# Has anyone read the sword of truth series by TerryGoodkind?



## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

Hi there,  I hadn't actually really read many books since leaving high school (except for all those aerospace books in university but I won't count them   ) until i picked up The Wizards First Rule while on holiday a good few years ago now.  

My friend had left it by the pool while he ran an errand so i picked it up and started reading. 
I have to say that I was instantly hooked and by the time my friend returned I was over one hundred pages in.  

Will you can imagine that as soon as I got home I bought the book for myself and all the books in the series and read them all, one after the other.  The story of Richard and Kahlan was great and Goodkind did a fantastic job.  

Have any of you read these books and did they have the same impact?  If not what book was inspirational to you too either get you into reading or keeping you reading for all these years?


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## devalong (Aug 28, 2014)

OMG - I saw _Wizard's First Rule_ on shelves years ago (does anyone remember Walden Books and their pretty large for an 80s-90s mall fantasy/sci-fi section?), flipped through it, but never bought it/read it.

Then when you posted this I realized it's the source of one of my favorite TV shows - _Legend of the Seeker_.

Somehow I watched all the episodes in an epic few months on Hulu and never figured out that it was based on Goodkind's books. Doh!

I am off to read this series . TY!


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## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

I tried the series some years ago and...Well, it didn't have the same impact, in fact I never tried another.  Possibly it was because I was hooked on the Wheel of Time and, in my opinion, there where too many elements in The Sword of Thruth that reminded me too closely of  Wheel of Time.


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## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

Hi Seleya, 

I've not heard of the wheel of time,  I'll be sure to check it out.  I guess everyone has their own tastes when it comes to this,  it may have been that since it was the first books I had read in a long time and had nothing to compare it to that it had more of an impact.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

My son was into it when he was in HS. . . . not sure whether he still is.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Seleya said:


> I tried the series some years ago and...Well, it didn't have the same impact, in fact I never tried another. Possibly it was because I was hooked on the Wheel of Time and, in my opinion, there where too many elements in The Sword of Thruth that reminded me too closely of Wheel of Time.


I *think* Goodkind's books were out before the Wheel started. I read the first. Meh.


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## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

Hi Devalong,

Yes this TV series Legend of the Seeker is based on the books by Terry Goodkind. I watched all the TV series as well, after reading the books. I have to say the actor (Craig Horner) they choose to play Richard wasn't quite what I was expecting but the shows were still pretty good. 

If you loved the TV show, you should love the books. They delve much deeper into the characters and the worlds that they explore are huge and wonderful, only your imagination is the limiting factor in the amazing worlds visualised by Goodkind. 

I hope you enjoy them.


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## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

MariaESchneider said:


> I *think* Goodkind's books were out before the Wheel started. I read the first. Meh.


I was just reading up on The Wheel of Time and the first book in the series was out in 1990, compared to The Sword of Truth Series in 1994 (according to Wikipedia anyway).

Not too far apart in terms of time, but I hadn't heard of the Wheel of Time series until it was mentioned on here. I'll have a look and see what it's like.


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## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

It's all a matter of personal preference, of course. 

I believe a thing that also contributed to my non-enjoyment was the Italian publisher's byline that went like: _'The Wheel of Time' for grown-ups_.

Given that the two series had the same publisher at the time it felt in real bad taste to exalt one at the other's expense (also given that, to me, the 'grown up' part basically ended up meaning 'there's sex and gore', two elements I've a low level of tolerance for in my leisure reading) .


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## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

The publisher probably thought the best way to get instant reader engagement was to compare it to something else. Unfortunately that's marketing for you and although some people may not like it, others will as it will introduce them to the books. 

There are a lot of marketing ploys out there that I don't agree with but unfortunately they exist because they work, or they are seen to work. However, there are plenty of marketing strategies that I think are okay and it helps lead people to find something that they would otherwise not have found out about.


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## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

Micki23 said:


> I bought the entire series, but the books were really long. I don't get a lot of time to read. We just watched the Legend of the Seeker series instead.


Yes, the books are long, but if you liked the TV show, then you will certainly love the books. They expand so much on the TV show and have so much more to give than what was provided by the TV executives.


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## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

It's on my to red list,  but fairly far down. I'm still not even through the first third of the first book of Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, which I'm told is a much more needed read.


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## Marc Johnson (Feb 25, 2011)

I read the series. I really enjoyed the first three books but it quickly stumbled downhill after that. There were huge chunks of recapping and exposition I started skipping, but what bothered me the most was how by the end I started to hate Richard and I wanted him to die.

