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frexam's review against another edition
4.0
I've read most of these over the years, as long back as [b:Wizard's First Rule|43889|Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth, #1)|Terry Goodkind|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385248539s/43889.jpg|1323305]. I'd thought it was done a while ago pretty much, and hadn't realized it had continued on. This is a nice addition to the series, although I really need to get around to filling in the gaps of those I've missed.
Looks like a new series will continue on in the same world after this one, too ;)
Looks like a new series will continue on in the same world after this one, too ;)
ashryn's review against another edition
3.0
Well, that was the best in the last ten years. Still way too much repetition especially of things revealed in just this book, but less than the last three, it almost seems there was a new editor for this one. I'm glad of the closure, but I wouldn't recommend this series to anyone who hadn't already started it.
raptorimperator's review against another edition
4.0
Probably the best out of the "Richard and Kahlan" books, or what I call the "Omen Arc". It really didn't have the same scope or epic quality that the Chainfire trilogy had, but it was still good, and entertaining to a certain extent. The most intriguing character was probably Red the Witch Woman. Richard and Kahlan are a pale shadow of what they were in the original books before "The Omen Machine". And in my opinion, Emperor Sulachan and Hannis Arc can't even compare to Jagang as a fearsome and evil adversary, especially considering how easily they are defeated. It took Richard several books to defeat Jagang, while Hannis Arc and Sulachan are quickly dispatched in the last 50 pages, and the half people horde is just as easily subdued. "Confessor" was most definitely the better conclusion to Richard and Kahlan's story than "Warheat" was, but it still a good/decent read. Not great. But good. I gave it a four star rating mainly for giving Richard and Kahlan a happy ending, even if it's still open ended. Though I'd probably rate it 3 1/2 stars if I could.
bogdanbalostin's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't write a full review at the previous ending of this series but... The previous ending is the Confessor book, the ending to the Sword of Truth series while this series of 4 books is called Richard and Kahlan and it's a sequel to the other series. Honestly, it's just one big freaking series with 2 endings. Your choice where you want to stop. So, back to the previous ending. It was not perfect but it was fitting. Maybe it had elements of deus ex machina but it didn't feel like it because the struggle was real and the villain (not likable, duh) was pretty fleshed out.
Back to this book that tries to bring everything together. Literally everything. Some characters just pop up in the last book to say hello after they've been missing from the last 3 or 4 books (depends on how you count).
I recognize the book was terrible half-way through by having this feeling of "no way they are going to do this" and "you've got to be kidding me" but I kept going because the more I was near the ending the more hilarious the whole situation was becoming. And I didn't laugh so much from a book in a few months. I mean even the characters go into Rambo mode and they have lines like "Pffft! I've been dead and now I'm better".
Did I like it? Yeah but not because it's a well-written story or has great characters. It's just that it feels like a parody of the original series and I can appreciate that. Too much, it seems. So if you are the type of reader who takes everything seriously (or even listen to the author who pretends to write a serious story) you'll give it 2 stars. If you can find the hilarious part of it and feel that reading it was time well spent then you'll probably give it 5 stars.
Let's go fast through the whole book, without or with minimal spoilers. The beginning is very slow, considering that there is an invasion going on and this is the last book. It's female power. Four badass women go to save a guy.
Then for a huge part of the book, they roam around lead by the dude, while they protect him and argue about stuff. It's like an episode of a harem anime.
Rant time: Samantha was becoming one of my favorite characters in these last 3 books and I got really angry at what happened to her. It's not just because I don't agree with the author but it feels like her story was just the lazy way out with fewer explanations to give. I just wanted to see more of her character development. Rant over.
In the last quarter of the book, Richard is doing impossible stuff without any explanations and yeah, the ending happens. Happily ever after. Come on, this is not a spoiler, it's expected.
By the way, do you remember who the villain was? Neither do I. That's the main problem with this series (last 4 books). The antagonist is not a well-developed character. He only does one thing and then the story unfolds around Richard. They barely met or fight. For a long part of the story he is missing and I caught myself at times completely forgetting about him.
