Goodreads | Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1)

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Icarus rated it:

07/24/07

bookshelves: speculative-fiction

Terry Goodkind is a grossly inept writer, with the writing ability of a somewhat intelligent seventh-grader, but he jumped into the wide-open fantasy field when there were hardly any good fantasy writers (a state that hasn't completely changed, btw) and he has the persistence to turn out 600 page novels, and so he got published and now he's grandfathered in, because some people don't have better taste than to buy his novels. Additionally, his early work is grotesquely derivative, mostly of Rober...more Terry Goodkind is a grossly inept writer, with the writing ability of a somewhat intelligent seventh-grader, but he jumped into the wide-open fantasy field when there were hardly any good fantasy writers (a state that hasn't completely changed, btw) and he has the persistence to turn out 600 page novels, and so he got published and now he's grandfathered in, because some people don't have better taste than to buy his novels. Additionally, his early work is grotesquely derivative, mostly of Robert Jordan as a matter of fact. It also includes all kinds of cliché fantasy tropes, which then never appear again in the series, as though dragons and gars just up and wandered off the planet at some point. His bad guys, particularly in this book, are such a mish-mash of evil that they became caricatures of evil, and are actually laughable. For instance, either Darken Rahl or his henchman, I don't remember which. These guys were not just evil and out to despoil everything in sight and out for total power and in cahoots with the evil underworld spirits, one of them was also a child-molester to boot. I'm sure Goodkind would have called him a Nazi, had the concept fit into his milieu. And finally, after about four novels or so, Goodkind sacrifices story-telling on the altar of making a political point, and since then every book has been a thinly veiled objectivist, anti-religious and anti-altruism rant. I don't care that he has a point of view, or that he occasionally slips it into his writing, but his evil characters have become now, not caricatures of evil, but mean-spirited caricatures of the philosophy he opposes. And so he has shown himself, through his writing, to be someone I would despise quite apart from it: someone who can't conceive that the people who see things differently are men and women of good will who have just come to separate conclusions. He tortures the crap out of his writing in order to make it serve his convoluted agenda.

Do yourself a favor and don't start this series. Especially if, like me, you have OCD tendencies and feel compelled to finish what you start.

And yes, I am jealous—-that a lousy writer like that can have 600-page volume after 600-page volume published, and I can't. Because, frankly, I think I'm better than he is.
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Keely rated it:

(review of isbn 0812548051)

09/03/07

bookshelves: childhood, fantasy, novel

Read in November, 1998

It is always curious to see fantasy authors who don't consider themselves to be fantasy authors; for example: Terry Goodkind. The former landscape painter said in an interview that he wasn't writing fantasy, but 're-inventing the novel'. It always drives me to wonder whether they have read any fantasy. Goodkind's first work goes where everyone has been before, and then a little further.

Michael Moorcock critiqued Tolkien as a false Tory romantic, which is rather apt considering that the love ...more

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John rated it:

08/12/07

Read in December, 2005

recommends it for: Hardcore fantasy readers, preferably young ones who read fast

Terry Goodkind is a good example of why people think all post-Tolkien fantasy is trash. He has one tenth of Tolkien's imagination, a smaller fraction of his brilliant study, and - oh look, swords! Cliche family drama, an angsty romance between tortured lovers, powerful characters who are so unjustly tortured - it's immature and it's crap. At its best, it is a clunky and self-indulgently obtuse hero's journey. Then there's the hundred page BDSM tangent, where the hero goes through excruciating ps...more

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k.wing rated it:

(review of isbn 0812548051)

11/07/07

bookshelves: quit-reading

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: ...

