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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
This is one of the better books of this series, which can get a little cumbersome and overly....soapy. Fast-paced enough to keep me reading it pretty quickly.
Terry Goodkind, Soul of the Fire (Tor, 1999)
...
As we left Richard and Kahlan last time, the two were girding the lions of the D'Haran Empire against the Emperor Jagang and his Imperial Order, getting ready for the all-out war sure to come. In book five, Jagang's army makes their first move, attempting to annex the Midlands province of Anderith, a minor strategic gem. Richard and Kahlan happen to be in a good position to stop them, but there's a slight complication in the mix; creatures of magic called the Chimes are loose in the world, thanks to the events at the end of book four (not mentioned here for plot-spoiler reasons). Richard's job is twofold; get rid of the Chimes while stopping Jagang from taking Anderith, which would give his army a solid base in the Midlands.
It would take a half-blind five-year-old not to figure out by page 100 of this eight-hundred-page novel not to make the right connections to figure out the bulk of what's going to happen by the end. There are still a few twists and turns to be had, but by this time the reader who's gone through the last few thousand pages with Richard and co. is probably less concerned with plot twists than he is with seeing what's going to happen next in the grand scale of things. And Goodkind gives us the grand scale here. He keeps the narrative just as readable while turning his attention to various contemporary political issues more than he has previously. The book does have a more nakedly political bent to it than the series has previously shown, and I think that's where a lot of the denigration comes from. Admittedly, it's a judgment call. I don't think it detracts from the book at all (and I'm one who usually sees alarm bells going off the second politics-as-message rears its ugly head in fiction); others feel otherwise.
The writing, the characterization, and the readability haven't gone downhill a bit. If you've read the first four, it's definitely worth going at least this far to see if things will turn sour for you. ****
...
As we left Richard and Kahlan last time, the two were girding the lions of the D'Haran Empire against the Emperor Jagang and his Imperial Order, getting ready for the all-out war sure to come. In book five, Jagang's army makes their first move, attempting to annex the Midlands province of Anderith, a minor strategic gem. Richard and Kahlan happen to be in a good position to stop them, but there's a slight complication in the mix; creatures of magic called the Chimes are loose in the world, thanks to the events at the end of book four (not mentioned here for plot-spoiler reasons). Richard's job is twofold; get rid of the Chimes while stopping Jagang from taking Anderith, which would give his army a solid base in the Midlands.
It would take a half-blind five-year-old not to figure out by page 100 of this eight-hundred-page novel not to make the right connections to figure out the bulk of what's going to happen by the end. There are still a few twists and turns to be had, but by this time the reader who's gone through the last few thousand pages with Richard and co. is probably less concerned with plot twists than he is with seeing what's going to happen next in the grand scale of things. And Goodkind gives us the grand scale here. He keeps the narrative just as readable while turning his attention to various contemporary political issues more than he has previously. The book does have a more nakedly political bent to it than the series has previously shown, and I think that's where a lot of the denigration comes from. Admittedly, it's a judgment call. I don't think it detracts from the book at all (and I'm one who usually sees alarm bells going off the second politics-as-message rears its ugly head in fiction); others feel otherwise.
The writing, the characterization, and the readability haven't gone downhill a bit. If you've read the first four, it's definitely worth going at least this far to see if things will turn sour for you. ****
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Soul of the Fire is the kind of bad that happens when someone who hasn't ever listened to what other people think decides to write a story with more than one character. It's sexist, full of colonialist attitudes about indigenous people, and excuses for genocide (depending on who is doing the killing).
Book CWs: Sexism, slavery, sexual assault, assault, murder, transphobia, genocide, death.
I should disclaim that I started with this book, fifth in the series, and the constant barrage of infodumps and backstory ensured I wasn't ever lost, just angry and exasperated. I hesitate to call Richard the point-of-view character because in the early sections this book rotates perspectives so rapidly without demarcation that it felt like the author was rolling dice to see whose thoughts we'd be listening to in each successive paragraph. That eventually settles down so that we mostly follow his new bride, Kahlan, but almost all of what she does is narrate what Richard is doing, so he’s nearly the pov character anyway. When she is on her own, her thoughts bend endlessly towards him. After several hundred pages we start following other characters in a different country (Anderith) and it takes until the final third of the book before these storylines meet. This wouldn't be a problem, except that the time spent in Anderith isn't balanced with the rest of the text. There's so much time spent there that some of the characters in Anderith feel more like main characters than Richard and his companions, but when they ultimately meet up he completely dismisses them, they're merely obstacles to his strategic goals.
