The Great Hunt

4.50/5.00

Burn me, light burn me. After reading the eye of the world, I expected something simple and familiar from the wheel of time. Wrong, very much I am. The Great Hunt is a sprawling, massively world building, glorious beginning of the epic fantasy that is the Wheel of Time. I absolutely love Robert Jordan's writing, the words are so poetic and classy. I can't focus enough to write down any criticism.

The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills. The Dragon is Reborn. The Lord of the Dawn will be our salvation.

That ending though!

WorldbuildingThe use of the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in fantasy is the highest point of this book for me. The concept of a multiverse is admittedly a common trope, but I have never read this in epic fantasy before, and more importantly it was DONE SO WELL. It was complex, closer to science than many superhero-versions of this trope. There was a moment where Rand seems to be stuck in a time loop? Not sure what that was. Story/PlotThe best part of the story is the Seanchan and the Sud' Dam Damane elements with Egwene. So intriguing and unpredictable. There was so much story here, I just loved it. I didn't rate this higher because I thought some parts of the story were kind of unflushed. I did not like the children of light arc... it seemed underdeveloped. And did we just kill Ba'alzamon again ? Character Dev Okay this is a tough scoring category for the wheel of time books since character development is so spread out over the 14 books. Taking this into account, I think the character development was very well done. Nynaeve and Eqwane win this easily. Rand's progress is also pretty good, although not as good as the women. I still don't get Ba'alzamon.. he seems so bland.. Dialogue/ProseThe prose was absolute killer. So poetic sometimes. Here are two examples of my fav lines:"By ship and horse the stories spread, by merchant wagon and man on foot, told and retold, changing yet always alike at the heart, to Arad Doman and Tarabon and beyond, of signs and portents in the sky above Falme. And men proclaimed themselves for the Dragon, and other men struck them down and were struck down in turn." "Yet one shall be born to face the Shadow, born once more as he was born before and shall be born again, time without end. The Dragon shall be Reborn, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth at his rebirth. In sackcloth and ashes shall he clothe the people, and he shall break the world again by his coming, tearing apart all ties that bind. Like the unfettered dawn shall he blind us, and burn us, yet shall the Dragon Reborn confront the Shadow at the Last Battle, and his blood shall give us the Light. Let tears flow, O ye people of the world. Weep for your salvation."Emotional impactThis is a very satisfying read for me. I loved the worldbuilding, the lore, the epic EPIC final scene! Wowza.... I am stopping myself from giving a higher score cause I think WoT can do better, grander! We'll see.