I'm sorry. I really did try for this one, as I love my boyfriend (very much) who loves this book. I found the writing unbearable, as I would rather smell my dog's breath and lick his teeth than have to read words written by Terry Goodkind. That being said, I was interested in the story, but it was as if the guy did not have an editor. Oh, he had spell check, don't get me wrong, but no one told him to take out the emotions and/or inner-dialogue he would repeat up to 4 times in a paragraph.
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Nekouken rated it:

06/15/08

bookshelves: fantasy

Read in June, 2007

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

WFR is a book I recommend. It was a very powerful story, with tremendously emotional, if occasionally overwrought, situations. Richard Cypher (an ironic name for the protagonist of a novel, but tremendously so in this particular case) is very relatable and sympathetic, his puppy-dog eyes for Kahlan, the mystery woman who swooped into his life and shattered his entire world is completely understandable, and as her motivations become clear, her inability to reciprocate his feelings for her actuall...more

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Kyle rated it:

(review of isbn 0312857055)

01/03/08

Out of all of the Terry Goodkind books I've ever read, this is the best. It was mildly entertaining and I managed to finish it. Other than that.. eh..

I'm just not a fan. I figured out how the book would end as soon as "wizard's first rule" entered into the plot.

Also -- about the romance -- NOT buying it. He carefully explained all of the rituals he went through to deepen his devotion, but I didn't feel much of anything except for some brief physical attraction in about the mid...more

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Dave rated it:

10/10/07

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: Teens +

The sheer depth of Wizard's First Rule is simply amazing. His Characters are unique and origional, yet seem simple when you realize that they aren't perfect. Every chapter you read will cling you tighter to his series. Of course, many will dislike Terry Goodkinds works, either because he establishes dead on ethics in an 'I'm right, your wrong' approach, or because of dissatisfaction with his writing style, but it would be a baseless altercation to state that he is a run-in-the-mill, and mediocre...more

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Tim rated it:

(review of isbn 0812548051)

07/18/07

When an author displays a poorly developed writing style I have a hard time getting past it and caring about the story. That's what happend to me with this book. The story was decent, but Goodkind's writing was lousy. He probably improved with later efforts, but I'll never know because I'm not going to read them.

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Duckie rated it:

09/24/07

bookshelves: notreccomended

Do not touch. Read too many. Ashamed I even finished the first. Even if you started and got hooked - by book four, it's miserable - all but three chapters were disgusting, depressing, hopeless - I reiterate: Do. Not. Touch.

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Aerin rated it:

(review of isbn 0812548051)

06/24/07

bookshelves: fantasy

Read in January, 2003

Hated it. Ha-a-a-a-ated it. Hated it.

Long, and bad, and full of every standard fantasy cliche you can imagine. Bad writing, bad characterizations. I can't believe I made it through the whole thing.

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Donald rated it:

07/20/08

Terry Goodkind has cool hair.

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Ben rated it:

(review of isbn 0812548051)

07/22/08

bookshelves: borrowed, fantasy

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Ben by: Stephanie Chow

My first fantasy experience, and what sparked my love of fantasy, was The Belgariad by David Eddings. Since I've matured (that was in grade seven), I've come to realize that much of epic fantasy is, in fact, fairly formula-dry stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Most of Wizard's First Rule is predictable if you are familiar with the genre. In the first part of the book, combined with a terrible amount of dialogu...more My first fantasy experience, and what sparked my love of fantasy, was The Belgariad by David Eddings. Since I've matured (that was in grade seven), I've come to realize that much of epic fantasy is, in fact, fairly formula-dry stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Most of Wizard's First Rule is predictable if you are familiar with the genre. In the first part of the book, combined with a terrible amount of dialogue exposition, this is almost unbearable. It gets better toward the end though. By that time, the exposition decreases, replaced by rather clumsy foreshadowing.

Much of the story is fairly enjoyable, if you do recognize that it is ploddingly predictable and instead focus on having fun. The main character, Richard Cypher, is an idiot. I love it when the main character is a victim of Plot Induced Stupidity; this seems to happen to Richard every second chapter in one form or another. I love this, almost as much as I love a main character who is competent. His powers as a the Seeker, this series' "Chosen One" champion, are inimical to his own psyche and even limit themselves based on his convictions. This seems to be part of Goodkind's message throughout the novel, which is that tools (i.e., magic) are neither inherently good nor bad. People use them for good or bad ends.

