# Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind



## WVMark (Feb 23, 2011)

I finished twelve of the books.  I guess there's one more yet out there.

I thought the first four to five books were very good.  Good characters, story, plot.  But, then it started to drag on.  The whole middle section didn't hold my interest very well.  Still not bad, but nowhere near as good as the beginning.  The last two or three were better.

I really liked the progression of Richard and the Mord Sith around him.  Very well done.

What I didn't like was that the Darken Rahl was taken care of very quickly, and then the next ten books were about Jajang.  Ugh.  Would have been nicer to stretch out Darken Rahl a little more and shorten the Jajang stuff.  

Still, as a series, it was worth reading.  Even though I thought the middle section of books dragged a bit, I still wanted to read them to see where the story was going.

Anyone else read them?  What did you think?

Mark


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

I stopped after book one...

Nothing wrong with it.  It's decent enough high fantasy, although fairly formulatic.  It was unique in some ways, but I didn't fall in love with the characters enough to continue.  I don't read a lot of high fantasy anymore though.  In my younger days, I would have enjoyed it more...although there were some scenes towards the end that might have put me off continuing anyway.


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## purplesmurf (Mar 20, 2012)

I've never read the book (my husband is in the middle of book one right now) however the show was amazing. I was sad it only lasted one season because it was so expensive to make.


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## WVMark (Feb 23, 2011)

MariaESchneider said:


> I stopped after book one...
> 
> Nothing wrong with it. It's decent enough high fantasy, although fairly formulatic. It was unique in some ways, but I didn't fall in love with the characters enough to continue. I don't read a lot of high fantasy anymore though. In my younger days, I would have enjoyed it more...although there were some scenes towards the end that might have put me off continuing anyway.


I think it started to hit its stride around book two. But, yeah, it isn't a series for everyone.


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## WVMark (Feb 23, 2011)

purplesmurf said:


> I've never read the book (my husband is in the middle of book one right now) however the show was amazing. I was sad it only lasted one season because it was so expensive to make.


I loved the show. It actually had two seasons. I have both on DVD. They didn't stay very close to the books, but that was okay, I thought the show was very good on its own. Tell your husband to at least make it to book three. I love the Mord Sith in the book much better than the show.


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## mom133d (aka Liz) (Nov 25, 2008)

Liked the first 3 and then Goodkind just got too preachy. Still, I loved the characters and wanted to see what happened to them so I read them all.

The Law of Nines is supposed to be related to the SoT universe. I have not read it yet. Ebook is still too much for me, neither of my libraries has the ebook. I suppose I could look to see if they had a physical copy but I've got a ton of other books to read first.


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## Lily_T (Sep 25, 2011)

The ending was a little too pat for me, and the middle was definitely draggy. I'm not a huge fan of "the only way to save the day is to do this thing which snaps an even bigger trap" type story constructions. 
I enjoyed the Mord Sith and the way their characters developed. In the beginning I was like, magical dominatrices, oh really?


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## Guest (Jun 8, 2012)

I've read the books, but I prefered the earlier ones. The middle books flagged a bit. Darken Rahl seemed to me to be a more interesting antagonist than Jagang, not just for his backstory, but because he was more of a planner and less prone to following his emotions. 

The TV series was well-done, with decent acting and special effects which were nice to see on a television series. I only caught the second season when it was shown, but I've seen most of the first on re-runs. It is a shame it was cancelled.


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## ruadh (May 19, 2011)

I have read the first and last book in the series and will probably get round to reading the others purely for completeness.

I quite enjoyed the first and it works very well as a standalone novel with some interesting ideas in it. The last, well not so much and appeared to be more about wrapping all the plot points up than coming to a satisfying conclusion.

I definitely enjoyed the TV series and wish they had made more of them.


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## smallblondehippy (Jan 20, 2012)

I loved this series....until book 6. I'm not sure what happened but Mr. Goodkind seemed to lose the plot. Everything became so political and preachy that it really turned me off. Richard Rahl, who'd always prided himself on being a good man, suddenly started spouting this, 'If you're not with us, you're against us' crap and slaughtering anyone who didn't agree with him. I have Chainfire, Phantom and Confessor still sitting unread on my bookshelf. Maybe one day I'll go back and finish the series. 