Anyway, instead of the conclusion, you can see my reaction to this ending below:
Back to this book that tries to bring everything together. Literally everything. Some characters just pop up in the last book to say hello after they've been missing from the last 3 or 4 books (depends on how you count).
I recognize the book was terrible half-way through by having this feeling of "no way they are going to do this" and "you've got to be kidding me" but I kept going because the more I was near the ending the more hilarious the whole situation was becoming. And I didn't laugh so much from a book in a few months. I mean even the characters go into Rambo mode and they have lines like "Pffft! I've been dead and now I'm better".
Did I like it? Yeah but not because it's a well-written story or has great characters. It's just that it feels like a parody of the original series and I can appreciate that. Too much, it seems. So if you are the type of reader who takes everything seriously (or even listen to the author who pretends to write a serious story) you'll give it 2 stars. If you can find the hilarious part of it and feel that reading it was time well spent then you'll probably give it 5 stars.
Let's go fast through the whole book, without or with minimal spoilers. The beginning is very slow, considering that there is an invasion going on and this is the last book. It's female power. Four badass women go to save a guy.
Then for a huge part of the book, they roam around lead by the dude, while they protect him and argue about stuff. It's like an episode of a harem anime.
Rant time: Samantha was becoming one of my favorite characters in these last 3 books and I got really angry at what happened to her. It's not just because I don't agree with the author but it feels like her story was just the lazy way out with fewer explanations to give. I just wanted to see more of her character development. Rant over.
In the last quarter of the book, Richard is doing impossible stuff without any explanations and yeah, the ending happens. Happily ever after. Come on, this is not a spoiler, it's expected.
By the way, do you remember who the villain was? Neither do I. That's the main problem with this series (last 4 books). The antagonist is not a well-developed character. He only does one thing and then the story unfolds around Richard. They barely met or fight. For a long part of the story he is missing and I caught myself at times completely forgetting about him.
Anyway, instead of the conclusion, you can see my reaction to this ending below:
reasonpassion's review against another edition
3.0
I'd forgotten just how much Goodkind's style of writing is about telling rather than showing. In many spots it's almost like a long lecture that happens to be done by fantasy characters. Still, the long story of Richard and Kahlan that began over a decade ago has come to an end (maybe?) and I'm glad I finished it. There's a part of me that wonders whether Goodkind wrote some of what he did here as a philosophical middle finger to the generic "the one" fantasy trope. Add in that this continues to be an ode to Ayn Rand's thinking and Richard is a fantasy version of John Galt, complete with long expositions, and the result is an at times fascinating exploration of just what kind of world there would be if you took the notion of prophecy seriously. There were moments here that were rather nostalgic, finally running into characters we hadn't seen in quite some time, but these scenes were tacked on at the end and while fun, were but a side-note to the continuously never-wrong actions of Richard. Anyway, it's done, it was interesting, if you've stuck with the series so far, it'll be appreciated.
rowdya22's review against another edition
2.0
An interesting read but I don't think I will go back to it like I will the original series. It's like the author was tired of people asking for more from this amazing world he had built so he decided to kill everyone off. Also his writing quality went WAY down. So much forced exposition it made my head hurt. Half the book is characters explaining things to other people....glad it's over.
aronr's review against another edition
2.0
I was a huge fan of Goodkind's works up through Confessor. The series should have ended there. The final set of 4 books (Omen Machine, The Third Kingdom, Severed Souls, and Warheart) has been a dumpster fire. Characters were killed off in such a way that seems insulting to their past history and actions in the SoT timeline. Killing off characters is fine, but the way it was done was truly lacking.
It felt like a majority of this arc was just overly descriptive traveling sequences. The series could have been comfortably tied up with Confessor, however these books felt almost like a retcon in how they seem to imply that this new set of events was actually the main battle all along. There is also the fact that the whole "occult magic" thing is supposed to be a balance to the Gift...except the gift doesn't have any affect against occult magic, but occult magic can slaughter gifted (a notable slaughtering of a certain character essentially happens off screen). The motivations of the new villains are incredibly week when compared to the former main villain Jagang. And after all that has been recorded of the "Great War" that occurred 3000 year prior, nobody seems to have mentioned a world threatening army of zombies?
