Product Description
n one short decade, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time has become the bestselling American fantasy series of all time—comparable in depth and scope to J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary trilogy, The Lord of The Rings. Now, the first two titles in the series, The Eye of the
World and The Great Hunt, are available unabridged on CD.
For centuries traveling gleemen have told the tales of “The Great Hunt of the Horn.” Now the horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages.
Rand al’Thor, the farmboy who is thought to be the Dragon Reborn — the leader long prophesied to save the world, but in the process will destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him — refuses to accept his fate. But Rand cannot escape his power. For when the horn is stolen along with a dagger from the terrible ruins of Shadar Logoth, Rand is drawn into the hunt. For if he does not, his oldest friend, Matt, will die.
As Rand, Perrin, Egwene and Nynaeve track the horn and dagger they enter a world stranger than time itself. Meanwhile the Dark One is stirring in Shayol Ghul. The Dark One wants the horn. The Dark One wants Rand.
718 Session @ 11:57 pm
I Promise: I’m going to be spoiler free.
This is the second book in the Wheel of Time (WOT) series (after Eye of the World). It is BETTER than the first one. Jordan is really finding his legs with the series. All of the tenants of excellent fantasy are here. Jordan is a great writer who builds an incredible world with a compelling history. His characters are also incredible.
Great Hunt is a great book, but be warned: as of this writing Jordan hasn’t finished WOT. The Great Hunt does not stand alone, the ending is something of a cliffhanger. My guess is the end of this series isn’t going to happen until 2006 (I believe there are going to be 12 books, but I don’t think there’s an official word).
Is it going to be worth it? I don’t think so. WOT has gotten very complicated and is becoming turgid. Sometime around Book 6, the action began to crawl. Book 8 (the last one I read) was almost 700 pages and took place over three days, AND was practically missing some important characters!
I’ve read the first five books twice now beacuse it is too difficult to wait a year between reading books. (And he’s coming out with them once every other year at this point).
My advice: Wait until Jordan’s finished them all. It’s best to read them one after another. By then we’ll know if it was worth the wait.
You’ve been warned!
My grade for the series:
1. Wheel of Time: A-
2. Great Hunt: A
3. Dragon Reborn: A+
4. Shadow Rising: A+
5. Fires of Heaven: A
6. Lord of Chaos: B
7. Crown of Swords: C+
8. Path of Daggars: C
9. Winter’s Heart (haven’t read, waiting for Jordon to finish)
Paul @ 2:56 am
The second book in Robert Jordan’s epic “Wheel of Time” saga is another fantastic book in this series. Set in the most vivid fantasy world ever created, Jordan takes readers further into this world, weaving new plotlines, introducing new characters and growing the roles of characters first met in “The Eye of the World”. This series continues to work on multiple levels, containing nuances which have clearly been missed by the few critics of this series. (Critics of this series often focus on its length, reminding one of the emporer in “Amadeus”, who complained that Mozart’s concert had “too many notes.”)
In the first book, Rand, Perrin and Mat, 3 young men from the village of Emond’s Field were forced to flee from minions of the Dark One, accompanied by Egwene, a village girl who wanted adventure, and Thom Merrilin, a gleeman who had come to the village to entertain at the village’s spring festival. Guided by Moiraine, a member of the mysterious order of Aes Sedai, women who can channel “saidar”, the female half of the One Power, and Lan, Moiraine’s Warder, the group was soon joined by Nynaeve, the village’s Wisdom, who had followed them to protect the young people from her village who had been had been swept up in an Aes Sedai “scheme”. The group, minus Thom, would eventually be joined by Loial, an young member of the long-lived race of Ogier, a gentle giant of a bookworm who had left home to see the world.
One of the joys of the first book was the maturing of the characters, all of whom would change in significant ways: Perrin discovered he could talk with wolves, and now has the yellow eyes of wolf, and has also run afoul of the Whitecloaks, an intolerant military order of zealots; Mat had been uttering the Old Tongue in moments of battle & stress and was then tainted by a cursed dagger from the foul city of Shadar Logoth; Egwene discovered she had the ability to channel and now desires to become an Aes Sedai; Nynaeve learned that she could already channel, having survived what only one in four women do, channeling on her own without Aes Sedai training; Nynaeve has also fallen in love with Lan, a love he also feels, but does not believe he should return; and Rand has discovered that he is a man who can channel. Men who channel inevitably go insane, and have ever since the breaking of the world some 3,000 years ago.
