Customer Reviews

Temple Of The Winds (Gollancz S.F.)

5 star:		(265)
4 star:		(78)
3 star:		(55)
2 star:		(39)
1 star:		(37)

 

 

While I am an avid fan of Terry Goodkind and I await each book with some anticipation, I must admit that this book was a little...windy (forgive the pun, please). The beginning was a little slow, and was it just me or did anyone figure who the sicko was w/in the first 5 lines of the first murder scene? The evidence was placed in this person's belongings too soon and the excuse they made was a little pathetic. Couldn't the evidence have shown up later in the book, just to sort of throw the reader off, and delay the eye-rolls?

Anyway, there were also sappy love scenes that sort of made me want to put the book down. I understand Goodkind may have been trying to evoke some sympathy for Richard and Kahlan's frustrating (and overly drawn out) wait to complete and consummate their love, but the stolen-kiss scenes sort of dripped with sap. Also, Richard's dealings with Kahlan and with the lords and delegates from different countries were a little drawn out and preachy. His long philisophical explanations, and Goodkind's seeming need to continuously refer us to Richard's "raking raptor gaze" and Kahlan's "sparkling green eyes" and tight, white, regal Confessor's dress, get repetitive and you end up skipping large chunks of the dialogue. The stubbornness of the main characters will at times frustrate you, and after all the waiting and yearning and restraint the main duo has endured, how could the writer snatch away the sanctity of their first union by turning it into such a horrid experience? It was so terrible, it worked. That part just killed me...

But after all this passes, the book begins to pick up and roll with the formula that made Goodkind's first book such a riveting story. He did a good job at evoking irritation and murderous inclinations towards a new character, Nadine. There are parts that draw out giggles and appreciation for the humorous and angry sides of Richard's loving personality and seemingly deep well of patience with stupid or insipid characters. And again, I must stress that, for the typical female, Nadine will boil your blood. The scenes involving the sick children and some of the characters close to Richard dying, were just enough to make me misty-eyed (I am a sucker for well-described death scenes).

It also made you appreciate the love, devotion, and trust in the developing relationship between the Mord-Sith (mostly Cara and Berdine) and Richard. The overall story is good and you're able to forgive some of the flaws in this book. Richard is still one of the best characters developed in any science fiction I ever read. Goodkind makes him a handsome, strong, sensible, likeable, and intelligent hero, but at the same time he allows Richard to make mistakes, admit to them, and learn from his mistakes, without making apologies and enemies. In other words, a man that will never exist in real life.

I was forewarned that although the first few novels in the "Sword of Truth" series are pretty entertaining, that the series gets stale fast, and becomes almost unreadable the further in you get. After just finishing "Temple of the Winds", I have to wonder if this is where that slide begins. The story itself isn't BAD, per se... it's rather formulaic, with a magical plague and the hero needing to stop it. He's got a pretty good war brewing with the Old World Imperial Order, and an interesting foe in the Dreamwalker Jagang. Where this story really fell flat for me was in the constant bickering, the incessant apologies, the melodramatic dialogue, and the rather ridiculous (and repeated from book 1, and book 2, and book 3) "plot twists" that fate, and every other character keeps throwing in to try and keep Richard and Kahlan apart. Really, when it came down to the requirements for Richard to enter the temple, the story became pretty ridiculous.

Those significant complaints aside, the story still moved along pretty quickly and had a good deal of action. For that reason I do give it 3 stars, but the dialogue and melodrama really started to get to me around the halfway mark of the novel. I have yet to read book 5, so I'm not sure where he picks up from this point, but I definitely thought that this was a step down from "Blood of the Fold", and I hope that Mr. Goodkind loses the "everybody's trying to keep Richard and Kahlan apart" plotlines in his future work.

I will try not to be rude or to bash it, but I really didn't like this book. I've read the whole series and probably will continue to, but it's severely going downhill. The first one rocked, the second was almost as good. The third was a drag and this one's the worst. I'm not the first to say it, but I think my main gripe is repeatedly hearing how much Richard loves Kahlan, and how much Kahlan loves Richard. A romance between 2 main characters can be a pleasure to read if well done. I'm 15 years old but I know there is more to love than just saying 'I love you', over and over again. The plot is there, but it's shallow, boring, cliche, and dumb. The characters are similar. I'm a fantasy nut, but I get discouraged when I see such flat, cheesy villains: evil, sadistic, slightly insane, and out to destroy the world. Yes, I know there are people like that in the world, but they don't make good book material. There are good scenes in this book, but by the end my eyes hurt from rolling so much. I know there are people who enjoy this kind of book and I'm not laughing at them, it's a personal choice; but probably anyone who likes such great authors as Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, and Robin Hobb, aren't going to want to waste their time on this drivel.