Once again, the gods who created this poor, forsaken universe had the sheer malevolence to create an artifact (in this case, the three boxes of Orden) that could do one of three things to the person who opened them: a) Give them power over everything in the universe b) Kill them or c) Destroy the entire universe. When will gods learn that leaving these sorts of things around is incredibly stupid?

I read up on Goodkind before I started reading this book--my coworker has been rereading them over the summer, and she convinced me to try them, even though I'm sure I had passed them up for some reason or another. The later books, apparently, are merely thinly-veiled treatises on Ayn Rand's Objectivism. Inklings of such viewpoints are present in this book. They don't interfere too much with the plot--they certainly guide Richard's actions, but overall his actions are pretty much consistent with the "save the world" mentality that seems to come over those determined to save the world. The worst manifestation of philosophical dogma comes with much of the dialogue, especially in the first part of the novel.

Goodkind claims not to be a fantasy author, that he just uses fantasy to tell tales of humanity. Well guess what? That makes you a frelling fantasy author! And most fantasy authors manage to cloak their philosophical viewpoints better--they show, not tell through lots of dialogue.

I may seem harsh toward the end of this review. Honestly, Wizard's First Rule is a good book. If you like fantasy, you would probably enjoy it. If you like fantasy that acts as a vehicle for more profound themes, then you'd probably read into this book as much as Goodkinds wants--whether you disagree with his viewpoint or not is totally up to you. It won't change the fact that this is not an excellent book--excellent books are good regardless of whether or not you agree with their philosophy....less

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Rob rated it:

04/03/08

bookshelves: have-read

This series as a whole is very good. I found that once I picked up the first book I flew through the whole series, stopping only when I read the last one out. I then continued reading as they came out. When I started reading them their was only five books, now that the series is complete we can set the whole thing into some perspective. I will be happy to see the TV show starting fall of 2008 and hope it is as good as the books.

On the less than benign side, the author does tend to stop telli...more This series as a whole is very good. I found that once I picked up the first book I flew through the whole series, stopping only when I read the last one out. I then continued reading as they came out. When I started reading them their was only five books, now that the series is complete we can set the whole thing into some perspective. I will be happy to see the TV show starting fall of 2008 and hope it is as good as the books.

On the less than benign side, the author does tend to stop telling the story and start preaching pretty often in the books. The books were written by a Moral Relativist in the style of Ann Rand and he tends to spend what seems to be about 20% of each book preaching this message of Objectivism. As someone solid in my faith and not very sensitive to other view points it did not affect me and I was able to continue reading, however I have met people who hated it based solely on the authors preaching and others who loved it for the same.

The Books bounce from Great to below average and back up to great again as you read through the series. I found Wizards First Rule, Blood of the Fold and Faith of the fallen were all five star books worth every minute spent reading them. While Stone of Tears, Soul of the Fire and Naked Empire were a waste of time all together. The rest of the series I would consider a three star series worth the time to read, but nothing special.

A strength of the Author is that he has the ability to articulate well and balances the need to describe a setting whether it be a city tavern or palace with enough detail for you to feel like you are there while not rambling on forever without focus. His ability to engage you in the emotion of the character at the time and create exciting scenes of both political and martial nature is impressive. I plan to read his other books as soon as I get a chance.

A weakness of the author is he seems to give the Protagonist powers and abilities just so he can think of a way to take them away. It also seems that all the other characters in the book only exist as contrast for the Protagonist (Richard). Also the scope of power available to the characters varies greatly by plot and this can be very frustrating if you keep track of stuff like that. Or if you are like me and try to solve the problem in you mind before seeing what the protagonist does.

My only technical peeve with these books was the inconsistent nature of the way Magic/Powers worked and how they interrelate, which also focused heavily on every new power introduce was a trump over every other power.

