A good read by WOT standards - Rated 
Many of the characters improve in Book 2, after the rather silly last 200 pages of book 1. It starts with a very edgy prologue, and then is essentially a story of the hunt for the horn. The story starts to get more interesting in the second half as Nynaeve develops as an interesting character. Moiraine plots as always. Rand grapples with his problems. The Seanchan introduction in the last half really improves the book, which is falling into the same sleepy inn / road / town pattern of the first book in the first half.
One criticism with this and the first book is "the ways". I don't really approve a deux au machina which enables characters to reach a certain place in record time, as it seems to be just a substitute for good writing. I understand if others dont share my contempt of this.
amazing! - Rated 
i find it hard not to get to carried away with this series....i forget the difference between reality and the amazing world jordan has created! but it!
Second Book in the Wheel of Time - Rated
Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina, in a house built in 1797. He was a graduate of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics. He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army; among his decorations are the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with "V", and two Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry. It was the report of his sad death, aged 58 on September 16, 2007 that caused me to look back through his books and in particular the tremendous Wheel of Time series
The Great Hunt is the second book in an adventure that covers thousands of pages, more probably than even the author envisaged. Robert Jordan's series just grew and grew. I loved all of the books and this second one in the series just makes you want more and more. The books themselves are large volumes, several hundred pages each and there are almost a dozen of them, so you can understand the enormity of the task the author had set himself.
Some of the previous reviews reflect the differing tastes of readers. Some say that this epic series went on too long, others loved it and cried for more. I think I was somewhere in between. To me they were what I would call mood books. By that I mean I would read anything up to half a book and then maybe leave it for a while and read something else. Not something I would normally do with a book but with the Wheel of Time books, the plot always seemed to stay fresh in the mind and the thread could be picked up again several days later, or even longer.
One of the problems, if indeed it is a problem is that with such large volumes and such an epic storyline there are bound to be a large number of characters and keeping track of them all is sometimes a problem, but a small price to pay for the enjoyment the books bring to the reader.
building the foundations - Rated
After swiftly reading the first book in the series i quickly ordered my copy from amazon of 'the Great Hunt'. I have read alot of the reviews on this page maintaining that the plot is slow. I never once doubted the pace of the book, it kept me wanting to read more every time i put it down. You get a real sense that Jordan is 'building..' a rich story line which is the foundation for later installments. This was a great follow up to the first book and builds on even better books to come.
Solid rather than spectacular - Rated
What's the deal with people knuckling their backs? Ok ok I am being facetious but I am illustrating that it is actually quite easy to find things in the book to criticise. It is again long and richly detailed but arguable some of the detail is over the top. There are completely random passages to the book that do not feel even remotely relevant and for all the slow deliberate pace of the book I feel the speed of change within the characters is a tad quick.
However...
My suspicion is that the majority of people reading this are reading it with a view (subconsciously) of it as a 2nd in a trilogy, not merely the 2nd in a much longer series of 12. Passages and scenes that are written in The Great Hunt could very conceivable be resurrected in key passages in later books allowing the reading that knowing smile when one comes across it. The shear weight of the memory of Robert Jordan to even think of attempting such a thing is beguiling but push on we must for this is a story that is likely to unfold to most interesting conclusions.
As I stated before I am not completely happy with the speed some of the characters are developing against the backdrop of the slow pace of the book but it is help together well by Jordan but it does worry me that he could be going too much too fast. For example we can see Moraine's changed attitudes towards Lan and we see a stark change in Egwene, it isn't badly handled by any means but it I damn close to slipping in that direction.
The further development of Rand is more explainable after all he has gone through and this is particularly well handled, I do get the feeling that Jordan is going to have to deflect some attention away from Rand soon as otherwise he is going to burn the character out. The action is far from pacey but it really adds to the sense of this being one of the few series I have read recently that can be truly described as "epic".
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