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73 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A thrilling page turner for both fantasy lovers & the non-fantasy lovers, August 18, 2009
I'm going to be honest from the get-go. I've never read any of Goodkind's books before and I've never seen the tv show based off of his works. I'd heard of him but I've never had the time to pick up any of his works.
The reason I mention this is because I've heard two things about this book. One is that this book was supposed to be accessible to all people (even the ones who haven't read anything of his before). The other is that there is supposed to be a slight tie in with his Sword of Truth series, despite this book being a stand alone novel from his other works. Apparently it's supposed to be a nod towards the other series but as I've never read any of the other works I have no way of verifying this. Now if you were one of those people like me who was worried that you wouldn't be able to enjoy this book, put your mind at ease. For the most part you can easily read this book and enjoy it without reading his other works.
Now for the story itself. The story follows a young painter named Alex Rahl who discovers that his 27th birthday is going to bring him more than just another year older. He discovers several things- the first is that he has inherited a huge amount of land. The second is that a beautiful and mysterious woman named Jax is desperate to keep him safe. The third is that many different people also desperately want him dead. As Alex tries to save himself from danger and uncover the mystery surrounding the Law of Nines he'll also discover that his life isn't the only one on the line...
Now I know what everyone is thinking. Is this a fantasy or what? To be honest, it's a book that spans more than one genre. It's very much the thriller it makes itself out to be but it also contains several elements of fantasy in it. The book focuses more on the thriller elements than the fantasy elements, so if you aren't really that big of a fantasy fan then don't worry that you won't get into it. If anything the book somewhat resembles an urban fantasy novel than any of Goodkind's previous works.
The only complaints that I have are somewhat minor & really don't deter from the enjoyment of the novel. The first one is that it took a bit for me to get into the flow of the novel. Since the book straddles both thriller and fantasy it took me a little while to get used to the different elements. It was almost as if at times it couldn't decide what it really wanted to be & was a bit off putting at first. After I got used to the writing style though, I was hooked. The second complaint that I had is that I really wished that I could learn a bit more about the characters, especially the enigmatic Jax. The characters were for the most part well fleshed out, but there were so many unanswered questions that I wanted to know about. (So here's hoping for a sequel!) The third complaint really isn't a complaint at all, to be honest. It's just that at times I really felt as if I was missing out on something that I would have gotten if I'd read Goodkind's other works before reading this one. You don't have to read the other books to get & like the story, nor is the work constantly referencing his other works, but I get the impression that the experience would have been greatly enhanced if I did. Again, none of these are really complaints- just things that I wondered about as I was reading.
The only thing that really & truthfully got in the way of my book enjoyment was the slow beginning. It just seemed to take a little too long for anything to really get started & the book's flow just seemed a little muddled at first. Since this is Goodkind's first attempt at a non-hardcore fantasy, I'm willing to overlook that. It's not easy to write in a different genre, especially after you are used to one specific type of writing style. It just means that any future books like this will just get consistently better (or at least I hope so). It doesn't entirely excuse the clunky writing but I'm willing to overlook that for right now.
So in short, I liked this book. It took me a while to get used to the book's flow but once I did the book was great. I really recommend that anyone starting in on this book keep reading for at least the first 100-150 pages. It takes Alex a while to realize the danger he's in & act, but it's in keeping with the character. All in all, I think that it's a pretty darn good first attempt at writing a novel that isn't predominantly fantasy. Some may argue that this book isn't fantasy, but like one forum poster said on Goodkind's site- do we really need to label books by genre? Can't we just enjoy the ride & let the book take us where it will? I do have to say that I'd like to see a book by Goodkind that wasn't fantasy related.
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80 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Another world, August 20, 2009
"The Law of Nines" looks and sounds like a suspenseful thriller. In fact, it's a set-in-the-future sequel to Terry Goodkind's doorstopper "Sword of Truth" series -- and sadly it's anything but thrilling. Instead this fantasy/thriller is more like an endless and repetitive stretch of chases and fight scenes (how many times do we hear about throats being cut?), with a bland hero and a mustache-twirling villain.
On Alexander Rahl's twenty-seventh birthday, he almost gets run over saving a hot woman, a strange man buys and defaces a bunch of his paintings, and he inherits a vast expanse of virgin land in Maine.
The woman he rescued, whose name is Jax, adds to the weirdness by claiming to be from another world -- and unsurprisingly Alexander doesn't believe her, although he wants to. But then an ex-girlfriend of his appears one night with a couple of thugs, and Jax barely manages to save him. She reveals that the ex-girlfriend is only one of many enemies who has come from her other dimension. World. Thingy.
She also reveals that the bad guys are led by an evil overlord, Cain, who is eradicating magic from her world, and that somehow his plans involve Alex -- the last member of the House of Rahl. The two of them set out on a frantic search to discover what it is that Cain want, only to become enmeshed in an ancient conspiracy to reopen a gateway between two different worlds.
"The Law of Nines" is a book that sounds a lot more exciting than it is -- a Ludlumesque fantasy-thriller about the lost scion of a magical house. Even more so if it's the sequel to a bestselling fantasy series.
Too bad the actual plot is a seemingly endless series of very repetitive fights and chases, in which random people turn out to be evil minions of the bad guy (cue a staggeringly boring stint at a mental hospital). Even Goodkind seems to eventually realize that this is teeth-grindingly boring, so he throws in some random plot twists -- a contrived secret society, the evil overlord's secret hobby, and the most boring terrorist attack in the world.
And while Goodkind lavishes plenty of detail and foreshadowing in the first chapters, his style deteriorates quickly. His dialogue is plain at best and silly at worst ("It should have a taste to wake it from its long sleep to its purpose"), and Jax and Alex frequently launch into long, dull monologues about evil magic Communists, the wonders of technology (magic glue!) and the "Sword of Truth" world. Eventually you just want them to shut up.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in this book is that it feels like only half a story. Most of the important stuff is going on in the "Sword of Truth" world, but Goodkind never SHOWS readers any of this. All we get is Jax throwing out hints and half-sketched stories.
Even worse, Alex is a pretty boring hero who doesn't seem to feel anything other than spurts of rage, even when his ex-girlfriend tries to rape him. Jax is a more intriguing character (a butt-kicking woman stranded in a strange world) but Alex seems more interested in her sex appeal than her actual problems. As for Cain, he's a 2-D villain who wants to rule the world. Yawn.
"The Law of Nines" tries to mingle fantasy with "Bourne Identity"-style suspense, but the whole thing ends up being boring, repetitive and feeling like only half a story.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
No Faith of the Fallen......just The Fallen, September 25, 2009
I'm a die-hard Goodkind Fan. I read the SOT series from start to finish. I considered Faith of the Fallen one of those books that forever changed the way I thought about things. Even trying hard to take Law of Nines as a "new" or "standalone" series starter I was extremely disappointed! The "nods" to SOT were shallow at best and completely senseless at worst. There were too many pointless caveats in this book to list (why did we spend pages dealing with a broken starter on a jeep?) and way too many unanswered questions that I found myself not even wanting answers to. I felt the entire book was the original SOT plot thrown in a blender and vomited back out sans the integrity, values, and character development that made SOT awesome. Oh, there were also some commonly overused subplots reused- a "secret society to protect a secret" and "Terminator-esque" mental health workers to drug patients that might know the truth. If you're going to write a new series- write a new series. Don't amputate limbs from an old series and write some kind of zombie-like facsimile.
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