The second book in the Wheel of Time series (and my first experience with Audible). While the novelty of reading epic fantasy not written by Tolkien slightly wears off, this was again an immensely entertaining journey.

At the end of The Eye of the World, main protagonist Rand was established as the Reborn Dragon, the one whose fate it is to confront the the Dark One in a final battle. Or rather, there is a powerful fraction within Tar Valon that ascribes this role to Rand while he openly refuses to be taken as the puppet of the powerful sect of sorceresses. More importantly, at least for him personally, Rand is able to wield the One Power and derive magical abilities from its male half, saidin. While this makes him truly special (incidentally, not as special as I thought, as there are other men who can do that), its usage will turn male individuals mad. Having control in the events to come seems crucial, as the importance of Tar Valon and the Aes Sedai is waning, mainly because fewer girls are born with a connection to the female half, saidar, and the magic is not as strong as it used to be. Meanwhile, the world is in turmoil. More and more "false Dragons" gather armies behind them and latent conflicts turn into open military conflicts. Finally, the Seanchan, the descendants of legendary king Artur Hawkwing, brought an army over the Aryth Ocean to reclaim the land that Hawkwing had conquered before his death.

After updating the political and historical landscape in the first third, the general plot structure is an instance of one of fantasy's most popular tropes: the great hunt. It has been prophesied that the Horn of Valere will play an important role in the final battle, because blowing the Horn will call to arms long-dead legendary warriors (of Light or of Darkness). In fact, the group around Moiraine already sighted this legendary artifact at the end of the first novel and in the beginning of The Great Hunt it seems save in the hands of the Aes Sesai. However, the Horn is stolen in an attack on Fal Dara, so that a group (including Rand, Mat, Perrin, and a couple of new characters) is send out to reclaim the fateful object. While the boys are off to get back the Horn (and the also stolen dagger from Shadar Logoth, without which Mat is going to die soon), the girls from the Two Rivers, Egwene and Nynaeve, start their journey to Tar Valon where they will become Aes Sedai themselves. There they also meet Elayne, the Daughter-heir to the Throne of Andor, who is also educated in Tar Valon and considered to have a strong connection to the True Source.

The first thing to notice is an added complexity in setting and showplaces as compared to the first novel. Tar Valon appears much less uniform now that the different Ahjas (blue, red, green, brown, white, gray, yellow, and possibly black) and their disagreements, ambitions and schemes become an active part in the story. This, and the facts that the Dark One is returning and there is war all over, add to the feeling that there really is no safe haven. The first couple of chapters, there is a lot of information to take in, but this brings the world to life and invokes overwhelming feelings similar to what the farm folks must experience when suddenly finding themselves in the middle of all that.

I have to admit that I wasn't overly excited about the main quest of getting back the Horn and I thought it was a bit silly when it gets lost again somewhere in the middle of the book. Introducing Hurin as someone who is able to feel death felt like a very clumsy plot device, too. While there is high pacing and a feeling of urgency in the beginning and the end of the story, the plot is treading some water in the middle.

However, the events are made interesting by a strong focus on Rand and his character development. I loved how the magic in the series is explained as not dissimilar to a drug. The subjects are longing to use its power, while at the same time physically and mentally suffering when too much indulging in its might. In Rand's case, the stakes are so much higher. He doesn't want to use saidin, but often it offers him the chance to save his friends or do some other good. However, the more he uses the One Power, the more he is becoming a danger to everyone around him (it is even said that as the Reborn Dragon he will also once again rupture the Earth). He wants to stay with the people he loves, but he has to leave to protect them from himself. Tragically, this is the reason why Mat wants to turn his back on him. And with all this on his plate, there is all this talk of him being some kind of legendary warrior, a task he obviously cannot wrap his head around.

I think all this worked very well in the plot. I also liked Rand's general character development. Because of some coincidence in name conventions, many people of Fal Dara take him to be a lord, and the Aes Sedai dress him up to invoke the same ideas when sending him out into the world. While this is part of the conflict between Rand and Mat and something Rand at first really doesn't want to embrace, by the end of the book it feels natural how much he has grown into the role (at least in demeanor, if not in real status).

The development of some other characters didn't impress me as much, though. For most of the story, Mat and Perrin are degraded to minor characters. What is more, I was quite disappointed by the events in Tar Valon. After so much fuzz was made about Egwene and Nynaeve becoming Aes Sedai, it felt underwhelming when they achieve that status within about the first five minutes after reaching the legendary city. The three challenges which Nynaeve had to endure were pretty cool, but with a series of such epic proportions I thought they may have spend a bit more time there. Especially since the plot thread that is initiated instead, with Egwene becoming the slave of the Seanchan, wasn't really that great (the setting of them having Aes Sedai as slaves was cool, though).

I think the Wheel of Time is quite famous for its multifarious depiction of cultures, and The Great Hunt gave a very good first impression of that. To begin with, there are the overly polite Shienaran of Fal Dara, who strongly separate men and women spacially while really not knowing such a separation in other respects (in bathhouses, for instance), who put deep trust in their lords, and who bury the bare bodies of their dead (for some religion purpose of getting the last embrace of the Mother). Then there are the people of Cairhien, colorless, serious, stern and rigorous in their demeanor and architecture, indifferent to the affairs of others but obsessed by their game of the noble houses. We also visit an Ogier stedding for the first time and get an idea of their way of living. There are interesting social descriptions of the Seanchan invaders and some hints of the fierce nature of the Aiel of the Aiel Waste. I'm really interested in how this will be extended upon in the novels to come.

I'm a huge geek for the idea of possible worlds in philosophy and science-fiction, so I was very excited to find this here, too. I'm not sure yet as of what role this will play in the books to come, but Rand living thousands of different lives, and fighting the Dark One in all of them, that gave me the shivers. Especially since he does seem to lose every single time - now that is a portentous setup!

I was quite suprised by the ending. After hinting at a big showdown between Rand and Padan Fain from the beginning, with dark prophecies written in blood on a dungeon wall, it's quite funny that he doesn't even show up in the end. Instead, the Horn is blown much earlier than you would have expected and a blistering Rand is fighting Ba'alzamon flying high in the air for everyone to see - really, the stuff of legends! I'm looking forward to see how this event will determine the course of events in the third novel. Which I'm planning to get back to in March or so.

Rating: 4/5