The Great Hunt: 2/12 (The Wheel of Time)

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The Great Hunt” is an impeccable continuation of the adventure that had started in the first volume. Well-developed arcs, gain a razor-sharp cutting edge as the Author starts using all his advantages: from the intricate worldbuilding to unavoidable tensions rooted in the conflict of aspiration and avoidance to a set of diverse characters, that are both archetypical and unique in their own way. After a stuttered opening, the pacing increases and the smooth course of events leads to the epic culmination. YES, you read that correctly. The greatest heroes of legend will be compelled to fight for either good or evil, depending on who gets their grubby lips on it first. Multiple threads were expertly woven into this story, through a myriad of POVs. We have our primary cast of characters in the form of the five Emond's fielder's (Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve), but sprinkled throughout the book we also get small glimpses into the lives of men and women spread out all over the continent. We see things from the perspective of a ship's captain that we met in book one; we get a POV from the perspective of a general among the religious elite. Moraine, the Aes Sedai, gets some air time. Even the villain has a POV in this book, which was an excellent inclusion, and really added a lot to the book. The first book didn't have a villain beyond "The Dark Lord", who we know nothing about. Ultimately . . . the reason she joined the dark side is b/c hell hath no fury . . . YES, seriously . . .

With the Wheel of Time, Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkien began to reveal’ New York Times This, of course, doesn’t mean the characters ever stopped being empathizing. Even when I was infuriated by some of the character’s actions, I feel like their attitudes were understandable; if I were in their shoes I’ll do a much poorer job than them. The characters—for better or worse—were well-written. Two books into the series and I’ve come to know their personality and inner voices really well. Jordan, in general, is slow in progression. Development in plot, world-building, characterizations, and actions was all there; they were just relatively much slower than most books these days. I loved reading Rand and the characters starting to grow up; it was quite satisfying seeing their slow development. New characters also appeared and most of them were great, interesting, and complex. This is good Epic High Fantasy. Sure there are smaller stories arcs being told but there are prophecies to be confronted and evil to destroy. There are epic journeys that need to be taken and bad guys all over the place, some of them even think they are the good guys White Cloaks I’m looking at you. Ch1 through 3, Ch6, 31% of Ch7, 48% of Ch8, 50% of Ch9, Ch10, 75% of Ch11, Ch13, Ch15 through 17, 95% of Ch19, Ch20, 21, 25, 87% of Ch26, Ch27, 30, 40% of Ch31, Ch32, 33, Ch35 through 37, Ch41, 40% of Ch44, 65% of Ch45, 22% of Ch46, 95% of Ch47 1, and Ch49 I don't know about you guys, but I can't come up with a scarier image than a GIANT INSECT riding some kind of prehistoric-looking monster into battle. Oh, and the ground might just swallow you whole before you even get a chance to defend yourself, b/c wielders of the One Power? Yeah, they're one of the MANY previously mentioned enslaved people groups.The worldbuilding in this book was simply fantastic, and the great worldbuilding ties in directly with the development of some great characters and villains. This book finally gives us some more adequate explanations regarding the magic system as well, which was much needed, and it is actually extremely interesting and even more creative than I remember (I read this book a LONG time ago). We get to know people from all different regions of this world, ranging from the mysterious Aes Sedai, the Whitecloaks, the Seanchan, and a whole number of people from different cities and cultures all over. Where in book one, the pacing throughout was generally pretty even, here I was just kind of overloaded at times, and bored at others. The boring areas never were too bad but they did stand out especially in the middle. The ending was EPIC though. I CANNOT stop thinking about it and I CANNOT wait to know where everything will go from here. I know that a turn off for many people is Robert Jordan's way of writing action, but personally I think it is a breath of fresh air and I like trying to visualise how all the moves look like.

Responding to queries on the similarity of some of the concepts in his Wheel of Time books with Freemasonry concepts, Jordan admitted that he was a Freemason. However, "like his father and grandfather," he preferred not to advertise, possibly because of the negative propaganda against Freemasonry. In his own words, "no man in this country should feel in danger because of his beliefs." The Great Hunt was an epic sequel. It improved on the things that I thought were not done as well in The Eye of the World, but on the flip-side it came with it's own fair share of mishaps. I can't wait to see what will happen in The Dragon Reborn. In pursuit of the thieves, Rand al’Thor is determined to keep the Horn out of the grasp of The Dark One. But he has also learned that he is The Dragon Reborn?the Champion of Light destined to stand against the Shadow time and again. It is a duty and a destiny that requires Rand to uncover and master extraordinary capabilities he never imagined he possessed. Usually we do not,” the Ogier replied almost curtly. “ Usually. The price has always been too high.” November 17th of 2009 sees the ebook release of The Great Hunt. The artwork is by Kekai Kotaki. Depicted is the scene where Rand al'Thor recovers the Horn of Valere from Trollocs. With Rand is Loial and what appears to be Selene.

For whatever reason, this is the installment that's held up the least well for me. Not b/c it's not awesome--it absolutely is--but b/c even MORE awesomeness is IMMINENT. After an amazing and memorable prologue, repetition notwithstanding, the sequel starts literally right after the first book with Rand questioning everything and wanting to get away. I can relate. Since a lot of the world building has been taken care of already, we get right into more mysteries and action. I was originally worried about how interesting this book could be given the synopsis about it being a hunt for a horn our main characters already have, but fortunately for us readers, it’s never that simple. Like the last book, this one centers on two different parties as the women go to Tar Valon and the men on the hunt. You came because of the dagger?” Mat said quietly. He rubbed his nose and grimaced. “I never thought of that. I never thought you wanted to. . . . Aaaah! Are you feeling all right? I mean, you aren’t going mad already, are you?”