A while ago, I reviewed Wizard’s First Rule and later decided to read the whole series by Terry Goodkind. While there were some good points to it, I have no hesitation in saying that the latter half was predominantly bad. Now that all eleven books are over, I can pronounce my judgment. Unlike the Wheel of Time, I’m going to start with the bad since it stands out so much. In case you’re wondering why I went through and read eleven books, it’s because once you read the first 4 books, you have to know what happens!
Note: No specific spoilers here, but only a general commentary on the series.
The Ugly
Several things bug me about this series. One of them is that each book makes use of the same themes over and over again. For example, Terry Goodkind seems to be completely obsessed with people getting captured. In the course of the series, every single good guy has been rendered helpless in the hands of the enemy at least once, and many of them more than once. Each book contains people getting captured and then escaping. I’ve lost count of how many times the main protagonist (Richard) has been rendered helpless by someone or the other.
Sword of Truth - Eleven Books
Also, Richard is somehow or the other deliberately crippled in each of the books. Either he gets debilitating headaches, or he’s prevented from using his gift (or forbidden from doing so), or he’s losing his magic or whatever. As a result, we never get to see him at his full potential as a war wizard.
And what’s with everyone being tired? I mean does no one sleep in the books? Whenever we see Richard, we hear about how he hasn’t slept well for weeks – or any of the main protagonists for that matter (Zedd is the only exception. He’s my favorite character). Another means by which Goodkind incapacitates his heroes. They’re always hungry or tired.
The next huge issue is the love story between Richard and Kahlan. Ok they’re in love. We GET IT! They behave like lovestruck teenagers. Whenever Kahlan isn’t present, Richard loses all capacity for thought and the world can go to hell. It’s sick. He doesn’t behave like an adult, but some moonstruck juvenile. Kahlan is a little (just about) better. At least she can operate cogently without Richard being around. Every book in the Sword of Truth series has to have at least one mandatory separation of Richard and Kahlan. Every single book. The two are so boring together that Goodkind is forced to pry them apart and thus provide the motivation for Richard to get off his butt and do something. Sometimes it seems that it’s the only thing that works.
Richard is supposed to be the most powerful wizard in 3,000 years and a war wizard to boot, and even at the end of the book, he still doesn’t know how to use his powers. Time and time again he gets an opportunity to learn about them from his Grandfather Zedd who’s the First Wizard of the land, and each time he throws away the opportunity – and for what? Yep – that’s right. To spend time with Kahlan. He doesn’t care that if he doesn’t learn, his gift will kill him. He just wants to be alone with Kahlan. But then hey! If he learns how to use his powers, he can actually ward off the threat from every Tom Dick and Harry who captures him! And we can’t have that can we? How will he get the motivation to rejoin Kahlan then hmm?
Just once in the series, he gets his wet dream. Kahlan is injured and she recuperates with him in a forest where it’s just the two of them. If it wasn’t for a nice evil sorceress who stole Richard away, he’d still be cuddling with her in his wooden shack in isolation. A pathetic hero to say the least.
I’ve saved the worst for the last. After the fifth book or so Richard who’s supposed to be the Seeker of Truth, mutates into the Preacher of Truth. Pages and pages (and pages) of the books are devoted to long winded black and white monologues by Richard who suddenly gets a Christ complex. The funniest part is that after dozens of pages of monologue, his listeners instead of going to sleep or throwing a rotten egg at him, stroke their chins and say “Y’know? I wish I had thought of that!” As if you can change a person’s entire nature by just boring them to death. I mean who talks like that? Goodkind tries to stuff his sickeningly righteous Ayn Rand bullshit down the throats of his readers over and over again. And then he does it again for good measure. Richard, who’s originally a nice sort of guy becomes this holier than thou – Oh I’m so wise and all knowing – jerk.
One final aspect of the entire series. What’s up with Richard losing his sword all the time? I mean I know that Goodkind has to do his usual thing of incapacitating his hero again and again, but why even bother to link the sword to Richard if just about anyone can take it and use it? Richard is separated from his sword over and over again (and Zedd even castigates him for it) – makes him seem careless you know what I mean?
Also, the whole Sisters of the Light concept was a knockoff of Robert Jordan’s Aes Sedai – complete with Sisters of the Dark resembling the Black Ajah.
The villains in the books also seem to be blessed with good luck. Somehow, the main evil guy (Jagang) repeatedly gets his hand on the rarest books in existence when they’ve been sitting right under the noses of the good guys all along. I mean his luck is simply unbelievable. All the books have a theme where things are going really really bad for the good guys and then in the last 100 pages or so, Richard the Preacher of Truth saves everyone with some jiggery pokery.
The Good
There are several really nice interesting characters in the book. They provide a refreshing break from the two main boring ones. Zedd, the First Wizard and Richard’s grandfather is the most entertaining, powerful and nicest old man in the series. Adie, the blind sorceress is an excellent complement. Nathan the powerful 1000 year old prophet is also a commanding character, but he doesn’t get much onscreen time unfortunately.
