Robert Jordan - The Great Hunt - 8

[mrdude]

<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312851405.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" align="left">The Great Hunt, The Second book in the Wheel of time series, by Robert Jordan Starts off where book one, The Eye of the World, left off. Rand, Mat, Perrin, Loial, and Egwene are in Fal Dara. As one could guess, it is not long before trouble finds them all and they are forced to set out on their adventures once again.

This novel was really done quite well and outdid my expectations of it as a sequel. From reading the previous tale one could easily gather that this is the story of the hunt for the great horn of Valere. No this book is not a tale from the past, our hero's Rand, Perrin, Mat, Egwene and many others are on a quest to find the ancient horn. Much more is explained about the legend of the great hunt as well as some of the other legends that are so vaguely hinted at in the previous book. Still much is left unsaid and most of the revelations only bring up more questions for the reader.

I did have some minor complaints with the book despite the fact that I enjoyed it so much. First of all, Jordan can become repetitious enough that it does start to annoy the reader. At other times he recalls characters from the previous book that are so seldom mentioned that the reader is at a loss for who exactly Jordan is trying to talk about.

Jordan uses a somewhat strict set of conventions in his writing. As in the last book he starts off with nearly all the characters in one place, and then quickly disperses them so he can jump back and forth between each smaller group. Throughout the book Jordan switches who's perspective he is writing from, he does this either at chapter breaks or small breaks inside the chapter. I unusually found this enjoyable, but at times it is used to delay a resolution. Especially towards the end of the novel, the storyline will climax with the particular character or characters you are reading about and before you can read what happens Jordan switches over to the next group and as one can guess, only sets the story up for another quick scene change. It makes for a compelling read but also made me groan a lot. He also seems to enjoy incorporating the main character's though possesses as a type of duologue throughout the book. This can be good sometimes but distracting at other times as the narration is sometimes written in such a similar style that one either is forced to do a double take or at least wonders why Jordan bothers to separate the actual thoughts from the narration itself.

Yes if you are wondering the book is Tolkienesq but so is every fantasy author I have read, except for Tolkien which is simply himself. For example Ogier = Ents, Fades/Myrddrall = Ringwraiths, Trollocks = Orc. I could go on.

All nit picking aside, the book was still very enjoyable. Jordan weaves his story to create his own epoch tale, and I found myself pouring over every word trying to absorb the world he was creating for me. It is a slow process learning the entire history of Jordan's World, he does not divulge his secrets easily or haphazardly, but that does really add to the mystery behind it all.

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Review also posted at the IBLIST