My journey back through the 14-volume Wheel of Time Series continues with book 2, The Great Hunt. I think this is where the series really begins to take off. Rand is already no longer the boy he was when it all began just a few months earlier, but he still fears and mistrusts his destiny. There is one thing he knows for sure — he will not be anyone’s puppet. The dark lord isn’t the only one who wants to hold his strings. Well-meaning Aes Sedai would use him as well, especially Moiraine, who first ushered him away from his home and saved his life. She has told him that he’s The Dragon Reborn, the most feared and hated man in history and in prophecy, here to save the world or break it again.
Rand is in denial throughout this book. He’s struggling to control the one power while attempting not to use it at all — for if he does, eh taint will drive him mad.
He already seems a bit mad in this book, but it’s not true madness, it’s the pressure of everything he knows, everything he wants to reject, and all those who want to kill or control him. He has a lot on his shoulders.
The first book in the series is a great foundation, but this book is better. I like that the characters are all flawed, and the progression of destiny is very well done here. From a nostalgic point of view, I read this as the end of the beginning, because I knew it would be.
Rating 5/5
Title: The Great Hung
Author: Robert Jordan
ISBN: 0812517725
Published October 15, 1991