Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series

This was the first fantasy series I actually got into to any degree; my 7th-grade algebra teacher at the end of the year gave me an autographed advance copy of the book Wizard's First Rule which she got at a book signing. I never saw the woman again in my life, and I read the book in a week then forgot about it.

A few years later, in the middle of 11th grade I went camping with a few friends (in an immense wooded area near the edge of a large developed section of town) and, to help alleviate boredom, brought that book along with me.

I re-read it within the course of two days, and wondered for the life of me why I wasn't completely hooked the very first time. I quickly went out and bought all the rest of them, up to the latest Naked Empire and read them in sequence. Some were absolutely excellent (Stone of Tears and Temple of the Wind come to mind) while a few were merely mediocre, like Naked Empire itself - yet still quite enjoyable in their own right.

Anyone else read these books?

I've read Wizard's First Rule many years ago. At the time, it seemed like just another generic 'bloated fantasy epic'... based on your experience, perhaps I should give it another look?

>>2

Well, it goes through a series of "I'm just throwing stuff out there cause I don't know what I'm gonna be using in the future". As a result you get a couple generic fantasy staples, and the occasional ripoff (for example, I never realized this till I read LotR, but the character of Samuel is a blatant ripoff of Gollum)

But overall, I enjoyed the books. The characters are well-defined in my opinion, even if Kahlan, who is the fucking Mother Confessor, sometimes pees her pants and gets a bit overly-scared for whatever effect (frail femininity, I chaulk it up to) - in any case sometimes Goodkind tries too hard, and in other times, like when I was reading Faith of the Fallen -- I sat there for twelve hours one night in the summertime and read that in one sitting with a certain Yanni album a friend brought over playing in the background, and it just complemented the book so well... that book is easily one of my favorites, ever.

And yeah, I need to reread all of them.

But Stone of Tears is MASSIVELY superior to the original novel. Just make sure you read them one right after the other.

I read like 4 books of Sword of Truth.  Love the characters but I'm rather turned off from the series but the rather blatent creepy sex that permeates the entire series.  Rape on such a scale is rather much.

Wizard's First Rule was a good book, if it hadn't had a few chapters that were thin excuses to introduce creepy sadomasochism.

I had to stop reading at Faith of the Fallen, because it had clearly been written by the Ayn Rand Institute. The city he was in was the most painfully bad communist allusion ever.

The creepy sex in non-fiction books can be a lot worse, try The Rape of Nanking. ;p  Some witnesses reported soldiers cutting open young girls to make them easier to rape.  A little sad that people are so sheltered nowadays they can't stomach the sort of shit that happens out there in the real world and needs to be thought about.

>>5

Actually it's funny that you mention that - the first time I read that book, when it got to the part with Denna the Mord-Sith and the S&M stuff (I didn't understand any of it at the time... o innocence) I actually skipped that it because I thought it was too long-- until around the part when Richard was taken in to see Darken Raul and he was told about partitioning his mind and stuff. Then I read straight through to the end.

Second time around though I wondered why that part seemed so long to me. Then I remembered that it was indeed creepy. Terry Goodkind, while he has a lot of great powers of description (the man actually WAS a wildlife journalist and used to live in the forests of New England if I remember correctly) definitely looks like he's got a large S&M streak to him. The whole thing with the Confessors using "the power of absolute love" to subjugate their victims, causing their consciousness and mind to go white and blank, filled only with thoughts of appeasing their "Mistress" -- yeah,  you can definitely see that there.

I still like the books though.

I just finished re-reading it and yeah, the whole Denna side story had kind of a o_O; effect on me. I didn't remember that part!

I read the first two, but I couldn't really continue on.  There just wasn't enough there.  It's like how Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Shannara" series hasn't really been able to stand up to the test of time either, as it just seems a bit too corny in too many places.

agree with #5 up there. Goodkind had a few good ideas and the first two books were well enough. too bad he feels the need to shove his philisophy down the readers throat. that and some of the things said by him in interviews and posted on his website are rather strange. Ayn Rand, INDEED.

>>4
i have to agree with you. i had to stop reading because i get too emotionally attached when reading books like this. and with all the rape and stuff going on in sot its not gonna work out. every turn of the page i was wondering if something would happen to kahlan. stopped before anything drastic happened (not that they didnt try)..

Its my favorite series, hands down.

Too preachy, repeats himself way too often without furthur elaborating what he is talking about. Richard has become a sterotypical Righteous Archtype and is lacking on a personality after the 4th book. The bad guy isn't believable and would have killed Richard a long time ago. His side characters are more interesting than his main characters. Enjoyable read, but not one worth remembering.

fag fag fag

>>3

I read this exact post somewhere before.  I remember the Faith/Yanni.  OP is copypasta.

>>9

Thats Terry Brooks