Customer Reviews

Wizard's First Rule (The Sword of Truth)

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4 star:		(222)
3 star:		(122)
2 star:		(151)
1 star:		(208)

 

 

I read this several years ago and I truly liked it. I was engrossed in the story and I did not pay any attention to writing style or grammar. The book held my attention and the pages kept turning. Had I written a review at that time I would have given this book five stars. No second thoughts.

Now that I read all the negative reviews about the bad writing, I picked up my copy again to see if it really was that bad. I have to admit, it's certainly no candidate for the Nobel prize, but it's not "awful" either. It's a story being told in perfectly readable language. I find nothing wrong with that.

Many reviewers said that this book takes too many ideas from other books. Maybe it does, but it also puts those ideas together to make a new and interesting story. If you get to the core of 90% of all fantasy novels it will turn out to be a story about an unlikely hero (occasionally heroine) with some mysterious powers or heritage embarking on a quest to fight the evil king/god/sorcerer and save the world. This is what I would call Classic Fantasy. I could read "Lord of the Rings" once a month, but I'd rather read different books from different authors even if they are based on the same storyline and their style may not be as polished as Tolkien's.

Violence plays a big part in "Wizard's First Rule". I admit that I had to force myself to read through the torture bits. It made me sick and I am surprised that someone would give this book to an 11-year-old. I certainly wouldn't. It's okay to let the hero suffer once in a while instead of having him rush from one adventure to the next while he always prevails. But this went on and on and on. Less pages would have been necessary to get the point across.

This book keeps getting compared to Jordan's "Wheel of Time". I read that as well and I also liked it. Being pushed hard to choose one over the other it would probably be Goodkind, but not by much. I like that each book has a satisfying ending so that I don't have to wait a year or even longer before I know what's going to happen.

All in all I would recommend this book for those who read because they want a reprieve from everyday life, spend a few hours in a fantasy world and simply enjoy a good story. Read this book as if you would go to a "Lethal Weapon" or "Indiana Jones" movie.

I decided to give this book four stars, so that no one mistakes it for the new bible of fantasy. It's good, but not that good. If you're looking for something more demanding, I suggest reading Guy Gavriel Kay, maybe "Tigana", which is the most intelligent fantasy novel that I have read to date.

Terry Goodkind, Wizard's First Rule (Tor, 1994)

Terry Goodkind hasn't been around as long as some of the fantasy writers who are currently churning out long- winded, seemingly neverending series; Harry Turtledove's alternate-history alien-invasion World War II series' first book has been in print longer than most of Goodkind's whole catalogue. But, as J. R. R. Tolkein and Greg Bear have shown us, you don't have to be established to come up with a really whiz-bang first novel. Wizard's First Rule is, most decidedly, a whiz-bang first novel.

The action opens with unassuming woodland guide Richard Cypher trying to dig up a few clues as to the means and motive of his father's recent death. While in the process, he spots four men menacing a woman, goes to her aid, and unleashes the chain of events that have taken us seven eight-hundred-plus-page books and counting to unravel. Make no mistake, when you crack the cover on the first Sword of Truth novel, you're committing yourself to a whole lot of reading. Sword of Truth is longer than Mission Earth, longer than Necroscope, longer than Michael Moorcock's presently-in-progress series. Think of a series containing a whole lot of big, thick books. Sword of Truth is longer. It'll probably reach Encyclopedia Britannica proportions before long.

The good news is, of course, that Wizard's First Rule is a whole lot more readable than Britannica (in order, even). He's got more of an eye for the readable than Moorcock, and is more restrained than Lumley. Goodkind doesn't skimp on the character development, has an excellent eye for description and detail, and presents it all in such a way that, when you've finished the first book, you wonder how it is you managed to get through eight hundred twenty pages quite as fast as you did. (In other words, by the second one before you start the first, because you're not going to want to take enough of a break to run to the store and get it. Trust me, I know-my copy of Stone of Tears is still in the mail.) With such a large canvas on which to paint, Goodkind takes the luxury of building up the minor characters; one of my most common complaints with genre fiction is the surfeit of cardboard characters who are set up just to be killed, or what have you. When Goodkind sets a character up to be killed, you know everything from what the character had for breakfast to his psychological makeup to his favorite color. It's a refreshing change from the majority of fantasy novels. And it doesn't slow the book down, because even the minor characters are contributing in some way to the plot.

