Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth, Book 5) [Mass Market Paperback]

Terry Goodkind (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2000 | Series: Sword of Truth (Book 5)

Richard Rahl has traveled far from his roots as a simple woods guide. Emperor of the D'Haran Empire, war wizard, the Seeker of Truth--none of these roles mean as much to him as his newest: husband to his beloved Kahlan Amnell, Mother Confessor of the Midlands.

But their wedding day is the key that unlocks a spell sealed away long ago in a faraway country. Now a deadly power pours forth that threatens to turn the world into a lifeless waste.

Separated from the Sword of Truth and stripped of their magic, Richard and Kahlan must journey across the Midlands to discover a dark secret from the past and a trap that could tear them apart forever. For their fate has become inextricably entwined with that of the Midlands--and there's no place so dangerous as a world without magic...

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Soul of the Fire is the fifth book in Terry Goodkind's wildly popular Sword of Truth saga. The previous books are: Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, and Temple of the Winds.

When last we saw our heroes--Richard Cypher (Lord Rahl) and Kahlan Amnell--they each had made enormous sacrifices to save one another from certain doom. To save her beloved, Khalan, Mother Confessor of the Midlands, had spoken the three chimes, summoning these chaotic beings from the world beyond and unwittingly releasing incredibly destructive power. Now the chimes are stealing souls, and malevolent forces are reshaping the world itself. To save everything from almost certain doom, Richard, Kahlan, and the wizard Zedd must hunt the elusive chimes and reharness them before it's too late.

Although comparisons to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series are inevitable, there's obviously enough room in the world for more than one blockbuster swords and sorcery series. With Soul of the Fire, fans of epic sagas will get their fill of adventure, magic, strange beings, and struggles for power as Goodkind delivers another thrilling episode of the Sword of Truth, with all the complexity and taut characterization we've come to expect from this master of fantasy. --Adam Fisher --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Seeker of Truth Richard Rahl and his wife, Mother Confessor Kahlan Amnell, survive another incredible series of obstacles in Goodkind's sequel to his acclaimed Temple of the Winds. Here, readers learn that when Kahlan used a spell to save Richard from death in the last book, she inadvertently released the Chimes, deadly ancient beings who threaten to destroy the world by absorbing all its magic. Richard's grandfather Zedd goes off to combat the Chimes while Richard and Kahlan, accompanied by Du Chaillu, a pregnant spirit woman who is bound to Richard by an ancient prophesy, travel to Anderith to find the journal of a wizard who defeated the Chimes in ages past. But in Anderith, the rivalry between the Ander and Haken peoples (somewhat heavily handled, with overtones of the author's pro-colonial opinions) threatens to divide the land just when it needs unity in order to defend itself against an invasion by Emperor Jagang's thuggish hordes. After many suspenseful moments, everything comes somewhat raggedly together in a happy ending. Notable for its engaging secondary characters, the novel also evinces flashes of sly wit, as when an evil Chime takes the form of a menacing chicken. Though the narrative sprawls all over the map and the tone can edge too far towards the didactic, Goodkind's ingenious world-building will keep readers captivated by the latest installment of his bestselling Sword of Truth series.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy; 1st edition (March 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812551494
• ISBN-13: 978-0812551495
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.6 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (718 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Terry Goodkind is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sword of Truth series, Richard and Kahlan stories, author of The Law of Nines, and writer of Legend of the Seeker, the Sam Raimi produced, ABC television series based on The Sword of Truth books.

Goodkind was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where he also attended art school, one of his many interests on the way to becoming a writer. Besides a career in wildlife art, he has been a cabinet maker and violin maker, and he has done restoration work on rare and exotic artifacts from around the world -- each with its own story to tell, he says.

While continuing to maintain the northeastern home he built with his own hands, in recent years he and his wife, Jeri, have created a second home in the desert Southwest, where he now spends the majority of his time.

Join the fan community at TerryGoodkind.com for all of the latest.

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#32 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#37 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#45 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure

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#59 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

#32 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#37 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#45 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure

#54 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#59 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 51 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars In one word: shallow. November 11, 2001

By Alexander Holmes

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I can remember when I read "Wizard's First Rule" I was impressed. Not only because it renewed my faith in the fantasy genre, but also because it was fun, hard to put down and -albeit a few cliches here and there- well written. I can remember forsaking many a night of going out just to stay in and reading about Richard, Kahlan and all of the other characters from this series that intrigued me so. The strongest point of the books was that: character development and the consistency these characters maintained throughout the story.

