A review by trinityb2021
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

slow-paced

3.5

3.5 ⭐️

This is still such a hard series to rate. The first half of this book nothing happened and it was all very boring set up. But the last half was quite good! I loved everything with the Aes Sedai and Egwene, Elayne, Nynaeve, and Min. I also really like Lan and Moraine which made some of the earlier book tolerable but then they seemed to vanish off the face of the earth.

I think the characters are all pretty poorly developed so far. Their growth is pretty limited and slow so I feel like I’m running in circles sometimes. How many times in this book did I have to hear Rand refuse to believe he was the Dragon Reborn. I think hearing it 3-4 times would’ve been enough to get the point across. How many times do I need to hear Nynaeve complain about how much she hates Moraine and the Aes Sedai. Again, 3-4 times would’ve been enough. Jordan is just very repetitive and it doesn’t do his characters any justice.

All of their traits are basic. All of the main characters want and try to do the right thing all the time. Maybe it makes sense but it is boring to read about. I LOVED when we got Padan Fain chapters. Let me in his greasy little head. I want to know what he’s thinking. Mat and Perrin feel like characters that exist only so that Rand isn’t alone. They pmo so often. Rand does too but at least I have to like him because he’s the chosen one. I have no obligation to try and like Mat and Perrin. I like Perrin’s powers; I love a good wolf boy. Mat? Go die or something. “ooh I need this dagger to live” BOOOOO. Anyways, morale of the story: the characters have no interesting motivations and I still don’t understand anything about their personalities. Rand, Mat, and Perrin are all the same and if you switched their names, I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart by the way they talk, think, or act. They are the same character copy pasted three times with slightly different super powers.

I am a character reader. So even tho the plot is quite interesting and I want to see how stuff gets resolved (it seems I have 12 books left to see that), I just am not attached to anyone.

ALSO, I need to mention how every single female except some of the Aes Sedai want to fuck Rand. Girl he’s 19, grew up in a small isolated village, and has never even been with a girl. I’m sorry but he’d be an awful partner (I hear there are threesomes in his future so I guess good for him). Why are all these people fawning over this man. I refuse to believe he’s that attractive. Also, love triangle? In my adult fantasy novel? Actually kill me now. Bury me 6 feet under before that happens. What do you mean a 40 year old man wrote a love triangle into his award winning fantasy series? Love triangles don’t even work in YA when the audience is horny 13 year old girls. Why would this work here? What was Robert Jordan thinking?

Give me a novel only about the girls (or only their POV) and I think it would make it into my hall of fame. The world and magic system is cool. I love a good reincarnation moment. With more development for the female characters, they could be S tier. Maybe I’ll care about them by like book 8 but I fear that is too late.