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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
I won't write a ling review, since I'm on my phone at the airport, haha :) but I will say this (and trust, I could rant about this for paragraphs but I'm restraining myself) this book is SLOW for 350 pages. And the bickering! Kahlan was miserably whiny, which disappointed me because she was awesome in the other ones. However, after they FINALLY get on their way to Anderith, it picks up. Not his best, but it was ok.
Okay fine! I liked this one! But Terry Goodkind was still a weird little pervert.
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This novel begins immediately after Temple of the Winds ends, on the morning after Richard and Kahlan are married. As with all of the novels so far, it does take a bit to get into, as it has an almost episodic fee, but the familiarity of the characters make this bearable. I do, however, most definitely go back and forth over the affection that is shared by Richard and Kahlan. It is, at the same time, incredibly cheesy and nauseating, while also being genuine. The lengthy descriptions from the eyes of these two do have a tendency to be overdone and quite repetitive, however. I get it. Kahlan is in love with Richard and vice versa and they cannot stop touching. Point taken, but can we move on please?
The story begins amongst the Mud People, who I am only vaguely familiar with considering that I began reading this series at Book 3 with the Blood of the Fold. I had been told that the television show closely mirrored the books (which it doesn’t seem to have done) and that is would be okay to start reading there. This seems to have been a mistake and I will eventually go back and rectify that. In any case, things are already amiss for our beloved couple and their band, as death seem to be stalking the village in the form of a chicken. Richard senses that all is not right, but of course no one believes him. The Mud People are being “attacked” by what they consider to be an evil spirit, but Richard thinks there is more to it than that.
This causes much consternation on Kahlan’s part as she floats back and forth between hating herself for not trusting Richard and admiring him for standing up for his beliefs, almost in the same breath. This is most definitely one of those times when the exposition of how much they love each other and how much they can’t stop touching borders on painting them as idiotic teens rather than competent heroes.
It turns out, though, that Richard is correct. All is not right, as the Chimes were released when Richard and Kahlan were married. Kahlan had called on them to save Richard in the last novel, when he had become a victim of the plague; however, the prophecy had said that they would not truly be released except when the Seeker had been married to his third wife. Since Kahlan is only his second, this could not possibly be the Chimes that were loose. Zed and Ann understand the signs, however, and craftily lie to Richard and Kahlan, sending them on a foolish errand to Ardindryl to get the Sword of Truth. I am not entirely certain of their motives for this, perhaps it was simply to save Kahlan the psychological trauma of having released the Chimes. There is enough truth in the quest that it actually makes sense and no one suspects their duplicity, at this point. As a reader, I was even taken in by the deception of the “lurk.” In either case, the result is the same: magic is being dismantled and failing.
The story then moves to Anderith, where we meet Fitch and Beata. This is a disorienting transition and not only seems artificial, but is also completely uninteresting. Having read numerous novels such as this, it was immediately obvious that this was going to be an important intersection for the plot, but neither the characters nor the setting caused me to care about the progression of the story here. I simply wanted to get back to what was important. Sure, there were undercurrents of thematic issues, such as on group being oppressed by the other for no reason other than an old legend, but I just really didn’t care. Yes, there is a corrupt government official who has his way with any woman he wants, whenever he wants. But I found myself bored with chapter after chapter of a plodding storyline with uninteresting characters.
As the story continues in Anderith, the failing of magic and the influence of the Imperial Order emerge as links to the overarching story. While these are good attempts at fitting these long chapters into the storyline, I am still incredibly bored with the characters and setting. The politics seem arbitrary, the magic misunderstood and the impact seems insignificant, outside of their strategic value to the Order and their meta value to the story.
Finally coming back to Richard and Kahlan, the pieces begin to fall into place. The mystery of the Dominie Dirtch is intriguing and the connections of Joseph Ander is compelling. While this helps with the relevance of the storyline being developed in Anderith, it is still hard for me to care about the characters there. I did, however, enjoy the subtle foreshadowing of the song. I appreciated the literary idea of reality gradually fading into legend that is presented here. The knowledge may no longer have context, but it has definitely not been lost.
For more thoughts on Soul of the Fire, visit my website.
