The Great Hunt

Rating 2.5
Better than Book 1, a fun fantasy adventure, will read Book 3 eventually.

Pros: Better story than TEotW (still a grab bag of fantasy tropes), the climax was more original and easier to follow, worldbuilding gets cooler, more lore from certain POVs, more balanced story and pacing.

Cons: repetitive and un-beautiful prose, simplistic characterization, tiring boy/girl obsession-romance (it's not even really romance just crushes that are cringy). The perspective of men and women in this world is weird, we're constantly reminded that men need to marry women, men need women to “settle them down”. It almost feels like you're trapped in a house with fundamentalists that constantly bring up their odd black and white views of gender norms.

I can't put my finger on it completely, because on the surface the world is matriarchal and seemingly has a refreshing anti-patriarchal complexion (given the role magic wielding men have played in the history of this world) but even still there are contradictory undertones. The descriptions dance around the “shape” of some of the women a little too much and it feels sly and deceptive for an otherwise wholesome story afraid of crossing lines, there's a sect of Aes Sedai that eschew warders and hate men (a man hating lesbian undertone if you will). There's more too to this sloppy hypothesis, I will try to update this at a later date.