All in all though there are good and bad things in these books they are overall very good.
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Jen rated it:

05/12/08

Read in May, 2008

recommends it for: Dungeons and Dragons fans, sadists

I am adding this author to the list of people that I wouldn't want to have lunch with. After this review, I suspect he won't want to have lunch with me either.
This book reads like a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It's a quest, a bit formulaic, and at times I could practically hear the narrator telling me to roll the ten-sided die to see what happens when we go down the left fork. In this book, we have the hapless regular guy who through a great series of coincidences finds himself traveling ...more I am adding this author to the list of people that I wouldn't want to have lunch with. After this review, I suspect he won't want to have lunch with me either.
This book reads like a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It's a quest, a bit formulaic, and at times I could practically hear the narrator telling me to roll the ten-sided die to see what happens when we go down the left fork. In this book, we have the hapless regular guy who through a great series of coincidences finds himself traveling to save the world with the beautiful, mysterious woman (formerly, the damsel in distress), the great and powerful wizard (who is utterly disappointing and mostly serves as comic relief), and the hardened, streetwise soldier. It almost feels like the author drew a map of his new fantastical world, decided to put the main character at one end, and the solution at the other, and then gave him a veritable obstacle course of classic problems on the way. He runs into underworld beasts, monsters, dragons, deluded armies, and betrayal (which, consequently, the rest of us saw coming 500 pages before he did). To say this book is plot-driven would be an understatement. Sadly, though, even the pacing of that plot isn't good.
But none of that has anything to do with why I wouldn't want to hang out with the author. I found the creations of his imagination really disturbing. I could almost feel his delight in divining new and more horrible atrocities to detail as the story went on. Yes, the bad guy is very, very bad. But there was a definite sick, sadistic side to the story. I just have to wonder what kind of person decides to spend something like eight chapters on very descriptive and imaginative torcher of one character, when the great love that supposedly drives the story took a comparative flash to develop. He's great at devising innovative ways to cause pain and anguish, but terrible at imagining realistic human interaction. The dialogue, sadly, reflects that.
When the author isn't describing pain or evil, a sitcom-like feeling prevails. A paraphrased typical scene: a genuinely disturbing challenge with an emotional resolution that should leave everyone drained and perhaps scarred, until big old wizard asks, "When do we eat?" To which everyone chuckles, "Oh, that wizard, his stomach's always in charge." and they all saunter off into the sunset arm in arm.
If you love Dungeons and Dragons, or if you're someone who enjoys causing or experiencing pain, this book is for you. For me, not so much. I wonder if his other books get any better?...less

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Doug rated it:

02/02/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Doug by: Janssen
recommends it for: Fantasty Literature Readers

I ripped right through the book and all and all, enjoyed it. Here is some of my input:

1. I found that the story moved along well and that I was always entertained. The main hero is a bit Frodoian, and perhaps a bit Arthurian, but it is its own unique story and an entertaining cast of characters.

2. The story sometimes gets a bit twisted with torture, rape, bad guys who like young boys, overly bad bad guys. The training and torture chapter was beyond what I was comfortable with, but maki...more

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Kelly rated it:

07/31/07

bookshelves: fantasy, fiction

Read in March, 1998

recommends it for: fantasy fans

I genuinely loved this book. I mean, take this with a grain of salt, because I read it when I was 13. But I thought it was really fun and cool at the time. It was one of the ones that got passed around among my friends in middle school and early high school. I remember when about three of us were reading them and handing them off in a chain. It was great. One of my fonder memories is being on a field trip to somewhere, and we were all sitting next to each other reading different books and someon...more I genuinely loved this book. I mean, take this with a grain of salt, because I read it when I was 13. But I thought it was really fun and cool at the time. It was one of the ones that got passed around among my friends in middle school and early high school. I remember when about three of us were reading them and handing them off in a chain. It was great. One of my fonder memories is being on a field trip to somewhere, and we were all sitting next to each other reading different books and someone would laugh and we'd go, "What?" and they'd start to explain it and go, "Wait, I can't tell you!" Damn, we were dorks. But cute.

