WoTaLong (Wheel of Time Readalong) discussion

Remember these are spoilery discussions - so stay away unless you've finished this section! Also, please keep spoilers to the things we know in this section of the book.

I split The Great Hunt into four sections to roughly correspond with weeks of February. I'm posting these a couple weeks early for those who are ahead of the one book per month schedule :)

What are your thoughts on this section of The Great Hunt?

Need a reminder? Here are the chapter summaries.

My favorite chapter: I feel like Chapter 47 has to be my favorite because SO MUCH happens in that chapter. Also, our introduction to the Seanchan and Egwene's experience with them is pretty terrifying.

Happy reading!

Whoa! This was an intense section of the book. Definitely a page-turner.

First, Stedding Tsofu was a cute part of the book, especially with Loial constantly worried about getting in trouble. It was neat to see more of the ogier lifestyle as well.

Chapter 37 with the portal stone alternate lives was just crazy. It was interesting to see all those different ways Rand's life could have played out, and how wrong each one of them would have turned out to be. I think there was a lot of foreshadowing of other things yet to come in those as well, although I don't know the series well enough to say.

Then the next few chapters again annoyed me with the bad decisions the characters make. WHY did Egwene think it would be a good idea to just blindly trust Liandrin? Nynaeve was smart enough to at least ask questions, but when Egwene was demanding they go with her, Nynaeve finally capitulated and went along (likely just to try to keep Egwene safe). So frustrating to see bad decisions like that made. I wish I could say Egwene learned her lesson from it, but I doubt it.

Chapter 44, Five Ride Forth, hit me the hardest in this book. Ingtar and his struggles were just tear-inducing for me. I think that chapter, more than the battle with the Whitecloaks/Seanchan, was the peak of the story for me. It was the true battle of light vs dark and each person's efforts in it.

I was seriously wondering why Liandrin was helping them all of a sudden when she was such a meany-mcmeanypants to them before, so that totally didn't surprise me, either.

And I was very entertained by the "ogier girls tell their mother they like a boy and her mother talks to his mother and the whole thing is arranged before the boy even knows". XD

I really liked Mat’s and Rand’s responses to marriage customs. Mat thinking the Two Rivers is totally different than the Ogier's. Rand than realizes the Two Rivers is pretty much the same as the steadings for the custom.

Alternate lives!! One of my fave parts for sure, its so interesting to see all the variables. And I also love Ogier culture - so different and interesting. The boys are all clueless when it comes to women and its hilarious to see how they all think differently about the others skills with women - its definitely a reoccurring theme.

Yes, trusting Liandrin was a no-brainer bad idea. I thought they should have checked with the Amyrilin before acting on anything that meany said! But I guess they were too concerned about Rand's safety to think clearly.

Yeah falling for liandrin's trick was pretty dumb. These books aren't perfect but are great reads. One thing about this book maybe it could been a bit longer in some parts. Give a bit more detail to Eugene and Nyneve stories.

I can forgive them for going with Liandrin. They rationalized it by saying that while Moiraine doesn’t like her, she still deals with her and works with her. Liandrin also pulled at their heart strings by saying that Rand and the others were in danger. Nynaeve also didn’t have the best interaction with the Amyrlin before. Not all that smart, but I can see why they would have gone.

So Selene was a forsaken! I had a feeling with some of the previous chapters, but now it’s confirmed. I can’t wait to get more of that storyline. She is just so fascinating to me.

The Ogier culture is also a joy as others mentioned. Loial is such a hilarious character. He kind of reminds me of Jean Tannen from the Gentleman Bastards series minus the rage issues.

The ending was pretty epic. I didn’t think something along the lines of Hawkwing coming to fight would happen in the second book of the series!

The ending was definitely epic. Also, it just occurred to me, Arthur Hawkwing came to fight with Rand - I wonder how the Seanchan felt about that? As in, they're supposed to be his descendants, right? If they saw that, and saw that Hawkwing was there but not on their side...?

But maybe they never saw it since it seems like the fight was against the whitecloaks.

I was wondering about that as well. It would be interesting if word got out and then they offered to fight for Rand. I doubt he would accept their help, and I also doubt their empress would want to give up her power. I hope that gets addressed in the future at some point.

I feel like things are going to start to get really interesting!

May they say they are the descendants but the leadership seems pretty cutthroat as in all the potential rulers take each other out in the quest for power. I doubt this is what hawkwing had in mind. There was an interesting scene where involving taking the horn from fain.

Yeah, the Seanchan are really interesting and I'm dying to know more about them! I don't know (or remember) if the seanchan saw Hawking fighting with Rand but that definitely would create an interesting dynamic.