Rating: 
Summary: The Wheel Continues to Turn in This Fine 2nd Book
Review: The events in this second book of the Wheel of Time series begin shortly after the events from "The Eye of the World". Everyone is in the town of Fal Dara. The Amyrlin Seat; leader of the Aes Sedai, has arrived to meet with Rand, Mat, and Perrin, but before the meeting can take place, a raid by Trollocs and other followers of The Dark One results in Padan Fain, an imprisoned follower of the Dark One, being freed from prison. This raid resulted in Fain acquiring Mat's cursed dagger along with the Horn of Valere, which, if blown, will awaken the dead spirits to fight, regardless if the person who blows the horn is good or evil.After Fain's capture of the Horn and dagger, Loail, Rand, Mat, and Perrin set out with Ingtar and his soldiers to recover them. Mat must recover the dagger and deliver it to the Aes Sedai for healing or he will die. Meanwhile, Egwene and Nynaeve begin their journey to the White Tower in Tar Valon to begin their training as Aes Sedai. Once there, they meet two new friends, Min and Elayne, and also a future enemy, Liandrin, who ends up betraying them. Many new characters are introduced in this book, and long-lost and feared dead gleeman Thom reappears as well. The story flows along very well and the action is fast paced and exciting. The momentum picks up greatly from the first book. I've enjoyed this series so far, and I'm looking forward to the next installment. Fantasy fans will definitely enjoy this action-packed series. One aspect of Jordan's books that I've found helpful is the glossary that he includes in the back of his books. It makes it much easier to keep track of terms and places by referring to it when necessary.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book with just a few problems
Review: The book gets off to a slow start then speeds up over time. the ending of the book is superb; great action and a suprising turn of event. if you can get though the constant bashing of men every 15-20 pages and about 150 pages of boring stuff then its a good book. one other problem about the book is the women sometimes they are just too annoying, stupid, and men bashing.
Rating: 
Summary: 1 down...How many more to go? Who knows?
Review: Here we go again. There are ten books, I hope you all know. Ten fat books, and this Wheel just goes downhill. And I don't think its ever going to end. Jordan is just milking the cash cow. Now, I'm sure we all LOVED the first book. That's what everyone says, right? Well, it was great but do you know what else everyone says? I'm refering to those who have only read "Eye of the World." I'm advising all of you to drop out of this series when you can. I mean, didn't you notice the problems with the first book? Childish behavior? Stupid behavior? Stereotypes? Not to mention, all the chracters were the same: men misunderstand women and vice versa. God, since when did all men and women act like this? Jordan can't portray people very well. Though he's very good at describing meaningless things like tea, clothing, scenerey to the point of frustrating excessiveness. Don't expect it to get better. The Great Hunt is exciting, with action, but for 700 pages, it is not nearly enough. Rand's chapters are the most interesting and the book comes to a pretty thrilling close. When you read, don't be afraid to skip pages. It is probably for the best. There are lots of other series in the genre that suffer these kinds of problems. "Sword of Truth" is as bad as it gets. Most fantasy epics cling on to Tolkien's style. And to compare Jordan and other modern fantasy authors to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is a terrible insult. They all know how to start something but can't end it. And that is what separates the good writers from the bad ones. These guys can barely leave suspense at the end of their chapters, let alone their novels. Now the ONLY fantasy series that is worth reading "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin. It's the greatest series since Tolkien. I know, its another epic (3 books out in what is supposed to be a 6-book series). But the exception is that the story is not seterotyped. Read the reviews for that one and forget this series. I'm not stopping you, if you're going to read The Great Hunt. But well, you'll be sorry later. Reading this one and maybe Book 3 is worth your time. The other books are worth nothing. In fact, they ARE mostly about nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely entertaining.... My personal favorite
Review: "The Great Hunt" is an excellent book. It is one of the books that you can simply read from beginning to end because all the point of views wrap up what they were working on by the end of the book (unlike in later books). This book is pure entertainment and we see some of the characters development greatly. There are some classic scenes throughout the book that I read over and over again. This book is well worth the read because it is relatively short, and it flows very well. This book is my favorite of the series so far.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the 1st, leading to greater disappointment
