SoT Discussion

[Buck]

Wow, I was aware of a political viewpoint in the books, but right up to the last two, I thought the books were a bit communist in nature. The whole balancing bit, where everyone gets a say and all are treated equally screams communism to me at least. Now the last two books flip everything around 180 degrees and it becomes a black and white plot as anita pointed out. I didnt pick up the whole timing of the books and recent events, Id have to reread them and check the dates out before I comment further.

Yea I agree with you 77, in that the books are verypredictable. What I like about them is that even though you can predict what will happen you still enjoy reading what does. Hisendings to each book always make the hair on my arms stand up, especially in Faith of the Fallen. But the added bonus there was I didnt predict what Richard was going to do.

As for your comment on the one dimensionality of the characters, Id have to agree with you there. 99% of the characters are clearly good or clearly evil. Although I will make a couple exceptions there.... one being nicci (is that her name?). He has killed off a number of characters and most of those deaths made me pause, Especially when Warren and that mord syth died

As for his one book plots, yea he does that and you either a fan of that or not. He is not the only author that does it, and it is a different song and dance reading those books over the other type where you get the unsatisfying nail bitting ending until you read the next issue that still doesnt resolve the plot. Everytime I read one of the latter ones (like WoT), I get this announcer voice in my head asking what will happen next and what ever happened to Moraine....followed by daytime soaps music.

[magatsu17]

I just recently finished Chainfire. It is definately on of the better books in the SoT series. So if you like the series but are worried because some of the books aren't as good as other then know that this one is one of the better ones.

[Buck]

New book?! I had no idea! And it is a good book? SWEET!!

[sir archely]

reading this now, and i just finished soul of the fire. i wouldn't say this is david eddings bad, but it's getting close, imo. there are brief moments in which i am entertained, but they are all too few, and sandwiched between so much ugh stuff. what really bothers me about this series is that there seems to be so much narration by characters. they continually explain the plot to each other, explain their reasoning behind something, debate action, etc. also, i can't for the life of me figure out why we were following Ann through this book. Her plot offers so much opportunity for Goodkind to give us some Jagang perspective, and yet we get repeated scenes of her being fed. and then she has absolutely nothing to do with the end plot. Not only that, but you get to the end of this book, have literally 5 pages left, and nothing is resolved at all. then everything wraps up in those 5 pages. ~sigh~

a few questions... do they ever stop being idiots about splitting up? does richard ever actually learn to use his gift?

i'll finish the series, because i don't like starting one and not finishing it... but damn, it's proving frustrating.

[Amos]

Terry Goodkind has been largely influenced by the books of Ayn Rand and is a strong supporter of her works and of Objectivist philosophy. While he admits to writing in the fantasy genre, he perceives his novels to be more than just traditional fantasy due to their focus on philosophical and human themes.

Hence the boring. Apparently he's working on the last novel now, but I gave up after trying and failing to understand why he wrote PoC.

[Buck]

Wait, what?


Terry Goodkind is pushing a philosophical agenda in his books?



I would like to think this became dead obvious by the time Blood of the Fold came out. TG has a very specific viewpoint on how people think and interact. Sure it may not mesh well with my standpoint at times, but that doesnt make what he writes false or pointless. One of the main reasons I read his books is because of the bizarre and weirdness rolled into one series. Lots of weird creatures, cool mythologies and a well expanded world.

His writing apeals to me. I find the cliches well delivered and the human element in various motivations vivid. His portrail of a very grey world with little to know black and white draws a lot of similarities with the real one we live in, and if you read too much in between the lines, the Emperor is a lot like Karl Rove...


As for PoC, trying to figure out why he wrote it might give you a tumour. I prefer to think about how he recovered from it with Chainfire.

[sir archely]

ugh. if you want to make a philosophical point in analogy, you have to either articulate the philosophy extremely well, or slip it into an excellent story. in other words, you have to be really good at one thing or the other. goodkind seems to be doing each a bit half-assed.

and how do you figure he's got a gray world? richard/kahlan=embodiment of all good things... darken/jagang=embodiment of evil. for example, martin's world is FAR more of a spectrum than this digital world.

another thing bugging me about soul of the fire. richard/kahlan have a huge debate about whether or not they should go to aydindril from the mud people like zedd says, or go to anderith. it's a huge journey, yadda yadda. yet somehow fitch makes it from anderith to aydindril and back and still is there right about when jagang's forces are moving in. i understand how it still wouldn't have worked because of what they had to do, but they got into this huge thing about how much of a journey it was. bah.

[sir archely]

just finished pillars of creation... why didn't anyone warn me how much this book sucks?

oh wait. you did.

[Buck]

I still have not read Confessor in entirety. I honestly lost interest after about midway through the book. I lent the book out to my roommate who is planning on powering through the book cover to cover this weekend. Or so he boasts, I laughed when he touted he could do it. Not because he can't but because the motivation for doing such a thing is ill advised from my perspective.


Oh and to answer a question from a couple months back...

I find that SoT has a lot of grey and very little black and white b/c those that you would think are bad end up being good to a degree. Shota and the Mord Sith are great examples. This whole bit with Jagang is a late series evolution, and yea the attitude of the series changed quite a bit when it went from episodic to some long drawn out arc.

The early books are the ones I value the most for that impression, I can't think of any other book or books that I have read that I actually had any emotional attachment to any of the characters as well. When Warren died, it was a very heartfelt moment in the book for me. On the flip side, GRRM books are awesome and he kills off people left and right but I never felt for any of them... Even when Bran was chucked out a window. I just shrugged and thought that was a shame as I flipped the page.

[Vivacia]

Gratch was the best character in the whole series. Everything after the third book simply sucked. They we so PREACHY. I despised the way he had to reiterate every single point again and again and again. I especially didn't like the way he decided to "explain" how magic works. All the talk about matrices and spell forms. Blah, blah, blah. I got the feeling he was trying to make himself sound more intelligent than he really is. The rape theme has always bothered me. It's like he has a total preoccupation with rape. I would often wonder while reading the series if he had some porn collection full of rape scenes. I totally agree with the comments about the anti-communist propaganda and the characters being so cut and dry evil or good. I also think that Richard is the crappiest wizard that ever lived. How many times did he actually use magic? He reminded me of Gandalf in the LotR. He's this powerful wizard, but he never seems to do anything magical. (don't get me wrong here, I adore Gandalf, but never developed any feelings for Richard Rahl)

p.s. Does anyone want to buy my collection of these books> I have them all in 1st edition hardcovers and at least on or two are signed. PM me an offer if you want them.