I really enjoyed the TV show. It's a shame they stopped after two seasons.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

I liked book 1. Book 2 was an eyeroller for me. Book 3 I abandoned.

The books failed the Magic Cellphone Test and the Let's All Talk This Out test.

(Magic cellphone test: can this situation be solved by magic or a cell phone? And, Let's All Talk This Out: when Richard and Caitlin talk to each other, instead of spending book after book after freaking book hiding stuff from each other, getting kidnapped, and running away).


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I think I read the first 5 and then I didn't so much as give up on them as I just never picked up book 6.  It lost some of it's luster ...


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

I read the first four books in the late 90s, liking them well enough, then lost interest and drifted away.  I listened to the audio version of the fifth a few years afterwards but didn't continue beyond that.  I've always said series lose steam after four or five books and I've never known an exception.  Twelve books are just way too much.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Geemont said:


> I read the first four books in the late 90s, liking them well enough, then lost interest and drifted away. I listened to the audio version of the fifth a few years afterwards but didn't continue beyond that. I've always said series lose steam after four or five books and I've never known an exception. Twelve books are just way too much.


Slightly OT, but I can think of three...four writers ... no, 5 where I made it beyond 3 books:

Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels)
Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum -- through about 7...maybe 8 books)
Patricia Briggs (anything she writes, including grocery lists, car repair...whatever it is, I'd at least try it)
Frank Tuttle (Markhat series. Starts with novellas and just grows into some of the most enjoyable UF capers I've ever read)
Elizabeth Peters (either her Vicky Bliss series or her Amelia Peabody ones. Although I think I only read through book 12 of AP)

NONE of them are epic fantasy. But then epic fantasies are long to start with--which may be part of the reason they run out of steam. Peters, Tuttle and Evanovich rely on wit and humor fairly heavily as opposed to an over-arching plot line and I'd say that may be part of the reason for the success (with me). The characters are the same, but the mystery is often entirely different. There is some over-arching, but not a lot and the books aren't dependent on it. I'd say of all the series above the Ilona Andrews is running into the "steam running out" as the largest plotline (Kate Daniels background/history) is getting more and more tangled/convoluted and...unbelievable as the books try to have individual plots and still develop that (old) plotline.


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## Lily_T (Sep 25, 2011)

MariaESchneider said:


> Slightly OT, but I can think of three...four writers ... no, 5 where I made it beyond 3 books:
> 
> NONE of them are epic fantasy. But then epic fantasies are long to start with--which may be part of the reason they run out of steam.


Have you tried A Song of Fire and Ice by GRRM? It's up to five books and hasn't started to flag or run out of steam *knocks on wood* yet.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Believe me I've heard lots about GRRM.  It's really a bit too epic for me--and that's the FIRST book!


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Lily_T said:


> Have you tried A Song of Fire and Ice by GRRM? It's up to five books and hasn't started to flag or run out of steam *knocks on wood* yet.


Many disagree with the current book, where they found too many minor characters got their own POV chapters and pages upon pages of nothing happening, a sentence that's an important clue, and then pages upon pages of nothing happening.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

MariaESchneider said:


> Believe me I've heard lots about GRRM. It's really a bit too epic for me--and that's the FIRST book!


I gave up about 200 pages into the first book, when I realized there was still no character I really cared about (at least among the major characters). But that's the same thing that happens to me whenever I try to read a Stephen King novel, so maybe it's just me.


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## WVMark (Feb 23, 2011)

Lily_T said:


> Have you tried A Song of Fire and Ice by GRRM? It's up to five books and hasn't started to flag or run out of steam *knocks on wood* yet.


The last one I read was horrible. Dragged on with barely anything worth reading. As others said, it was way too much for just minor characters.

Mark


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## Lily_T (Sep 25, 2011)

To be fair, GRRM deliberately withheld some characters from Book 5. I thought Book 6 is meant to be read as a companion book to 5. 
I can see why people are antsy about minor characters, but part of the charm for me with GRRM is that (imo) there are no minor characters. Characters are characters and they are all expendable. Setting your heart on a certain character is a recipe for sadness. I did that with the first book (as I primed to do by other epic fantasies) and I've never really recovered from the shock. 
But with GRRM's writing speed, it'll be decades before we know whether the series will fulfill its early promise.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

No one wants GRRM to be another Robert Jordan.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Lily_T said:


> Have you tried A Song of Fire and Ice by GRRM? It's up to five books and hasn't started to flag or run out of steam *knocks on wood* yet.