Richard became such an arrogant, infallible guy that it drove me crazy. That wouldn't have been so bad had he not ruined all the supporting characters. I thought they were great at first but became weaker as they started to rely on Richard to make the right decision. It was weird because they were all rulers or masters of a sort but they turned to a guy who never even learned how to properly use his power. That ending also didn't help either.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I read the first few books in the series - maybe 5 of them before setting the series aside. It became too much after a while. I loved the idea of the series but after several thousand pages of the thing, I had to move on. But, I was the same way with _The Game of Thrones_ ... halfway through the third book I gave up on them as just too much.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

Geoffrey said:


> I read the first few books in the series - maybe 5 of them before setting the series aside. It became too much after a while. I loved the idea of the series but after several thousand pages of the thing, I had to move on. But, I was the same way with _The Game of Thrones_ ... halfway through the third book I gave up on them as just too much.


Ditto, and I think exactly the same point with GoT, I only made it about 3 books in to SoT


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## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

Marc Johnson said:


> I read the series. I really enjoyed the first three books but it quickly stumbled downhill after that. There were huge chunks of recapping and exposition I started skipping, but what bothered me the most was how by the end I started to hate Richard and I wanted him to die.
> 
> Richard became such an arrogant, infallible guy that it drove me crazy. That wouldn't have been so bad had he not ruined all the supporting characters. I thought they were great at first but became weaker as they started to rely on Richard to make the right decision. It was weird because they were all rulers or masters of a sort but they turned to a guy who never even learned how to properly use his power. That ending also didn't help either.


I wonder if Goodkind struggled to develop the series after the first few books. I did particularly enjoy the early part of the series and read all the way to the end. I have to say that the end was a bit weird, but I'll not put any spoilers on here. I did like the veil between worlds. I enjoyed the series and was excited to see the TV show when it came out. As I said in an earlier post, the producers didn't pick the actor I would have picked to play Richard, but it was a decent show as well. Unfortunately the budget of the show just couldn't compare to my imagination


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## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

Geoffrey said:


> I read the first few books in the series - maybe 5 of them before setting the series aside. It became too much after a while. I loved the idea of the series but after several thousand pages of the thing, I had to move on. But, I was the same way with _The Game of Thrones_ ... halfway through the third book I gave up on them as just too much.


Game of Thrones is another great series of books, plus the TV show is pretty cool too. I have to say that some of the books, especially surrounding the kingsmoot of the iron born was not particularly engaging for me, but the rest has certainly kept me gripped and can't wait to see where Martin takes it.


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## SarahCarter (Nov 8, 2012)

Seleya said:


> there where too many elements in The Sword of Thruth that reminded me too closely of Wheel of Time.


Yeah, I noticed that as well. To be fair, I've only tried one of the Sword of Truth books and it wasn't the first one, so I'm not in a great position to judge. But I found that one book to be pretty awful. I ended up skipping large parts of it. The TV show was pretty fun though!

As for inspirational books, I think for me it was Lord of the Rings. My dad started reading it to me when I was about 6, and that's where my love of fantasy and writing began. Later on, the Wheel of Time series also became a big inspiration.


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## MDIreman (Oct 30, 2014)

I'm not a huge fan of Goodkind's writing style. It's honky at times and some of his short stories are so trite they are painful, but the amount of controversy that Wizard's First Rule has produced is laudable. He's doing something right.


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## EthanRussellErway (Nov 17, 2011)

I have a friend that recommended this series a while back, and I kind of forgot about it.  I'll have to check it out, thanks for the recommendation.

If I do it sometime soon, I'll be sure to update this thread with my thoughts.


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## John Donlan (Sep 20, 2014)

MDIreman said:


> I'm not a huge fan of Goodkind's writing style. It's honky at times and some of his short stories are so trite they are painful, but the amount of controversy that Wizard's First Rule has produced is laudable. He's doing something right.


I'm in full agreement with you. I only ever read the first one, and I really didn't enjoy it at all. A lot of the character motivations seemed hackneyed and shoehorned in to fit the narrative, and a lot of things that happened just did not make any sense to me. I couldn't bring myself to buy any of the other books after that.

I actually did enjoy the TV show though. It was fun, if a little silly.


