Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I love Terry Goodkind, July 6, 1998
By A Customer
Many of these reviews have really bashed Goodkind's book, so I would like to say my piece. I have not read Robert Jordan, but I have read David Eddings and many other such fantasy quest writers. I have enjoyed them all. I would like to point out that "there is nothing new under the sun." So everyone complaining about how Goodkind borrows such and such needs to shut-up. Most of the fantasies I've read have been very similar in plot and character, but each is very good according to how the author goes about it. I must say that I find Goodkind unique. I do feel that the story could use less violence because some of it is gratuitous. But I find his characters very real and touching. They are very easy to empathize with. I found myself actually crying with the characters. Many fantasy authors I have read are fun to read but I have no trouble putting down most of their books (with the exception of Tolkien and Brooks) when I have to. Goodkind, on the other hand, keeps enough mystery in his series to keep you hooked. It's got lots of action and even romance, albeit a troubled one. I see many of you complaining because the characters are flawed--some of them are really flawed.I really like this because if we're honest with ourselves, we don't always go around pure as the driven snow. Everyone has a really bad side to them even if they do have to dig deep to find it. Goodkind has presented characters who are struggling to do what's right against powerful odds. Yes the Confessors are a strange group to belong with the good guys. But I don't think Goodkind is trying to present the 'good guys' as being perfect. He's saying, 'OK, here's somebody willing to compromise. Let's get a wedge in there and maybe we can change the whole system.' Kahlan is that wedge. Yes she is the Mother Confessor but she is very burdened by this and would like to change the way a lot of things are done. If some of you would read a litte more carefully you would realize that she doesn't like the way the Confessors have ! been operating. Another example of change is the way Richard is trying to influence those chicks with the torturing rods. He has also made quite an impact on the Sisters of Light. They are the scariest 'good guys' I've ever seen! Goodkind's world is not always pretty. In fact, it's often downright ugly and scary. This makes it seem all the more real and fascinating. Perfection is boring. Goodkind has created an entertaining series that is sure to win more and more fans. His characters are real and most are dynamic not static. He keeps the revelations coming on top of more mysteries. He presents a world, though superficially different than ours, that is actually quite close to home. But his protagonists are characters who can and do rise above adversity. They are not perfect and make their share of mistakes, but you love them for it. Why, because Goodkind has created characters we would like to be. Thank you, Mr. Goodkind, for your series.
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read--but not as good as the first two, July 16, 2003
There is no question Terry Goodkind can write a spell binding fantasy adventure. Like the first two books, Goodkind combines magic, action, and good old human frailty and self doubt into a page turning story which makes the reader desperate to find out what happened to these characters after the book ends. That said, this book was not up to the quality of the first two installments of the Sword of Truth series. First, the action sequences were too short and not well connected to the rest of the plot. But more importantly, by having his main characters spread all through his Old and New Worlds, not knowing what each of the others were doing, lead to a disconnected plot. There were simply too many unknowns, which despite the 600+ page length, were never meshed into a coherent story. Finally, Goodkind spent far to much of the book first setting up the penultimate battle between good and evil--actually two battles--and then spent too much time setting up what were obvious tantalizers to the next installment in the series. On the positive side, we did learn all about Gars and Mirswiths--making them seem like thinking, sentient beings rather than just creatures of magic programmed to be good or evil. All in all, a good read--but definitely don't start the series here. Must read one and two first, or this book will be a waste.
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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Up till 3:30 AM reading, November 5, 1997
By A Customer
Although overall I love this series, I have some misgivings. My score reflects my distress with the sexual themes in the book. I don't care for the description or innuendo. That part of the books appears to be a titilation device to net more teenage readers. I could not recommend these books to my 10 year old son (as I could Tolkien) and that's the real tragedy here. I've not been so enthused in epic fantasy since I first read Tolkein or Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series. Even though I do not care for all the sexual themes in the book, it is interesting how the author uses sex to define the good and evil. Thus Richard blushes at the view of a woman's bare chest while Darken Rahl and the rest of the bad guys are sexual psycopaths. Now for the positive. I discovered this series about two weeks ago and have read all three in paperback already. One night I was up until 3:30 AM reading "Stone of Tears." I've read a lot about Goodkind "borrowing" from others. He is in good company. Many of Shakespeare's writings are reworks of earlier material. Tolkien's middle earth is so captivating because it uses our already existing vague fears of goblins and dragons and our love of heros and wizards and magic and ordinary people making a differance. In a Sword of Truth world of blatant sexuality, it is refreshing to see a hero who blushes at too much bosom showing and a heroine who is still a virgin. I like Goodkind's use of near miss meetings (ala Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors). I don't know how many times I have mumbled under my breath, "Go that way, dummy," when help was just over the next hill or disguised in a coach on the road. Because the meeting is missed, the task at hand becomes far more difficult and yet the characters find the strength within themselves to accomplish the task. That's a neat message in a real world that is always blaming someone else for its problems. Although the plot drags a bit from time to time, I have overall rate these book as some of the bast epic fantasy I have read. They will go on my bookshelf next to "Thomas Covenant" and "Lord of the Rings" but with a PG-15 sticker.
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