SoT Discussion

[Apoc]

Sword Of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.

Ok, I know its not a favourite amoungst the quillers, yet I want to know why.

I'm on Book5 now, and though obviously not as good as Tolkien, Martin or Jordan, It is still a really enjoyable series. I see no fault for it to get such stick, I'm glad I kept reading them, I was almost disuaded after reading how most of the members here had disliked it, yet it has proved pretty good, maybe my low expectations have made it better for me, I don't know, but I stand by it and I ask you now, why did you dislike it so?

[Amos]

this comes up quite often. it seems to be a love it/hate it type of series. with the exception of pillars of creation i've really enjoyed it. terry goodkind does an excellent job of portraying the similarities between the sides of good and evil yet keeps a reasonably firm line drawn between right and wrong, mostly using richard of course. zeddicus is a wonderful character, reminiscent of fizban/nizfab, absolutely hilarious. his characters aren't quite as downright human as martins' but it's possible to relate to them on some levels, they aren't as two-dimensional as jordan's. he does seem to be dragging it out a bit, but i guess he has a lot to say. pillars of creation, which i wont go into due to spoilers, was something of a gamble and as far as i'm concerned it didn't pay off. here's hoping ther next book will be a stunner and he wont go down the same bleak and dusty road that jordan has.

[Malcor Sylverwood]

My take is that the series opens well...and then falls off sharply. At that point, a lot of people gave up with the cry of 'it sucks'. Little do they realize that the recent books (although I have read the latest) have been good too.

Anyway, I like it...even if I don't remember all that much anymore...I'd reread it, but my books are all in storage

-Malcor "Denied" Sylverwood

[LaughingTurtle]

Overall they were a good read IMO, having it's ups and downs in varying parts. By no means is it a masterpiece, but then the series is better than some I've read. They were all worth picking up except for the Pillars of Creation where the main character of the series doesn't even show up until like the last chapter of the book, sounds like Goodkind should stop taking pointers from RJ...

[Apoc]

I like the antics of most of the background chars, Denna, Nathan and Chandelain being amoung my favourites ohhhhh and Gratch, how cool is Gratch, so cool!

I wish they would bring Chase back, he was sooo cool and hard as nails. Zedd's great, yet though I like Richard and some of the things he does, I find he causes most of the trouble himself, yeah he usually solves it but he caused it in the first place and Kahlan.....I really like Kahlan when she's in action but I get so frustrated when shes just moaning about how much she loves Richard ....ummm hello we know.

Jagang is a good baddie as was Darken Rahl and the Keepers creatures are great also.

My favourite moment was probably the battle at Aydindril, Myrswith and Blood of the Fold woohooo and Gratch!

[Amos]

My favourite moment was probably the battle at Aydindril, Myrswith and Blood of the Fold woohooo and Gratch!

yeah, that was an excellent battle, definitely one of the better books too and as far as characters go, i also loved nicci in faith of the fallen, she was a fascinating character.

one of the things goodkind does well, i feel, that jordan especially doesn't, is put his characters in desperate situations, makes life truly hard for them or knocks them down a few notches. takes them out of their comfort zone so to speak.

[Apoc]

Well I'll be moving onto book 6 now...is that this terrible one you all speak of, pillars of creation? or is that later, any how....Soul Of The Fire I thought was one of the best ones, though it did seem to speed up drastically at the end, I really enjoyed it.

Cara cemented herself as one of my favourite characters...ohhhh the dominie dirtch (sp?) was such a cool weapon. Something bad always happens to Kahlan...poor girl...beaten so badly...I could hardly believe it. I liked that Dalton guy...he was a baddie yet you could see his reasons...good ending

[Amos]

book six is faith of the fallen. it's not too bad. not great, but not dismal. nicci is so damn cool

[Buck]

*blatant bumpage*

And for the record, my favorite of them all is the first book: Wizard's First Rule. It is a very enjoyable reread, as are most of the books. Many of the other ones tie for second place though. I can not clearly just hoose, one although Blood of the Fold may be it if that is the one where

Such a good series, I may reread it sometime soon.

[magatsu17]

I'm a big fan of the SoT series. It's by no means the best series out there but I do like Richard a lot. As for the other characters I really don't care for them to much except for Nathan.

