Customer Reviews

Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth Series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been an avid fantasy reader for many years. I started with J. R. R. Tolkein, progressed to Terry Brooks, Madeline L'Engle, Stephen Donaldson, David Eddings, and Robert Jordan. I voraciously read Terry Goodkind's Soul of the Fire, and was thouroughly pleased with the outcome. The book enhances what we have learned in the rest of the series as well as increasing the play of other characters in the story. This series has many facets in the fight of good versus evil, and shows us that just because you have cleaned house, doesn't mean you have taken out the garbage. In this book Richard is learning more of how to use his powers, and we are learning more about the Dreamwalker. Mr. Goodkind's plot, storyline and readabilty are incredible. I read one customer review that said that this series was a takeoff of Tolkein and many other fantasy stories. In my opinion, if you look back at all of them, they all have the same basic plot. Good vs. Evil. It is how the writer brings this battle to light that captures our attention and keeps us reading. I await Mr. Goodkind's next book with bated breath. Please write faster.

This book was a little dissapointing from the previous 4, It does enlarge the understanding of how the Midlands and its people think and feel, but I felt that these things could have been explained during the story told of Richard and Kahlen, instead of the reverse. The story is about political intrigue and one of the small nations of the Midlands with a secret power not quite understood. It is the first real battleground in the New World fought between Jagang and Richard, through diplomacy and intrigue.

I've read 6 of the SoT books. And I've enjoyed all of them, some more and some less, but Soul of the Fire had to be the worst out of all of them. It still goes at a fast pace, and it is bearable to read (though some would disagree) but compared to the rest of his series its pretty bad.
I agree with an earlier comment, that he leaves out all the characters we fell in love with in the past; like, Gratch, Verna, Warren, Nathan (my favorite), Scarlet, etc. He spends way too much time building up characters you end up hating and end up dying needless deaths that serve no purpose to the overall plot. Basically, if they weren't really in the story it wouldn't have changed it much. The story could have been told in 200 pages rather than his 500 pages. It just feels like Goodkind needed something to write, and to write fast and it just sort of all was sloppily put together. Certain scenes are funny though, like when Cara is around. But overall, you should read it if you want to continue the series. If you want an awesome book, I would suggest looking elsewhere. I'm a Goodkind fan, but what did Terry do with this book?!
Paul

"Soul of Fire" was an interesting read. Richard, Khalan, and Zed are back, and are finally reuinited with eachother. Although Goodkind showed his usual inventive imagination about Richard Cypher's ever-growing abilities, this chapter in the "Sword of Truth" saga lacked in areas. There is too, much enfacise on the book's new characters and not enough on the heros. When is he going to deal with the Imperial Army? Jagang, the chief nemesis of both the "New World" and the "Old World" has not been given proper time again. In summary: It was a very interesting book. It's well written and has enough information to keep the die-hard "Sword of Truth" fans involved in the adventure. As compared to the first three books, "Soul of Fire" lacks certain elements. It is about as good as "Temple of Winds". It is an enjoyable read.

After reading _Temple of the Winds_ I was really looking forward to reading the next installment of Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. What I read was as exciting as watching the grass grow. In all of his previous books there was magic, maniacs, and mayhem, but with _Soul of the Fire_ it gets completly boring with all of the politcal jumble and what not. The most boring part was the story of Beata. He (Goodkind) could have filled up the empty space with something more attractive to the senses. I definatly hope that the next book will be much better than its predecessor.

While enjoyable and well written, I found this book to be sub-standard for Goodkind. He devotes too much time to peripheral characters that end up doing nothing in the end, and the majority of the plot is incredibly predictable. There is no real development of the main characters in this one. Still, it makes for some light, entertaining reading.

Another great book to add to the series, but after just finishing George R.R. Martin's "Clash of Kings", the best I can give SotF is a 4

I started the Audio Books due to the amount of traveling I do. Terry Goodkind is indeed a talented author. The Audio Version brings true light to each character with distint personalities so that you become truly invovled in each series that he has written. The "Truth Series" has been great. You will cheer Richard Kahl and the Mother Confessor and will look forward to the next adventure that Terry Goodkind has in mind for the two. I now look forward to the next book. Hopefully it is in progress.

Until about one and a half years ago, I had never even heard of Terry Goodkind, then my sister-in-law introduced me to his first book, Wizard's First Rule, and from there on I was hooked, Each book kept getting better and better and ever since I read the fifth, I have been looking forward to another, which I now here is on it's way. The only word that comes to mind to describe Terry Goodkind is Genius. It is rare to see the ammount of detail put into a book that he manages to. His characters act like real people instead of archetypical characters found in most other books. The saga has been one continous story since the beginning, instead of being broken up into seperate stories, which makes for a much more captivating story. I cannot reccomend this book enough for any fan of fantasy, or even if you're not a fan of fantasy books, this is definitely a good book to look at.

I am sure the book is wonderful, however the reader Buck Schirner is the worst audio book reader I have ever heard. My husband and I are frequent listeners to audio books and have made it a nightly ritual of going to bed an hour early to enjoy a good story. We have found having a good reader is just as important as the content of the book. We have experienced poor readers in the past, but never had to stop listening until now. We didn't make it past the first tape and I am returning it to request the paperback.