Icarus's profile

371 ratings | 73 reviews
avg rating: 3.03
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Icarus's bookshelves

read (372)
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May 08

Icarus gave

to:
Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth, Book 5)
by Terry Goodkind
bookshelves: speculative-fiction

my rating:

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April 07

New comment on Icarus's review of Brave New World Revisited (P.S.)

Icarus wrote: "*shrug* I found it boring. "

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April 06

Icarus gave

to:
Brave New World Revisited (P.S.)
by Aldous Huxley
bookshelves: nonfiction

my rating:

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November 10

Icarus gave

to:
Temple of the Winds (Sword of Truth, Book 4)
by Terry Goodkind
bookshelves: speculative-fiction

my rating:

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Icarus gave

to:
Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10)
by Terry Goodkind
bookshelves: speculative-fiction

my rating:

recommended for: Folks who agree with Ayn Rand, but don't like to read all those big words
read in September, 2007

Icarus said: "Goodkind imitates one of his characters, Jagang the Just, as he tortures this story and rapes his plot to the point where he stretches this one hundred page novella into a 673 page brick.

Almost nothing happens in this book. Mostly the characters ...more Goodkind imitates one of his characters, Jagang the Just, as he tortures this story and rapes his plot to the point where he stretches this one hundred page novella into a 673 page brick.

Almost nothing happens in this book. Mostly the characters talk. And talk. And talk. They tell each other things they've already told other characters. We've all heard of "Show, don't tell." Someone needs to tell Goodkind to "Tell, don't show." I don't need all this plot recounting. I don't need the same conversation to take place between different sets of characters in each book. At one point, they spend, no exaggeration, 133 pages on one single conversation! Seriously! Go count! 133 pages on just how evil the Commun--er, the libera--I mean, the Empire is.

I'm not the first to point out that every single novel in this series centers on Richard struggling to avoid losing his freedom and Kahlan struggling to avoid being sexually assaulted. In this novel, where Kahlan is invisible to most people, she is sexually assaulted or threatened by virtually every man who sees her! And the thirty pages of buildup to Jagang almost raping her should be wonderful reading to all the social misfits reading this series who can't get a woman into bed with them willingly. As usual with Goodkind, his lovingly detailed portrayal of the depravity of his villain is so over-the-top as to be comical--when I'm not wondering why Goodkind loves to focus on rape so much.

As for the quality of the writing itself, the most annoying thing here is Goodkind's use of anachronisms. The characters use a great deal of twentieth century slang that pops me out of Goodkind's world every time. This reads like a draft at times, not like polished copy.

The first chapter does a fairly good job of setting up suspense. The last one does a good job of setting up the next novel as the culmination of all this mess. In between, Goodkind could use a good editor, to cut out his anachronisms, shorten the interminable conversations, and slash out all the frustrated teenager wet dream fodder. Then he'd have a pretty tight novella....less "

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New comment on Icarus's review of Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10)

Icarus wrote: "Yeah. I'm obsessive compulsive. I can't start something and not know how it ends. Mercifully, the ne...more "

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Icarus added:
Pastwatch: The Flood (Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
bookshelves: to-buy

my rating:

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October 30

New comment on Icarus's review of Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1)

Icarus wrote: "Oh, I was being tongue-in-cheek. If I'd known my review was going to be read by Goodkind fans, I'd h...more "

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August 15

New comment on JT's review of Identity Crisis

Icarus wrote: "Miller Lite?!

Sad, JT. Sad. "

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August 09

Icarus gave

to:
Doorways (Paperback)
by Orson Scott Card
bookshelves: speculative-fiction

my rating:

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A place where people can work together to correct book issues on Goodreads. Examples include combining editions, contacting librarians, fixing book an...more

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