Customer Reviews

Stone of Tears (Sword of Truth, Book 2)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having read the Sword of Truth series several times I decided to give the audio-books a go. Wizards First Rule was fantastic and the narrator brought the characters to life with his voice. The imagery that he created kept me riveted to my ipod even though I knew what was going to happen next. At the end of the first book I eagerly looked forward to the second in the series, but was surprised to find that the publishers had decided to go with another narrator. Examining the rest of the series I saw that they kept switching narrators around as if they really don't care about a sense of continuity. Even though these audio-books are way overpriced I went ahead and purchased Stone of Tears. What a mistake! Jim Bond has a voice and diction that I can only compare to a 90's computer voice synthesizer. His style of narration is flat and boring with no flare whatsoever. Even though the story is great, I find myself dreading the next book and may just drop the whole series and go back to print. Its to bad that the publishers really don't care what the listening audience thinks about their books or they would "audition" the narrators before giving them the projects, not to mention keeping the same narrator for the entire series. Storytelling is an art-form and needs to be treated as such. The story itself is only one part of the experience.

This is the continuation in the Sword of Truth, a Might Magic type story. This saga is definitely an adult subject due to the graphic discription of some of the scenes. I would not recommend it for a younger child.
It is an excellent audio book. The reader, Jim Bond, does a wonderful job of changing his voice to mimic the different characters as he goes through the story, keeping the listener engaged in the saga.
However, in the unabridged set that I recieved the disc marked 12 is actually a copy of the 10th disc. I was able to speak to the publisher's representative, who will be sending out a replacement to me.

I am now on book 4, Temple of the Winds, and have enjoyed every one of them. I have never read books of this type before and have found them very compelling. One of the major things I enjoy is the continuity from one book to another. Twenty years hasn't gone by when you start the next book. I hope this holds true as I continue. I listen to books on tape because I drive for a living and these books have ALL held my interest with the constant action. I also like that while there are 2 main characters, there is becoming a wide range of supporting characters that are well defined. Unless the series takes a serious downfall I will read them all.

The only thing worst than reading Stone of Tears is reading these reviews! Someone actually reviewed this book as "long but worthwhile!" Great! Terry Goodkind fans are people with the attention span of gnats who need D'Haran soldiers cutting open small boys and raping their livers to keep their attention for more than three pages! Terry Goodkind should be the public relations advisor to Saddam Hussein.

Oh! The characters... Big handsome good guy! Cute little good girl! Perverted, sinister bad guys! Terry makes Dr. Seuss look like deep reading. Actually, I don't think most Goodkind fans could get through an entire book by Dr. Seuss without wandering off and raping their sisters or something.

I'll make Sword of Truth fans mad with my review, but so be it. I listened to the audiobook version.
This is the fourth book in the series I have read, and although the storyline was enough to keep me attentive and following along, I probably won't finish the series.

The chapters with First Wizard Zed I found the most entertaining, but elsewhere the author just waxes on about Richard Richard Richard, his greatness and ever increasing powers and talents, and his unending, undying love for Kalen Kalen Kalen.
The book follows Wizards First Rule.....in which a huge amount of time is devoted to torturing Richard in captivity, followed by this episode where the major gist of the book involves his capture and captivity again by the Sisters of the Light.
The themes cycle between violence (usually involving doors being blown apart and bodies hacked or thrown), Richards sword rages (different flavors of rage, changing his sword different colors, etc), brief interims of strategy-planning, followed by the next wave of violence with occasional droning ons about how much Kalen and Richard love each other, may never see each other again, can't live without each other, etc.

The author imagines a 'world of the dead' run by a Keeper (sort of like Satan or at the least, Sauron from Lord of the Rings), where people basically go to when they die. But those who die still exist as active characters in the story; some barrier called a Veil keeps them from coming "back", which is always in danger of being damaged and rendered ineffective.
This complicates things as the bad guys who are killed aren't really killed, and the main nemesis in this book is essentially King of the Dead, and therefore unkillable either. Nevertheless a whole lot of attention and time is devoted to killing regardless.

I found the book entertaining but I wearied of the continual violence, I imagine if this were ever made into a movie it would literally wear the actors out. How Richard could endure all the physical pain by this point and not be entirely numb, every bone in his body broken and his nervous system completely destroyed (as well as some of the other characters....) is something that would have to be considered. Lucky for him even if he were killed, he'd still be alive, just in the dead world, of course (??)

To write a review on just one book, the second in a series of 11 (12 if you include Debt of Bones), would be unfair. I found it difficult to understand some of the elements of the story until I read later books, and realized that Terry wound the story so masterfully that even though there are many books they are one seemless story. This is without a doubt the best series I have read.

This was a better book than the 1st book. He uses extreme detail and allowed me to visualy see the story inside my head. Not many books can do that for me. Great job Terry!!!!!!!!

Reading the reviews of this book makes me sick. Goodkind is an excellent author. His novels are extremely well-written, his characters pull you in and make you a part of the novel. He may very well have borrowed from other authors...but then, we all do. However, I have to take offense at the "the only people who like this trash are teenagers" comment. Violence, sex, and intruige have long been a successful formula, and because he pulls it off with a plot and likeable characters the Jordan fans are going ballistic. Grow up, adults. You say teenagers are immature.

This book is definitely worth the read. There's enough action and subplots to satisfy just about anyone, and Richard and Kahlan were fleshed out more in this book. Since I don't have much time to sit back and enjoy a good read, I listen to unabridged audio books whereever possible. Dick Hill, the reader of this book, does a wonderful job of narrating the book with the appropriate pace to match the activity in the book, and a variety of voices to differentiate between the characters. I'm looking forward to reading the Blood of the Fold!

Since I bought the MP3/CD edition, I have two things to comment on, the book itself and the cd production and format.

Goodkind reminds me of Herman Wouk, in both the good and not so good ways. Reading Winds of War, by Wouk, I thought "I wish a better writer could have written this story," as I read on avidly, page after page. He had a way of telling you the same thing three times, or using clunky language. But, then I realized: No other writer thought of this story, it didn't exist before Wouk created it. And I couldn't stop reading the book. Sometimes, a great storyteller is a great stylist, but the most important thing is that he or she tells a great, compelling story. And Terry Goodkind does that. Sometimes, he spends way too many pages telling us something he could have told us in one, but, ultimately, it is well worth the read. It's a powerfully imagined world.

The MP3/CD format worked fine in Media Player and iTunes, once it was imported, but wouldn't play on the car CD player, nor directly off the CD on any other CD Player I tried.

Jim Bond, the narrator, does a consistently good job, giving distinctly different voices for each of the characters. The sound quality is excellent.