The Great Hunt (Book/Audiobook Review) by Robert Jordan

If you guys read my chat about The Wheel of Time, book 1, The Eye of the World you know that I found it slow to get going and both under/over whelming in general, but ultimately worth the reading experience.  

I stuck with the #WoTAlong2021 and absolutely flew through book two, The Great Hunt.  The pacing was better, it was more interesting in general, and Robert Jordan spent more time giving the main characters personalities and making them into people I care about! I’m so glad I stuck with the read-along!

I have so many theories that I want to talk about, but the problem is spoilers.  Because THIS IS SPOILER FREE, I will mostly write this review to tell anyone that if you read The Eye of the World and are not sure about the series, GIVE IT ONE MORE BOOK!

Bookish Quick Facts:

• Title: The Great Hunt
• Series: The Wheel of Time, #2
• Author: Robert Jordan
• Publisher & Release: Tor Books, November 1990
• Pages: 705 (MMPB edition)
• Rate & Recommend: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I think fantasy fans should at least try the series

Here is the synopsis, with spoilers blocked out:

Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®, continues as Rand al’Thor and his companions set out to retrieve a powerful magical artifact from The Dark One’s Shadowspawn in The Great Hunt.

For centuries, gleemen have told the tales of The Great Hunt of the Horn. So many tales about each of the Hunters, and so many Hunters to tell of…

Now the Horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the Horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages.

And it is stolen.

In pursuit of the thieves, Rand al’Thor is determined to keep the Horn out of the grasp of The Dark One. [[*Someone –  cough spoiler hidden*]] 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 [[this person]] to uncover and master magical capabilities he never imagined he possessed.

The world magic is explained in more detail, the male vs female halves of the magic and we also learn a lot more about the Aes Sedai, the magic wielders.  I really liked meeting the Amyrlin Seat and learning that she is a real person, as well as how deep some of the treachery runs within the White Tower.

Another high point was watching Rand, Egwene, and Nynaeve all learn about their inherent magics.  The girl power in book two was real, and Nynaeve won me over.  Min and Elayne become real people as well and there are huge spoilers as far as who Rand will marry later on, which I kind of appreciated.

There is a lot more world building too – both macro and micro.  It doesn’t come in huge info dumps this time though, but much more spread out, so I think generally it was a much more readable novel.  The pacing was just SO much more even and I cared about all of the chapters.

RJ showed a bit of a darker side to his writing as well here, as evidenced by Egwene’s time with the damane, the seanchan, and everything about “the strangers”.  An interesting subplot and I’m sure it’ll come up again before the series is done.

Other cool things were meeting other ogiers, and EVERYTHING ABOUT THE END!! Everything!  I felt like I was riding right along with Hawkwing, cheering for Perrin carrying the battle standard, and watching the battle in the sky along with the townspeople.  Perrin probably had the quietest role in the book, but came through in a HUGE way when a brave face was needed.  Somehow I think he’s going to end up staying a quiet hero in the series.

A note on the audiobook: I had an exceptionally difficult time understanding Michael Kramer in book one, but this time it was much clearer.  Either he got feedback and enunciated a little more or they managed to increase the quality of the recording, but it was 100% much better. Kate Reading is phenomenal with the women’s chapters too.  Total running time is approx 25 hours, and I listened to the edition released in 2011 by Books On Tape.

Next month we will read Book Three, The Dragon Reborn, and I can’t wait!