Customer Reviews

Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 3 (Sword Of Truth, Book 11)

5 star:		(115)
4 star:		(53)
3 star:		(46)
2 star:		(63)
1 star:		(77)

 

 

Lets take a look back at the series so far:
1 Wizard's First Rule - great book, Richard meets Kahlan and defeats Darken Rahl.
2 Stone of Tears - even better, Richard captured by sisters of light, Kahlan leads a ragtag army to victory.
3. Blood of the Fold - good book, enter new villain Jagang, Gars vs. Mirswith.
4. Temple of the Winds - ok book, evil brother, cool plague, Kahlan uses chimes to save Richard. Why did he not know the consequences of this while in the Temple?
5. Soul of the Fire - another mediocre book, wedding, Anderith, Fitch gets killed.
6. Faith of the Fallen - back to a good book, but Richard is getting a little preachy, Nicci captures Richard (kind of like he was captured in books 1 and 2), carving the statue.
7. Pillars of Creation - I don't know how to rate this one, I admire an author of a series like this to take a big chance and set a whole book around a new character (Richard's sister) but she doesn't play much of a role in the next two books, so what was the point?
8. Naked Empire- The worst of the bunch, we were introduced to the idea of the supremely ungifted and their threat to magic in book 7. This book just reiterates that and contains some of the worst preaching by Richard.
9. Chainfire - Kahlan missing, only Richard remembers her. The sisters of the dark have used an incredibly complex spell with huge side effects to do something that Zedd did simply in the 2nd book. Richard goes to Shota then to Zedd looking for answers but they cannot help him. Ok now you know what happens in the first 564 pages. I would recommend skipping those first 564 pages other than a few good scenes that are recycled from earlier books. Richard's meeting with Shota plays out very similarly to the one in Wizard's First Rule including an attack by the Golem-like Samuel. Nicci rides into the Imperial Order Army to take out their wizard just like Kahlan did in Stone of Tears.
10. Phantom - Rachel is back, Richard keeps looking for a way to save Kahlan and gets captured in the process in a familar way in a familiar place.
11. Confessor - To the end, Nicci becomes Richard's mouthpiece for sermons, Kahlan looks deadly but does not get anywhere until Richard saves her. Richard is of course a great Ja'La player. Zedd does not do much, Rachael is more effective. Richard gives us a decent fight toward the end, but he is conveniently separated from his sword and other powers. Neither Richard or Kahlan ever live up to their potential powers. Shota becomes a deus ex machina showing up just in time to save several people including Richard. Some extraneous cameos by popular characters and quick uneventful deaths for others. The end comes with a twist but not much of a climax. Loose threads, questions? What about the disasterous baby born of a war wizard and confessor? Did the boxes of Orden fix not only chainfire, but also the chimes? With the chimes destroying magic, why did we need the pristinely ungifted to threaten magic as well? Did we really need 11 books to tell this story?????

Looking back over the more than a decade I spent with this series, I think it was the repetitions that killed it. Repetitions in plot, repetitions in dialog, repetitions in themes. Don't get me wrong I mostly agreed with the themes. I liked the plot and dialog, Goodkind can write a great scene. There was just too much repetition of similar scenes, dialog and themes.

You could probably get by with skipping several of the medicore books in the series and still get a good coherent storyline. Here is my recomendation, read the series but skip #7, #8 and #10. Find a summary on wikipedia or something, I just saved you a bunch of grief and hours of your time better spent.

If you are looking for consistently great fantasy without all the hang-ups inherent in this series I would recommend the Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.

I'm under no illusions: this review is almost perfectly irrelevant. It's irrelevant because if you have enjoyed Goodkind's Sword of Truth up until now, there's no way you're going to read the first ten books and then not finish the final novel. There is nothing bad that I could say that would keep you from seeing how the story resolves. If you've started the series but have misgivings about how preachy and tiresome Goodkind has become, the books that preceded this one were probably enough to deter you. Rest assured, Goodkind does not magically change his tone in this book. Thus, if you like the previous books, this will be a fitting conclusion. If you were fed up with Goodkind, you'll find more of the same dreck.

