Last night I finished The Great Hunt, book 2 of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
The first few read-throughs of this book didn’t leave much of an impression on me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it this time. I feel that this book deeply explores with a couple of main characters – Rand and Perrin – and rounded out their personalities that, honestly, were somewhat superficial in The Eye of the World.
(Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of character development in the first book for Perrin and Rand, but I have the advantage of knowing the entire story for the full eleven books at this point, and the depth of these characters was NOT explored in tEotW.)
It is the internal struggle that specifically stood out. Jordan does an excellent job of getting inside their heads while both caracters deal with the new changes they are going through.
Rand already knows he can channel – a talent that has been a death sentence for every other male for the past three thousand years. In addition, he learns at the beginning of the book that he is the Dragon Reborn. The Amarylin, an Aes Sedai who cannot lie, tells this to Rand without mincing words. Rand spends the rest of the book trying accept this about himself, deciding if he believes it or not, fighting with the alluring call of True Source, and vowing not to be used by the White Tower.
Perrin is a Wolfbrother and is forced into a position where he can ignore it no longer. His eyes are turned yellow, he sees in the dark, can track as well as Hurin, and can smell feelings in other people. And in order to track Padan Fain and Rand, he is forced to use his new talent and talk to the wolves while he leads a group of Sheinarans. But even with all of these new abilities, Perrin is ashamed of himself. Jordan sets the tone that Perrin feels through the rest of the series.
The only main character we don’t know much about yet is Mat. We know he’s a trouble maker, a gambler, and shows disdain for authority. But that is about it. Mat has consistently been one of my favorite characters, so I’m looking forward to reading more about him. If I remember correctly, his character won’t really start developing until he goes through a certain doorway in a couple more books (no spoiler here, sorry).
I also liked these points:
- the Damane and Sul’dam and the capture of Egwene – she will be important later in the series and I imagine that much of her strength comes from surviving her capture.
- the scenes with High Lord Turak – we get a lot of foreshadowing about the Seanchan, although you wouldn’t know it if you are reading WoT for the first time.
On to The Dragon Reborn.
Check ya later.
Popularity: 35% [?]
