The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, Book 2)

List Price: $7.99 Discount Price: $3.50

Customer Reviews:

Good versus Evil, but are all the bad guys wearing black? [Posted on 2008-03-13]
Read/Listened to book one, and was hooked. Love this type of story line with an unsuspecting hero and a crazy changing adventure.

I'm now about 2/3's of the way thru Book two, great the way it picked up right where one left off. If you want to get lost in another world covered in mystics, strange creatures, and dark friends, this series is for you.

This is pure excapist reading with all types of plot twists and turns. If you can keep up with the switching scenes and players, maybe you'll like it as much as I do! Then again, the Wheel weaves as the Wheel will...

Long Live the Dragon!! [Posted on 2008-04-07]
A great extension from the begining book, I highly recommend this book and series!!

A good read by WOT standards, [Posted on 2008-07-01]
Many of the characters improve in Book 2, after the rather silly last 200 pages of book 1. It starts with a very edgy prologue, and then is essentially a story of the hunt for the horn. The story starts to get more interesting in the second half as Nynaeve develops as an interesting character. Moiraine plots as always. Rand grapples with his problems. The Seanchan introduction in the last half really improves the book, which is falling into the same sleepy inn / road / town pattern of the first book in the first half.

One criticism with this and the first book is "the ways". I don't really approve a deux au machina which enables characters to reach a certain place in record time, as it seems to be just a substitute for good writing. I understand if others dont share my contempt of this.

The hunt for the horn is on! *Spoilers may be included* [Posted on 2008-07-12]
The 2nd book in the Wheel of Time series, I give this book 4.5 stars. This book picks up about a few weeks later from the ending of the 1st book, The Eye of the World. If you haven't read the first book in this series, I'm warning you now there will be spoilers throughout this review. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read on.

At the end of the Eye of the World, one of the young men, Rand, realizes he can channel saidin, the male half of the True Source. After using the Eye, a secret chamber was found beneath the Eye that holds several very important objects: the banner of Lews Therin, called the Dragon, the male Aes Sedai that led the forces of Light against the Shadow during the Age of Legends, an object made of cuendillar (or heartstone) one of the 7 seals of the Dark One's prison created by the Aes Sedai of the Age of Legends during the War of the Shadow, and the Horn of Valere, a horn that will bring back the dead heroes tied to the Wheel of Time to fight for whomever blows the horn.

All very important objects, and all signs that lead Moiraine (the female Aes Sedai that led the Two Rivers villagers in the 1st book) to believe that Tarmon Gaidon, the Last Battle with the Dragon Reborn and the Dark One, is fast approaching.

The book starts to pick up the pace when the minions of the Dark One (Trollocs, Fades, and Darkfriends) attack Fal Dara and steal the Horn of Valere and free a very interesting Darkfriend named Padin Fain (he was introduced in the first book and he was the one that caused the villagers to first flee their home in that book). Rand and his friends Mat and Perrin, with escort, ride to hunt for the Horn of Valere (hence, the title of the book) and retrieve it.

In The Great Hunt, the main character Rand struggles with who and what he is throughout this entire book. He also becomes less naive, more wary and suspicious of the motives of the Aes Sedai, and more aware of the heavy duty that lays on his shoulders ("Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain"). Having read the other books in the series, and knowing how his personality changes, it was interesting to read the first seeds of this personality change occur. While he did harbor these suspicions in the 1st book, they really don't start to take root until this book. It is something that doesn't ever go away, it only grows with time throughout the series to the point where it actually hinders Rand and what he has to do (which is save the world!).

You also learn more about Padin Fain, and I won't spoil it, but he becomes an important character later on so you'll see more of him. Rand also encounters a mysterious woman who goes by the name "Selene" and I'll just say she is also a character of importance and Rand doesn't meet her by accident.

Mat and Perrin, important secondary characters, don't get as much page time as Rand. What I mean is, you don't get "inside" their head as much as Rand in this book. There are also some snippets from the viewpoints of Nynaeve, Egwene, Moiraine, and Padin Fain but most of the book is Rand's perspective. The other characters I mentioned have significance as well, they play big roles in the series.

I think my favorite scene out of this book is the ending scene. A lot of tension and action, a battle scene, and finally Rand realizing his fate and being resigned to his destiny. The Great Hunt is a worthy sequel to the Eye of the World, and it only gets better! =)

Audio readers [Posted on 2008-09-01]
The two readers on this book and the subsequent book are excellent. The story is fast moving and exciting the way its read.

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