So this is gonna be a pretty lengthy personal review of The Great Hunt. Just some quick background on my knowledge of WoT. I know absolutely nothing beyond what ive read already. I don't know rumors, fan theories, spoilers essentially when I picked up EotW a few months back all I knew about WoT was 1) its a popular series 2) its a long series 3) when I was in the school library I didn't like the old school looking cover art, so I didn't read them (I was a kid, c'mon?). Also if your interested here's the link to my first review that I posted to this sub after I finished EotW.
To say this community had me excited to read The Great Hunt would be a dire understatement. When I finally did get my hands on a copy before I knew it the sun was down, i was 10 chapters in, and mad at myself because I had to work in a few hours.
My favorite part of this book should be pretty obvious; When Rand has his absofuckinglutely epic fight with the Dark One in the sky while below Matt and Perrin are leading a legion of ghost heroes like its the Charge of the Rohirrim and Nynaeve is blasting apart the city while fighting the Seanchan. *BURN ME* those were some intense, page turning, chapters!
By the end of the book my favorite characters were: Rand, Perrin, Loail, and VERY surprisingly Padan Fain and Nynaeve. Matt and Thom were among my favorites post EotW but with Thom not having much of a presence I can't really say he was a favorite for this particular book and it seemed like Matt took a backseat in this one and didnt really do much but add a quick quip.
I truly loved how Robert Jordan went about building Rands confidence as a leader. At the start when he's told he is to step up if Ingtar dies he freaks out, but by the time he reunites with his original group he's so used to leading and having to be a figure of confidence and hope that it just naturally carries over even when he's in the presence of an Aies Sedia and veteran soldiers. Perrin I just can't help but like. He's this tough and strong blacksmith but he's quiet. He likes to take time to think things through. He's a simple, caring, and loyal guy trying to help but also wanting nothing to do with magic and wolves. He just wants to be a blacksmith. Loail I love and I think no matter what happens in this series he's always gonna be on my list of characters I loved at the end of the book. He's like an incredibly strong, old grandpa who's afraid of being caught getting into trouble by his wife (aka the other ogiers). Nynaeve, im on the fence about. On one hand she was a total badass in the final portion of this book however im still not sold on her motivation (more on that later). Padan Fain was a truly interesting and creepy bad guy in this book. He NAILED A MYRDRAAL TO A DOOR. Let me tell ya after I realised Faine was the one who did that and he was the one holding all the power within the group of Trollocs and dark friends I couldn't wait to get more of his PoV's.
The story of TGH had some great twists to it that I wasn't expecting. For instance Faine bringing the Horn to the Seanchan and also *wanting* to be captured and taken to their leader, the Seanchan themselves were a huge surprise, Ingtar being a dark friend the whole time, and I was honestly caught off guard when Liandrin betrayed the girls. I thought she was so obviously evil that she wasn't evil (kinda like a WoT professor Snape red herring situation).
There were quite a few key parts that stuck out to me...
I really enjoyed Ch. 5. it was my first chapter from Moraines perspective and it was this cool conspiratorial conversation with the Amerylin Seat that included a ton of lore and history that I 100% did not understand but really drew me in and has me anxious to learn more about the world.
When Matt and Perrin found Rand with the Dragon banner I was shocked by how shitty of friends they were. Matt immediately started treating him like he had the plague and a bomb strapped to him and Perrin while not being an outright dick, still was just kinda like "yeahhh, you should leave. I would leave. You should probably leave." I genuinely felt bad for Rand.
At one point Egwene was just walking in the White Tower and Logaine just pops up outta nowhere! I got really excited here because I had been wondering what the Aeis Sedai had done with him. It was kinda shocking to see him broken the way that he was when the last time he was mentioned Rand saw him standing with all the dignity of a king even though he was in a cage. Im very curious to see if he has a role to play farther down the line.
In chapter 28 I got to meet my first Aiel Man! He said he was looking for a man (I quickly decided this was Rand) who is some sorta messiah like figure who prophecy says will lead them to take back their land under a strange symbol which I think was the Aeis Sedai symbol?
In chapter 29 I had my first meeting with the Seanchan and their Damane. It was really unnerving and even slightly disturbing seeing those powerful women who would've been Aeis Sedai literally brought to heel like dogs
And finally in the last couple chapters my theory of Selene being Lanfear was confirmed and what exactly Padan Faine is is elaborated on which I thought was really cool (him being a mixture of two different evils and all that).
I had very few gripes about this book but there's one thing Ive gotta make clear that I did not like. Im finding it *very* hard to buy into Nynaeves story. She still blames Moraine for everything that's happened and her central motivation for learning control over the One Power is to use it against Moraine even though its pretty clear at this point that if Moraine never showed up, she along with everyone else in Emonds Field would without a doubt be dead. Her hate for Moraine, her love for Lan (and his love for her) just feels sooo forced. I didn't hate her in this book I just find her story to be unconvincing and even a little annoying.
All and all I thoroughly enjoyed TGH. it was a fun read. It had some dark elements to it and soo many memorable moments. One thing that does worry me is that quite a few people have said this is there favorite book in the series and while I did enjoy it I didn't love it. If this truly is the best the series has to offer than I may not enjoy it as much as I thought I would starting out. Looking ahead im excited to see how different Rand is now that he accepted that he's the Dragon and so many people know as well. Im curious to see what role Matt and Perrin play (very curious about Matt because he had such a small role in this book). Again id like to see if Logaine ends up playing a part. Id like to know where TF Thom went?? I thought he was gonna go to Rand after his lady was killed but he was never mentioned again. And last but certainly not least, are the Seanchan just gone? I expected the conflict with them to carry on to the next book, I mean they were a significant threat but they were defeated really quickly and kinda unsatisfyingly. I hope this isn't one of those series where there's a new threat that pops up every time one Big Bad is defeated like its a book version of the show Supernatural. But I suppose ill just have to read on and find out, the wheel weaves as the wheel weaves.
Submitted October 24, 2019 at 03:24AM by deeAsmith https://ift.tt/2W7Amw5
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