It is always curious to see fantasy authors who don't consider themselves to be fantasy authors. Case-in-point: Terry Goodkind. The former landscape painter has told us how he isn't a fantasy author in every interview he's ever given:

"The books I write are first of all novels, not fantasy, and that is deliberate; I'm really writing books about human beings."(1)

"To define me as a fantasy writer is to misunderstand the context of my books by misidentifying their fundamentals."(2)

"The stories I'm t More...

Wizard's First Rule is a good example of why people think all post-Tolkien Fantasy is trash. It bears one tenth of Tolkien's imagination, a smaller fraction of his brilliant study, and - oh look, swords! Cliche family drama, an angsty romance between tormented lovers, powerful characters who are so unjustly tortured - it's immature at best. 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 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 Rober More...

Richard and Kahlen's Relationship Timeline:

Day One:
Richard: "Kahlen, now that we just met, we're the bestestest friends aren't we?"
Kahlen: "We sure are."

Day Two:
Richard: "Kahlen, we're the bestestest of friends and I would give my life for you even though we just met."
Kahlen: "Me too!"

Day Three:
Richard: "Kahlen, I love you more than life itself. What? It's only been three days? Well, that still seems sensible."
Kahlen: "My sentiments exactly!"

Days Four through 20:
Richard: "Love, love, love."
Kahle More...

The sheer depth of Wizard's First Rule is simply amazing. His characters are unique and original, 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 Goodkind's 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...

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.

I did More...

Well hello there once again!

I know that it has been a while since I have written a full on, in depth review of a book but I’m gonna be honest… I’ve had shit going on. I’ve emptied a house, flown to the literal other hemisphere of the globe, got myself settled and situated and finally finished reading Wizards First Rule just a little over two months after starting it. And you know what?...

I really, hand on my heart, may a drop bear eat me if I am untrue, honest to the holy hand grenade of antioch More...

OVERALL GRADE: B to B plus; READ: 2000 (revised review early April 2012).

CONCEPT: A young woodsman is chosen as the Seeker, a long lost position of power given to a warrior of ultimate good in distant lands. Now, he must go to those distant lands to face the Evil controlling it, as well as to deal with issues of truth. Along his journey, his position is tested as his love for his new lady love. (This didn't hit me as big of a concept as say HUMA or THE HOBBIT. But, it attracted a lot of fantasy More...

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.

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 sa More...

Looking over reviews, most people either hated or loved this book. I liked it. It is somewhat formulaic, along the lines of Lord of the Rings--Good vs Evil, with a little romance, but I thought there were some surprises along the way and the plot was kept moving along. Perhaps best of all, the author can describe things, but not belabor the point, and there is no language, or sex. There is some violence (of course, given the plot), but most is, again, not in great detail, just enough to set the More...

The Fabulous Encyclopedia of Female Characters and the Men Who Want to Rape Them (in order of appearance):

KAHLAN
-The Quads
-Michael (Richard's brother)
-Darken Rahl
-Dimmen's soldiers
-Dimmen

DENNEE
-The Quads

ALL THE WOMEN AND GIRL CHILDREN OF HORNERS MILL
-"Westland soldiers"

DENNA
-Darken Rahl

RICHARD'S MOHTER
-Darken Rahl

(Dis)Honorable Mentions (Shout-Outs to all the Rapists Who Aren't Interested in Women, But Are No Less Repugnant):

DIMMEN: He is a rapist, but not of women. No, he specializes in little More...

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.

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.

Excellent series of contemporary fantasy. Goodkind's books always center around difficult moral or social concepts that are put to the test by believable characters. The theme of Goodkind's books is that people should be true to themselves, not sacrificing their beliefs for conformist ideals or things that sound appealing but have no grounding in reality. To truly live one's life is what is most important. Towards the end of the series, this theme tends to get a little preachy and starts to lean 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 t More...

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 making it th More...

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.

The text wants rhetorical discipline, its worst problem, and likewise evidences, at best, an amateur aesthetics.

The text moreover adopts a number of trite narrative elements, including the hero's journey, the numinous object, the freudian psychodrama, the derivative Teutonic creatures, the 'system' of magickes--the last of which is a routine mechanic of pseudo-rationalized fantasy, wherein the author appreciates the Mystical sufficiently to write about ghosts and goblins, but doesn't trust the n More...

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

I give 3 stars to Wizard's First Rule (the first book), but this review refers to the SOT series through book 9.

Terry Goodkind’s first book Wizard’s First Rule was great! Except for the actual First Rule ("People are Stupid"), which was...stupid. The story had so many unique and fascinating characters (especially the secondary ones). I was in love with Richard; I wanted to be a Mord-Sith. The next couple of books of The Sword of Truth were pretty good, too More...

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 middle of the book. T More...

e se lo dice la prima regola del mago io non posso certo dargli torto +.+
ammetto che l'ho letto solo perchè adoravo il telefilm (a proposito se qualcuno non decide di rinnovarlo spero che il mondo imploda) però ora capisco perchè tutti consigliavano di leggere il libro.. veramente... bello *___*
è solo che... darken rahl biondo?!? oh god *__* questa non me l'aspettavo proprio.. e poi.. è il padre di richard?!?!? e adesso chi lo dice ai miei gatti che si chiamano richard e darken in onore dei frat More...

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 out and get this bo More...

I was warned heavily about this series. Warned to not venture there-it wasn't good. Since the TV show (so loosely based off the books that it shouldn't even be considered connected) I decided to give it a shot, and had a couple of changes of heart along the way.

At first I loved it, then about 300 pages in I had a change of heart. Kahlan, the lead female, is extremely weak at times. Maybe it's only a perception, because there is so much "mystery" about who/what she really is for most of the book. More...

I was recommended by my friend to read this book. She exclaimed that Terry Goodkind's imagination was second to none. Hearing such high acclaim from my friend, I agreed to give Wizard's First Rule a try.

At first, I found it very hard to believe that such a cliché book with non-original character and plots could make such an impression. This impression quickly changed. How it did, I still do not know. Perhaps it was simply Goodkind's descriptive words that fluidly described every colourful event More...

This book was an excellent, easy read. The story is fascinating, and the writing flows along well. My only complaint is that I might question some of the vantage points Goodkind chooses at certain points of the book. He writes third person limited, but the point of view of the character he chooses for certain chapters I might have picked diffferently. But I read the book quickly as it peaked my interest truly. I have a new lust for contemperary fantasy now. (And, as a side note, my favorite part More...

I really enjoyed reading this book, The first of the series.

Goodkind has a few storylines going on at a time. All of them are interesting and the book begs you to read more, (I found myself yelling at the pages quite frequently)

This is the first (serious) Fantasy series I've begun to read. For me, the most important thing is character development. If the words can attach me to a character, I will continue to read it.

Goodkind does a marvelous job at attaching me to one of the main characters, R More...

I dont normally love fantasy fiction, but this is totally different. It has a major life lesson in every book. There are 12 books in this series. The characters are just people who happen to have magical powers. I cant even begin to tell you what the book is about because it will ruin it. The main charcters have strong personalities and I love that Kahlan(the heroine)kicks butt in the books. I must warn there is definetely violence. There is wars, rape( not explicit though)and people definetely More...