There is a small subset of people who might benefit from a review of this book. Two subsets, actually. The first is comprised of people who have not yet started the series, and are reading reviews of the last book to see if the series is worthy of their time. (Short answer: NO.) The second is a group that I'm a part of: people who were initially entertained by Goodkind's story, but think he totally jumped the shark and now read purely from a sense of morbid curiosity about where Goodkind will take this absurd screed next.

In this final book, Goodkind manages to plumb depths of awfulness not yet explored. Some of the failings are familiar: he attempts to be poignant and is instead awkwardly maudlin; he attempts to be profound and deep but is instead narrow and shrill; he attempts to create richness of character and instead renders his cast as absurd cartoons. But as he wraps the series up, Goodkind slips even further as he ham-handedly ties off the lingering loose ends.

The fact that Terry Goodkind is writing a book to illustrate his pet themes is never more obvious. Anyone who has ever pondered writing can't help but be distracted by the smears of Goodkind's literary fingerprints, pulling you right out of the story to wonder what on earth he was thinking. We're treated to everything short of an author theophany in the story, perhaps with Goodkind's ponytail swinging to and fro as he shakes his villains until they finally see that people are beautiful and life is important and blah blah blah. Even if I completely agreed with Goodkind's philosophy, I think I would come to hate it after the wooden endorsement these books provide.

It's worth noting that even if we ignore Goodkind's endless sermons (which would reduce the work from a book down to more of a pamphlet), the book fails on some rather basic levels. For example, John Galt--er, Richard Rahl cannot tell Katlin that he loves her even after they are reunited, because of the "sterile field." I won't explain what this means, other than to say that it is nothing more than Goodkind blatantly making up arcane rules left and right to ratchet up the emotional tension. To be fair, this is a fantasy novel and Goodkind can make up whatever rules he so desires. But if the story is to have authenticity, the imagined rules have to follow a coherent pattern that at least seem to transcend mere whimsy. So when Goodkind allows his characters to discover about the "sterile field," it proves to be a clumsy deus ex machina that is grossly manipulative. This doesn't even begin to get into what happens with the Boxes of Orden, which (unsurprisingly) prove to be the greatest I-can-do-anything-I-want plot cheat since the holodeck.

Goodkind does manage to make this book awkward and hilariously contrived in one new way undiscovered in the previous books. Because this is the final book of the series, Goodkind decides it is a good idea to take Richard on a grand tour of all the places he visited in the previous books, stopping by to say howdy to all our old friends. It's like the series finale of a cheesy 80's sitcom. Why look, here's Uncle Bill! We haven't seen him since Season 3! How nice of you to stop by! The irony is, my attempts to mock Goodkind fall short of the actual absurd contrivance of the novel. Look, Gratch has come by to lend a helping hand! Jenn shows up and has a nicely satisfying destiny! Violet gets her comeuppance! The Mud People make a cameo! Characters that I can't even remember any more come to a good or bad end, as appropriate!

I hope it doesn't spoil the story for you to know that Goodkind wraps everything up (I won't say he wraps it up neatly), and all the characters who follow Goodkind's nutty philosophy live happily ever after. The same cannot be said of the readers, who are left wondering why they ever bothered to continue reading.

I was a huge fan of Goodkind through the first four books, then I began to dread a new book by him. It seemed that with each new book his writing became worse and worse. Knowing that this was the last book in the series I became hopeful that he would pull a rabbit out of a hat and finally write the way he did in the beginning and allow the reader to become invested in the plot again. It was this very hope that I allowed myself to feed off of that let me down and brought me back to the realization that Goodkind has fallen off his rocker.

Goodkind's writing style can be summed up easily. First, he takes a monotone style of writing about characters and their dialogue and doesn't inject anything into the characters. You could be reading a line from Jagang, from Richard, Zedd, Six, Khalan, Rachel or any character and without the reference to the storyline you wouldn't be able to tell who was talking! There is no character development that distinguishes one from another. And his attempt at characterizations are childish. Take, for example, an interaction between Richard and a bunch of rough and tumble tough guys who are captives or soldiers. Richard is trying to explain why they need their faces painted and one of the men pipes up "Do me next, will you, Ruben?" then another says "Then me" and Richard says "One at a time". These supposed tough guys are acting like 3 year olds with their mother, and this is Goodkind's attempt at characterization?

