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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
I'm about to get all up in this book's craw for some terrible choices on the part of the author, and the part of his characters, but I would like to state up front that I am not opposed to characters making choices that are morally questionable. If characters--especially "the good guys"--don't mess up every now and again, we usually find them flat or boring. What I AM opposed to is characters making morally questionable choices without either the characters or the author bothering to question those questionable choices. When the hero of your series leaves an entire country to be slaughtered at the end of your book as punishment for not voting for him (essentially, it's complicated), and doesn't feel the least bit guilty about it (in fact, you get the idea he feels righteous in his decision), that's not moral complexity or shades of grey. That's fascism.
Perhaps in the hands of another author, the character of Richard Rahl (who used to be a kindhearted woods guide, but is now more and more becoming an arrogant, oftentimes cruel, dictator) would have been interesting and dynamic. I mean, we are a culture obsessed with anti-heroes right now, to the point that even motherfucking Superman can't be a straight up good guy because that would be "boring." (Except: we have Captain America also, so maybe all is not lost. I will stop this tangent now.) Good guys breaking bad (and potentially redeeming themselves later on) can make for good drama. Unfortunately, in Terry Goodkind's hands, this is not that story. It is abundantly clear from reading these books that Goodkind not only sees absolutely nothing wrong with Richard's increasingly dickish, tyrannical behavior (to everyone, even those he loves), but he clearly believes all of Richard's actions to be 100% gold, hero material. Those people who didn't vote for him? They deserve what they will get (being slaughtered by the Imperial Order, who promised them--the uneducated, fearful masses--peace) because they were too stupid to see the truth and do it Richard's way. In Richard's worldview, and I have to assume Goodkind's, Richard's subjects are there to be ruled, not protected. And that is disgusting.
This series has never been one I enjoy for its high quality. I've always been entertained by it, like once a year this sexist, idiotic, over the top, childishly executed BDSM circus rolls into town, and I'm just there for the ride, wondering what fool thing is going to happen next. But this book wasn't fun to read. I did not enjoy the experience of being asked to empathize with our main characters Richard and Kahlan. I actively rebelled against it and judged them constantly as stupid, reactionary, mean, childish, sexist assholes.
On top of all that, structurally, this book is a mess. The first hundred pages are spent LITERALLY watching Richard run around chasing after a "chicken that is not a chicken". The chicken is possessed by the Chimes, evil spirit things Kahlan accidentally set loose at the beginning of the last book. Kahlan spends that hundred pages complaining to Richard and disbelieving him, even though he is the Seeker of Truth, and she should trust his judgment by now. Instead it's WHY WON'T YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME. Goodkind is constantly ruining Kahlan as a character. Why couldn't she have just supported Richard, and acting in her role as Mother Confessor and leader of the Midlands, I don't know? Tried to help him? What a novel idea.
So after they are done chasing after this chicken, which they FINALLY all agree is evil, we then spend the next 160 pages with characters we've never met in a location we've never even heard of before. 160 pages, after we've just been told that our heroes have this incredibly important and urgent mission to save magic and the world, let's just ignore that and go do this other thing! Richard and Kahlan (and Zedd and the others) show up for like thirty more pages, and then it's time for 200 more pages of this new location and characters. It wasn't well balanced at all.
Not to mention, the new location (Anderith) is also full of idiots and assholes. Again, in the hands of another author, this section might have played out like one of those experimental one-off Star Trek episodes where things are very different in order to explore some metaphorical concept. Anderith is a country inhabited by two peoples, the Hakens and the Anders. Long ago, the Hakens invaded and due to a lot of complicated factors, eventually turned from being the rulers to the ruled, to the point where the Anders are looked upon as almost gods, and the Hakens are kept uneducated and aren't allowed to have last names. The Anders teach the Hakens (and their fellow Anders) that the Hakens are evil and did terrible things in their past, which is not true, and also a gross oversimplification of complicated history. The Hakens are also forced to spend required "penance days" where they are taught about how their culture is inherently evil, and about all the terrible things they did to the Anders back in the day. It might have been an interesting way to explore the way that history so often becomes convoluted when people seeking power change the narrative, but it was just so unpleasant the way Goodkind handled it. The characters in Anderith were either idiots or power hungry jerks. I hated all of them. And then of course, Richard and Kahlan arrive at like, page 600, and both the Hakens and the Anders start doing all this bad shit to them, and you're meant to hate them all enough so that when we get to the point that Richard abandons them to the Order, you think it the right decision. It's an unholy soup of crap.
