Beware of the hole...

[WCH]

My question: are all the books still worth reading? Like, doesn't he run out of ideas after a while or something?

I only read the first of the series, and while I enjoyed it, I couldn't bring myself to continue. It had far too many dues ex machina moments, and it had a very convoluted style.

[Dragon Hunter]

My brother said ever since he looked up blackholes every one was talking about them and it looks like it reached the western states of united states....

Any way.... I still want a sword of powerful power.....

[StruckingFuggle]

WCH: I barely managed to slog through Wizard's First Rule ... But I've mentioned how much I think that book (and the author) sucks in other threads... ... so I won't ressurect that stuff except to say out of curiosity I started Stone of Tears and gave up after the first chapter. As I understand it keeps getting worse .. but seeing as how I dislike it, and you liked it, Worse to me may be Better for you.

But what was convoluted about it? The whole thing was one huuuuuge exercise in cliche', except for the extended S&M scene (Denna, incidentally, is my favorite character of the series, closely followed by what's her name, the Bone Woman, whose name was suspiciously close to "Aid" .... Haha. I couldn't bring myself to feel anything positive for any of the main characters. Ah well ... )

[Bomer]

funny ,funny stuff. Hopefuly this is the start of a storyline

[WCH]

@SF
By convoluted I meant his writing style. He simply isn't that good a writer. The plot was pretty messed up, too... it really read like he'd made constant revisions to the premise during the writing of the book without bothering to fix any of the inconsistancies and confusion he caused by doing so. It's been a few years since I read it, though, so I can't really remember...

And when I said I enjoyed it, I meant more along the lines that it made for a decent read, not a total waste of time, but that it wasn't one of my favourites by far.

[Culan_Cuhan]

I used to like the books a lot. But after having matured a bit, yes, I do find them to have far too many Deus Ex moments.

This isn't to say, however, that I think less of anyone who reads them. I just don't like them as much as I used to, but I still read them because I do like the characters and the story and such and such. Just not the sudden solution presented at the end, and only vaguely hinted at in the previous chapters.

But I have nothing but respect for Terry Goodkind. He took what he loved to do, and made a career out of it. Which is more than I can say for myself. Unless anyone knows what I can to make money by playing video games and over-eating.









Anyone?

[WCH]

Become a professional beta-tester.

Or, more likely, a critic. Food, games, movies... anything. Not only do you get paid to eat/watch movies/play games, you also get paid for making fun of the bad ones.

Seriously, how cool would that be? I so want to be the next Ebert...

[Adapa]

Well, speaking as someone else who owns all the books thus far:

Wizard's First Rule was great, IMO. After that, the quality fluctuates, but never seems to reach the original book. The Temple of the Winds wasn't all that good, but I thought Faith of the Fallen (or at least its message) was.

However, the most recent book is not only the worst (IMO), but the most eye-opening. His writing has always been bordering on 'fluff' (Richard the hunky man saves the day again, because he is so perfect), but Naked Empire (in my opinion) finally crossed the line (or at least, did it noticeably). Also, while Goodkind's views have always been strongly expressed in the books, this is the first time that he's forced you to think about things a certain way, without putting any logic behind it.



(Minor Spoilers Ahead)



When Richard is running to get to Kahlan, and there's that 'peaceful' woman in his way, who is trying to stop him, instead of just pushing her out of the way (which he should be able to do; he's the strongest/most powerful guy in the world), he chops her in half. I mean, the whole book is an attempt to sway people over to the Bush "first strike is best" stance, but this scene just completely threw me off, and I was able to see how manipulative the text was attempting to be.

I probably won't continue on to read the next book... the series alright reading if you're just looking for something to relax with (and I found them quite easy to read), but if you're looking for a serious story, read Wizard's First Rule, and then move on to something else.

[StruckingFuggle]

but if you're looking for a serious story, read Wizard's First Rule, and then move on to something else.

Like 'Heroes Die', by Matthew Stover (... and then the kinda-sequel / better book, 'The Blade of Tyshalle'. )

[AreYouMe]

Well in response to the question of wether or not Naked Empire is the last book.

(The following is in Goodkind's own words)

I am pleased to announce that the next book, scheduled for release in early 2005, will be the first volume in the Chainfire Trilogy. This new book, CHAINFIRE, is the beginning of the story that is the grand conclusion to the Sword of Truth series.

The Chainfire Trilogy introduces a new story line to the series which will be the core background story to the trilogy and at the same time bring to a conclusion the ongoing story of the entire series.

In order to give readers a taste of what is to come, the first chapter in the Chainfire Trilogy will be released in the paperback of Naked Empire, due out in a few weeks.

It is now official: the Sword of Truth series will conclude with the Chainfire Trilogy.

I'm really excited by this event, and by the story. It will be beyond what anyone expects, or could possibly prepare for. The first sentence opening this chilling adventure is:

"How much of this blood is his?"

[Kovac]

I have read all of the books and loved them right up to Naked Empire.
Despite having a rather simple and at times cliched story it rather appealed to me, I found that it drew me into the story really well and the characters were ones that were very easy to envision and follow. You can see throughout that Terry tries to embue his stories with some of his beliefs and sometimes it came on a little strong, but in the end most books are trying to teach you something in one way or another.

However the latest book, naked empire ended up as one rant after another. Instead of being subtle and putting a message into the story he bludgeoned his opinions into you, and explained it so thoroughly that it seemed that he considered his readers to be morons.
And the end was shockingly brief and easy.
It seemed rushed and weak.

[StruckingFuggle]

/me coughs

There was subtletly?

[Kovac]

There was to some extent. He still did some explaining, but a lot of the message was also through that characters actions.

[WCH]

No book with a "message" is worth reading, fair and simple. Message means you wanted to get something across, so you through together some cliched characters and tried to show what you meant to say. That isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Everything should have meaning, yes, but meaning is what you take from something; meaning must be derived from the story, not the story derived from the meaning, and the writer should write because the story is worth telling, not because he's trying to get something across.

[Kovac]

Yeah, that lord of the rings was pretty crap. It had plenty of messages its just that in the case of that it was seamlessly part of the story.
Authors will always invest part of themselves into their stories, its part of what define one writers work from another.