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

I read the entire series. By the sixth book I was only reading because I'm a serial finisher. The ending was weird. I even read the contemporary spin-off, which was meh. But when Goodkind tried to continue the series with The Omen Machine I was done. I also really liked The Legend of the Seeker


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

I started that series, but quit in the second book because there was a rape scene that made me feel just yuck. Like I needed to go shower in clorox after reading it. After that, I vowed to never pick up another one of Goodkind's books. It seems like most people who try Sword of Truth either love it or hate it; I'm afraid I fall into the latter camp.

I also quit Wheel of Time around book 4 or 5 when I realized I had no idea what was going on, but I understand Brandon Sanderson (one of my favorite authors) did a brilliant job of finishing up the series after Robert Jordan died, so I'm almost tempted to pick up the books he wrote in the series.

What really got me enthusiastic about reading fantasy was the Earthsea trilogy, which my parents gave me when I was 11, and the Riddle-Master trilogy by Patricia McKillip. Brilliant, beautiful fantasy. At the moment I'm enjoying the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson.


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## DMBaillie (Oct 24, 2014)

A couple of people on here have mentioned Wheel of Time, I'll definitely have to check it out.


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

> I believe a thing that also contributed to my non-enjoyment was the Italian publisher's byline that went like: 'The Wheel of Time' for grown-ups.
> 
> Given that the two series had the same publisher at the time it felt in real bad taste to exalt one at the other's expense (also given that, to me, the 'grown up' part basically ended up meaning 'there's sex and gore', two elements I've a low level of tolerance for in my leisure reading) .


Don't forget the heavy handed Objectivist allegory. That drove a lot of people away, too.

I read most of these, but stopped after "Chainfire." Richard's self-righteousness, the morality that was presented as black-and-white but really wasn't, the recaps, the retreads, the quotes from Terry Goodkind interviews disparaging the entire fantasy genre, the chapter-long speeches that end with, "Oh Richard, you're so cool and awesome. I swear myself to your service."... I could go on. Suffice to say, I wish I had stopped around Book 4.


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## AbbyBabble (Mar 16, 2013)

DMBaillie said:


> A couple of people on here have mentioned Wheel of Time, I'll definitely have to check it out.


 Yeah, I love the Wheel of Time (enough to make a fan site for it). If I'd read the Goodkind books first, I might have enjoyed them, but I couldn't like them after reading 7+ WoT books.

I was okay with _Sword of Truth_, but the second two were worse, and I stopped at that point. It's been about fifteen years, and I don't remember details now. I loved the idea of the Mother Confessor, though!


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## John Donlan (Sep 20, 2014)

AbbyBabble said:


> Yeah, I love the Wheel of Time (enough to make a fan site for it). If I'd read the Goodkind books first, I might have enjoyed them, but I couldn't like them after reading 7+ WoT books.
> 
> I was okay with _Sword of Truth_, but the second two were worse, and I stopped at that point. It's been about fifteen years, and I don't remember details now. I loved the idea of the Mother Confessor, though!


Nice looking site Abby. I have all the Wheel of Time books on my bookshelf, but so far, I've only ever managed to make it to book six. I run out of steam at that point. I still love the world and characters, but there are so many of them by then, that it takes half the book for them to see any movement. I will get through them all sooner or later!


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## Groggy1 (Jun 21, 2010)

Yes, long time ago. I stopped after the 4th book I think,


Spoiler



The use of rape as an control device (while not mis-understood) got under my skin.


 There were a couple of issues with where and how he was heading in the series. They are a nice series if you can get past the spoiler.


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## AbbyBabble (Mar 16, 2013)

John Donlan said:


> Nice looking site Abby. I have all the Wheel of Time books on my bookshelf, but so far, I've only ever managed to make it to book six. I run out of steam at that point. I still love the world and characters, but there are so many of them by then, that it takes half the book for them to see any movement. I will get through them all sooner or later!


 Thanks! 
The Wheel of Time books had a lot of problems, it's true. I still got addicted and read them all. I must have reread the first 7 more than three times each. For me, the magic system and character interactions were key. RJ got bogged down, especially in Books 8-10.


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## Nicholas Andrews (Sep 8, 2011)

I read Wizard's First Rule back in high school, but that was the same summer I also first read A Game of Thrones. Martin just blew Goodkind right out of the water, and I completely forgot about Sword of Truth until I saw a few episodes of the TV show years later. While both books were really long, it felt more justified with GoT. It was a different kind of fantasy, and had a lot of different characters, settings, and stories to keep it fresh. Goodkind's just felt way too long and drawn out for the story he was telling.


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