Review: "The Great Hunt," volume 2 of Jordan's huge Wheel of Time series, is better than the 1st book, "The Eye of the World." Jordan gets off to a great start by filling in a lot of information about characters and bits of story he left the reader wondering about in the first book. He also garners praise for making good use of parallel universes in this book. Well, Jordan made good use of it until the disappointing exit from that universe. The hero, Rand, is often dumb as a brick in this book, and that ultimately leads to a slow and frustrating middle section of the book. There are no heroics in this book, and no grandeur. The Great Hunt is nowhere to be seen, being rather a plodding, somewhat boring hunt between just a few characters. Jordan never takes us to Illian in this book--the site of the Hunt's origin--and the scope of the book is not broadened by any new characters until the latter half of the book. Rand and Loial finish the first part of their "hunt" with a completely ludicrous scene (SPOILER) where they sneak into the Trolloc/Darkfriend camp and simply grab the Horn and Ruby dagger and run (and get away with it!). This is one of the least believable scenes I have ever read, and suggests a recurring flaw in Jordan's writing; he seems incapable of putting a satisfying finish to his stories and subplots. Jordan does provide some interest with the Seanchan, a cold-hearted and viscous people that have invaded Toman Head. We are lead to believe that they might be the descendents of Artur Hawkwing's armies come back to "retake what was theirs." Jordan surprisingly takes much of the mystery out of this, and other areas of suspense (such as who Selene is), by providing answers in the book's glossary. Then comes the big ending, with the rather improbably concurrence of events that bring it to fruition. What a disappointment this ending is, a huge magic-saves-the-day groaner. Jordan does provide a reasonably good build-up with good story elements that could have made this ending great. (SPOILERS here to end) The Horn is finally blown, the heroes of the past arrive, and: no ceremony, no heroics (even with all the revived heroes around!), no chills, no thrills, no mystery. Everything is left up to Rand, and the story completely focuses on him: the dead heroes have no use in helping him fight Ba'alzamon. They do help drive the Seanchan off Toman Head, but Jordan spends almost no time on this part of the battle. Since the Seanchan are the descendents of Artur Hawkwing, who is now present and fighting them, Jordan has a great plot element to work with. Absolutely nothing is mentioned about this, or other possible plot elements that the reader would expect to expand the scope of the story. Very quickly, for such a long build up to it, Rand and company win. But, similar to the end of the first book, Ba'alzamon seems to undertake no negative effects from losing. This is a very flat and unexciting ending. Once again, Jordan seems incapable of finishing off his story properly, with real suspense or surprise or mystery to satisfy the reader. A third of the way through the third book, "The Dragon Reborn," there is no help to prop up the collapse at the end of "The Great Hunt." The story simply continues as if almost nothing had happened. This is a good time to quit this series, and find another author than can write satisfying endings to her/his books.
Rating:
Summary: Getting Warm
Review: After a good start, Jordan starts to warm up. Keep reading (for now).
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful addition to the soap opera of Fantasy books
Review: The Wheel of Time books have always been a guilty pleasure to me. They take up time that I could spend reading Dickens or Tolstoy (yeah right). Of course, I love them anyway. This series will be the one that keeps you reaching for the next book in the series. It is like a soap opera. If you liked the first book you will love this one. If you haven't read the first book read it first. Although he makes an attempt to reexplain things you will be completely and udderly lost. Happy reading.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the first
Review: The plot of the Wheel of Time really seems to pick up in this one. It seems like Jordan started out with the same story as Tolkien's, but now takes it off into a completely seperate direction, which makes it great. Some of the plot twists are wonderfully cunning and unexpected, and the characters become better developed. The size and intricities are doubled, and an especially scary antagonist is introduced.