And all of that terrible stuff takes away from my enjoyment of some of the genuinely cool stuff Goodkind includes. Zedd is always a fun character, and here he spends half the book as a raven, and he is STILL one of the more interesting things going on. The Chimes are a cool idea as an antagonistic force, but Goodkind barely utilizes them, choosing instead to focus on the stupid Haken/Ander conflict, which does nothing but paint his "hero" Richard in a very bad light.
I knew I was in for trouble at the beginning of this book when a character we haven't seen in a couple of books shows up and greets Richard by totally reaming him out, calling him on all of his shit, and demanding an apology. The whole time she was talking I was just like, YES YES YOU ARE SO RIGHT DU CHAILLU YOU TELL HIM YESSSS. And then? Richard shuts her down. He refuses to acknowledge her many and various salient points. He refuses to take any responsibility for the role he's played in fucking up her life, not even just to say that even if he would do all of it again, he's still sorry for her suffering. Except he's not. He's not sorry at all. He couldn't give less of a fuck if he tried. He clearly feels nothing but contempt for this woman, who is eight months pregnant by the way, carrying a baby Richard begged her not to abort, even though she was basically gang-raped, and the father is one of the rapists.
Anyway, all of that long-windedness, and we can probably sum up my reaction to this book with one gif:
Perhaps in the hands of another author, the character of Richard Rahl (who used to be a kindhearted woods guide, but is now more and more becoming an arrogant, oftentimes cruel, dictator) would have been interesting and dynamic. I mean, we are a culture obsessed with anti-heroes right now, to the point that even motherfucking Superman can't be a straight up good guy because that would be "boring." (Except: we have Captain America also, so maybe all is not lost. I will stop this tangent now.) Good guys breaking bad (and potentially redeeming themselves later on) can make for good drama. Unfortunately, in Terry Goodkind's hands, this is not that story. It is abundantly clear from reading these books that Goodkind not only sees absolutely nothing wrong with Richard's increasingly dickish, tyrannical behavior (to everyone, even those he loves), but he clearly believes all of Richard's actions to be 100% gold, hero material. Those people who didn't vote for him? They deserve what they will get (being slaughtered by the Imperial Order, who promised them--the uneducated, fearful masses--peace) because they were too stupid to see the truth and do it Richard's way. In Richard's worldview, and I have to assume Goodkind's, Richard's subjects are there to be ruled, not protected. And that is disgusting.
This series has never been one I enjoy for its high quality. I've always been entertained by it, like once a year this sexist, idiotic, over the top, childishly executed BDSM circus rolls into town, and I'm just there for the ride, wondering what fool thing is going to happen next. But this book wasn't fun to read. I did not enjoy the experience of being asked to empathize with our main characters Richard and Kahlan. I actively rebelled against it and judged them constantly as stupid, reactionary, mean, childish, sexist assholes.
On top of all that, structurally, this book is a mess. The first hundred pages are spent LITERALLY watching Richard run around chasing after a "chicken that is not a chicken". The chicken is possessed by the Chimes, evil spirit things Kahlan accidentally set loose at the beginning of the last book. Kahlan spends that hundred pages complaining to Richard and disbelieving him, even though he is the Seeker of Truth, and she should trust his judgment by now. Instead it's WHY WON'T YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME. Goodkind is constantly ruining Kahlan as a character. Why couldn't she have just supported Richard, and acting in her role as Mother Confessor and leader of the Midlands, I don't know? Tried to help him? What a novel idea.
