly encouraged me to read the books - my husband warned me off.The warning is not because the books are bad. The first few, actually, are very good. Great character development, interesting universe for those who love fantasy novels.The warning is because these books never, ever, ever are going to end. Ever.There are so far 12 books (including a prequel that came out somewhere between books 10 and 11). Each book is close to 1000 pages. I think the last six books have taken place over the book plot timeline of about a month. Seriously. One or two books may have only covered a day or two. No lie.The books start off with just 4-5 main characters...but over time I think there become closer to 20. And everyone rates their own storyline. As the books stand now, I think almost everyone is in a completely different country on a different mission. It can get confusing for those not quite looking for that sort of depth.Nonetheless...once you get far enough in the series you'll keep going. If for no other reason than you feel obligated. At this point, all those of us who've kept us are just praying that Robert Jordan doesn't die before finishing the series because there are so many plot lines left untied. For those serious about fantasy fiction, these books are somewhat of a right of passage. A necessary evil.
—Nicole