This stands out, even at a time when fantasy seems to be at a high point in the public consciousness. George R. R. Martin and Philip Pullman may be getting more press and more awards than Terry Goodkind, but Wizard's First Rule stands easily with A Game of Thrones or The Golden Compass as the beginning to an excellent series. **** ½

There simply are not enough good current fantasy novels. This book breaks that trend. It is not a hard read, nor is it overly complex, but it is a very good read, with very personable characters, and a simultaneously heart-warming and heart-breaking story. Warning: If you are looking for a one-book read, do not read this book. At the conclusion of this book, your mouth will water for more, which is easily quenched by the increasingly long tomes that Goodkind has a gift of writing. The first six books especially in the series are defiantly among the best fantasy novels of our time. Set aside a big chunk of time and enter the world that is Terry Goodkind.

I have to laugh a little about anyone caring what the author says in a forum or how cocky he is. I like to judge a book on its own merits, not on my opinion of the author. For that matter, this isn't a book you would want to judge by the first audio tape either. It takes a bit of time to get ramped up. That said...

This will be one of the most brutal fantasy series you will ever read. If you've read the Chronicals of Thomas Covenant (Steven R. Donaldson), you only glimpsed the kind of violence you will see in the Sword of Truth books. Of the five books in the series I have read so far, this is the least brutal, and that's saying something.

However, if you can handle the violence, you will find that Mr. Goodkind is an author that is extremely good at keeping a reader on the edge. Terry sets the scene for horrific events that don't relent until the bitter end. Particularly memorable was the cave sequence and Richard's enslavement to the Mord-sith (a sort of dominatrix from hell).

Though I'm no addict, I've read a fair share of fantasy series and this one rates in my top 5. If you want a true five-star series, I would recommend Raymond E. Fiest's "Magician" series. But if you like it rough, the Sword of Truth novels get it done.

STORY: Richard, son of a trader and a simple woodsman, finds himself as part of a prophecy to save the world from the evils of Rahl. With the help of Kahlan (a woman he can't have) and Zedd (his old mentor) these three become the force that must strive to turn the tide of evil washing over the entire world.

MY FEEDBACK:
1) SETTING - A nice imaginative world separated by the Boundaries and filled with all kinds of dangers. Great monster creations, though some of the escapes the characters make are a little too easy. The ruling class of a queen/princess was nothing new, but the roles of Confessor and Seeker were a nice change of pace and added to the strangness and mystery of the world.
One complaint was the Mud People - his psuedo American Indian culture was pretty hokie and I was about to skip forward a bit when the author probably realized the same thing and changed the pace of the story. Whew.

2) CHARACTERS: It just seemed a bit too conincidental that Richard is the last of the Seekers and Kahlan is the last of the Confessors and Zedd is the last of the wizards. Also, Zedd was way too cliche (just think of Ben Kenobi's relationship to Luke)
Reasons why Richard and Kahlan can't experience their love was a nice and intriguing major conflict in the story.
The only character that "grows" in the story is Richard, but there are reasons for that. The entire span of the story covers less than a year so there aren't major changes to be expected by characters like Kahlan and Zedd who are use to more strange experiences than Richard.
A complaint is that the dragon gets corny at the end...especially the way it talks to Richard and has this sudden bond with him. It didn't do it for me.
NOTE: When you get to the part where Richard is being tortured you may have the same reaction I did and cringe and want it to end but find it lasts for many pages...there is a reason for it,which is explained and it makes for more foreshadowing of how Richard is going to become something more in future books.