Then Goodkind needs filler, so he writes and writes about nothing. A typical conversation is actually a 2.5 page monologue without a break or a stop at all. They just keep talking. Or sometimes he will try to explain something over and over again in different ways. You know, to make you understand. That way if you understand you will know, just as sure as you were born. Right, and if I explain it to you four different ways back to back to back then maybe you might understand? Oh, and then the other person will start a monologue and the previous person will patiently stand aside. Or here is the most annoying. Goodkind explains how terrified Rachel is of Six and then Six asks a question and scared, timid Rachel pipes up and delivers a monologue explaining all the details of how she knew how to paint. Yeah, great job Goodkind, she is really afraid.

Finally, it is the philosophic tirades and monologues that ultimately kill this book. These monologues go on for pages and you could honestly skip ahead three pages and you wouldn't have missed a single thing. Or this was the best. In the end Richard gives a 5 page monologue without a single break. The whole thing is him talking. Ridiculous. Where did Goodkind think that that is good writing? When did he think that a whole book should be one big long explanation after another?

One redeeming value of the book was that we did see a hint of the old Goodkind after the last Ja'La match and I was finally able to read through it all without wincing at the horrid writing.

Finally, the most redeeming value of the book is that it is finally over and Goodkind can quietly live his life on the millions he is probably making in quiet seclusion, hopefully never writing another book. I for one will never read another Goodkind book now that the series that I had already invested so much time into and therefore had to finish is over.

.5 stars.

Reading Terry Goodkind's massive final book is kind of like being a witness to a horrible car crash. It's gruesome and disturbing...but you just can't look away because you want to see how it all ends. Not to mention, if you've gotten this far, you've already thrown 10 books worth of time away so you feel compelled to finish it.

There are only two reasons why a book is this bad.

1: Terry Goodkind has gone off the deep end and has lost all his talent as an author. This is unlikely considering how great his first four books were and how even in this horrible mess of diaper wipe there are still hints of his former greatness. (Namely the fact that he manages to incorporate familiar elements and old characters from his past books into the story.)

2. Drunk with power from his millions of dollars worth of sales and the unfounded encouragement from his rabid cult-like fans who are just as deluded as he is, Mr. Goodkind has interpreted all of that as worthy encouragement to go on hitting his audience over the head with his fanatical two-dimensional dogma.

The latter is the most likely of the two conclusions. Mr. Goodkind, egged on by his perception of public love and acceptance, has it in his head that he is the bearer of truth-much like his Christ-like protagonist.

Nevermind the fact that all his views are ridiculously one-sided, idealistic, and canned, almost to the point of being childish. Nevermind the fact that the world of this book is completely black and white. Or the fact that everything hinges on the fact that Richard, the main character, always manages to miraculously sway even the most toxic and vile murderers, pedophiles, and rapists to see his point of view. Let's for the sake of generosity set all these appalling issues aside.

This still does not change the fact that this is just a poorly written piece of literature. While all his blinded followers who rate this book five stars will try to sway you with the importance of the 'message', let's all look at this rationally.

Does a good book include HUNDREDS of pages (i'm not exaggerating) of repetitive preaching and monologue? You could honestly skip ahead ten pages at a time and not miss anything. And it wouldn't be so bad if the speeches weren't always on the SAME DAMN THINGS. Goodkind is either breaking down some obscure piece of magical theory down as if he were writing a scientific journal. OR it is one of the characters blabbering on about how life is beautiful, how your life is your own, how you choose how you live OK WE FREAKING GOT IT THE FIRST 10 BOOKS!

Does a good book include flat one-sided characters that were cut out of cardboard? If you're an old fan of the series, you can predict what these characters will say even before they open their mouth. It's always about how they love Richard, and how the Order is evil, how life is beautiful, blah blah.

The true crime of all this is that Mr. Goodkind tries to do too much with his work. Instead of trying to write a good fantasy book, which is what got him so famous, he tries to bash his audience over the head with over-bloated and purely derivative philosophy. (If any of you have seen his hilarious interviews he staunchly believes that what he is writing isn't fantasy, it's a message of truth.)