Anyway, this book is geniunely great. My interest dropped off after about book four or so, but I think that was more due to me being interested in other things. Terry Goodkind was capable of several different things in the first few books of the series. After which point, they jumped off Crappy Cliff, but. At the time of this book, anyway:

A) His characters were not one dimensional. They had interesting flaws. They geniunely grew and learned from what happens to them. They also had believable relationships and fights that real people would have. Okay, not all of them. We still need those ridiculous romantic fights from the hero and heroine, and you know, we don't all fight over magic swords, but in general. I really root for the hero, and the "mentor" is probably my favorite part of the book. I did have just one problem with a character, but i'll discuss that later.

B) The plot is twisted, and allows for a lot of grey area in terms of right and wrong and evil and good and villains and heroes. They make some ambiguous choices, and there's some geniune worry that good people can go bad. Formerly bad people are accepted among the good. It's a good theme that helps keep interest. I also really like the whole magic element to it, and how its really set up as a system and something that changes you. It isn't so much snap bam I'm Merlin now! Which helps. This went WAY downhill later.

C) The writing is descriptive, and not wasted. The verbosity is you know... plentiful, but I didn't mind it in the first few books. It wasn't /fantastic/ writing by any means, but it was engrossing. Again, this went to hell later in the series, but it didn't start that way.

D) It has something of a sense of humor. THANK GOD. It manages to have a sense of humor and not become a farce like Terry Prachett novels or Christopher Moore novels are. There are just some comedic situations and funny/witty characters that help to lighten the mood. It does take itself pretty seriously sometimes, which can be irritating, but then it's followed by one of these scenes or characters to break things up. There is one scene about chickens in pots that is coming to mind right now. I read this about eight years ago, and for some reason I still remember giggling at that with people. I have no idea why chickens were funny. But it does speak to the fact that it was some good writing.

My problem with it: The heroine? Kind of sucks. Again, it was a long time ago, but I remember rolling my eyes at her a whole hell of a lot. She's really kind of a bitch to the hero unnecessarily, way over the line jealous (like a romance novel hero), and kind of a Little Miss Perfect a lot of the time in a very self satisfied, condescending sort of way. He has her speak that way, too. Which doesn't make her very relatable. But she serves her purpose and is amusing sometimes.

That's really my only major problem with the first book, though, so, I can at least recommend this one, and the first few after it....less

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Cera rated it:

(review of isbn 0812548051)

10/08/08

Read in February, 2003

The gender ideologies underlying the novel's cosmology are just so profoundly disturbing that I couldn't enjoy what there was of the story -- not that I was likely to enjoy it anyway, since it featured large amounts of sexual torture of Our Hero. It's really not any more tasteful when gender-reversed.

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Barbara rated it:

03/31/08

Read in March, 2008

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Jason rated it:

11/24/07

bookshelves: fantasy

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: people 10 years old or younger

I was referred to Terry Goodkind as a better alternative to Robert Jordan. I feel betrayed and lied to. Or maybe it was some kind of joke. Goodkind's characters are simply not believeable, and this absolutely kills the book. The dialog is forced, and it feels as if no one ever proof read Goodkind's "masterpiece."
If you like books written in a style where if you squint your eyes and pretend that instead of reading, you are watching a one-liner Bruce Willis fantasy movie, go...more

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Flourish rated it:

11/11/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: people who aren't too concerned with the finer points of feminism, people who like long series.

So, I have mixed feelings on this book.

++++
• The characters seem very real to me in a way that fantasy characters often don't. They have emotional lives that aren't one-dimensional. They have interrelated relationships.
• You can't say that it doesn't include strong women.
• The world isn't just another rehash of Lord of the Rings, even though it is very clearly and explicitly high fantasy.

----
• The women are all defined in relation to the men. They don't stand on th...more

Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1)

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