A review by maiagaia
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No

3.5

The Great Hunt is such an improvement on The Eye of the World. Since Rand is probably my least favorite of the main cast, spending less time in his head was a big plus for me. I don't dislike him, but I find the other characters more compelling.

Nynaeve is the best character in this series. I love her and all her bitchy stubbornness. Egwene has such a wonderful and heartbreaking plot that solidly moved her out of the "love interest" archetype. The time we spent with them in this book was my absolute favorite.

Perrin continues to be my favorite of the boys, and Matt had more glimmers here of some interesting depths and possibilities in the future.

I missed having Moraine around, but when we did get her POV, her and Lan had some great interactions. Speaking of Lan, god, I love him.

Now for some negatives:
I get that Rand is a young guy (like 19-ish?) But he is a grade A idiot when it comes to a particular woman that he needs to trust for plot reasons. It makes no logical sense, especially since he's already seen that women can be Darkfriends. But I give it a little lee way because he's supposed to be thinking with his dick. It's still annoying though.
Continuing with Rand, there's an entire plot having to do with polictical maneuvering that is totally contrived and nonsensical. Not terrible, but definitely worth skimming through because it doesn't add much but takes up a lot of pages.
Min Min Min Min. She went from an interesting, enigmatic character to a lovesick puppy out of nowhere. I don't care about prophecy; she shouldn't have such a sudden about face. That was truly some of the worst writing I've seen for a woman in a long time.


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