Overall, these new books have been quite disappointing, which just kills me to admit considering how much I loved all the prior novels to this arc.
I don't generally write reviews, but my feelings of disappointment after concluding this 4 book arc were so notable that I felt a review was warranted. I would still recommend everything up to Confessor(Book 11), but I'd probably advise that the reader doesn't go past that point.
It felt like a majority of this arc was just overly descriptive traveling sequences. The series could have been comfortably tied up with Confessor, however these books felt almost like a retcon in how they seem to imply that this new set of events was actually the main battle all along. There is also the fact that the whole "occult magic" thing is supposed to be a balance to the Gift...except the gift doesn't have any affect against occult magic, but occult magic can slaughter gifted (a notable slaughtering of a certain character essentially happens off screen). The motivations of the new villains are incredibly week when compared to the former main villain Jagang. And after all that has been recorded of the "Great War" that occurred 3000 year prior, nobody seems to have mentioned a world threatening army of zombies?
Overall, these new books have been quite disappointing, which just kills me to admit considering how much I loved all the prior novels to this arc.
I don't generally write reviews, but my feelings of disappointment after concluding this 4 book arc were so notable that I felt a review was warranted. I would still recommend everything up to Confessor(Book 11), but I'd probably advise that the reader doesn't go past that point.
purrsnikitty's review against another edition
2.0
I am very easy to please when it comes to books. I love easily and quickly. I can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of times I have been disappointed by a book, but Terry Goodkind: you have accomplished something that few others have ever before.
I fell in love with the Sword of Truth series from page one of book one. I adored the characters and the story line. I read and re-read the books countless times. I begged everyone I knew to get me the next one when I finished one. I defended it to my friends who didn’t think as highly of it as I did. It was one of my favourite series.
It remained one of my favourite and most anticipated series up through and beyond Confessor, which is where many people seem to have lost interest. The First Confessor was one of my favourite books, and it seems to have been many people’s least favourite. When we hit Severed Souls, though, I couldn’t take it anymore. The characters I fell in love with were shadows of themselves. The writing was similar to that which I was proofreading for my high school English class peers.
I was told a few days ago to pick up Warheart, after discovering that a book about Nicci had been released. I decided to follow the advice and at least bring the series to a close. It has a 4.0 rating here; it couldn’t be that bad. I will say that either it got better toward the end, or I was desensitized to how bad I had initially thought it was.
Problem 1: the writing
I am not the best writer in the world. I don’t know everything about grammar mechanics. I don’t know the best way to write a story, but I am positively bewildered about how Goodkind got away with putting out what he did. Is it because he did so well with the first several books e produced?
I was drowning in repetition by page two. He uses words like “worldly (17 times), “occult (52 times), “eternal” (59 times), and “spirit” or “spirits” (233 times) even though half of the text looks like he had a thesaurus open next to him. Something that should take two sentences to be explained suddenly takes four paragraphs. I feel like he was working for a word count, not for quality.
Problem 2: the characters
Kahlan is no longer the strong Mother Confessor we once knew and loved. She just cries and goes along with whatever Richard wants. She is a weak imitation of herself. Her purpose in this book could easily have been replaced by another character.
Richard swings between being who he once was and falling into a ghost of that character. It’s like they were all reading off of scripts in a play. The dialog no longer feels natural. It feels forced and awkward.
Nicci is perhaps the only one who feels normal with the exception of Nathan, who we see for a brief moment.
I do not care about the characters we have. When someone dies, I think, “well, ok then.” I can tell the author was trying to make the characters likable and charismatic, but that’s the problem: it appeared forced.
Problem 3: the plot
(SPOILERS will present themselves here)
Well hello Cara, where on earth did you come from, where did you get that knife, how did you die, how did you know you needed to die, and how did you even get here? What even just happened? Where have you been? I’m just going to stand here and watch you kill yourself even though I never would have done so before (me being Kahlan, of course) and pretend like I don’t realize that’s what you’re doing.
Can someone please explain to me why Hannis Arc is even in this series? Goodkind has done such a supremely excellent job in the past making his villains look truly like villains. He gives us insights into their minds, lets us see their evils and their deeds. He shows us what they do and why they’re bad guys. This book would have been a book without Hannis Arc. He just served to help bring Sulachan back, but it looked like Goodkind was trying to make him look like he had much more of a purpose than that. Again I say: hello word count.