Richard is a Mary Sue; good at absolutely everything he attempts, except that no one seems able to express the frustration that bubbles beneath their praise of his effortless prowess. There are little hints of it in the text, but they don't go anywhere because even when they express their frustration to Richard he tells then why they're wrong. Even the "strong" female characters constantly in his orbit oscillate between 1) asserting their individuality and genuine expertise or prowess and 2) fawning over Richard in a manner that is flirty but without any of the fun of good flirting.
The author must have once heard the maxim, “show, don’t tell” and decided it was clearly better to always do both. This, when combined with the simplest of essay structures (tell ‘em what you’ll tell ‘em, tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you told ‘em) seems to guide most of the narrative style. There’s no chance to infer anything because everything is sloppily foreshadowed, then experienced, then immediately explained (often in the very next sentence). It deflates all tension immediately, preventing most circumstances from being dramatic enough to be interesting.
The word choice is flat and repetitive. While occasionally there are some genuinely interesting turns of phrase, they stand out out mostly because the rest of the prose is so dull. Most of the pithy sayings are just deepities, sounding profound but ultimately meaningless and unhelpful. The book also has a disturbing tendency for the prose and pacing to get noticeably better (but still not great) right before scenes with violence against against women.
You can portray cruel systems and terrible characters, but when the main character of the series justifies actions which are nearly or more horrific as the supposed villain(s) by saying it's fine because it's him... that's a problem. It changes from portraying toxic characteristics to endorsing them, and the overall result was sickening to read. If I were reading this for pleasure instead of as a reviewer I would have stopped after page eleven.
Book CWs: Sexism, slavery, sexual assault, assault, murder, transphobia, genocide, death.
I should disclaim that I started with this book, fifth in the series, and the constant barrage of infodumps and backstory ensured I wasn't ever lost, just angry and exasperated. I hesitate to call Richard the point-of-view character because in the early sections this book rotates perspectives so rapidly without demarcation that it felt like the author was rolling dice to see whose thoughts we'd be listening to in each successive paragraph. That eventually settles down so that we mostly follow his new bride, Kahlan, but almost all of what she does is narrate what Richard is doing, so he’s nearly the pov character anyway. When she is on her own, her thoughts bend endlessly towards him. After several hundred pages we start following other characters in a different country (Anderith) and it takes until the final third of the book before these storylines meet. This wouldn't be a problem, except that the time spent in Anderith isn't balanced with the rest of the text. There's so much time spent there that some of the characters in Anderith feel more like main characters than Richard and his companions, but when they ultimately meet up he completely dismisses them, they're merely obstacles to his strategic goals.
Richard is a Mary Sue; good at absolutely everything he attempts, except that no one seems able to express the frustration that bubbles beneath their praise of his effortless prowess. There are little hints of it in the text, but they don't go anywhere because even when they express their frustration to Richard he tells then why they're wrong. Even the "strong" female characters constantly in his orbit oscillate between 1) asserting their individuality and genuine expertise or prowess and 2) fawning over Richard in a manner that is flirty but without any of the fun of good flirting.
The author must have once heard the maxim, “show, don’t tell” and decided it was clearly better to always do both. This, when combined with the simplest of essay structures (tell ‘em what you’ll tell ‘em, tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you told ‘em) seems to guide most of the narrative style. There’s no chance to infer anything because everything is sloppily foreshadowed, then experienced, then immediately explained (often in the very next sentence). It deflates all tension immediately, preventing most circumstances from being dramatic enough to be interesting.
The word choice is flat and repetitive. While occasionally there are some genuinely interesting turns of phrase, they stand out out mostly because the rest of the prose is so dull. Most of the pithy sayings are just deepities, sounding profound but ultimately meaningless and unhelpful. The book also has a disturbing tendency for the prose and pacing to get noticeably better (but still not great) right before scenes with violence against against women.