There's a million other things I could list but I don't want to relive the horror. All I can say is thank God it's over. This was a series that started with promise and ended with a whimper. And I pity the poor sods who stick up for Goodkind. This book is utter garbage, and anyone with taste in literature can see that.

Now excuse me while I drink half a bottle of whiskey and then shoot myself in the face with my hand gun. I just wasted about twelve hours of my life and I'll never get it back. I just hope that while I'm roasting in hell I'll one day see Mr. Goodkind down there with me for his betrayal of his fans and actually trying to pass this crap off as legitimate writing.

Every time I read a fantasy series from beginning to end, I find that one of two things has occurred: either it held my interest throughout (The Belgariad, The original Shannara series, Codex Alera so far) or it hooked me early and then limped to a subpar conclusion. The Sword of Truth series, sadly, takes its place in the second category. It started off with a bang, despite its flaws (even back then it got repetitive - I can't tell you how sick I am of hearing what a "rare person" Richard is or about Kahlan's "green eyes") and maintained a decent level of interest through the 1st three installments. At some point along the way, however, the series became a platform for Goodkind's worldview and started preaching rather than telling a story. Ironically, one of my very favorite books in the series is also the one with the most opportunity for preachiness: Faith of the Fallen. Despite being set in the Old World, however, the story focuses mostly on actions large and small and manages to tell a good tale.

Goodkind is at his best during his action sequences. He describes riveting fight scenes and has some innovative ideas about Richard's powers and the ways in which they manifest. Ultimately, the emotions and conversational exchanges sound wooden or over the top, depending on the day, I suppose.

This finale felt like it came from an outline of many previous books in the series. Let's see, we need a reappearance by Gratch, cute little Rachel needs to take another indispensible action, all of the minor characters from the Mud People to Tom need to be heard from, all villains who haven't yet need to receive their comeuppance. Check, check, check and check. However, I still felt like situations went unresolved. What will happen with Nicci? Obviously no man other than Richard is her equal. What about Nathan Rahl - his siuation seems less than exciting. I thought the solution to the Imperial Order army was simplistic and farfetched. **SPOILER ALERT: Also, the reason given why the Book of Counted Shadows could not be the key to Orden is the same reason why the Sword of Truth should not be: both were created after the original magic. But for some reason, it's ok with regard to the sword but not with the book.** And finally, Terry couldn't come up with a better name for the monsters that threaten Rachel than "ghostie gobblies?" PLEASE.

I wanted to love this book, but in the end it was mostly just a relief to see the series come to a conclusion.

Richard and Kahlan started out as such wonderful characters in Wizard's First Rule. Somewhere around the end of book 4, Goodkind switched from storytelling to preaching. I never quite figured out what straw man he was preaching to, but I kept hanging around hoping that he would recapture the sizzle of his earlier works. It never happened. A huge disappointment, but at least its over!

Thanks to Goodkind and R. Jordan, I have learned to never, ever start reading a series until it is finished! I have also learned from both that any series longer than a trilogy should be sold with a warning label. Something like: "CAUTION! Production of another book in this series does not mean that there is more story left to tell. Side effects from consumption include headache, nausea, and indifference to fate of protagonists."

Not. Ok, seriously, this is beyond ridiculous; Goodkind has lost all ability to produce engaging prose.

100 pages in and I've had to endure writing such as this:

(p. 83) Richard, upon seeing Kahlan's bruised face, thinks, "he knew if he did nothing Jagang's abuse of her would continue. If he did nothing, and Kahlan suffered worse, Richard knew that he would never forgive himself. Despite how desperately he wanted to do something, though, he could do nothing."

Gag... Oh, let's not forget Kahlan's eloquent thoughts on Jagang hurting Jillian, from page 107: "Jagang, as advocate for the corrupt beliefs of the Fellowship of the Order and the champion of unjust justice, would be the cause [of Jillian's harm]. The twisted beliefs of the order justified, in their minds, any injustice in aid to their ends."

Sorry, folks. That's not good writing. My college English prof would have had a field day with this book. It's like Goodkind just stopped giving a rat's a*$ about anything but putting this drawn-out affair to bed. Can't say as I blame him, though. It's got to be almost as unbearable to write this tripe as it is to read it.