I gave up half way through book 3 ....


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Ned was my favourite character. I didn't like the books after him. Then, I was still warm to Caitlin. I really didn't see the point after her.


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

Song of Ice and Fire is definitely better than Sword of Truth.

"Phantom" was the last book I read in the series, and I only read the last 5 or so out of momentum, not because I was enjoying them.  Normally, I have a whole rant prepared, but I'll just give the highlights:

- They rapidly degraded into Objectivist allegory, leading to philibusters, morally broken decisions, and putting Richard on a pedestal he never earned.  More and more, Richard went on long speeches about his point of view, ending with his worst enemies saying, "Oh wow, I never thought about it that way.  You're so cool and awesome.  Please let me have the honor of swearing myself to your eternal service."
- The "Richard and Kahlan super love each other but OH NOES THEY'RE SEPARATED" formula was overdone
- Richard's magic usage was nonsensical, especially within the rules of the universe.  The only spell he ever learned to cast was "Summon Deus Ex Machina"
- The writing became increasingly bloated with summaries, recaps, and the same speeches over and over.

So yeah...I didn't like them.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Kathelm said:


> - The "Richard and Kahlan super love each other but OH NOES THEY'RE SEPARATED" formula was overdone


This drove me up the wall.


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## Alpha72 (May 9, 2012)

I've heard these are good.


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## charlesatan (May 8, 2012)

I felt that the Richard-Kahlan love angle (separate but really together) was very soap opera-ish (it all boils down to trust and apparently there's little in either) but considered it a trope, so I let it pass.

What finally did me in, however, was the book where the main protagonist didn't appear until literally the last few pages. It didn't help that it was an agenda book--anti-Communism--AND didn't really portray anything new from the previous books (Faith of the Fallen was another anti-communism book in the series).

Goodkind revels in formula and propaganda. Song of Ice and Fire feels like it actually has a story.


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## AnelaBelladonna (Apr 8, 2009)

I LOVED the first 4 books  of the SoT but read how preachy and dull the rest of the books were and didn't want to waste my time and ruin the love I had for the early books.  I plan on re-reading the first 4 over and over again.  My favorite character was Kara.  

I didn't care for the Ice and Fire books very much.  Way too many minor characters to keep track of and too many of them had more than one name or more than one person had the same name.  Maybe I am too ADHD and don't enjoy a book where I feel I should be keeping notes.  However, I love the TV series.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

AnelaBelladonna said:


> I feel I should be keeping notes.


YES! Thank you. I've been trying to figure out how the book made me feel. This is perfect.


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## KTaylor-Green (Aug 24, 2011)

I also really liked the first 3 books. But reviews put me off reading any more of them til the end of the series and I read The Confessor. I liked it and felt as though I had gotten pretty much what the story was about.
I watched both seasons of the series and loved it!

As for Game of Thrones, it is one of my favorite fantasy series.....the books the most. I feel they are having to cram too much into 10 1 hr episodes to stay even close to the books. But they at least tie all the highlights of the books into a cohesive story and it is worth watching.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

MariaESchneider said:


> I stopped after book one...
> 
> Nothing wrong with it. It's decent enough high fantasy, although fairly formulatic. It was unique in some ways, but I didn't fall in love with the characters enough to continue. I don't read a lot of high fantasy anymore though. In my younger days, I would have enjoyed it more...although there were some scenes towards the end that might have put me off continuing anyway.


Well, I didn't stop until after Book Three at which point I was convinced that Richard was never going to bother to actually learn to USE that sword. 

Not to mention the sado-masochism just got real, real old.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> No one wants GRRM to be another Robert Jordan.


Very true. And I hope he sets his chubby butt down and finishes the thing instead of dragging the next one out for six years!


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Very true. And I hope he sets his chubby butt down and finishes the thing instead of dragging the next one out for six years!