“The Great Hunt” picks up shortly after the end of “The Eye of the World”, with everyone in the borderland town of Fal Dara. The Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche, head of the female order of Aes Sedai, arrives, purportedly to meet with the three young men from Emond’s Field, all of whom are “ta’veren”. A person who is “ta’veren” has a certain ability to manipulate events and chance, e.g. a leader who intends to reject a treaty might end up signing it. But the Amyrlin has arrived for reasons of her own, with plans she means to make with Moiraine.
But before any of these plans can be implemented, a sudden raid by Trollocs and Myrddraal, minions of the Dark One, results in the freeing of the peddler Padan Fain, a Darkfriend who had been altered to hunt for Rand, Perrin and Mat, and who had been further changed by following them into cursed Shadar Logoth. The raid resulted in Fain stealing Mat’s tainted dagger, and the Horn of Valere, which is locked in its own box. Whoever sounds the Horn of Valere will bring forth heroes of legend who will fight for the Light against the Dark One. Or so it is believed. In truth, these heroes will fight for whoever sounds it.
Rand, Mat and Perrin, accompanied by Loial, set out to recover the Horn and Mat’s cursed dagger. Mat is still linked to the dagger and it is needed for him to be fully Healed by Aes Sedai. They will be joined by Verin, an Aes Sedai who has motivations of her own. On this journey, Rand will meet a beautiful woman, Selene, who has also has motivations of her own.
Egwene and Nynaeve head to the White Tower in Tar Valon, to begin training to be Aes Sedai. They will also meet an Aes Sedai with private motivations, Liandrin. They become friends with Elayne, Daughter-Heir of Andor, and Min, a young woman capable of seeing auras around people, both of whom we briefly met in Book One.
But people who are “ta’veren” have a way of drawing to them people of whom they have need and our characters may well meet before this book is over.
In this book, readers learn the fate of Thom Merrilin, the missing gleeman; learn about the mysterious invaders called Seanchan; meet up with ship captain Bayle Doman again; learn more about the mysterious Aes Sedai; get involved with “The Game of Houses” in Cairhein; witness the plots of Darkfriends and Ba’alzamon; and meet an Aiel for the first time.
Jordan has created the most fully realized fantasy world to date, and it is a pleasure to visit again. With stong, complex characters, including numerous strong female characters, vital cultures, and skillful, intelligent word crafting, this series cannot be recommended enough.
Craig MACKINNON @ 5:54 am
After the skill, fun, and sheer size of the first book in the Wheel of Time series, I eagerly looked forward to the second book. I won’t say I was disappointed – many authors slip a little in a second book in the series – the book is nowhere near the fun, the pace, or the interest of the first book. The story: the Horn of Valere is stolen by Darkfriends, as is Mat’s soul-stealing dagger. Lord Ingtar takes charge of a group of Shienar’s finest in an effort to find and retreive the artifacts. Our three male heroes – Rand, Perrin, and Mat – go along with the Lancers. Meanwhile, our two female heroes – Nynaeve and Egwene – accompany the Aes Sedai witch to Tar Valon, the stronghold of the Aes Sedai, to start their training.
So, what is the problem with the book? Firstly, Jordan felt the need to “regress” his characters somewhat. One would think that the boys and girls who had crossed the world, defended the Eye of the World from the evil one, and had survived numerous battles, would have gained in maturity. And they do so throughout the first book, but their characters are back in their mid-EotW form at the beginning of the second book. Mat is childishly selfish, Egwene is wide-eyed innocent, Nynaeve is a petulant bully, etc. In fact, they stay at this stunted level of development through most of this book. The character of Nynaeve is especially hard to take – she consistently holds to ideas she has seen proven false, she tries to bully everyone into agreeing with her and vows awful revenge when they don’t, etc. And yet all the characters seem to think she’s wonderful, including the ageless Warder king-heir who must have better offers from scullery maids than the histrionics Nynaeve consistently offers. Yet he is supposed to be in love with her? Did I miss something?