The story begins amongst the Mud People, who I am only vaguely familiar with considering that I began reading this series at Book 3 with the Blood of the Fold. I had been told that the television show closely mirrored the books (which it doesn’t seem to have done) and that is would be okay to start reading there. This seems to have been a mistake and I will eventually go back and rectify that. In any case, things are already amiss for our beloved couple and their band, as death seem to be stalking the village in the form of a chicken. Richard senses that all is not right, but of course no one believes him. The Mud People are being “attacked” by what they consider to be an evil spirit, but Richard thinks there is more to it than that.
This causes much consternation on Kahlan’s part as she floats back and forth between hating herself for not trusting Richard and admiring him for standing up for his beliefs, almost in the same breath. This is most definitely one of those times when the exposition of how much they love each other and how much they can’t stop touching borders on painting them as idiotic teens rather than competent heroes.
It turns out, though, that Richard is correct. All is not right, as the Chimes were released when Richard and Kahlan were married. Kahlan had called on them to save Richard in the last novel, when he had become a victim of the plague; however, the prophecy had said that they would not truly be released except when the Seeker had been married to his third wife. Since Kahlan is only his second, this could not possibly be the Chimes that were loose. Zed and Ann understand the signs, however, and craftily lie to Richard and Kahlan, sending them on a foolish errand to Ardindryl to get the Sword of Truth. I am not entirely certain of their motives for this, perhaps it was simply to save Kahlan the psychological trauma of having released the Chimes. There is enough truth in the quest that it actually makes sense and no one suspects their duplicity, at this point. As a reader, I was even taken in by the deception of the “lurk.” In either case, the result is the same: magic is being dismantled and failing.
The story then moves to Anderith, where we meet Fitch and Beata. This is a disorienting transition and not only seems artificial, but is also completely uninteresting. Having read numerous novels such as this, it was immediately obvious that this was going to be an important intersection for the plot, but neither the characters nor the setting caused me to care about the progression of the story here. I simply wanted to get back to what was important. Sure, there were undercurrents of thematic issues, such as on group being oppressed by the other for no reason other than an old legend, but I just really didn’t care. Yes, there is a corrupt government official who has his way with any woman he wants, whenever he wants. But I found myself bored with chapter after chapter of a plodding storyline with uninteresting characters.
As the story continues in Anderith, the failing of magic and the influence of the Imperial Order emerge as links to the overarching story. While these are good attempts at fitting these long chapters into the storyline, I am still incredibly bored with the characters and setting. The politics seem arbitrary, the magic misunderstood and the impact seems insignificant, outside of their strategic value to the Order and their meta value to the story.
Finally coming back to Richard and Kahlan, the pieces begin to fall into place. The mystery of the Dominie Dirtch is intriguing and the connections of Joseph Ander is compelling. While this helps with the relevance of the storyline being developed in Anderith, it is still hard for me to care about the characters there. I did, however, enjoy the subtle foreshadowing of the song. I appreciated the literary idea of reality gradually fading into legend that is presented here. The knowledge may no longer have context, but it has definitely not been lost.
For more thoughts on Soul of the Fire, visit my website.
This book was slower than the previous two. Like Stone of Tears, this book seemed to be setting up future books because it had to introduce new people and information.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One More Time into the void, and this time it is Soul of the Fire.
Terry has finally done it and I can't say that I am sorry for it. This book finally gives Richard consequences to his actions and all I can say is its about flippin time.
I know a lot of people rag on Terry's writing and I understand why. I rag on him a bit later, but right now as it stands, he is still a lot better than a lot of the writers I've read at this point in my young life, I am reviewing as though I am in my teens still, Terry doesn't use cliche's or predictable plot twists. And I loved this.
Terry is superb at writing bad-ass characters of both genders and gives them unique and phenomenal powers that haven't been seen before. They have their own culture, plots, sub-plots, personalities that are unique unto themselves. I love the arcs then he gives them. But, he does have the habit of creating to many characters, losing track of them, giving them one or two epic moments, and then they fade off into obscurity.
They series to this point is still epic to me. It has been a huge part of my life and I have grown up reading it. I have been known by this series. People ask me about this series.
