A review by emtees
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This one is a reread, and like the first book, I had way more fun rereading this one than I expected from what I remembered of it.  A lot more happens in this book than I remembered, and there is more humor and worldbuilding than in the first book.  The world expands a lot, the characters are challenged in new ways, and we meet lots of new people and places.  The plot takes a pretty big jump forward as well.  Unfortunately, as with the first book, the POVs still feel really unbalanced - while I know Rand is the main character and actually like him a lot, I appreciate the jumps into other characters' POVs and wish that happened more often.  The pacing is also really off on this one - an entire major subplot is only introduced in the last quarter of the book.  There is a long, slow stretch in the middle followed by a whole rush of events at the end.  There's also a time jump that is awkwardly executed.  But apart from these small complaints, this book is as strong as the last one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Torture

Moderate: Mental illness

A main plot point involves a major character being captured, tortured, enslaved and forced into really dehumanizing situations. Slavery is a major theme introduced in this book and is treated as abhorrent by all the main characters.