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Terry Goodkind: Sword of Truth

M

Mathius

Member
I don't know how many people here are fans of his work. I have had some ups and downs with the series.

The first book was fantastic, and the next several were very good as well. When Soul of the Fire came out, I almost quit reading the series, it was that bad, but when Faith of the Fallen came out, it was so phenomenal that it made me not want to give it up.

Some of the books after were very inconsequential and felt as though the series could have done without them.

Recently, he finally released the final book, Confessor, part of a two book ending that puts the series at 12 books. Robert Jordan was always criticized for his Wheel of Time series being so big and so long, but for some reason Goodkind has fallen under the radar in that respect despite the fact that his books are just as long and his series just as big.

I just wanted to say that I picked up the last book, Confessor, at my local library yesterday, and began reading last night. I finished it this morning, and I have to say without giving any spoilers that I think the man did alright.

It's very difficult to end a momentous 12 book series on any kind of note that leaves the reader satisfied, but I for one thought he did a fairly good job.

Mathius
 
Mathius said:
I don't know how many people here are fans of his work. I have had some ups and downs with the series.

The first book was fantastic, and the next several were very good as well. When Soul of the Fire came out, I almost quit reading the series, it was that bad, but when Faith of the Fallen came out, it was so phenomenal that it made me not want to give it up.

Some of the books after were very inconsequential and felt as though the series could have done without them.

Recently, he finally released the final book, Confessor, part of a two book ending that puts the series at 12 books. Robert Jordan was always criticized for his Wheel of Time series being so big and so long, but for some reason Goodkind has fallen under the radar in that respect despite the fact that his books are just as long and his series just as big.

I just wanted to say that I picked up the last book, Confessor, at my local library yesterday, and began reading last night. I finished it this morning, and I have to say without giving any spoilers that I think the man did alright.

It's very difficult to end a momentous 12 book series on any kind of note that leaves the reader satisfied, but I for one thought he did a fairly good job.

Mathius
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I have only read the 1st 3 books and they were all good.. I think Wizards First Rule is one of the best in the Genre.
 
I finished Confessor yesterday. The battles with the book's main villains were incredibly rushed. I guess this was so that Good--er, Richard could ramble on about the importance of life and whatnot. All well and good, except that the message of the series has been beat into the readers' heads so often that I really could care less about it. The way
Six the witch-woman was killed off was particularly laughable; just as she's about to destroy the heroes, another witch-woman comes out of nowhere and skins her
.

For those who have read this book . . . what did everyone think of the reference to God at the end? Previously Goodkind has only written about the Creator and the Keeper of the underworld, so to mention another deity was really awkward. I realize the Creator is basically the SOT version of God, but it was still awkward. With that said, I did enjoy the book. If nothing else, I had a difficult time putting it down and was eager to see what would happen next.
 
Anamnesis said:
I finished Confessor yesterday. The battles with the book's main villains were incredibly rushed. I guess this was so that Good--er, Richard could ramble on about the importance of life and whatnot. All well and good, except that the message of the series has been beat into the readers' heads so often that I really could care less about it. The way
Six the witch-woman was killed off was particularly laughable; just as she's about to destroy the heroes, another witch-woman comes out of nowhere and skins her
.

For those who have read this book . . . what did everyone think of the reference to God at the end? Previously Goodkind has only written about the Creator and the Keeper of the underworld, so to mention another deity was really awkward. I realize the Creator is basically the SOT version of God, but it was still awkward. With that said, I did enjoy the book. If nothing else, I had a difficult time putting it down and was eager to see what would happen next.
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I don't remember that particular reference to comment on it. If I can get a copy of the book again, I'll re-read the ending, but that part obviously didn't stick with me, and I have a few other good books lined up I want to read.

Upon further reflection though, I still think this book was a solid ending to the series. I'm not sure WHY the series had to end... This wasn't your traditional story unfolding. Up until the last two books, each book seemed to have its own particular plotline, even though "The Order" storyline continued across the series.

The reality of it is, if Goodkind had taken The Order out of the books, he would have had 11 or so solid stand alone books. I really don't understand why he needs to get rid of the characters, Richard, Kahlan, etc. that I felt were really good.

What makes a writer decide to give up their creations like that? As a reader, I'm certainly not ready to give them up.

I think Goodkind did need a break though. He was becoming much too preachy, and often repeated the same points over and over again. Perhaps this is a good thing that he put these characters down.

Mathius
 
It's on page 594:

It seemed that everywhere Tom and Jennsen traveled to trade for supplises, they saw churches going up as the hope for mankind's salvation from misery. Men of God traveled the countryside to spread the word, and demand devotion to Him.
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Goodkind isn't completely done with the world he created: he did say in an interview that he wants to write about SOT characters besides Richard and Kahlan. Which is fine with me; better to end the series at the right time than to unnecessarily extend it.
 
Anamnesis said:
It's on page 594:



Goodkind isn't completely done with the world he created: he did say in an interview that he wants to write about SOT characters besides Richard and Kahlan. Which is fine with me; better to end the series at the right time than to unnecessarily extend it.
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Ah, ok. At the time I read that, I just thought it was some kind of evolution of the Order's religion. I.e. mankind is retched and needs the Creator to save them.

Mathius
 
I loved this series and read them faithfully until the last 3 came out and they just werent as good as the previous books.
 
Zolipara said:
Goodkind is my favourite walking PR disaster.

Here is a recent gem:
Click to expand...

His books definitely have some dark qualities in them, as well as some dark, sexual qualities to parts of them.

When I got to Soul of the Fire, I almost put his series down for good. The thing read like smut. The story wasn't even good. It was just about a derelict village where everyone was sleeping with everyone. Rape occurred at least once in the book, and the main character's wife (whose point of view he often wrote from) walked around acting and talking and thinking like she was in heat.

If Faith of the Fallen hadn't been so phenomenal, possibly the best book of the series, he would have lost me as a reader.

I do know that there are some Christian web sites out there protesting people buying his books.

The man is definitely a freak, even if he is a somewhat talented storyteller.

My biggest gripe is he often sounds like he's preaching, or lecturing in his books. Sometimes I'll count the number of pages. He'll actually go on a rant for 3 pages, where the whole thing is one character speaking, trying to explain an idea or belief. :rolleyes:

Often times he's just saying the same thing over and over again, just rephrasing it. Rather annoying.

Mathius
 
I don't want to bring up a dead section but I'd like to say that I enjoy Goodkind's work. As many other posters pointed out some of them were on the verge of stopping after Soul of the Fire. I too agree with this, I too had a very hard time fighting my way through Pillars of Creation and Naked Empire. In my honest opinion these two books, I found them both to be boring and slow because Mr. Goodkind wasn't concentrating on his main characters. I do agree with him being preachy about many subjects but in all honesty, they are his opinions and if he wanted to express them through one of his novels then bravo. My top four books of the series are: WFR, SOT, TOW, and FotF. All of these novels had me reading until 3 a.m. or longer!! It was a good thing I was in high school at the time. I'm such a fan I even have signed hard cover novels of the books by Mr. Goodkind as well as a Giclee I bought which is the cover for Stone of Tears by Keith Parkinson which is hanging up in my basement above my fireplace. Above all it is a very good series and I now have my cousin devouring them too.
 
I thought the first three books, and the last set of three, were great.

The middle three books lacked direction and purpose - you could tell Goodkind was writting it just because he was getting a paycheck from it and not out of passion for the story.

I also have to agree that he has some really sick, and unneeded, aspects in all the books.

Now that the series is closed out, I'm content to leave it there. I wouldn't even look Book of Nines or whatever his latest novel is.
 
I always felt like the whole series was an accident. It just seemed like he wrote WFR as a standalone book and then when he had major success, he had to capitalize on it and made up another villain and another war to fight. It really annoyed me because the first book ended so well. Anyway, the next few books actually WERE pretty decent, but then the whole series took a turn for the worse when he introduced a theme that carried his awfulness through the rest of his books. What is this theme? I can sum it up with one quick dialog:

"Kahlan is missing! Oh noes!"
"I just want to find Kahlan!"
"Yay! I found Kahlan!"
"We're finally together, let's bone!"
"Oh noes! She's missing again!"

It was awful. It was like he couldn't come up with anything else for controversy. He's also a plagiarizer or plagiarist or whatever you call someone who plagiarizes. There are so many aspects in his books that he ripped DIRECTLY from Robert Jordan's books. That just makes me angry because the Wheel of Time is a much better series.

EDIT:
I realize that this is the second post I've made today that referenced Goodkind and my contempt for him... I think I have a problem...
 
I read the first book and the half of the second, I also saw the serie legend of the seeker which is taken from wizards first rule It's a little boring
 
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