Rating:
Summary: Improves on Book 1
Review: After having read most of the 1000 reviews of "Eye of the World" I can say that many of the negatives are laid to rest with "The Great Hunt": 1) The Tolkien factor: Yes, there were many similarities in Book 1. I never felt that way in "The Great Hunt." There are no Seanchan in LOTR 2) The no action factor: Many complained about the slow middle section of EOTW. There is much more happening in this book. It is not simply a chase from town to town. Even when Rand and company spend a good deal of time in Cairhien, it seems like this will be developed in future books. As an aside, even some of the incidental characters Rand and Mat met in EOTW come vack in The Great Hunt. farmer's daughter Else Grinwell even reappears in a very minor role. The ending is just chilling -- I had to read it a few times. 3) To many unanswered questions from Book 1 -- many of those unanswered plot points from Book 1 are resolved or at least developed in Book 2. To be fair, there are many loose ends in this book as well -- I HOPE Jordan returns to some of these in future books (I have not read Dragon Reborn yet). 4) Crummy villains -- The villains IN EOTW were mostly Tolkine retreads and not all that great. We are introduced to several new villains in Great Hunt including the Seanchan and their damanes. the Black Ajah and more is learned about the Forsaken. OK, there were still some confusing issues. If you don't want to read a Spolier go no further. I'm still wondering what the motivation was of the Whitecloaks through this book -- why were they advancing on Toman Head. 2) Who let Padan Fain out of his cell? 3) Who were all the people in the Prologue? I know who several of them turned out to be but not all.
Rating:
Summary: The saving grace of the series.
Review: After the... ending of the first book, Eye of the World, I was set to be disappointed in this book. Present in this book are all the things that made book one so enjoyable such as the rich characterization, thick plot developements, and sweeping epic saga feel. So too are Jordan's weaknesses such as his inabililty to not fluff up his books with padded filler and his "convenient" storytelling. What I mean by "convenient" storytelling is when an author resolves conflict or struggle in his plotline by having happen whatever needs to no matter how improbable or related to the plot it might be. An example of this might be: 'Our lone hero has been captured by the demon and is held captive in his cave. A short distance away, our hero see's his magical sword. If only he could reach it, he could free himself from his bonds and slay the demon. In the dark, our hero hears the demon coming, most certainly to finish him off for good. Our hero is doomed. Fortunately, our hero just manifested the ability of telekenisis (the ability to move objects with your mind) and uses his newfound ability to summon the sword to his hand and free himself to slay the demon.' Stupid huh? But Jordan does this, and does it a lot. Maybe if Jordan's books weren't so big, he'd go back and perform re-writes. All it would take for the author of my fictional example to do was set up this ability in our hero earlier in the story and develope it with the plot. Indeed, this ability is part of the plot since it is integral to the resolution. Having things happen just because you need them to is "convenient" storytelling. Some of you may have caught that my reference bears a strong resemblence to what actually happens in another fantasy story. You'll recall that in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker is our lone hero trapped in the Wampa's ice cave. His lightsaber is too far to reach to save himself, and the Wampa is coming. It's one of the most memorable moments of the story and isn't cheap like the example I gave. Why? Because Lucas developed this ability in Luke much earlier. It's part of the plot. Fortunately, Jordan's use of "convenient" storytelling is limited mostly to subplots in this book so the reader doesn't feel as cheated. At the end, he again uses it (like in the first) book to allow the hero to miraculously dispatch of the antagonist, but at least this time, you know who the antagonist is from the beginning of the book. He isn't introduced in the last few pages like in book one's ... ending. The battle is climactic relying largely on the books key plot element, The Horn of Velere. Finally, the true ending to this book isn't the battle the hero conveniently wins, but rather the choice he makes at the end which is made based on the events in the book so is not contrived. This book is the best of the first four that I have read, though I was a bit frustrated that the main characters were still acting like a bunch of whiney babies. Rand (my favorite character) at the end shows he will be the first to grow up and do something about the peril the world is in which made me feel rewarded reading all the growth and development through out the books. The rest of the characters stay their narrowminded, immature selves, but that too will change eventually. This review is assuming that you have read book one and should be meaningless to you otherwise. If you have read book one and liked it at all, you should read this book. You will find it worth your time, as Jordan does indeed improve from the first book. I was ready to give up on the series after book one, but this book made me believe that there are great things to come.
| 