3) STORY: I was hooked right off the bat and was surprised when I had read 400 pages and didn't know where the time had gone. The story moves at just the right pace and just when you might get tired of a scene/location/character the author introduces some new interesting magic, monster or situation. I tried reading Dragonbone Chair from Tadd Williams and both times felt like was was sloshing my way through the swamp of names while the mud of details kept trying to pull me down and drowned me. I didn't feel that way with this story. The reading was very easy and so where the names...though Richard hardly seems an appropriate fantasy protagonist name.
Yes, the story has some VERY telegraphed plot elements (I totally figured out who Richard's traitor is very, very early on). But I realize this is the first book in a long series and it is necessary to get introductions done, setup the world a bit and have our protagonist grow a bit.

OVERALL: There are some sex and torture/violence scenes that I would not recommend for kids or teenagers. It was a nice summer read when you are relaxing by the pool, beach or garden with a cold drink in your hand. When I look at some of the reviews where people slam the book, I have to agree with some of their points and in turn would rate this a 3.5 stars. But, like many, I enjoyed this fast read and I really got caught up in some of the scenes and relationships, which is why at times I rate this a 4.5.

I had a lot of trouble putting this book down. The times when I did were times when I absolutely could not stand the torture being put on characters I loved.

This novel, as far as genre novels go, is pretty cliche. There aren't a whole lot of big surprises. You have your ranger, your wizard, your evil baddie who's so strong they have to work up to him, yadda yadda yadda. You have your impossible quest, your beautiful woman, and even a dragon. Yippee!!

All that being said, this was a wonderful, character-driven piece that had me on the edge of my seat. Every single character lived and breathed with his or her own personality, and there wasn't a weak character in the batch. The good guys were *so* good and so charismatic that at times I had to get up and walk away because I couldn't stand what was happening to them anymore, and with one exception, the bad guys were *so* bad that I rejoiced when bad things happened to them. I have no problem with black and white, and there was no doubt in this one who the good guys and bad guys were.

The sole exception was the Mord-Sith, Mistress Denna, who had more layers than you normally see in a genre novel. At first, I hated her and really wanted to hurt this fictional character. But by the end, I nearly wept for her and what her life had been.

Warning: The torture and murder scenes are graphic. If, like me, you have a vivid imagination and can't stand the thought of someone being in pain, open the book at your own peril. If you love children and can't stand the thought of anyone hurting them, think twice before you read the book. But if you love a good, character-driven story where you really get to know the people in the book, it's a wonderful read, and a fast one, considering it's an 800-pager.

People kept recommending the Sword of Truth series to me, so I finally picked this up. Actually, I bought it twice, once as a paperback and once as an e-book, an irony I now regret.

Comparisons to The Lord of the Rings are inevitable, since (like it or not) that's where most modern fantasy draws inspiration. The plot of Wizard's First Rule is that the hero, Richard Cypher (and with a name like that you know he's got to be special), must stop the Big Bad Villain, Darken Rahl, from acquiring a magical artifact that has the potential to give him unlimited power. The MacGuffin in this case is a set of three boxes. But that's all we know about them. We don't know who created them, or why, or what the reasoning was behind the two-in-three chance to either kill yourself or destroy the world. They just ARE, dammit, because it's a FANTASY WORLD and if you don't like it go read a physics textbook.

The cover of the paperback refers to a "fantasy novel in which the characters act like adults," so I was expecting something like George R.R. Martin, or even Jim Butcher. Instead, I got this juvenile, derivative crap. The writing is clumsy and unimaginative. The hero is a classic Gary Stu, who's already awesome at everything and yet is constantly discovering new abilities at just the right moment to save him. I'm talking about spontaneously pulling off things that supposedly take years to learn, without even knowing beforehand that the skill exists.

I didn't come across a single likable character in the book. They're all one-dimensional and boring, and frequently don't make a lot of sense. The main villain in particular is nothing more than a cardboard cutout with "EVIL!" written on it. Kahlan's and Richard's relationship is something you'd expect from junior high students, certainly not adults. The story's main plot twist is something you'll see coming from literally the first chapter, and end up wondering why the characters don't realize it immediately, since they have access to all the same information you do. The characters' apparent naivete and stupidity makes it all the more jarring when they do something violent: It's like watching a small child deliberately strangle a kitten.