Samuel and Brian's reviews each describe the book and the deterioration of the series perfectly. Richard has become a preacher and there are so many scenes where someone almost died or got killed, but they still go into monologues like they'd really ever do that. ALSO, the book is riddled with TYPOS and GRAMMAR mistakes. I stopped counting after 30. Just stupid mistakes that a junior high kid would fix on a paper he was turning in. It gave the book a half-a## kind of feel. The series was great in the beginning, but has been dragged out for profit or Goodkind is just a poor writer.
Besides all this, I still liked reading the book because his first few books were so moving and engaging. I take whatever I can get, but I have to say that the only scene that is reminiscent of the old days is the fighting after the final Ja' La match, but just barely.

If I had read this book anywhere but on some long plane trips I had to take, I'd have been seriously angry for him wasting my time.

Even though my review will likely hurt my ability to resell this book, I have to say DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.

SPOILERS ABOUND


This could have easily gotten 5 stars out of me, but I think Tor and TG have some sort of agreement that no editor is allowed to touch his work. They could have cut out about fifty pages of grinding repitition (and a few typos) and the book would have been flawless as a wrap up for the series. Its all been said before, mostly about the last four or five books; the characters becoming cardboard cutouts of themselves, the rehashing, the endless explainations of just how evil the Imperial Order is, and the fact that Ayn Rand's ghost has apparently taken to haunting Tor's printers. I think a good editor could have easily exorcized her, but its not exactly hard for me to glaze over the speeches anymore anyway(although Rachel's still made me facepalm a little).

Blah blah blah. Despite all that, I still count myself one of the series biggest fans, and the last thing I want to do is to turn people off to it. The good parts still blow me away, and there are plenty if you look for them. The middle 250 pages had me reeling, like I was back in the WFR days. Its exactly what I look for in genre fiction. I think the globe-hopping near the end is excusable, as it was just about the only way to fit all those ancillary characters in. I also think he did that really well; it all fit together like he'd planned it for a very long time, not just threw some crap together to get Richard where he needed to be.


Some Confessor-specific things I think could have been a bit better (REAL SPOILERS):


1. A couple of anti-climactic character endings. This book was the big finish. I wanted to see a witch war. I wanted to see Jagang's gifted clash with Richard's. I wanted Richard and Jagang to go hand to hand in a blazing ring of fire. I knew they couldn't take on the whole order through combat, but a few fireballs could have been hurled, a few Gars and Dragons could have snacked on some soldiers. As good as the big action sequence was, not a whole lot really happened. The good guys did their business, and a black sister got her face kicked off (hardcore), but I think it could have been better.

2. I love Zedd. Zedd did nothing. I was sad.

3. Did Richard actually cut all those people, including his sister, from having any sort of afterlife? WTF?


For all that, it was still one of my favorite books this year. As far as long-series enders go, this one is ahead of the game. Some of the other critics on here are judging Confessor a little unfairly, or expecting too much from what is essentially just a wrap up. I found the conclusions for the most part very satisfying, and I think it is a great cap for a great series. I especially loved all the cameos from all the minor characters of books past. The good definitly outweighs the not-so-good, with this book and with the entire Sword of Truth.

The Sword of Truth series was a great series ended up spending several books collapsing in mediocrity. The book itself is not "bad," especially when compared to most of the recycled popular fiction selling in stores now. But, it was a great series that has declined precipitously due to preachy monologue inserted at awkward times which occurred post 9/11 in and was directed at the American people in an overly blunt way. The plot, while getting the job done, was not inspired and about 50 pages of monologue could have been removed. It should be obvious to the reader the shift in both creativity and verisimilitude that that occurred after book 6. Books 7-11 occurred post 9/11 and in those books it becomes easy to detect the seeping hatred that Mr. Goodkind holds towards various elements within western society mingled with a sort of fear for its future. This last book was his attempt to redeem the series but he could not give up his podium. Had he stayed more true to the first books of the series such a theme would have came across, but it would have been allowed for great thought provoking literature that could have been more effective by using a nuanced message. Do your characters, modern fiction, and yourself a favor and go back over the last five books with a sharpie. Redact, redact, redact.