The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

I thought that this amazing, wonderful books should have its own thread. For those of you not familiar with the series you can read about it here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth) but I suggest that you just pick up a copy of The Wizard's First Rule and start reading it, you won't be disappointed!

I have read a lot of Fantasy novels, including Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and all of David Eddings books, and my personal opinion is that The Sword of Truth series is the best of the lot. I absolutely love it. It has such depth which I find the aforementioned books lacking. It's not just about a young woodsguide who get's thrown in to an adventure he never could have fathomed, it's also a story with great morale and extremely loveable characters.

So if you haven't read them yet, I highly recommend you to start doing it! I can guarantee that you will love it!

Oh, and for those who have read it and didn't know, Goodkind is releasing a 12th book in the series, called The Omen Machine, that is due in July this year! :D

PS. If you've seen the series The Legend of the Seeker, yes, that is based upon these books, BUT, this series is absolute rubbish and not at all like the books. So, please don't judge it solely because of the TV-series, try reading the books instead. Thanks.

i have not read them but i did watch the series based on the book it was called legend of the seeker. it had some good stories i might need to finally pick up the book. the series got cancelled but i thought is was good

To repost an opinion;

I read his first book, "Wizard's First Rule," and that's all I'll read.

Other comments from aquaintances of mine were might be spoilers:

I stopped reading after Faith of the Fallen when Goodkind stops being a fantasy writer with Randian overtones and just makes Richard Rahl into John Galt. The rest started to degenerate into an Objectivism/rapefest. The problem with Faith of the Fallen is that it's less a fantasy novel than a philosophy lesson (it's less rapey than the last two books). I suppose you if don't mind that sort of thing it's fine however after reading the first five books and watching them slide from storytelling to ham-fisted indoctrination with a bunch of gratuitous rape scenes, S&M bodyguards, and naughty nuns thrown in it just got really tiresome.

Well, they did say it best.

Actually I didn't think the Legend of the Seeker series was bad at all, in fact, I thought it was quite good, compared to what else is on TV at any given moment. Any adaptation should be looked at it on it's own merits, not compared to the books too closely. I haven't read the books, so it was all new and fresh to me. I know from others that they changed things up a lot, but it was a TV series, not a movie or movie series; time and budget were no doubt major factors. I'm still really bummed they canceled it.

Anyway, some day I'll probably pick up Wizard's First Rule, but not before I read Lord of the Rings, which is already in my "queue". I don't usually read fiction, I'm bigger on non-fiction. I did skim through some of it at the bookstore though, it looked good.

i have not read them but i did watch the series based on the book it was called legend of the seeker. it had some good stories i might need to finally pick up the book. the series got cancelled but i thought is was good

Do it! Everything in the books are much sharper than the series. If you liked the series, then you will love the books.

Actually I didn't think the Legend of the Seeker series was bad at all, in fact, I thought it was quite good, compared to what else is on TV at any given moment. Any adaptation should be looked at it on it's own merits, not compared to the books too closely. I haven't read the books, so it was all new and fresh to me. I know from others that they changed things up a lot, but it was a TV series, not a movie or movie series; time and budget were no doubt major factors. I'm still really bummed they canceled it.

Anyway, some day I'll probably pick up Wizard's First Rule, but not before I read Lord of the Rings, which is already in my "queue". I don't usually read fiction, I'm bigger on non-fiction. I did skim through some of it at the bookstore though, it looked good.

Well, I only thought the series bad because I went absolutely mental at all the changes.

As long as you get to the Wizard's First Rule, I'm happy!


To repost an opinion;

I read his first book, "Wizard's First Rule," and that's all I'll read.

Other comments from aquaintances of mine were might be spoilers:

I stopped reading after Faith of the Fallen when Goodkind stops being a fantasy writer with Randian overtones and just makes Richard Rahl into John Galt. The rest started to degenerate into an Objectivism/rapefest. The problem with Faith of the Fallen is that it's less a fantasy novel than a philosophy lesson (it's less rapey than the last two books). I suppose you if don't mind that sort of thing it's fine however after reading the first five books and watching them slide from storytelling to ham-fisted indoctrination with a bunch of gratuitous rape scenes, S&M bodyguards, and naughty nuns thrown in it just got really tiresome.

Well, they did say it best.


Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion!

Personally, Faith of the Fallen is perhaps my favorite book in the series.

Other comments from aquaintances of mine were might be spoilers:

I stopped reading after Faith of the Fallen when Goodkind stops being a fantasy writer with Randian overtones and just makes Richard Rahl into John Galt. The rest started to degenerate into an Objectivism/rapefest. The problem with Faith of the Fallen is that it's less a fantasy novel than a philosophy lesson (it's less rapey than the last two books). I suppose you if don't mind that sort of thing it's fine however after reading the first five books and watching them slide from storytelling to ham-fisted indoctrination with a bunch of gratuitous rape scenes, S&M bodyguards, and naughty nuns thrown in it just got really tiresome.

Well, they did say it best.


Okay, now that's just bizarre.. An author writing about a magical world full of mysticism, religions, magic, an Underworld, etc.. and there's this claim that the book promotes Objectivism? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand))

:shrug:

Okay, now that's just bizarre.. An author writing about a magical world full of mysticism, religions, magic, an Underworld, etc.. and there's this claim that the book promotes Objectivism?

From wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Goodkind#Genre_and_influences)

Goodkind has been largely influenced by the books of Ayn Rand and is a strong supporter of her works and of Objectivist philosophy.

----------------

Bizarre or not, there is definitely justification for the claim.

I frankly admit that I detest the supposed philosophy "objectivism." But I favor Kant, so I guess I have some bias against Rand to begin with.

From wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Goodkind#Genre_and_influences)

Goodkind has been largely influenced by the books of Ayn Rand and is a strong supporter of her works and of Objectivist philosophy.

----------------

Bizarre or not, there is definitely justification for the claim.

I frankly admit that I detest the supposed philosophy "objectivism." But I favor Kant, so I guess I have some bias against Rand to begin with.

Wow, that's funny. An objectivist writing about a mystical fantasy world.
And yet Goodkind has a wizard's rule that there is no such thing as a contradiction? ;) He IS one.

10 years ago or more, I might have been an objectivist myself; I used to say that science was my religion. I still think it's a pragmatic philosophy, just seems a little limiting. I now think there may be more to existence than what we can (currently) detect via normal perception.

I got a couple of hundred pages into Wizard's First Rule and quickly realized the series wasn't working for me. The fact I've learnt the author is horribly pretenious (I believe he has called people who don't like the series deliquents) and the TV series hasn't helped my overall impression of it.

I started reading through several of the reviews at Amazon.. there's over a thousand!
Most people seem to really like the book(s), but three recurring complaints are: too much redundancy in what characters say, to the point of getting preachy; gratuitous amounts of sex/abuse/violence/rape; and over-attention to detail, wasting words.

I do hate it when an author feels that describing what a character is wearing, right down to the color and texture of their underwear, is somehow necessary or helpful to the story. Writing is a tightrope walk between fleshing a character out enough so as not to make them 2 dimensional, and going overkill, making reading of the book tedious and superfluous. But even then, I'm still more interested in what a character does, and says, then what he/she wears, unless that clothing is somehow tied in to the character, such as with a Mord S'ith. Which, BTW, can be reversed to "S'ith Mord", which sounds a LOT like "Sith Lord". ;)

I dunno, I'll have to give WFR a shot and see for myself; the paperback is only $8. If I don't like it, no biggie. If I do, great.
On the Legend of the Seeker DVD, they had a special section interviewing Goodkind and touring his house/studio; he didn't come off with any particular attitude that I could discern. Apparently he's also a painter and violin maker.

Wow, that's funny. An objectivist writing about a mystical fantasy world.
And yet Goodkind has a wizard's rule that there is no such thing as a contradiction? ;) He IS one.

Goodkind is a lot like Rowling in the way that he uses the mystical fantasy world as an analogy to convey his ideas. He does not actually believe in magic!

Personally, Faith of the Fallen is perhaps my favorite book in the series.

I agree, I adored that book!

I think part of the appeal of the books has to do with Goodkind's writing style. It is as if he's telling a secret that no one else knows, a secret truth that only the readers are privy to. People feel special when singled out, and Goodkind's followers pride themselves to be apart of his small fandom. I definitely am proud xD

I am looking forward to the Omen Machine this summer, I am so happy that he decided to continue telling Kahlan's and Richard's story, though I must say, I would be very interested if he started something completely new.

PS. If you've seen the series The Legend of the Seeker, yes, that is based upon these books, BUT, this series is absolute rubbish and not at all like the books. So, please don't judge it solely because of the TV-series, try reading the books instead. Thanks.
You know, I watched Legend of the Seeker, which is why I bought the first three books in series. I really enjoyed Wizard's First Rule, but when it came to Stone of Tears I really thought that Goodkind had done a poor job of executing the series. I never bothered to read Blood of the Fold because I thought Stone of Tears was just beyond poor.

It is too bad, because I thought the world of "Legend of the Seeker" was a wonderful creation, but Goodkind's execution of the story was bad.

And that is not even addressing his obsessive love with Ayn Rand.

From wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Goodkind#Genre_and_influences)

Goodkind has been largely influenced by the books of Ayn Rand and is a strong supporter of her works and of Objectivist philosophy.

----------------

Bizarre or not, there is definitely justification for the claim.

I frankly admit that I detest the supposed philosophy "objectivism." But I favor Kant, so I guess I have some bias against Rand to begin with.
I have read the opinions of many people who have read the latter books in Goodkind's series that said those books absolutely reek of Ayn Rand's philosophy.

I couldn't get past Stone of Tears, so I can't speak definitively.

About a year ago I read "Wizard's First Rule", and was unsure if I liked the series enough to keep going. My main problem is with the way the story is written, not the story itself. Mainly, I agree with Grymmditch that there was just too much detail over unimportant things. Also, I found myself rewording many of the sentences in my head because something just bugged me about the writing style. The good things about the book: I liked the premise. There were lots of interesting plot ideas, like the the Boxes of Orden and how they worked; the magic of the Sword of Truth; the magic of the Confessors. I admit I purchased "Stone of Tears" at a used bookstore for a couple of bucks, so I will consider giving the series another shot because part of me is intrigued to learn what happens after Richard learns who he really is.