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A review by rikuson1
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I Liked It
-★★★✭☆- (3.75/5.00) 😉
My Grading Score = 75% (B)
The Great Hunt is a continuation of The Eye of the World, and you should definitely be able to feel that with this being released within the same year of 1990 as it. The pacing, though, definitely felt more sporadic this time around, and the overall cast, for the entirety of the book, one split, stayed split. But it's different from The Lord of the Ring's split, in which the characters split up in those books, but all still hold the same overall goal in mind. The similarities to it, though, and the homages, plot-wise, can still be caught throughout the book. For example with Rand wanted to remove himself from the presence of his friends like how Frodo did at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring for the betterment of the situation, (although that didn't really last in this). Or Ingtar being obsessed with the Horn of Valere in a similar way Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring was with the Ring. With the book being called "The Great Hunt" going in it is implied that it's mainly to do with the Horn of Valere, which is partially true. The Horn of Valere plays a large role at the end of the book in a way I was not expecting but the re-retrieval of it (and the dagger) seem to take up the bulk of the story.
Characterization/ Character Development
There was little to no character development to be seen in this entry which isn't a bad thing they don't have to drastically progress or regress permanently for it to be a pro for me, it's just an observation. The Great Hunt seems to further build on the worldbuilding, the lore of the world, and further solidify what was already set in the first book. In the aspects of characterization, we did get a decent amount of good moments that allowed the characters to shine more than they had before, like Egwene, for example.
The Action/Fight Scenes
Although the action was about the same, there was a fight between Rand and a self-proclaimed proponent swordsman at the end of the book, which I felt was the best-written choreographed fight in the series thus far. The explanation as to why Rand was able to come out on top of that right probably could have been explained a bit better, though. Nonetheless, the action within was impressive for him since it was handled differently. Up to this point, most if not all of the fights that Rand has participated in were written in this fight-style named metaphorical way. Meaning if Rand is to do a specific sword action, Robert Jordan will say a specific named sword-style attack like "Kitten in a Corner," and then we the reader have to imagine what the hell that means because most of the time once this is said no further elaboration to that encounter is given and Rand comes out of the encounter the victor moving forward with his goals. As someone who is big on fight scenes, especially one on one, I am not a big fan of this way of depicting them. To be honest, I personally found it kind of lazy, especially coming from someone who is known to be extremely detailed when it comes to explaining damn near everything in his series, it felt like the fight scenes in that aspect, got the short end of the stick and it really feels like a jarring contrast in his writing style. The consistency in detail just wasn't there. It's not a dynamic I like. This was done in The Eye of the World as well but it was done way more here than it was in there to the point where I have to bring it up as a personal gripe of mine because at one point in, Rand's final fight, a nice chunk of it turned into Robert Jordan just naming off fighting styles back to back to back to back with no elaboration into what was going on in the fight outside of those named attacks and I just felt so disconnected to fight scene, it was not that immersive or engaging, just too vague for me, it did not hit the way I wanted to, unfortunately. As stated in the fight with the swordsman, though, this wasn't done nearly as much, a nice chunk of it was written out, which is why I felt the need to mention and commend that one.
Verdict
The Great Hunt was a good read. Even though when I was reading it, the back and forth of obtaining the Horn and Dagger to losing it to obtaining it again, to losing it again, did feel weird pace but it didn't ruin the overall experience for me. It's like if Gollum in The Lord of the Rings got a hold of the ring and the crew had to get it back from him, and that spanned basically a whole book. Nonetheless, I would say this is a tad more entertaining and a bit better than the Eye of the World, but I wouldn't say it's a huge improvement but an improvement nonetheless.
I liked it
-★★★✭☆- (3.75/5.00) 😉
My Grading Score = 75% (B)
The Great Hunt is a continuation of The Eye of the World, and you should definitely be able to feel that with this being released within the same year of 1990 as it. The pacing, though, definitely felt more sporadic this time around, and the overall cast, for the entirety of the book, one split, stayed split. But it's different from The Lord of the Ring's split, in which the characters split up in those books, but all still hold the same overall goal in mind. The similarities to it, though, and the homages, plot-wise, can still be caught throughout the book. For example with Rand wanted to remove himself from the presence of his friends like how Frodo did at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring for the betterment of the situation, (although that didn't really last in this). Or Ingtar being obsessed with the Horn of Valere in a similar way Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring was with the Ring. With the book being called "The Great Hunt" going in it is implied that it's mainly to do with the Horn of Valere, which is partially true. The Horn of Valere plays a large role at the end of the book in a way I was not expecting but the re-retrieval of it (and the dagger) seem to take up the bulk of the story.
Characterization/ Character Development
There was little to no character development to be seen in this entry which isn't a bad thing they don't have to drastically progress or regress permanently for it to be a pro for me, it's just an observation. The Great Hunt seems to further build on the worldbuilding, the lore of the world, and further solidify what was already set in the first book. In the aspects of characterization, we did get a decent amount of good moments that allowed the characters to shine more than they had before, like Egwene, for example.
The Action/Fight Scenes
Although the action was about the same, there was a fight between Rand and a self-proclaimed proponent swordsman at the end of the book, which I felt was the best-written choreographed fight in the series thus far. The explanation as to why Rand was able to come out on top of that right probably could have been explained a bit better, though. Nonetheless, the action within was impressive for him since it was handled differently. Up to this point, most if not all of the fights that Rand has participated in were written in this fight-style named metaphorical way. Meaning if Rand is to do a specific sword action, Robert Jordan will say a specific named sword-style attack like "Kitten in a Corner," and then we the reader have to imagine what the hell that means because most of the time once this is said no further elaboration to that encounter is given and Rand comes out of the encounter the victor moving forward with his goals. As someone who is big on fight scenes, especially one on one, I am not a big fan of this way of depicting them. To be honest, I personally found it kind of lazy, especially coming from someone who is known to be extremely detailed when it comes to explaining damn near everything in his series, it felt like the fight scenes in that aspect, got the short end of the stick and it really feels like a jarring contrast in his writing style. The consistency in detail just wasn't there. It's not a dynamic I like. This was done in The Eye of the World as well but it was done way more here than it was in there to the point where I have to bring it up as a personal gripe of mine because at one point in, Rand's final fight, a nice chunk of it turned into Robert Jordan just naming off fighting styles back to back to back to back with no elaboration into what was going on in the fight outside of those named attacks and I just felt so disconnected to fight scene, it was not that immersive or engaging, just too vague for me, it did not hit the way I wanted to, unfortunately. As stated in the fight with the swordsman, though, this wasn't done nearly as much, a nice chunk of it was written out, which is why I felt the need to mention and commend that one.
Verdict
The Great Hunt was a good read. Even though when I was reading it, the back and forth of obtaining the Horn and Dagger to losing it to obtaining it again, to losing it again, did feel weird pace but it didn't ruin the overall experience for me. It's like if Gollum in The Lord of the Rings got a hold of the ring and the crew had to get it back from him, and that spanned basically a whole book. Nonetheless, I would say this is a tad more entertaining and a bit better than the Eye of the World, but I wouldn't say it's a huge improvement but an improvement nonetheless.
I liked it
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery