Anamnesis
Active Member
A man finds a beautiful and mysterious woman fighting bandits. When saving her, he learns she journeyed from another world to fend off a great evil. He remains skeptical until the villains murder his family. Thus begins Terry Goodkind’s The Law of Nines, which his publishers declared to be a “new” and “original” thriller. The Law of Nines doesn’t feature the medieval settings or any characters from Goodkind’s Sword of Truth saga, but it’s hardly an original work. Goodkind readers should recognize the above scenario from his debut Wizard’s First Rule. The book is mostly a retread of Rule, although Goodkind also uses character types (one of the villains bears a striking resemblance to SoT villain Emperor Jagang) and certain themes found in later SoT installments. As the heroine, Jax, hails from the world of that series, readers are treated to new revelations about that world and receive answers to minor questions raised in those books.
So Nines is not particularly original. Is it still a good read? Well . . . it’s quick-moving and written in a straightforward style. Jax was an intriguing character and possibly the only well-developed one in the story. And once I got over the fantasy elements I did start to enjoy the references to Sword of Truth. That said, the Objectivist themes explored briefly were handled clumsily and without subtlety (this was also a flaw in his older work). And for all the talk of how menacing the villains were I was indifferent about them by the time they showed up. You never really get to know what makes the villains tick as the whole book is told from the heroes’ standpoint. When all is said and done, Nines is adequately entertaining but doesn't offer anything new to the reader.
So Nines is not particularly original. Is it still a good read? Well . . . it’s quick-moving and written in a straightforward style. Jax was an intriguing character and possibly the only well-developed one in the story. And once I got over the fantasy elements I did start to enjoy the references to Sword of Truth. That said, the Objectivist themes explored briefly were handled clumsily and without subtlety (this was also a flaw in his older work). And for all the talk of how menacing the villains were I was indifferent about them by the time they showed up. You never really get to know what makes the villains tick as the whole book is told from the heroes’ standpoint. When all is said and done, Nines is adequately entertaining but doesn't offer anything new to the reader.