So after they are done chasing after this chicken, which they FINALLY all agree is evil, we then spend the next 160 pages with characters we've never met in a location we've never even heard of before. 160 pages, after we've just been told that our heroes have this incredibly important and urgent mission to save magic and the world, let's just ignore that and go do this other thing! Richard and Kahlan (and Zedd and the others) show up for like thirty more pages, and then it's time for 200 more pages of this new location and characters. It wasn't well balanced at all.
Not to mention, the new location (Anderith) is also full of idiots and assholes. Again, in the hands of another author, this section might have played out like one of those experimental one-off Star Trek episodes where things are very different in order to explore some metaphorical concept. Anderith is a country inhabited by two peoples, the Hakens and the Anders. Long ago, the Hakens invaded and due to a lot of complicated factors, eventually turned from being the rulers to the ruled, to the point where the Anders are looked upon as almost gods, and the Hakens are kept uneducated and aren't allowed to have last names. The Anders teach the Hakens (and their fellow Anders) that the Hakens are evil and did terrible things in their past, which is not true, and also a gross oversimplification of complicated history. The Hakens are also forced to spend required "penance days" where they are taught about how their culture is inherently evil, and about all the terrible things they did to the Anders back in the day. It might have been an interesting way to explore the way that history so often becomes convoluted when people seeking power change the narrative, but it was just so unpleasant the way Goodkind handled it. The characters in Anderith were either idiots or power hungry jerks. I hated all of them. And then of course, Richard and Kahlan arrive at like, page 600, and both the Hakens and the Anders start doing all this bad shit to them, and you're meant to hate them all enough so that when we get to the point that Richard abandons them to the Order, you think it the right decision. It's an unholy soup of crap.
And all of that terrible stuff takes away from my enjoyment of some of the genuinely cool stuff Goodkind includes. Zedd is always a fun character, and here he spends half the book as a raven, and he is STILL one of the more interesting things going on. The Chimes are a cool idea as an antagonistic force, but Goodkind barely utilizes them, choosing instead to focus on the stupid Haken/Ander conflict, which does nothing but paint his "hero" Richard in a very bad light.
I knew I was in for trouble at the beginning of this book when a character we haven't seen in a couple of books shows up and greets Richard by totally reaming him out, calling him on all of his shit, and demanding an apology. The whole time she was talking I was just like, YES YES YOU ARE SO RIGHT DU CHAILLU YOU TELL HIM YESSSS. And then? Richard shuts her down. He refuses to acknowledge her many and various salient points. He refuses to take any responsibility for the role he's played in fucking up her life, not even just to say that even if he would do all of it again, he's still sorry for her suffering. Except he's not. He's not sorry at all. He couldn't give less of a fuck if he tried. He clearly feels nothing but contempt for this woman, who is eight months pregnant by the way, carrying a baby Richard begged her not to abort, even though she was basically gang-raped, and the father is one of the rapists.
Anyway, all of that long-windedness, and we can probably sum up my reaction to this book with one gif:
adventurous
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
A lot of outside story here, but it was interested and when it finally became relevant it was pretty great!
I quit. It's the same story again, and I'm a bit done. Moving on to something more interesting, it's simply not worth my time!
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
With rare exceptions, this book was boring as hell. Our main characters were absent half the time and none of the drawn-out side plots added anything to the story. 620 pages of nothing happening only for the crisis to be resolved with hand-waving in the last 20. The quality of the writing has also further declined. I will not be continuing with the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, Sexism, Pregnancy
Right now I'm having a really hard time continuing with this series. This book, like the previous one, had so many things wrong with it it's hard to even know where to start with a review.
I think I'm mostly tired of everyone in the books being so stupid. People just randomly refuse to listen to reason in order to make things more complicated. And the female characters are the WORST. All the women in this universe do is cry, wail, moan, giggle, and throw themselves under any man who is moderately powerful or goodlooking. Not that that matters since they're just going to get raped anyway. But even the main characters seem to have no real connection... Richard and Kahlan repeatedly don't trust one another...and of course the worst possible thing happens when they don't.