And the Sword of Truth... don't get me started on the Sword of Truth. Its main magic power is that it makes its wielder angry, which would seem to conflict with seeking the truth (anger does not a clear head make). In exchange for this it drains its wielder's strength and eventually turns him into Gollum (except Richard, because he's special). It also won't harm things the wielder doesn't think are evil, which 1) is demonstrated to be completely subjective, and 2) could be problematic for self-defense. (If anything, that would seem to discourage careful analysis of a situation, supposedly part of the Seeker's job...) One would think the Seeker would be much better off carrying a normal sword, without all the complications. Then there's that thing where, if you forgive someone before you kill them, that makes it ok, which is just sick. Combine that with the extended S&M scenes, and I'm left with a seriously disturbing impression of Mr. Goodkind.

Nothing that happens in the book is meaningful. None of the challenges to the characters result in growth. Most obstacles are overcome through deus ex machina. The ending will make you /facepalm, because, as another reviewer said, there's no way the villain could be that stupid. The difference between this book and a parody of fantasy is that parodies are generally fun to read.

Stuff to read instead: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien; A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

I read this book when it was first published and thought that it was worth the read (then again, there's not much of any genre I won't read, and I was only a teenager at the time). My problem now is that since the death of Robert Jordan, I took it upon myself to actually try and slog through the Wheel of Time Series for the first time, and the similarities between this book and his series are just too "coincidental". I've read arrogant interviews with Terry Goodkind where he proclaims he has changed the genre and his books are unlike any other, but now I wonder how he had the audacity to actually voice that opinion. (Though many of the similarities are also included in his later books of the series.) Goodkind's "banelings" are remarkably similar to Jordan's "Darkfriends", the Keeper is Jordan's "Dark One", and Richard (the innocent woodsman), like Jordan's Rand (the innocent sheepherder), is usually marked by his sword. SPOILER: The paternal parentage of both boys also come into question in the books. There are many more throughout the whole series, too many for comfort. I'm not sure if anyone else has commented on this, I didn't read all 1300 reviews. Just throwing it out there. Other than that, the first 5 books in the series aren't so bad that I wouldn't read them. True, they are very cheesy and reminiscent of a bad romance novel, but like a really bad horror movie: its so bad, its good.

If you like lengthy discussions of pedophilia and descriptions of sexual torture, then you'll probably enjoy "Wizard's First Rule". If, on the other hand, you believe that those topics are best excluded from fantasy writing, then you should probably avoid this book like the plague. It would be no exaggeration to say that "Wizard's First Rule" is, by a considerable margin, the worst book I've ever read. It trundles along without any hint of originality or inspiration, and the bizarre and unpleasant sexual content is added frequently in a failed attempt to break the monotony of the paint-by-numbers plot. At the end, all you can do is gape in awe at the author's total incompetence and wonder how anyone with an IQ higher than 30 could possibly find as much as a single redeeming quality in this mess.

We start with an evil overlord, who bears the idiotic name of Darken Rahl. (His father is named Panis Rahl. I kid you not.) Darken happens to need a magic object (in this case, it's a box) to fulfill his desire to take over the world. Starting to sound familiar? It gets worse. We meet a noble but somewhat reluctant hero named Richard Cypher. Richard is mentored by a wise, gray-haired wizard. He also falls in love with a beautiful woman named Kahlan. Unfortunately, an ancient form of magic prevents Kahlan from having sex with any man that she's in love with (D'oh!), but she does the next best thing, following Richard all over the place and offering up dialogue so corny that it would make George Lucas blush ("I can't go on anymore without telling you about me. About what I am. It's cleaving my heart, because I'm supposed to be your friend.") The three heroes march off, fighting various monsters and bad guys along the way, and eventually have their final showdown with Darken Rahl (spoiler: the good guys win). Amazingly, Goodkind takes this already thin storyline and stretches it to over eight-hundred pages, filling the space with tediously predictable events such as a scene where Richard must choose between saving his girlfriend or saving the world. For those who haven't studied the art of comic-book plot development, I'll ruin the suspense by saying that the author dodges the dilemma by having him save them both.