You can portray cruel systems and terrible characters, but when the main character of the series justifies actions which are nearly or more horrific as the supposed villain(s) by saying it's fine because it's him... that's a problem. It changes from portraying toxic characteristics to endorsing them, and the overall result was sickening to read. If I were reading this for pleasure instead of as a reviewer I would have stopped after page eleven.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery
Minor: Transphobia
CW for Sexism, slavery, sexual assault, assault, murder, transphobia, genocide, death.
really good! I almost had a heart attack when I thought Kahlan was dead at the end, but she wasn't. however, the focus on minor characters, such as Dalton Campbell and Fitch got a bit boring in the beginning.
In the fifth book of the Sword of Truth series, Goodkind introduces another magical threat from the underworld ready to tear the veil and end life as we know it: the chimes. Of course, only Richard has the brains and the guts to stop them. The catch: he doesn't have the Sword of Truth, nor does he have the time to retrieve it from Aydindril. With half his magic virtually useless, without the sword, he travels to the country of Anderith in hopes of finding answers.
The subplot involving Fitch, one of the oppressed majority Hakens in Anderith, is actually rather neat. I felt very sorry for him as Dalton led Fitch astray and used Fitch for his own purposes. Dalton's actions at the end, however, show that he realizes how blind he was all along.
This may be my favourite book of the series so far. My only complaint is that Richard is largely useless. He spends the first third of the book debating whether or not he should go to Aydindril or Anderith. In the second third, he tries to find a way to stop the chimes in Anderith. In the last portion of the book, he concocts a "creative" magical solution. Without his potent Sword of Truth, Richard does not get to do much killing in this book, or much of anything. The most interesting parts are the scenes with Dalton and Fitch. Ann's experience in the camp of the Imperial Order comes in second. While I do not like how she and Zedd, in a moment of plot-induced stupidity, kept the truth from Richard, I sympathize with the predicament she encounters when trying to free her fellow Sisters of the Light.
Unlike the last book, where some of the antagonists were just annoying, the Ander antagonists in this novel were fun. I loved Bertrand Chanboor and his wife. Dalton is a sympathetic antagonist who realizes how much of a mistake he has made. Jajang and the Imperial Order are still present, they are a major concern, but the plot is not necessarily about them. This is a sensible move on Goodkind's part, since it avoids forcing an inevitable (and thus final) confrontation between Richard and Jajang.
Aside from Richard's ambivalent travel plans, Soul of Fire proceeds at a quicker pace than the other books, skipping time quite readily in order to advance the plot. I approve.
The subplot involving Fitch, one of the oppressed majority Hakens in Anderith, is actually rather neat. I felt very sorry for him as Dalton led Fitch astray and used Fitch for his own purposes. Dalton's actions at the end, however, show that he realizes how blind he was all along.
This may be my favourite book of the series so far. My only complaint is that Richard is largely useless. He spends the first third of the book debating whether or not he should go to Aydindril or Anderith. In the second third, he tries to find a way to stop the chimes in Anderith. In the last portion of the book, he concocts a "creative" magical solution. Without his potent Sword of Truth, Richard does not get to do much killing in this book, or much of anything. The most interesting parts are the scenes with Dalton and Fitch. Ann's experience in the camp of the Imperial Order comes in second. While I do not like how she and Zedd, in a moment of plot-induced stupidity, kept the truth from Richard, I sympathize with the predicament she encounters when trying to free her fellow Sisters of the Light.
Unlike the last book, where some of the antagonists were just annoying, the Ander antagonists in this novel were fun. I loved Bertrand Chanboor and his wife. Dalton is a sympathetic antagonist who realizes how much of a mistake he has made. Jajang and the Imperial Order are still present, they are a major concern, but the plot is not necessarily about them. This is a sensible move on Goodkind's part, since it avoids forcing an inevitable (and thus final) confrontation between Richard and Jajang.
Aside from Richard's ambivalent travel plans, Soul of Fire proceeds at a quicker pace than the other books, skipping time quite readily in order to advance the plot. I approve.
I thought this book was extremely boring. The side stories didn't really provide much context to the overall story line, and there was very little character development. The ending was my favorite part which was interesting because that's where things really picked up.
I love this series so much. Terry Goodkind has one of the best writing styles.
I thought this one was a little bloated and could have stood some judicious cutting. But the plot is moving right along. It's hard to believe there are still six or seven books left in this series.