For me, the best concept was a set of scary guards called the Mord Sith. Fantastic addition. They really gave the entire series a breath of fresh air.
The villains were quite decent, though not as good as the one in Runelords (The villain called Darken Rahl however, was the match of Raj Ahten). I wish there were more good things to say about the books. I really do. After all, I spent a lot of time reading all eleven books. But I don’t feel sad that it’s over – unlike with the Wheel of Time series, or Runelords. I just feel relieved.
Hey Bhagwad,
You know what, I was watching 3 Idiots and came to conclude you as the Rancho–Ranchoddas Chanched of our college (ICFAI).
Wish you a healthy and green new year ahead.
Sajid
@Sajid
I haven't seen the movie – though I've heard great things about it. It seems that Indian cinema has started to produce meaningful stuff after all – a very welcome change.
Done anything special for new years?
[...] very busy reading the Sword of Truth series, and painfully waiting for the days to slip by. As the weather in Chicago gets colder and [...]
If your whining of not fully understanding the story of the book, I suggest you watch the TV series of the book called "Legend of the Seeker"…
That way, you could really understand the story cause you wouldnt get boored with all those lines from the narrator…
Besides, its not the "First Wizard of the Land", it's "Zeddicus Zul Zurrander, Wizard of the First Order"…
And about the "Sword of Truth", anyone can use it, yes. But only in the hands of the true seeker it can work it's powers and to the others hands, its just a piece of stell…
Richard has this mission of finding the stone tears, so they could use it to cover the tearing of the veil. Even if he wants to harness his HAN to become the most powerfull wizard in 3, 000 years but doing so, atleast he have to do it willingly and not by helding him prisoner in the Palace of the Prophets.
About his love to the Mother Confessor, its the only thing that always kept the Seeker alive with all those torments he have incounter, especially when the Mord'Sith Denna held Richard captive to be tortured with her agile…
BUT JUST TO MAKE IT CLEAR WITH YOU, IT DOESNT HURT IF YOU JUST TRY TO WATCH "LEGEND OF THE SEEKER" season 1 and 2… I THINK YOUR JUST BEING UNFAIR TO THE AUTHOR…
Wow this is is the first honest review of this series I think I've ever read. The preaching actually got so bad that I think I skipped hundreds of pages of the same idea over and over again. The series really did start out very well, but when I finished the last book I was honestly mad that I had ever spent money on these books. Excellent review.
Thanks Jeff – I was just reminded once more of how bad it got :)
[...] also shows me a new style of realistic writing. Not realistic like Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of Truth” with gratuitous violence and painful rapes – that’s as unrealistic as a sugary fairy [...]
Dude got to say u went all out aganst the best book serise i have ever read…..
u r first point abt people geting captured or geting into desprate situations all the time
ehat do u wish from a book the hero kill the vilan in about 50 pages and the for next 400 pages he is sitting on a throne and ishuing trade orders to his court …..
u r second point about not seeing richard in his full capacity…
he was a war wizard ..first born in 3000 years as the book explains war wizzards are diffrent from regular wizzards….their power is guided by emotions….no one repeat no one could teach him about this power even Barracus first wizzard who left a book for richard could giv him any tips about using his power….not even nathan who was close to 1000 years old and a Prophit…could teach him about his powers how do u expect Zeed to teach him …and what?I understand zeed was very tallented but richards powers were very diffrent…. and what did u expect richard to do with his full powers….Nuke the imperial order army od 10 million or so???? didnt u pay attention in the books it was not only the army to b defeted buth the idea the mentality of the people that was to b changed…..
point 3 kahlan richard love story…
may b u didnt understand but this LOVE STORY IS THE CORE OF THE BOOKS.
may b u didnt understand the character of Kahlan If u read carefully u would understand y richard was “moonstruck juvenile”also at the end of 2nd book richard decicde to go after his father and not to go and save Kahlan ….if as u say “Whenever Kahlan isn’t present, Richard loses all capacity for thought and the world can go to hell”
were true he would have gone to save Kahlan first then MAYBE the world….
your point abt richard not learning abt his powers ..well at first he didnt want to b a wizzard as he ahs said countless times…if u remember richard had decided to learn from Zeed but the sisters came to early….and there were not many times zeed and richard were together …
u r point abt richard being preacher of truth….
well u say he is pathetic hero because he was cuddling with Kahlan…
what did u expect work hard earn money buy weapons and gift them to people..
was the charracter of nicci not clear about the mentality of the people ….they would have used the weapons to kill themselves to say the least….like nicci explaned later the emperor BELEVED in his cause he thought he was right.it is the same as beleving in god if someone beleves it not to be true then u would have an argument with him trying to change his belife.weather it is wrong or right is a secondary matter.so did all the old world.So richard should have nuked the whole old world????