Part of the problem is that, in an attempt to keep his splintered cast alive, he feels the need to touch base with each of the characters too often. While the meat of this book is clearly Rand’s pursuit of the Horn of Valere, Jordan will jump back for a chapter here and there following the girls training in Tar Valon. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have much reason for any of these interludes except to try and keep the characters in the story. The book would have been better served if he had followed the Tolkien route of sticking with one group of people for the long haul, then taking the other characters through the same time all at once in later chapters. It would have cut down on the annoying repetitiveness surrounding the Tar Valon chapters.
Basically, there’s too much filler. When the action is humming along, and the characters are doing something, Jordan’s prose shines. We are in a foreign land but we never feel like outsiders (at least, only as much as the characters) because he does so well in describing events. Each new ethnic group we meet is fully developed and unique. Carhein is a wonderfully decadent society, the Seanchan slavers are logical and terrible in the way they’ve developed their society, and the Whitecloaks are finally given something interesting to do (and are presented not as a spiteful nemesis force but a trans-national entity with their own goals that are simply at odds with Rand’s quest). The last 150 pages are barn-burning (better than anything in Book 1) and leave the reader anxious to lay his hands on the next sequel. If the book was 200 pages shorter, it would have been a great story. As it is, it’s weighed down and the filler detracts from the rest of the book, but still recommended and it was certainly good enough to convince me to stick with the series into Book 3.
Evan Erwin @ 7:00 am
The Wheel of Time books were introduced to me by a friend, and once I started, it was wildfire. I admit that Jordan likes to rant, he likes to put 50+ main characters in his books, he likes to stray. But unlike many of the other authors who do this, you don’t really notice and most of all, you actually ENJOY it! I was enthralled by the fact you were enlighted on the training procedures of the Aes Sedai, the military strategy and downfall of the Seanchan, the prejudicial workings of the Children of the Light. I love this stuff. It makes the characters real, it gives them more structures and basis for being where they are, thinking how they do, and reacting to situations differently than the rest of them. Each page fills you with more insight than the first. I cannot wait to finish The Dragon Reborn (the next book), and will eagerly await and read anything that Jordon publishes in the future. If there is an end, I don’t see it in sight any time soon. Long live these books!
newyork2dallas @ 8:02 am
The Wheel of Time is probably the best-known and most widely read fantasy series other than The Lord of the Rings. There are many reasons for that:
(1) Books 1-5 of the series are non-stop action, adventure, intrigue, politics, magic, war, history and mystery wrapped together.
(2) Jordan creates believeable and often multifaceted characters.
(3) Attention to detail: from the various cultural traits of the 13 “nations” on the map (dubbed “Randland” by fans), to the commercial, political and economic interaction of the various peoples in the books to the characters and objects throughout “Randland”.
(4) End-games. Jordan’s at his best in the last chapters of books 1-6 and 9 when he writes of the climactic occurrences of each of those installments.
The Great Hunt, like The Eye of the World, again exhibits the best of Jordan’s writing style and pacing. That is true also for books 3-5.
The Great Hunt picks up where Eye of the World left off and adds new facets to the complex plot: schisms and scheming among the sorceresses (Aes Sedai), an invasion by descendants of a long-lost conquistador exploration of lands across the ocean, introduction of the hero’s jilted love interest, and exploration of more of Randland. The roles of Rand’s various allies and friends are also revealed to a greater degree.
Once again, the writing is smooth, the various characters and their motivations work well, and there’s action aplenty. The sense of innocence and mystery that corresponded to the heroes’ relative lack of knowledge of their surroundings and the world at large in book 1 diminishes appropriately as the heroes are exposed to more of their world and the chaos therein.
The series is at 10 books (the tenth will be published late 2002 or so) and growing (13 total possible — it’s a common numerical theme in the books). The quality drops off sharply in books 6-8 before increasing slightly in book 9. You will likely enjoy the first 5 immensely, but know what you’re getting into.