The Great Hunt

About The Great Hunt

The Horn of Valere — a legendary instrument prophesied to call the dead heroes of the Ages back to battle — has been stolen from Fal Dara, and Rand al'Thor rides to recover it while still trying to outrun the prophecy that names him the Dragon Reborn. The Great Hunt is the second volume in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and it is the book where the series establishes its mature voice and structural ambitions. While Rand, Mat, and Perrin pursue the stolen Horn across the continent, Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne begin their formal training at the White Tower, and Jordan for the first time runs parallel storylines that converge at a spectacular climax — a structural approach that defines the series going forward. The Seanchan arrive in this volume: a vast empire from across the ocean that collars women who can channel and uses them as weapons of war. Their entrance widens the world dramatically, establishing that the conflict between Light and Shadow is not the only axis around which this world turns. The magic system deepens considerably here — the dangers of the taint on saidin become clearer, the differences between male and female channelers sharpen, and the cost of wielding the Power under pressure becomes viscerally real rather than abstractly threatening. Jordan also introduces tel'aran'rhiod, the World of Dreams, which becomes one of the series' most distinctive recurring elements in later volumes. The Horn of Valere itself is a brilliant narrative device: its mythology is vivid, its function is clean, and the climactic sequence at Falme — a battle witnessed by thousands, fought in the sky as well as on the ground — remains one of the great set pieces in epic fantasy. The Great Hunt is the volume where most readers' investment in the Wheel of Time hardens into genuine commitment, and it makes a strong argument for why this series remains, decades after publication, a defining work of the genre.

Tropes & Themes