Well hi there, Samantha,--and goodbye there, Samantha, and thank you, Richard, for explaining to us exactly how brilliant Goodkind was for foreshadowing her death. Kind of ruins the foreshadowing effect when you have to lay it all out piece by piece like that. Oh, and the Mord Sith who died there, we don’t really care about her? Alright, then. I don’t think I saw her name come up a single time in the rest of the book. The other Mord-Sith noticed Cara had died, but nobody brought up Laurin’s death. You guys are great. The soldiers died there, too. Pretty convenient, since none of them could travel in the Sliph and would be trapped there in the collapsed tunnels anyway. Thanks, Sammy. Killing two birds with one stone. Or…twelve with one blast of power.
On we go to the Keep. Nice of Richard to explain while not explaining what’s going on while trying to be cryptic while trying not to be cryptic while trying to get things done. Oh, hey, Verna- the guy you loved wanted me to tell you something and I know this cause I was dead with him but I reeeeally don’t have time to explain all this right now so just take my word for it. Oh and lots of other people are dead, too. Sorry to dump it all on you, gotta run!
Now we get to the part that I can never forgive Terry Goodkind for, because I’m sure he lives his life just praying for the forgiveness of people like me.
Richard is a seeker of truth. He wields the sword of truth. He is the true seeker of truth. He serves to find truth in everything, serves to live his life in service to the truth.
And how does our lovely plot get resolved?
Through lies and deceit done by our seeker of truth.
He lies to his wife, lies to his protectors—actively lies to them over the course of hours. He plans out his whole host of lies. He goes out of his way to lie to them and to deceive them. Yes, it was for a good cause. Yes, it did succeed in saving lives. All of these characters have trusted him in the past, though. They have all gone along with his wild, insane, idiotic plans before. They know him to be the seeker, and the first wizard, and a war wizard, and all of that. If he had been honest with them upfront—if he had told them everything he suddenly decided to tell them after it was all over with, he wouldn’t have needed to lie. From what I read, nobody questioned the need to lie, though. They were a bit angry, sure, but nobody raised a hand and said, “hey, Richard, why are you telling us all of this now?”
Our seeker of truth is a liar and a deceiver when it suits him, for no apparent reason than it moves our plot along and presents us with some twists and turns.
You should have quit a few books ago, Terry Goodkind.
There were parts of this book that I did enjoy. There were brief glimpses of the characters as they once were. I will probably read the book about Nicci, just to see what happens in it. I was not satisfied with this book. I was disappointed by how it came to a close. The first ten or eleven will forever hold a special place in my heart, but I feel like I lost something special when Goodkind allowed everything to fall over like this.
I fell in love with the Sword of Truth series from page one of book one. I adored the characters and the story line. I read and re-read the books countless times. I begged everyone I knew to get me the next one when I finished one. I defended it to my friends who didn’t think as highly of it as I did. It was one of my favourite series.
It remained one of my favourite and most anticipated series up through and beyond Confessor, which is where many people seem to have lost interest. The First Confessor was one of my favourite books, and it seems to have been many people’s least favourite. When we hit Severed Souls, though, I couldn’t take it anymore. The characters I fell in love with were shadows of themselves. The writing was similar to that which I was proofreading for my high school English class peers.
I was told a few days ago to pick up Warheart, after discovering that a book about Nicci had been released. I decided to follow the advice and at least bring the series to a close. It has a 4.0 rating here; it couldn’t be that bad. I will say that either it got better toward the end, or I was desensitized to how bad I had initially thought it was.
Problem 1: the writing
I am not the best writer in the world. I don’t know everything about grammar mechanics. I don’t know the best way to write a story, but I am positively bewildered about how Goodkind got away with putting out what he did. Is it because he did so well with the first several books e produced?
I was drowning in repetition by page two. He uses words like “worldly (17 times), “occult (52 times), “eternal” (59 times), and “spirit” or “spirits” (233 times) even though half of the text looks like he had a thesaurus open next to him. Something that should take two sentences to be explained suddenly takes four paragraphs. I feel like he was working for a word count, not for quality.