Unfortunately all that appears to have been lost in "Soul of the Fire". An avid reader of the series, I must say this last book was not up to par with the first four (although there has been a visible decadence since "Blood of the Fold"). Firstly, I was shocked to see that almost half of this book is dedicated not to the characters we know and love, but to Anderith and its people. I would be all well and good if they played a major role in what we are told is the story's epicentre (namely, the chimes), but unfortunately, they serve no higher good than providing constant anticlimaxes. Perhaps it is not just that, but rather that the characters are so badly created that no-one except for Fitch (and to an extent, Beata and Dalton) gets a reasonable development. Even so, Fitch is utterly inconsistent, sometimes showing incredible stupidity and sometimes the cold-heartedness of a mass murderer. When I started reading this book I thought Fitch would mimic characters such as Steerpike in "Gormenghast", slowly rising to power and corruption, perhaps not the freshest option but the most viable. He does not. Or rather, he half-does it. What is worse, he disappears for most of the second-half and comes back suddenly just to be cut off the story in a most casual fashion, again, something that shows another of the book's weaknesses.

It seems that the author tried to tell too many stories at a time, but couldn't finish them off properly (we know authors have deadlines too!). My hunch is that he had so many plotholes by the second half that he decided to write off many of the side stories (Beata, Fitch) to carry on with the main theme (the chimes). The last quarter of the book seems hurried and the conclusions are too abrupt for the reader to digest. Out of the blue, Richard comes up with the solution for beating the chimes, as abstract and underexplained as it is. The chimes, supposedly central to the story become just feeble reasons to innocuously explain the rest of the plots. The storytelling is shallow and incongruent, and after jumping from plot to plot, reading over unnecessarily dull chapters (most of them involving less than masterfully portrayed political scheming in Anderith) the reader becomes confused and frustrated.

There is some merit to this book, though. The simpering and almost sickeningly melose realtionship between Richard and Kahlan has been, fortunately, toned down. Furthermore, the book does off with much of the homoerotic porn novel eroticism that its predecessors contained, making it less "trashy" than before (reading about Richard's "manly chest" and "bulging, powerful arms" can get tiring after a while). Also, the narrative takes on a different style in "Soul of Fire", being concise and assertive rather than the more lyrical approach given to the other books. This neither enhances nor hinders the reading, but it does make the experience feel fresh.

I understand that authors cannot always write about the same things; clearly, in this book the author tried to stray from the traditional and create a different type of novel in his series. While I would not say that he has completely failed, it is far fom being a job well done. Moreover, this book has left me indifferent as to what may come next in the series. It feels like this was not a proper "Sword of Truth" book, but two books in one, one about Anderith and one about Richard and the chimes, both failing to converge in the end and leaving the novel it as it is: two unfinished, rushed parallel stories that hold little relation between one another.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars read at your own risk January 17, 2011

By A. M. Ponzo

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I love the Sword of Truth series. I have re read it several times and frequently recommend it. Unfortunately Soul of the Fire is a total dud. If you are reading the series for the first time be warned. When I do reread the series I usually just skim Soul of the Fire and sometimes skip it completely. I really wanted to see how being married would affect Richard and Kahlan. I didn't expect it to turn them into two different people. Richard goes from an intelligent man not hampered by his lack of formal education to a bumbling idiot who can barely articulate his thoughts. Kahlan (sadly Zed also)turns from a woman who has grown to love and trust Richard into someone who refuses to take him seriously and treats him like a child. In a way I was almost that glad the story turned to Anderith, until the story turned to Anderith. I have seldom read about a more shallow, venal group of people. I could almost hear Abraham bargaining with God, "will you spare them if there are 20 good, how about 10, five? Please God." The fact that all of the characters introduced in Anderith then were summarily whacked just seemed to add insult to injury. To spend almost 2/3 of a 700+ page book reading about unlikable characters and then have it be meaningless cause they're all dead? Time I'll never get back. Richard and party showing up at the end just felt contrived. It was almost like Terry suddenly remembered this was supposed to be a Sword of Truth story, so oh yeah, they should put in an appearance. The whole thing about Richard losing the Sword and Cara chasing after it was quite unbelievably dumb. Just another of several examples of a plot point looking for a story. All in all quite disappointing. Fortunately I really liked the first four books so I didn't give up on the series completely.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars The Series Takes a Side Road to Hell June 8, 2007

By Ernest T

Format:Paperback

The Wizard's first and only rule should be that fantasy fiction series cannot be longer than 5 books. The leaders of the "Fantasy Fiction Writers Guild" should pass a resolution to this effect. If you have read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time mess, or just about any other writer including Goodkind that has tried to take his/her series beyond 5 books you know that it is like a train going off the end of a broken bridge into a deep gorge.

Goodkind has obviously run out of story, so he takes this book down a side road to the psychotic world of Anderith. A whole bunch of self-serving useless characters are introduced, examined in depth, and then killed off to add absolutely nothing to the story line.

At least Goodkind keeps to his theme of rape and torture of innocent women. I was beginning to think he might be loosing his touch, but the good leaders of Anderith have redeemed him.

A hard read at best.