The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time, #2)

by Robert Jordan

The second book in Robert Jordan's internationally bestselling epic fantasy series, THE WHEEL OF TIME, now reissued with a stunning new cover design. The Forsaken are loose, the Horn of Valere has been found and the Dead are rising from their dreamless sleep. The Prophecies are being fulfilled - but Rand al' Thor, the shepherd the Aes Sedai have proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn, desperately seeks to escape his destiny. Rand cannot run forever. With every passing day the Dark One grows in strength and strives to shatter his ancient prison, to break the Wheel, to bring an end to Time and sunder the weave of the Pattern. And the Pattern demands the Dragon. Look out for more information on this title and others at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

• ISBN10: 0312851405
• ISBN13: 9780312851408
• Publish Date: 15 November 1990
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 624
• Language: English

Reviews

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog!


I’m slowly making my way through the Wheel of Time novels, and I just finished the second book. First of all, there is just *so* much going on. Robert Jordan is going hard with the worldbuilding, introducing a bunch of new things here. Naturally, with all those new additions came loads of questions on my part. Those, however, don’t get answered. You can clearly tell that Jordan was setting things up for later in the series, this book feels like a promise of things to come.

That being said, there is still a lot of progress we make story-wise. I mean, it does take a while for things to actually get going, but there are some things I want to talk about in detail. If you haven’t read the book yet, you might want to avoid everything after this paragraph due to spoilers. Let me just tell you, I enjoyed this novel tremendously even if it did drag on ever so slightly somewhere around the middle.

Let’s talk about Rand first. He’s off looking for the Horn of Valere and does a bit of an oopsie on the way. He accidentally teleported himself, Loial, and Hurin to another world/reality/I don’t even know what. The concept of those traveling stones is fascinating to me. As much as I would love to know more about saidin right now, I appreciate that we learn about Rand’s powers as he learns about them, as he explores what he can do with them. I do hope, however, that there will be a bit more explanation for all of this in the future. Sure, a lot of knowledge on this is supposed to be lost, but I’m way too curious by nature to not question stuff like that.

Another important thing to mention is a new character that pops up right when they are in the middle of god-knows-where. This “lady” who tries to seduce Rand and push him in a specific direction. I knew she was trouble the moment she walked in, and honestly, I found her supremely annoying. Sure, she’s magic or something (she must have some sort of powers) but how just everyone was looking at her with nothing but heart eyes, almost bending over backward to please her irritated me so much. She’s definitely gonna stir up some shit later. No doubt about that.

We also have Nyneave, Elayne, Min, and Egwene who find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Liandrin essentially sold them into slavery. To be honest, when she picked them up and told them they’re going on a quest to help Rand, I felt certain she’s up to something. I fully expected Liandrin to just leave them behind in the Ways, lost forevermore. I certainly didn’t have exploitation of Aes Sedai on my bingo card. While we learn about this weird and twisted role the Aes Sedai have to play for the Seanchan, we don’t learn too much about the Seanchan themselves and what they are doing here. I had some theories on that, but right now I’m not sure any of them make sense. But considering how little we know about them and their motives at this point, maybe later it’ll turn out to be correct all along. Again, I understand that Jordan will circle back to this later, but I’m just too curious. I want to know now!

Another thing I didn’t have on my bingo card was that the Horn of Valere would get blown in this book. That act felt like something very final, something that would happen towards the end of the series. So, certainly didn’t expect it to happen in novel number 2. The Wheel of Time series creates this weird conundrum in my head because there are so many things set up for things to happen a lot further down the line, but at the same time so much stuff already went down, it feels like the series has to end soon, because what else can there be? It’s hard to imagine that there are another twelve books.

The first novel reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings. There was one chapter titled “The Nine Rings” which is an Inn Rand goes to. Rand specifically likes the name because it was the title of a story he remembers from childhood. Now if that isn’t a big ass nod to LOTR, I don’t know what is. That actually made me chuckle a little bit. Initially, this book also reminded me a little of Tolkien’s works, but the further we get in the story, the more it moves away from that. Also, when I say it reminds me of LOTR, that’s not a bad thing. Wheel of Time still is very much unique and its own thing. Not a cheap copy or anything of the sort. But I think we can all agree that Tolkien’s works were influential on literature as a whole and on the fantasy genre in particular, so it comes as no surprise that you can see those influences in other works.

[Kate (Blogging with Dragons)]

If possible, I think I enjoyed The Great Hunt, even more than its predecessor, The Eye of the World. The Great Hunt does a phenomenal job of setting up for future installments, while still having plenty of character development and action in the future. I think what I like the most about The Wheel of Time series is its portrayal of many complex and powerful women, and The Great Hunt is no exception to this rule. But it wasn’t just the women’s development I found interesting, but also Rand’s too. Though I have never found him very likable, in this novel, he starts to come more into his own, testing his powers and newfound confidence. Despite my interest in the characters' development, I did find that the pacing slowed to almost a halt a little before ¾ of the way through the novel, but that it picked up pace again at the end. I also found that one of the main antagonists of The Great Hunt did not work for me as intended, but that another threat, the Seanchan, proved much more terrifying.

 

What I loved the most about this book was the training of Egwene and Nynaeve as Aes Sedai in the White Tower of Tar Valon. Nynaeve, powerful in the One Power and her absolute sassiness, is my favorite character in The Wheel of Time Series so far and I loved watching her go through the trials to become an Apprentice Aes Sedai, a higher rank than that of Egwene’s Novice. I was also thrilled to learn more about the order of Aes Sedai, with its different colored branches and their beliefs--with some even serving Ba’alzamon. It was also very fun to catch up with Min and The Daughter-Heir, Elayne. The only thing that I didn’t like about the time that focused on these women was that all of them but Nynaeve, have feelings for Rand. Yeesh.  As someone who spends a lot of time in his perspective, I honestly don’t get his appeal at all and I really hope it doesn’t cause trouble among the otherwise intelligent, strong, and capable female characters.