about richard loosing his sword i belive tues28 has cleared it….
about the main evil guy (Jagang) getting lucky with rare books….
jagang had been planing to take the worl for a very ling time and he had a plan …no one knew about it he had been working on it for a ling time also it was not only luck he was searching hard …if u read his spritual advisar was in the palace of prophit for a long time collecting info….and he had help
as for richard and the good guys most of them dident know about existance of the old world how were they to know about the books that jagang was searching for..
also i started reading the wheal of time after this but got bored of it soon after i read that rand and Egwene were over later i found out through net that rand had 3 wives
whats all that abt.i lost intrest in the serise because the lovestory was not strong enough.
a suggestion if u like to have exciting events all the time read NIGHT ANGEL it is a good read i read first 2 books and it was quiet good………..
ANY COMMENTS U CAN MAIL ME AT
[email protected]
and for the record THE SWORD OF TRUTH IS THE BEST EVER SERISE THAT I HAVE EVER READ>>>>NIGHT ANGEL COMES CLOSE 2nd…..
Thanks for sharing your views Avinash. My feeling is that Goodkind ran out of ideas and filled up his books with bad preaching instead.
Great review. In the 5th or so book (can’t recall the exact volume, and don’t want to either) the preaching went on and on and on, I wanted 3/4th of my money back for skipping over so many of the pages. Would Terry ever stop…. He did…with the final word on the final page of the book…..
For anyone wanting to take up this series: First book was nice . Read it and quit while you’re ahead.
This review made me laugh, mainly because I pretty much feel the exact same way about this series. This first book was fantastic and I was locked after that. By Faith of the Fallen I would skip 10 pages of preaching only to find he was still preaching at the same spot 10 pages ahead. He abandoned all of the fantasy themes that I found interesting in the earlier books and turned the series into Atlas Shrugged with magic. Then he would get to the last 50 pages and say, oh I guess I should move the plot or story along or something. *SPOILER* Really at the end of The Naked Empire Richard just suddenly knows how to make the antidote? Really?… … Really? As the series continues you can read Goodkind’s ego grow.
Ego grows indeed! I’ve also read his response to some of the criticism leveled at the books and he says that the critics are unproductive people who want to spoil a great piece of work :D
I read the first 6 books of this series, and, boy, I couldn’t agree with you more. The first 4 books were pretty decent (My favorite is definitely “Blood of the Fold”). Their upside for me was the fluency of the story (it was riveting at times) and some sparks of originality. Their main weak point was the character building. They act in a really unbalanced, unbelievable way, as you’ve written. Upon the 5th book I started to feel the storyline is getting too old for my tastes, but what really cracked my patience was the constant, nagging, self-indulgent, holier-than-thou sermons thrown at us abundantly in “Faith of the Fallen”. This really felt like I was reading a capitalistic propagandist brochure, and not a fantasy novel. Even worse, the plot itself was compromised for this bull****… It was really pathetic.
After reading the 6th novel, I decided to take a break from this series, and I often wondered if maybe I should give it another chance (after all, I did read half of the series already). So, I just wanted to thank you for the fair warning of what’s to come ahead should I continue reading the series. I think I can safely pass without fear of losing anything worthwhile.
I’ve read the whole series twice, and I actually liked it. I thought how the ending tied in was quite clever. But the worst part of the series was the sixth book faith of the fallen. It was such a bad book. it felt like terry goodkind was shoving his beliefs down the readers throats. Another bad thing in the series is how in every new book terry goodkind goes on and on about what happend previously in the series. I think i would know what a confessor, mord sith, and the power of the sword of truth is by book 11. :(
[...] This is usually the time when other such epic stories start to lose their way. It happened with the Sword of Truth books which ended in total disaster and even Jordan’s stories began to meander with nothing much [...]
Sadly, I agree with most of your points, but don’t mind most of them… I love the love story, but I am a woman, what can you expect? :) I read through the series once, and am reading through again now. I’m focusing more on the other characters, and skipping a lot of his speeches. I agree with Levi, the recapping of the past events in each book was very annoying!
I got very tired of them constantly being captured, but I do think he made the point that Richard’s obsessive love is what brought him through some of his torturous moments where other people might have given up… I get very emotionally tied to the characters I read about… So I guess you could say I fell in love with the characters, and then got indignant about the way he treated them.
This is the first unhappy review I’ve read, and while I still love the series, I had to thank you for opening my eyes about some things! Also, don’t waste time with the TV series. Good series by itself, but they just used the characters names, it’s nothing like the books.
-Mego
Thanks Mego :)
About the recapping of previous events, I remember reading somewhere,that save the last three books, each book was meant to be a stand-alone book. In hindsight it did get quite preachy, but disregardingthat, the series was great, especially the Ja La games.