A couple of the books in the series are some of the best fantasy I ever read, and wold put them up there with Jordan and Martin. Like Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, and Faith of the Fallen. While most of the rest seem very similar and don't really stand out at all. Pillars of Creation is a weird one cause I read the books mostly for the main character and he was hardly in that one, but it was still pretty good.

[Anita Blake]

reading between the lines of the last 2 books - pillars of creation and naked empire, i became too deeply disturbed to continue enjoying the series. i kept reading, because goodkind's writing style is just so damn readable, but i didn't care much for jagang as a villain. i thought darken rahl was a much more compelling villain (even though both characters are so flat and JPE - Just Plain Evil).

the thing that really disturbed me about Naked Empire was (massive spoilers - don't read unless you want the end more or less completely given away -philosphically if not plot-wise) the whole philosophy of the series is turned on it's end... where Richard had for all the previous books harped on no end about "balance" and how the killing he did required the balance of being a vegetarian, all of a sudden it turns out that killing is A-OK, as long as you are killing the enemy of truth, justice and the Ameri.... Midlands Way. Not to mention the blatant "communism bad" message of the books. It's very clear that goodkind was deeply influenced by cold war propaganda and took it to heart. Also, given the time span the last book was written in, and the dedication at the beginning, it's easy to see how Goodkind is attempting to draw (faulty) parallells between the Evil Saddam Hussein and Jagang (persistent rape by the soldiers of the Old World = saddam's notorious 'rape rooms'). A lot of the language that Richard begins to use in Naked Empire also apes GWB's speeches over the past 3 years. (ie, mass oversimplification of issues using the words "good" and "evil" pretty much to death)

anyway, at least, that's my take on it. good books, if a trifle simple and predictable (you can guess the structure of the novel right away ... if richard and kahlan are together, they'll be torn apart and reunited spectacularly, with many hijinks and painful lessons between, and probably a lot of killing. someone, somewhere, will be raped, or recall a horrific rape, and Bad Men will abuse Good Women, while Good Men will Respect All Women.)

~runs away~

[Abraxas77]

Exactly, Anita. I doubt I can comment about the series as nicely, but I'll give it a go.

When Anita said, "a trifle simple and predictable..." I think she was be nice. I cannot a recall a single instant where Goodkind suprised me in reguards to plot. I also found a few major errors in his plot, though I cannot recall them at the moment. I never read passed Faith of the Fallen. I couldn't take it anymore. It was far too cut and dry in terms of good vs. evil for my taste. I like having to question a character's morality, but Goodkind denies me that. His good characters are clearly good and his evil characters clearly evil. All the protagansts have near identical personalities, with the exception of Dalton.

But what bugs me most is that the characters go through the exact same inner conflict every single frickin book. The first time Richard and Kahlan dealt with separation seemed far too over dramatic me. The second, third, however many times they separate, every time bored me greatly.

I initially cheered him for having the balls to kill off so many characters. Later though (3rd or 4th book in) I was annoyed that each book ended so....conclusively. The only transfer from one book to the next comes in the last chapter of the prior. This makes the series feel...too loosely bound as a series. This is major in a series as long as SoT. I need something more than a 10 page setup to keep me going.

And finally, I gotta say the right wing conservative messages that filter through these books turned me off more than anything else. That, and the main characters (Richard and Kahlan) no longer strike me as real people. My favorite book was Fire of the Soul, and that was all because of the great new characters he created. Then he killed them all, what a shame.

[Anita Blake]

oooh, someone else saw the propoganda! yay! ~hugs 77~ (and that was totally well-put! )

[Apoc]

One small thing...some warwizard leader Richard is....I haven't seen him lead an army into battle once in six books!

Ok, there was the battle in the Blood Of The Fold, but he hardly led his people did he...arrived late and then just sorta jumped into the the fight....If Gratch hadn't shown up they would have been mauled

Still cool though....but if I have to hear one last time how much Kahlan loves Richard and visa versa...I will...I will...do something terrible

[Anita Blake]

oh, you'll have to hear it again. kahlan's turning into quite the jealous biatch about it too. it seems with each book, she just gets dumber. literally less smart. also, the more she says she loves richard, the less she trusts him, when clearly he's Always Right When He Trusts His Intuition.

~flees, again~