This book is sooo very slow and shockingly it takes place in a short amount of time then the other books do. The book does have a natural progression from the start of the book to the end but it takes forever to get from the start of the book to the end. It is like trudging through mud. Thankfully it wasn't as large as previous book.
I did love that new characters and civilizations were introduced. This at least gave you something new to explore. I just fear that as with characters in the previous books, these characters and civilization will fade off into obscurity after the end of this book.
It is nice to see that slowly Richard is learning about his magic. It would have been nice to see Sister Verna or one of the other Sisters of the Light travelling with Richard and teaching him how to use and control his magic on his journey, that would have been helpful. It would have allowed him to learn his magic faster. We would have been able to see him actually do magic for a change.
Dalton was one of our new characters in this one. And I'll admit that his last chapter was a real let down. Hopefully he doesn't just disappear and we get to see more of him in the next book.
I can't help but wonder where Nathan is and if we are going to see him anytime soon.
Off to the next book.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have to say that I did not enjoy this book as much as the others. However, it was still good and entertaining despite its flaws.
There are numerous plots introduced in this book. Richard, Kahlan, and Cara are off to stop the Lurk (the chicken who is not a chicken) by breaking a bottle that is located in the Wizard's Keep (they were told to do this by Zedd though he was lying). Part way there Richard and Kahaln realize that the Chimes are loose so they head to Anderinth, leaving Cara to go to the Wizard's keep. Meanwhile, Zedd goes to Anderinth and Anne goes to rescue her fellow sisters from the clutches of Jagang. There is also another plot point which involves destroying a weapon in Anderinth. There is definitely a lot going on in this book.
In addition to all the new plots, we are also introduced to a few new characters and places. Dalton Campbell is the aid to the minister of culture, and Fitch is a kitchen scullion who is now working as a messenger for Campbell. The chapters that involve these characters were rather hard to get through at first since I knew nothing about them, couldn't connect to them, and didn't know their place in the overall story. Quite a bit of the book is spent on these characters and the new places, which takes away from Richard and Kahlan's story a little.
Although the first half of the book was hard to get through, I really enjoyed the second half. It becomes more exciting, the pace of the book is faster, and everything starts coming together.
There is quite a bit of violence in this book, as there are in all the others. It is also one of the most political of the series so far, in my opinion.
The writing is pretty much the same as the others. There is a lot of repetition, unnecessary details, and endless speeches and conversations, but this still didn't deter me from reading.
Overall, it was a pretty good read but not one of my favorites. If your like me and need to find out what happens to your favorite characters, then you should read this book. As all the other books I only recommend this to adults.
There are numerous plots introduced in this book. Richard, Kahlan, and Cara are off to stop the Lurk (the chicken who is not a chicken) by breaking a bottle that is located in the Wizard's Keep (they were told to do this by Zedd though he was lying). Part way there Richard and Kahaln realize that the Chimes are loose so they head to Anderinth, leaving Cara to go to the Wizard's keep. Meanwhile, Zedd goes to Anderinth and Anne goes to rescue her fellow sisters from the clutches of Jagang. There is also another plot point which involves destroying a weapon in Anderinth. There is definitely a lot going on in this book.
In addition to all the new plots, we are also introduced to a few new characters and places. Dalton Campbell is the aid to the minister of culture, and Fitch is a kitchen scullion who is now working as a messenger for Campbell. The chapters that involve these characters were rather hard to get through at first since I knew nothing about them, couldn't connect to them, and didn't know their place in the overall story. Quite a bit of the book is spent on these characters and the new places, which takes away from Richard and Kahlan's story a little.
Although the first half of the book was hard to get through, I really enjoyed the second half. It becomes more exciting, the pace of the book is faster, and everything starts coming together.
There is quite a bit of violence in this book, as there are in all the others. It is also one of the most political of the series so far, in my opinion.
The writing is pretty much the same as the others. There is a lot of repetition, unnecessary details, and endless speeches and conversations, but this still didn't deter me from reading.
Overall, it was a pretty good read but not one of my favorites. If your like me and need to find out what happens to your favorite characters, then you should read this book. As all the other books I only recommend this to adults.