Customer Reviews
A significant improvement over the first book - By: A. Whitehead, 26 Sep 2008 
The Great Hunt is the second volumein Robert Jordan's gigantic, rainforest-devastating Wheel of Time series. It was originally publishedin late 1990 & like the first volume, The Eye of the World, was an immediate big seller.
The story picks up a month or so after The Eye of the World. Rand al'Thor has discovered he can channel the One Power & thus is doomed to go insane & die, wreaking terrible destruction at the same time. Normally it would be the responsibility of the Aes Sedai sisterhood to 'gentle' him, remove his ability to channel, but Rand's Aes Sedai mentor, Moiraine, & the head of the sisterhood, Siuan Sanche, believe that he is the Dragon Reborn, the long-prophesied saviour who will defeat the Dark One at the Last Battle. As such, they have no choice but to let him go free. When the twisted, insane Padan Fain steals the legendary Horn of Valere & the cursed dagger from Shadar Logoth upon which the life of Rand's friend Mat depends, a band of hunters are assembled to track Fain down & reclaim the dagger. Meanwhile, Egwene & Nynaeve travel to Tar Valon to begin their training as Aes Sedai, but find danger lurking even within the walls of the White Tower. In the far west, on Toman Head, rumours speak of the arrival of strangers who apparently use the One Powerin battle & use savage beastsin combat, strangers who will not rest until all the lands are under their control...again.
The Great Hunt sees a notable widening of the scope of the world seenin the first book. Whilst the first novel perhaps veered too close to Lord of the Rings' characters & structure to be entirely comfortable, the sequel takes offin a completely different direction. Whilst the series' slightly irritating tendency to be obsessed with 'plot coupons' gets its start here, it does give the book a classical quest structure & deals with the parallel timelines as the core group from the first book gets split up & we follow them separately until their reunion at the end. Jordan also introduces a whole new threatin the form of the Seanchan, a powerful empire ruling a continent beyond the western ocean who now want to reclaim the homeland of their founder (Artur Hawkwing's son). This out-of-left-field threat does an excellent job of shaking things up, whilst the suspicious timing (the Seanchan invasion occurs at the same time the forces of the Shadow are gaining strengthin the world) is later revealed as deliberate. The characters are deepened & made more interesting, particularly Rand & Perrin who are shown to grow & change as a result of the revelations they have discovered & the things they have sufferedin the first novel. However, we also get to see the Dumb Aes Sedai plot trope get the first of many wearying outings, as Nynaeve, Elayne & Egwene get led into a trap which couldn't be any more painfully obvious. Only their relative youth & naivete makes it convincingin this book; the fact that Elayne is still falling for these things as late as Book 11 is rather more dubious.
The Great Hunt (****) is a notable improvement on the first book, taking the world, story & charactersin refreshing & interesting new directions. Jordan's mastery of his enormous narrative is evident here, & even a certain economy (not a word normally associated with the verbose Jordan) of plotting can be detected as some major storylines are rattled throughin just a few pages (the Seanchan themselves, surprisingly, don't appear until the book is more than halfway done). The novel is published by Orbitin the UK & Torin the USA, & is followed by The Dragon Reborn.
A good read by WOT standards - By: Dmitri M. A. Hubbard, 19 May 2008 Many of the characters improvein Book 2, after the rather silly last 200 pages of book 1. It starts with a very edgy prologue, & then is essentially a story of the hunt for the horn. The story starts to get more interestingin the second half as Nynaeve develops as an interesting character. Moiraine plots as always. Rand grapples with his problems. The Seanchan introductionin the last half really improves the book, which is falling into the same sleepy inn / road / town pattern of the first bookin the first half.
One criticism with this & the first book is "the ways". I don't really approve a deux au machina which enables characters to reach a certain placein record time, as it seems to be just a substitute for good writing. I understand if others dont share my contempt of this.
amazing! - By: J. Colclough, 07 May 2008 
i find it hard not to get to carried away with this series....i forget the difference between reality & the amazing world jordan has created! but it!
Second Book in the Wheel of Time - By: J. Chippindale, 31 Dec 2007 Robert Jordan was bornin 1948in Charleston, South Carolina,in a house builtin 1797. He was a graduate of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, with a degreein physics. He served two toursin Vietnam with the U.S. Army; among his decorations are the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with "V", & two Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry. It was the report of his sad death, aged 58 on September 16, 2007 that caused me to look back through his books &in particular the tremendous Wheel of Time series
The Great Hunt is the second bookin an adventure that covers thousands of pages, more probably than even the author envisaged. Robert Jordan's series just grew & grew. I loved all of the books & this second onein the series just makes you want more & more. The books themselves are large volumes, several hundred pages each & there are almost a dozen of them, so you can understand the enormity of the task the author had set himself.
Some of the previous reviews reflect the differing tastes of readers. Some say that this epic series went on too long, others loved it & cried for more. I think I was somewherein between. To me they were what I would call mood books. By that I mean I would read anything up to half a book & then maybe leave it for a while & read something else. Not something I would normally do with a book but with the Wheel of Time books, the plot always seemed to stay freshin the mind & the thread could be picked up again several days later, or even longer.
One of the problems, if indeed it is a problem is that with such large volumes & such an epic storyline there are bound to be a large number of characters & keeping track of them all is sometimes a problem, but a small price to pay for the enjoyment the books bring to the reader.
building the foundations - By: Craig McNicholas, 08 Dec 2007 After swiftly reading the first bookin the series i quickly ordered my copy from amazon of 'the Great Hunt'. I have read alot of the reviews on this page maintaining that the plot is slow. I never once doubted the pace of the book, it kept me wanting to read more every time i put it down. You get a real sense that Jordan is 'building..' a rich story line which is the foundation for later installments. This was a great follow up to the first book & builds on even better books to come.