Problem 2: the characters
Kahlan is no longer the strong Mother Confessor we once knew and loved. She just cries and goes along with whatever Richard wants. She is a weak imitation of herself. Her purpose in this book could easily have been replaced by another character.
Richard swings between being who he once was and falling into a ghost of that character. It’s like they were all reading off of scripts in a play. The dialog no longer feels natural. It feels forced and awkward.
Nicci is perhaps the only one who feels normal with the exception of Nathan, who we see for a brief moment.
I do not care about the characters we have. When someone dies, I think, “well, ok then.” I can tell the author was trying to make the characters likable and charismatic, but that’s the problem: it appeared forced.
Problem 3: the plot
(SPOILERS will present themselves here)
Well hello Cara, where on earth did you come from, where did you get that knife, how did you die, how did you know you needed to die, and how did you even get here? What even just happened? Where have you been? I’m just going to stand here and watch you kill yourself even though I never would have done so before (me being Kahlan, of course) and pretend like I don’t realize that’s what you’re doing.
Can someone please explain to me why Hannis Arc is even in this series? Goodkind has done such a supremely excellent job in the past making his villains look truly like villains. He gives us insights into their minds, lets us see their evils and their deeds. He shows us what they do and why they’re bad guys. This book would have been a book without Hannis Arc. He just served to help bring Sulachan back, but it looked like Goodkind was trying to make him look like he had much more of a purpose than that. Again I say: hello word count.
Well hi there, Samantha,--and goodbye there, Samantha, and thank you, Richard, for explaining to us exactly how brilliant Goodkind was for foreshadowing her death. Kind of ruins the foreshadowing effect when you have to lay it all out piece by piece like that. Oh, and the Mord Sith who died there, we don’t really care about her? Alright, then. I don’t think I saw her name come up a single time in the rest of the book. The other Mord-Sith noticed Cara had died, but nobody brought up Laurin’s death. You guys are great. The soldiers died there, too. Pretty convenient, since none of them could travel in the Sliph and would be trapped there in the collapsed tunnels anyway. Thanks, Sammy. Killing two birds with one stone. Or…twelve with one blast of power.
On we go to the Keep. Nice of Richard to explain while not explaining what’s going on while trying to be cryptic while trying not to be cryptic while trying to get things done. Oh, hey, Verna- the guy you loved wanted me to tell you something and I know this cause I was dead with him but I reeeeally don’t have time to explain all this right now so just take my word for it. Oh and lots of other people are dead, too. Sorry to dump it all on you, gotta run!
Now we get to the part that I can never forgive Terry Goodkind for, because I’m sure he lives his life just praying for the forgiveness of people like me.
Richard is a seeker of truth. He wields the sword of truth. He is the true seeker of truth. He serves to find truth in everything, serves to live his life in service to the truth.
And how does our lovely plot get resolved?
Through lies and deceit done by our seeker of truth.
He lies to his wife, lies to his protectors—actively lies to them over the course of hours. He plans out his whole host of lies. He goes out of his way to lie to them and to deceive them. Yes, it was for a good cause. Yes, it did succeed in saving lives. All of these characters have trusted him in the past, though. They have all gone along with his wild, insane, idiotic plans before. They know him to be the seeker, and the first wizard, and a war wizard, and all of that. If he had been honest with them upfront—if he had told them everything he suddenly decided to tell them after it was all over with, he wouldn’t have needed to lie. From what I read, nobody questioned the need to lie, though. They were a bit angry, sure, but nobody raised a hand and said, “hey, Richard, why are you telling us all of this now?”
Our seeker of truth is a liar and a deceiver when it suits him, for no apparent reason than it moves our plot along and presents us with some twists and turns.
You should have quit a few books ago, Terry Goodkind.
There were parts of this book that I did enjoy. There were brief glimpses of the characters as they once were. I will probably read the book about Nicci, just to see what happens in it. I was not satisfied with this book. I was disappointed by how it came to a close. The first ten or eleven will forever hold a special place in my heart, but I feel like I lost something special when Goodkind allowed everything to fall over like this.