I cannot believe I haven't written my review for this book yet. I'm basically becoming obsessed with this series and, while I might not be flying through it, I'm still very much enjoying it. I will say I found it a bit slower than The Eye of the World, even though the peril hasn't necessarily lessened. In fact it continues exactly from where the first installment ends, and The Great Hunt was pretty much a big chase scene over The Horn of Valere plus some extra awesome world-building.

In this sequel, we get a glimpse of what Rand is truly capable of. It's actually really cool, but of course he is trying his best to deny his weaving. I will say, the middle had a lull, but it picked back up again towards the end, where I was hard pressed to put it down. Rand is extremely stubborn (no surprise there) and sometimes made me a bit angry, but I didn't expect much less from him. Afterall, if my life had been upturned I would probably be angsty as well. Padan Fain continues to annoy me and I want to stab him myself if I’m perfectly honest.

I did enjoy hearing more about the women, specifically Egwene and Nynaeve, but was disappointed that there were basically no Mat or Perrin chapters. Perrin is my favorite and I really hope his character is expanded in the next installment. I realize there are, what, FOURTEEN, or some odd books in this series so while it does sometimes feel slow going, I have confidence it will all tie together.

So far this is my favorite of the two I have read. I expressed my issues with Eye of the World and how I felt like I was reading Fellowship of the Ring but I really feel like this series came into its own in this sequel. While it’s not wholly original to avid fantasy readers like myself, it’s still unique and enjoyable. I like the suspense of evil OR good being capable of ringing the horn first and as such, great heroes of old will fight for that side. It’s really a rat race against time (ha because “wheel” of “time”, bad joke I know) and who can get their lips on the bugle first.

The world-building increases here as well and we are introduced to new characters and even spend a little bit of time at The White Tower. I really want Jordan to expand even more on Lanfear and the Seanchan (which I still hate the name for, it hurts my brain to say) because as villains go, Lanfear and the Seanchan are very interesting, albeit terrifying.

Without spoiling anything I can definitely say this is highly recommended. Go read it.