 

“‘However much you say you do not care,’ Elayne said, ‘I think you’d approve less than Mother would. He is interesting, Egwene. More interesting than any man I’ve ever met, even if he is a shepherd. If you are silly enough to throw him away, you will have only yourself to blame if I decide to face down you and Mother both. It would not be the first time the Prince of Andor had no title before he wed.’”

 

Though Rand is more likable in The Great Hunt, he still has that perpetual “why me?” attitude that is SUPER annoying. He’s terrified of his Channeling, going mad, losing his friends, being revealed as the Dragon Reborn, pretending to be a Noble, losing the Great Horn of Valere, finding the horn, and blowing the Great Horn. There’s literally nothing Rand isn’t afraid of and he faces most threats with the determined petulance and poutiness of a child. He’s also not the brightest crayon in the box, being incredibly easy to manipulate by both pretty faces and the Aes Sedai due to his adamant opposition to his destiny. Despite his recalcitrance, Rand thankfully takes steps to becoming more confident in this novel. Under the tutelage of Lan, he becomes a more competent swordsman, and he also uses the One Power due to circumstances thrust upon him. I can only hope that one day he loses the attitude altogether and accepts his destiny, but I fear it might take about ten more entries in the series. 

 

“You must choose Rand. The world will be broken whether you break it or not.”

 

But if the rest of the novels goes as fast as The Great Hunt, I won’t mind it so much. I found The Great Hunt to be much faster paced than The Eye of the World, which took me about a month to read. In contrast, The Great Hunt took me a little over a week to finish. I enjoyed Rand, Perrin, Mat,  and Loial’s chase of the Great Horn of Valere, a horn that when blown will raise the famous warriors of old to fight in battle--whether for good or for ill. Stolen by Padan Fain and Darkfriends, along with the sinister dagger of Shayol Gul, keeping Mat alive, the Horn must be recaptured at all costs. Though Padan Fain is supposedly more evil than a typical Darkfriend and journeys with Trollocs and Fades, I never found him that compelling or frightening of a villain. I felt like the novel missed its mark on that one--so far. 

 

“She’s Aes Sedai, and she was crying, Min! She has a collar on her neck, they make her answer to Pura, and she can’t do anything more about it than I can….She was crying because she’s beginning to stop fighting against it, because she cannot take being punished anymore. She was crying because she wants to take her own life, and she cannot even do that without permission.”

 

However, the Seanchan, descendants of the great Artur Hawking, who seek to take over Illian in what their people call the Return, were much more terrifying to me. These ruthless warriors wield anything to give them an edge in battle--whether its Shadowspawn, animals, or horrifically--Aes Sedai. Women known as sul’dam are trained to use horrific leashes known as a’dam to control what they refer to as damane, or women who can channel. These a’dam connect to a collar on the poor damane and are leashed to the bracelet of a sul’dam. The sul’dam treat their damane as slaves or dogs, stripping them of their names, controlling their use of channeling and punishing them through the Power. It is a fate worse than death to an Aes Sedai and I was so absolutely appalled by the practice and when it happened to Egwene that anything else in The Great Hunt was not as terrifying.

 

Though little of the novel concerns itself with the Seanchan, I find that I am already fearful that my favorite ladies Nynaeve, Egwene, Moirane, and Elayne will have to deal with these monstrous people again in the future. Though most of the novel takes place in this chase for the Great Horn of Valere, it does jump perspectives quite a lot. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind the jumping of point-of-views, something that I usually find detestable. I think it’s because I like all of the characters of the novel (except Rand) so much and that there were ample amounts of mystery and foreshadowing for the future, while there was also action. It also kept the pace moving very fast, except when it reached a little before ¾ of the way though The Great Hunt. I grew bored once Rand reached the city Cairhein and got caught up in the stupid politics of the nobles, referred to as the Daes Dae’mar, or the Game of Houses/Great Game. Since Rand does not have the smarts to play the game, and was like a fish floundering out of water, gasping for air, I couldn’t stand that part of the novel and was thrilled when it was over. 

 

Honestly, if you liked The Eye of the World, or are in general a fan of fantasy, you will like The Great Hunt. And even if you aren’t too big on fantasy, I imagine the powerful female characters would be a pretty strong draw for anyone. I’m very excited to read the next entry in the series, The Dragon Reborn, because there is just so much happening in the present and so many things promised to happen in the future of the series. I cannot wait to see where The Wheel of Time turns next.


Bloggingwithdragons.com
My Book Review Policy

[HekArtemis]

5 stars for nostalgia, 4 stars otherwise. Significantly better than the first book and comes into its own instead of being such a clone of other stories. The women were still super stereotypical and annoying though and that has always annoyed me, but it's even more annoying now that I am older and completely over the misogyny of the world.

[adamfortuna]

I actually preferred the first book in the Wheel of Time series over this one, and neither were that great to me. It seemed like after the adventures in the first one, the characters started over in this book (I see why it was suggested I skip #1). The story had a few interesting parts -- the alternate lines for instance -- but was a small reference in a larger story of mostly waiting around and moving places.

I love the wheel of time series and I've been reading the series since the 90's and I've reread these books at least 4 times and I always say the whole series is my favorite whenever anybody asks which books I like.

The way Robert Jordan describes his world, he does it in such detail that you can picture it in your mind and I just love his characters he created. He has so many characters that have there own storyline and there own adventures they go on and I love following them. Sometimes I go back and reread individual characters storyline and each reread I discover something new about them because Robert Jordan is so detailed with his characters that sometimes you don't catch everything on the first read.

I would recommend this series to anybody.