[Books] The Wheel of Time: The Great Hunt

The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass leaving memories that become legend, then fade to myth, and are long forgot when that Age comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Dhoom. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning. 

The Wheel turns, and the story of the Dragon Reborn continues.....in just three weeks I've made it through the 681 page second book of the Wheel of Time. As with the first book I really enjoyed it, and the comments that I made for that book still hold true.

The feeling that I know the major events is still there, but the temporal disjunction is much stronger this time around. I distinctly remember Egwene being captured by the Seanchan, and the subsequent rescue by Nynaeve and Elayne, but I could have sworn it was in book 3 or 4 at least. In fact the introduction of the Seanchan generally comes much earlier than I was expecting. I was pleased to find though that that subplot fit much better my recollection, which made them seem to be a slightly jarring inclusion. We'll see how I feel when they make their return later in the series. Similarly the reintroduction of Thom, which I again thought was much later. But then I thought he 'survived' longer the first time anyway, so hey ho.

One major plot point that I had forgotten was Mat's sounding of the Horn of Valere. I remembered the chase of it across the plains, and had vague recollections of the odd events involving the travelling stones. But the actual sounding of it for the final battle in the book had slipped my mind.

Once again the arc of the story draw comparisons to 'The Lord of the Rings', in that this feels less of a standalone book to me and is more obviously part of a bigger series, much like 'The Two Towers'. However whilst this book builds on the events of book one, and leads into book three, there is very much a complete story arc here. The book starts small with Rand training under Lan, still in denial about who he is, and gradually builds to a fantastic climax with another battle against the Dark Lord and the proclamation that he is the Dragon Reborn, which he finally and begrudgingly accepts. The book again utilises the 'one group chasing another' plot device, except this time the tables are turned, and the chasees very much want to be hunted.

Darrell K Sweet's cover art for 'The Great Hunt'. I think those are meant to be Trollocs hiding in the rocks, but I think

he misunderstood what they were! (Credit: benjaminrose.com)

One aspect of this book that I enjoyed particularly, and which was very much a product of the fact that I've read it before, was the fact that I knew more than the characters. For example the character of Selene, who mysteriously appears, disappears, and reappears at several points throughout the book is quite clearly a rather important figure; with foreknowledge it's obvious who she is, which lends the scenes that she's in, and her dialogue with the characters, more import.

My journey through the Wheel of Time will continue - how will the increasing scale of the plot, not to mention the expanding cast of characters, affect the pace of the story? So far it's kept up a decent pace, but this did seem a less focused book than 'The Eye of the World', which is to be expected. But how much bigger can this story become?