The whole Anderith section of the book really just failed to get me to care. The new characters went nowhere, and weren't particularly interesting. We basically spent 300+ pages of setting up characters just to be part of an object lesson. The only saving grace of the Anderith stuff was that since it was new it was free of the reiteration that plagues the rest of the books.
Also, most of this book just felt like a re-hash. Once again, the world is doomed and Richard is the only person who could ever possibly save it. Once again, magic is failing. I believe every magical character has lost their magic at least once... and Zedd had at least 4? times. I think he is more often without magic than otherwise. Once again, we can't use fire. I almost laughed when everyone was shocked by this idea... even though fire was outlawed a few books ago. The betrayal of Anne by the sisters was a complete redo as well. It's like Terry Goodkind ran out of ideas and just remixed a bunch of old ones.
I will end by pointing out what was to me the worst section in the book. When (ex)prelate Anne is infiltrating the enemy camp, filled with soldiers that want to grope her, whom we have been reminded (over and over and over again) butchered and gang-raped an entire city, who want to conquer the entire world and kill the babies - she says to herself (paraphased:) "Well, these guys are kind of bad, but BEGGARS. Beggars are way worse, because they LIE. I really really hate BEGGARS"
I think I'm mostly tired of everyone in the books being so stupid. People just randomly refuse to listen to reason in order to make things more complicated. And the female characters are the WORST. All the women in this universe do is cry, wail, moan, giggle, and throw themselves under any man who is moderately powerful or goodlooking. Not that that matters since they're just going to get raped anyway. But even the main characters seem to have no real connection... Richard and Kahlan repeatedly don't trust one another...and of course the worst possible thing happens when they don't.
The whole Anderith section of the book really just failed to get me to care. The new characters went nowhere, and weren't particularly interesting. We basically spent 300+ pages of setting up characters just to be part of an object lesson. The only saving grace of the Anderith stuff was that since it was new it was free of the reiteration that plagues the rest of the books.
Also, most of this book just felt like a re-hash. Once again, the world is doomed and Richard is the only person who could ever possibly save it. Once again, magic is failing. I believe every magical character has lost their magic at least once... and Zedd had at least 4? times. I think he is more often without magic than otherwise. Once again, we can't use fire. I almost laughed when everyone was shocked by this idea... even though fire was outlawed a few books ago. The betrayal of Anne by the sisters was a complete redo as well. It's like Terry Goodkind ran out of ideas and just remixed a bunch of old ones.
I will end by pointing out what was to me the worst section in the book. When (ex)prelate Anne is infiltrating the enemy camp, filled with soldiers that want to grope her, whom we have been reminded (over and over and over again) butchered and gang-raped an entire city, who want to conquer the entire world and kill the babies - she says to herself (paraphased:) "Well, these guys are kind of bad, but BEGGARS. Beggars are way worse, because they LIE. I really really hate BEGGARS"
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
La storia sarebbe stata anch abbastanza interessante: il salvataggio di Richard alla fine del libro precedente aveva evocato nel mondo i tre Rintocchi, altre armi magiche senzienti risalenti alla vecchia guerra (come i Mriswith e la Silph, la Spada della verità e il Legame dei Rahl). Solo che queste creature invincibili godono nell’uccidere, risucchiano la magia dal mondo e hanno lo scopo di prendersi l’anima promessa loro con l’evocazione. L’anima di Richard.
Zedd decide di provare a fermarli da solo, ingannando Richard per tenerlo al sicuro nel Mastio;
Richard subodora la truffa, scopre per vie traverse dove deve andare e vi si dirige;
Jagang non soffre più di tanto, visto che quelle creature fanno il lavoro sporco per lui e in più la magia Detrattiva continua a funzionare, e per ora le Sorelle dell’Oscurità sono sue schiave;
Ann decide di sfruttare questo periodo in cui l’Imperatore non ha più potere per salvare le Sorelle prigioniere e uccidere le altre, onde evitare che quando la magia tornerà siano usate come armi da Jagang.