I enjoyed the first three books in the series. However, I've read about 500 pages into the 4th injenction and I must say it has some good points, but not nearly enough to fill out the amount I have read so far. He's beginning to be very redundant; not just about reiterating events from pasts books, but even the ideas fairly indigenous to this book are just about beat to death! I don't think I care to even finish the whole thing, its just too boring and lacking overall.

With this, like Robert Jordan's voluminous series, I think you can put only so much into such a hugely continuous story centered around the same characters, and not have it peter out eventually.

A lot of people prefer to get into arguments when talking about Terry Goodkind's work. But the simple fact is that if you want to read Robert Jordan, you should go read it, and the same applies to Tolkien. I read Goodkind because I like Goodkind, and any complaints I have aren't because I also read other works. As to Temple of the Winds, this is perhaps the weakest book in the series so far. I've always thought the biggest problem with these books is that it looks as if he set out to write a stand alone novel, only to have it become so popular that he was asked to do sequels by the publisher. The proof of this in my mind is that nowhere in Wizard's First Rule is there and mention that it's Book 1 of the Sword of Truth series. But, conversely, Wizard's First Rule and Stone of Tears sat very well together. Blood of the Fold was thinner, but here in Temple of the Winds, the first real knots start to come undone. Significant characters pop into this book out of the main characters pasts, having never even been alluded to before, and as is Goodkinds most irritating wont, these turn into red herring plot lines that endup being closed again before the end of the book. Meanwhile, little or no progress seems to be happening with the furthurance of the supposed current main plot point having to do with Lord Richard Rahl's battle for supremecy over the Dream Walker Jagang. Without the hype and without the comparisons to others, this was the least satisfying of the series. I WOULD recommend it to anyone who asked, and will continue reading the books myself, as I'm a big fan, but I can't see myself re-reading this book over and over again, as I do with the previous three in the series.

Wizard's First Rule was amazing, Stone of Tears was good, Blood of the Fold was boring. With Temple of the Winds, he got back on track. WFR and TOW are my favorites from this series.

Now I see all these reviews and people complaining about Richard and Kahlan's love, the sex, lack of plot, blah blah blah. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read half of them.

First of all, attacking Richard and Kahlan's love. Yes, we all know they love each other deeply and it's stated all throughout the book. Their world is collapsing around their ears, that love is the only thing keeping them sane. It's the only constant in their lives. I was ecstatic that they FINALLY got married, the poor dears. Although I wouldn't mind kicking Kahlan out and taking her place. ^_~

Second, the sex. People, if you think this book is pornographic you obviously live sheltered lives. I've read much worse from several other authors.

Finally, the lack of plot. I don't know about you, but I don't read a 600 page book in a day because it has no plot. I mean, you have Richard and Kahlan trying desperately to find a way to stop a horrible plague while at the same time Nadine shows up intent to marry Richard and Drefan mysteriously appears (I knew that guy was rotten from the start). Nathan is off doing gods know what and Zedd and Ann's predicament was hysterical. I found myself riveted by the pieces of information about the past and the temple. Now Drefan's cruelty to women did get a bit graphic, but there are actually people like him in the world. No one ever said Mr. Goodkind was writing for children.

I also know that the dialogue did get a bit stale, but the emotion was there and it's the emotion that fuels this fantastic tale.

In short, I loved this book and eagerly await Soul of the Fire's publication in paperback (I'm too poor to buy the hardback and my library lives in the stone age...). Keep going Terry!

P.S. As to all these comparisons to Robert Jordan...I read the Eye of the World and found it alright. I couldn't even get 50 pages into the next book. The characters pissed me off and the plot moved entirely too slowly. Maybe one of these days I'll pick it up again. If you want another series by an excellent author, pick up A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin.

What began as an interesting fantasy in "Wizard's First Rule" and "Stone of Tears" has begun to devolve into episodic serialization and somewhat sophomoric heroic posturing. To be honest, I never felt this series to be among the best, an equal to Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings," Donaldson's "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant," William's "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn," or Martin's or Jordan's ongoing series. There has always been the sense of Goodkind writing in the shadow of Jordan for reasons that are obvious, and, regardless of arguments over "The Wheel of Time's" flaws, the "Sword of Truth" series by Goodkind has never approached the scale of Jordan's work, and appears now to be flagging in both energy and focus.

What began in "Wizard's First Rule" as a fantasy epic with a solid story line and much original content, despite a few obvious broad borrowings from past writer's, including Jordan, has become, with this book, a series of adventures only loosely connected to the grand conceptual story promised by the first book. The original premise presented in "Wizard's First Rule" is now forming the excuse for 800 page excursions into secondary stories that exist in large part separate from the larger struggle that is the premise behind this series. As a stand-alone, this book is unsuccessful, and succeeds only because it is propped by the previous works. Nor does it advance the earlier story established by those books. Instead, if you examine the plot closely, it revisits a lot of old ground. The thread of Goodkind's legend has begun to become unravelled.