I might have just fallen in love with you a little bit.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> I might have just fallen in love with you a little bit.


LOL Krista, you're scaring me.


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## Marc Johnson (Feb 25, 2011)

I've read the entire series. I really enjoyed the first three or four books, but after that it started to go downhill. It wasn't that the plot wasn't really going anywhere. I actually think the plot moved along nicely as opposed to A Song of Fire and Ice. It had more to do with the fact that the supporting characters regressed. They started out strong but being around Richard ruined them. He turned into an arrogant asshole who was always right despite the fact that he didn't learn anything. Around book 5 or 6, I started to actively root against Richard and kept reading the series because I wanted him to die. It also didn't help that the series ended with a deus ex machina.


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## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

I can't get into any series that's all about one person saving the world from destruction . . . especially not when that one person is the only one capable of handling the job because they're simply fated to be superior. Stories like this inevitably end up being a soapbox for the author's social-political preaching.

If 99.9999% of the characters in the story's world are helpless losers with no role in life but to bootlick the Almighty Perfect Hero, to always follow his orders and agree with him . . . well then, what _good_ are they? If the world itself is only there to feed the hero's ego by giving him something to save, then why is it worth saving?

In all fairness, it's possible I'm not being fair to _Sword of Truth._ I haven't personally read it, but comments about it like those on this thread pretty much scare me off. Particularly when its fans, and its detractors, often _agree_ on what's going on --- disagreeing only about whether they like it or not.

Granted, that's subjective. For all I know, Goodkind's actual prose and narrative manner might be tremendous.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Goodkind's prose is excellent as long as you love a writer who spends page after page describing every _single_ blade of grass and leaf of the trees. He does it pretty well actually but that also gets old very fast. I have to say I did enjoy the first one though (in spite of my reservations about his fascination with S/M). They started going downhill pretty quickly though and I barely made it through book 3.


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## WVMark (Feb 23, 2011)

John Blackport said:


> I can't get into any series that's all about one person saving the world from destruction . . . especially not when that one person is the only one capable of handling the job because they're simply fated to be superior. Stories like this inevitably end up being a soapbox for the author's social-political preaching.
> 
> If 99.9999% of the characters in the story's world are helpless losers with no role in life but to bootlick the Almighty Perfect Hero, to always follow his orders and agree with him . . . well then, what _good_ are they? If the world itself is only there to feed the hero's ego by giving him something to save, then why is it worth saving?
> 
> ...


I wouldn't describe the series like that. Overall, yes, it tends to be that Richard, our hero, is right. However, the other characters think they're right and try to go off doing their thing. And then, the story is about prophecy and how these other characters are helping to make the right one come true, while our Hero doesn't believe in any of it.

Soooo ... it does get tired and trite having Richard, the hero right 99% of the time. And the entire middle section of books just drags on. First 2-3 are good. Worth reading, IMO.

Mark


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## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

I made it to book 6. I enjoyed the books, but they're pretty intense and I needed a break. I've just never picked them up again, and now it's been so long I'd be lost in the series.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Marc Johnson said:


> I've read the entire series. I really enjoyed the first three or four books, but after that it started to go downhill....


This is one of my main gripes with many authors, but it seems rampant these days in the fantasy genre: a series that works well as a trilogy, but by the time it gets to 5 or 6 books, I just don't care any more. I realize there are both external and internal influences on authors to write sequels, but I wish more had the gumption to simply write a story with a beginning, middle, and end (instead of beginning, middle, middle, middle, _ad nauseum_, end), _and then move on to something new._


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

NogDog said:


> This is one of my main gripes with many authors, but it seems rampant these days in the fantasy genre: a series that works well as a trilogy, but by the time it gets to 5 or 6 books, I just don't care


I completely agree. I was just saying elsewhere that the events of a story should change the characters but this doesn't work when dragged out over many books. I too grow weary after book 5 or 6.


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## AnelaBelladonna (Apr 8, 2009)

There is a new one that is ebook only and is a prequal to the SoT books. I am about 20% into it and enjoying it so far.

http://www.amazon.com/First-Confessor-Legend-Searus-ebook/dp/B008GT83FG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342468522&sr=8-1&keywords=terry+goodkind


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