L’unico problema è che la storia sarebbe stata veloce e tutto sommato breve, in 400 pagine sarebbe stata molto meglio. Invece buona parte del libro viene usata per farci conoscere la cultura di Anderith, la nazione protetta dal Dominie Dirtch e che deve decidere se allearsi con il D’Hara o con l’Ordine. Ci viene mostrata la storia totalmente ininfluente di Flitch e di Beata, che intervengono giusto sullo sfondo e sono completamente inutili. Non hanno un ruolo nella vicenda, non sono persone straordinarie per abilità o mente o morale. Sono persone comunissime che vivono sempre sullo sfondo, sfiorando gli avvenimenti come semplici spettatori.
E a loro è dedicata buona parte del libro. Totalmente inutile.
Altre brutture
Altre brutture sono il fatto che Khalan stia regredendo mentalmente al punto da non credere quasi più a Richard (nè quando arriva la sua “vecchia moglie”, nè quando parla dei Rintocchi o delle decisioni da prendere). Ed è veramente indisponente leggere di questa persona espertissima di politica e di decisioni, una persona che ormai conosce Richard, i suoi pensieri e il suo modo di agire, che ora invece si comporta come si sarebbe comportata Nadine nel libro precedente.
Poi Richard che concede il diritto di voto sull’annessione all’Impero. Una cosa senza precedenti, tutte le altre nazioni hanno dovuto dire subito “si” o “no”. A loro invece dà diritto di voto al popolo perdendo settimane, e addirittura facendo comizi in giro per la nazione. Ridicolo!
Ann che si fa fregare come l’ultima delle allocche…
Non c’è appello, questo sarebbe potuto essere un libro accettabile se fosse stato molto più corto. Così è solo un brodo allungato, che si fa leggere forzatamente e controvoglia per tutta la parte centrale.
Zedd decide di provare a fermarli da solo, ingannando Richard per tenerlo al sicuro nel Mastio;
Richard subodora la truffa, scopre per vie traverse dove deve andare e vi si dirige;
Jagang non soffre più di tanto, visto che quelle creature fanno il lavoro sporco per lui e in più la magia Detrattiva continua a funzionare, e per ora le Sorelle dell’Oscurità sono sue schiave;
Ann decide di sfruttare questo periodo in cui l’Imperatore non ha più potere per salvare le Sorelle prigioniere e uccidere le altre, onde evitare che quando la magia tornerà siano usate come armi da Jagang.
L’unico problema è che la storia sarebbe stata veloce e tutto sommato breve, in 400 pagine sarebbe stata molto meglio. Invece buona parte del libro viene usata per farci conoscere la cultura di Anderith, la nazione protetta dal Dominie Dirtch e che deve decidere se allearsi con il D’Hara o con l’Ordine. Ci viene mostrata la storia totalmente ininfluente di Flitch e di Beata, che intervengono giusto sullo sfondo e sono completamente inutili. Non hanno un ruolo nella vicenda, non sono persone straordinarie per abilità o mente o morale. Sono persone comunissime che vivono sempre sullo sfondo, sfiorando gli avvenimenti come semplici spettatori.
E a loro è dedicata buona parte del libro. Totalmente inutile.
Altre brutture
Altre brutture sono il fatto che Khalan stia regredendo mentalmente al punto da non credere quasi più a Richard (nè quando arriva la sua “vecchia moglie”, nè quando parla dei Rintocchi o delle decisioni da prendere). Ed è veramente indisponente leggere di questa persona espertissima di politica e di decisioni, una persona che ormai conosce Richard, i suoi pensieri e il suo modo di agire, che ora invece si comporta come si sarebbe comportata Nadine nel libro precedente.
Poi Richard che concede il diritto di voto sull’annessione all’Impero. Una cosa senza precedenti, tutte le altre nazioni hanno dovuto dire subito “si” o “no”. A loro invece dà diritto di voto al popolo perdendo settimane, e addirittura facendo comizi in giro per la nazione. Ridicolo!
Ann che si fa fregare come l’ultima delle allocche…
Non c’è appello, questo sarebbe potuto essere un libro accettabile se fosse stato molto più corto. Così è solo un brodo allungato, che si fa leggere forzatamente e controvoglia per tutta la parte centrale.