A further problem has begun to manifest itself in his characters: They have begun to become stereotypes of themselves. They are far too full of their roles, and much of their response to situations becomes a form of posturing, and therefore predictable. The more I saw of Richard and Kahlan, the less sympathetic they became. The overall population in this series have become caricatures of themselves, and if one looks closely, one does not really care for what one finds.

In closing, I wish to address a couple issues that crop up repeatedly in reviews of this work, as well as other fantasy fiction:

1. I weary of all the reverent comparisons to Tolkein. Let's judge a work based upon it's own merits, not some "mythic" comparison to a work that is considered by many to be the founding work of a genre, and therefore flawless. This ignores not only certain weaknesses in Tolkein's writing ability, but the strengths of writers that have followed. If "Lord of the Rings" is the ultimate achievement in fantasy fiction, why are we reading further?

2. The accusation of derivative work: It's all, to one degree or another derivative. There is, perhaps, no more derivative work in fantasy than Tolkein; one only need read the Norse or Germanic sagas, or watch Wagner's "Ring Cycle" to realize how closely Tolkein copied these works. So to those who cry foul when they perceive similarities between contemporary authors and Tolkein, I say know what of you speak: Likely you've never even heard of E.R.Eddison.

As in Peace of Mind since it finally convinced me that there was no hope for the series to ever improve, and that they would continue to dissapoint and be a relentlessly painful read. And since I dropped the series I've slept peacefully ever since.

Honestly, there really wasn't much of the books that I ever actually enjoyed, save for the Mordsith. The reading was choppy, almost like he wrote the story then went back and randomly plugged in descriptive sentences to make the book longer, and it had been like that since book one! The story and plot line are the same in every book. "Oh no, Kahlan, my love, you are supposed to betray me! But fear not, I know you never would and we'll work through it" And so they cry for about 50 pages. And then at the end when she does betray him, he can't believe she would ever do it and they cry again for the another 50 pages.

Character developement is a little lacking, and the different groups, societies, and organizations are practically torn and plugged in from other fantasy novels, and he doesn't even smooth out the torn edges first.

The Sword of Truth is the McDonalds of Fantasy, and Terry Goodkind is the clown.

If you liked the first three in this series, don't think for a moment you will like this one. If you didn't like the first three, this one you will hate. Basically, having written three books, the author decided to take a break in this one and write sheer and utter nonsense. The first 100 pages is a complete joke, inane conversation abound, written as if by a high school child. Worst of all, it's unbelievable BORING. It's as if he's paid by the word and he just sat down and started rambling. Page after page of childish, boring conversation between the characters. It's UNREADABLE. I cannot believe the editors let this be published as is, shame on them.

Want to get your own stories published, no matter how bad your plot? It's easy! If Terry Goodkind could do it, you can too. Here are his secrets:

To design characters: Make up names, give them different clothes and genders, and then make sure they all act the same. All should be incredibly stubborn, to the point of abandoning any sense of self-preservation.

For conversations that will flesh out your flimsy plot: All of your stubborn characters should argue with each other for as long as possible before any progress is made. For example:

"I intend to raid the castle."
"All by yourself? That's stupid!"
"Stupid it may be, but I plan to raid the castle."
"You'll be killed!"
"No, I won't. Stop trying to delay me."
"I have to delay you, because otherwise, you'll be killed!"
"No I won't!"
"Yes you will!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
[Two pages later:]
"Guards! Lock her up! I'm going to raid that castle now."
"Yessir!"

This works especially well if, like Goodkind, you seem to have some sort of power/control complex and an obvious interest in BDSM. No matter how pointless the argument, if you throw in some women in skin-tight leather with flails, you'll be guaranteed the "Gor" audience, at least.

Occasionally you may write something that seems profoundly emotional to you. It might not be so obvious to your readers, though, so make sure they understand emotional states by using repetition:
"I'm going to kill her. Just give me the chance, and I'll cut her to pieces. I am filled with wrath. I'll strike her down on this very spot. Her blood will flow across the floor, because I'm so angry, I'm going to kill her." Etc. This litany may be interrupted with dialogue, so make sure to resume and repeat it in different ways until the reader gets the point.

Punctuation: Don't worry about it. No matter how many punctuation marks are missing, the readers can still figure out basically what you've said.

Plot twists: A really good plot twist requires lots of unnecessary confusion leading to things that would have happened anyway. (Seriously! Think about it!)

Once you're sure that no sane person could unravel your bizarre reasoning behind dancing around the otherwise predictable plot, then congratulations! You can now write like Terry Goodkind. Good luck!