The characters are unbelievably thin. Darken Rahl has no personality or motivations whatsoever. Will fantasy authors ever realize that undeveloped villains are neither frightening nor interesting? Richard fares little better. Whenever he's not fighting, he spends most of the time wallowing in self pity and wishing he were home, yet these emotions never seem to get in the way of his heroic quest. The behavior and emotions of Kahlan and the Wizard Zedd are almost exactly the same, to the point where you wonder why Goodkind bothered to make three separate characters. The cast of supporting characters is even worse. For example, we have a spoiled, arrogant princess (hey, there's an original) who seems to exist only so that we can have the emotional satisfaction of seeing her get humiliated several times.

Whenever the plot slows down, which happens quite frequently, the author tries to keep us awake by providing some violent sexual content. Women are raped, many children get abused and/or murdered, and I'm not even going to mention the man who is forced to eat his own testicles. The high point, or perhaps I should say the low point, of this phenomenon comes towards the end, when Richard gets captured and tormented by a Mord-Sith, one of Darken Rahl's personal torturers. Consider this passage: "There was a stunning explosion of pain in his head. Denna's grip on his hair was all that kept him upright. It was as if she had compressed the pain of an entire death training session into that one touch. He couldn't move, breathe, or even cry out. He was beyond being in pain; the shock took everything from him, and in its place left an all-consuming agony of fire and ice." Now try to imagine this nonsense going on for close to one-hundred pages, and you may start to see the problem. It's interesting to compare the violent content in this book to that in "A Game of Thrones". While George R. R. Martin also included scenes of rape and torture, he always kept them short and never went into unnecessary graphic detail. Furthermore, his episodes always had a purpose, helping to build the characters involved or describe the societies that they live in. In contrast, Goodkind's uses of rape, torture, and pedophilia are pure exploitation. They contribute absolutely nothing to the novel as a whole, and could easily have been omitted without losing anything other than a sizeable chunk of the book's excessive bulk.

Believe me when I say that the problems listed above are only the tip of the iceberg. There is literally nothing in this disaster of a novel that is done right. Due to amazon's size constraints, I don't have time to describe the needlessly long and tedious descriptions, the unsubtle sexism and homophobia, the insults to vegetarians and the physically handicapped, the painfully bad fight sequences, the absurd plot contrivances, and the ending that's worthy of a third-rate Disney movie. Suffice to say, "Wizard's First Rule" is a painfully awful exercise in overused stereotypes, without as much as a single redeeming quality. A vengeful Mord-Sith couldn't make me pick up the sequel to this piece of excrement. Nonsense like this is one of the reasons why many people simply choose to avoid fantasy fiction entirely. Luckily, we have masters like Martin or Guy Gavriel Kay to defend the dignity of the genre, but they're going to have an uphill battle as long as talentless hacks like Goodkind continue to crank out garbage like "Wizard's First Rule".

I guess it is inevitable that every Swords and Sorcery novel should give a respectful nod or two to Tolkien's masterpiece. Wizard's First Rule bears perhaps more similarities than most and the reader must be forgiven for playing spot the parallels here. We have the slightly eccentric wizard Zedd (Gandalf), a stout yeoman man-at-arms character Chase (Aragorn), a creepy but tragic transformed creature Samuel (Gollum), rampaging hearthounds (Wargs), and of course the brave if reluctant hero Richard (Frodo). We have a journey from the cosy West to the spooky East, a talking dragon, a royal revelation etc. Goodkind has clearly employed a large dose of the sincerest form of flattery here! As the tale unfolds however more of Goodkind's own inventiveness becomes apparent. On the emotional level, some scenes are decidedly strong stuff. The smouldering sexual chemistry between Richard and Kahlan becomes surprisingly steamy at times. Scenes of prolongued torture leave few details hidden. Some decidedly distasteful subjects are included, such as rape, infanticide and paedophilia, to depict graphically the evil that Richard must conquer. Areas that Tolkien would leave to the reader's imagination, Goodkind lays bare in often excruciating detail. The tale gathers much momentum in the latter stages and I contentedly stayed up until the early hours to read the rivetting denouement. So, all in all, this is a worthwhile read and the sum of its parts amounts to rather more than just another Lord of the Rings tribute. Oh and I must say that Goodkind's dragon is rather nice!