The Great Hunt
ISBN: 9781857230277
Description
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.
Reviewed on 1st June 2025
Having re-read the first book, I immediately wanted to continue. This second adventure feels a little slower going, but actually introduces a ton of the world building that I again had forgotten came so early.
The party splits, with one group following a trail left by a thief, and the other heading to the White Tower. What I had remembered is really liking the Tower parts of the story - it's the classic boarding school type of setting, so very familiar in that sense. Whereas the journey plot is slow and drawn out, and in places feels like some of the lore has come about just to make it work.
The climax then feels a bit rushed, with us barging through it in a small set of chapters. I suspect I've become used to Brandon Sanderson's style where the climax fills the final quarter of the book.
Overall though I'm still really hooked on this re-read and will be back for book three soon.
Reviewed on 5th June 2009
Well, that's book 2 down. This one was similar to the first in terms of the writing style, but my criticisms are slightly different.
The plotline is much more straightforward in this novel, there being one main story that runs through the novel - again it is a journey, but that seems, from my limited experience, to be a running theme in the fantasy genre. There's several other branches to the plot, but they are smaller than in the first novel, and one of them only joins back for a moment at the end.
Speaking of the ending, this volume has a very abrupt conclusion, it seems very hurried, and there isn't much of an 'epilogue' after the final climax. To an extent I suppose that is designed to encourage moving on to the third book, but at the time of publication that wouldn't have been available and it would have been nice to wrap things up a little more roundedly.
There are still some mysteries hanging over, although I'm still not sure how he is going to drag the rest of the story over the remaining books, or exactly what the characters' plan is.
