Review of the The Hunt Begins by Robert Jordan

Author:  Robert Jordan.
Title:  The Hunt Begins:  Part One of The Great Hunt:  Book Two of The Wheel of Time.
Publisher:  Starscape.
Copyright:  2004.
Pages:  397.
Price:  $5.99.

Overview and Impressions:
I bought this book at an used book store.  I didn't realize it was a children's book until I got it home.  Robert Jordan's books are usually twice as long as this one.  It's the second one in the Wheel of Time series.  It's set like many high fantasy novels with two competing powers and an apocalyptic prophecy.

Magic is done by channeling.  The more a person can channel, the more powerful become.  The Dragon is the messiah who is reborn in times of strife to defeat the Dark Lord, a being of supreme evil.  Several millennia have passed since their first battle.  Rand, a shepherd, is the Dragon.  But he doesn't want to be a messiah or king.  He goes on a quest for a magical horn in order to cure a friend of a cursed dagger.  There's a sisterhood of witches who are good.  But the Dark Lord has corrupted even them.

Supposedly, this is the final age in the Wheel of Time.  And Rand needs to prove his mettle in order to survive all the magic and treachery he faces.  Jordan's writing style is solid.  I don't think I could have stomached through all the Wheel of Time novels he'd written.  Recommended.