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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it took a while before it really captured me, but once it did I was invested. slow start, but good ending.
Incredible first book to an up and down series. Powerful imagery and emotion as the story unfolds. The TV series based on these books could never match up to the words, but what has?
The only thing that makes me happier than a big fat fantasy book is a big fat series of big fat fantasy books. I discovered Wizard's First Rule over 20 years ago and loved it. I recently stumbled on it in a used bookstore and thought I'd see if my tastes had changed in the intervening years. I'm glad I did. This book is flawed, but it's fairly unique. The author must have been a pretty strange dude. The first time I got hooked on this series, I gave up after a few books because it seemed like Goodkind lost his marbles. I don't remember which book it was, but one of them was just page after page of semi-coherent political rambling. The seeds of his unhinged politics are present in this first book, but he manages to keep himself in check enough to tell a pretty compelling story. The characters could be better. Richard is tiresome at times. But I like him as a character. The man can make a pretty spine-tingling speech. I enjoyed Goodkind's ability to leaven the story with humor without getting too silly. Overall, I'd say this book has aged pretty well. If anything, the little S&M side quest feels more at home in 2023's zeitgeist than it did in the 90s. There aren't many strong female characters. But is that much worse than today, when every female is Wonder Woman and every male is Homer Simpson? If you go into a fantasy book looking to be offended because of your gender politics, you'll probably be offended. But most of these books were written decades ago. Times were different. I don't think Goodkind set out to denigrate women. I think the guy just had a screw loose. I liked this book a lot, but not everybody will. What else is new?
The writing is a bit stagnant at times, in that every sentence starts with someones name. "Richard said this" "Kahlan did this" Zedd said this" which can be a bit unnatural. Other than that I did genuinely enjoy the book. It had a lot more going on than the Legend of The Seeker which got me interested in reading these books in the first place. Although that series was rather badly done, it's still a guilty pleasure of mine.
The only other critique I have is the length of the book. The first half of the book is rather boring and I had to force myself past it to the more exciting bits.
The only other critique I have is the length of the book. The first half of the book is rather boring and I had to force myself past it to the more exciting bits.
It's fine. It's really nothing fancy. The initial world-building draws you in, but the rest is pretty predictable and cliché. The names of some of these characters really draws you out of immersion, as well as some of the obviously male-centered writing. This is definitely not Robert Jordan or Tolkien. I forced myself to finish the book but won't continue with the second.
I wanted to like this. And did like it, to some extent. But there was a great deal of physical and sexual violence - and in a fair amount of detail. If an author feels like those things are absolutely necessary to a plot line, I can understand that, but I felt like the descriptions went a little past that at times. I also didn't feel like there was much in the way of character development for any of the characters throughout the book. So, three stars - it was an enjoyable read generally, but I'm not sure yet whether I want to read any of the further books in this series. We will see.
Before you read this review, you need to understand that we all have secret guilty pleasures. I admit I find the Sword of Truth series truly fascinating and a real pleasure to read. But I don't take it seriously. And so far it's something that I find only in this series. I find fantasy series either amazing and page-turners or average to boring, with generic characters.
There's one exception: this series. There are many problems with it, just read other reviews (not mine) of later books in the series. But I read it continuously, all 12 volumes, never feeling like a drag. Sure, it has its ups and downs but there's a lot of "it's so bad it's good". I can't really explain it. Either you get it or not. I don't think the characters here are heroic, and I'm pretty certain I misinterpreted the author's intentions, but unless he tells me exactly that, I think I am allowed to enjoy the absurd situation that I find in this series, along with the emotions, dangers, and sense of wonder the characters go through.
Pay attention to the bookshelf I've added this to. It's called guilty pleasures. Here you can find books that I know are not perfect and I cannot recommend them wholeheartedly (I'll probably agree with your every criticism) but to me, the time reading them was well spent.
There's one exception: this series. There are many problems with it, just read other reviews (not mine) of later books in the series. But I read it continuously, all 12 volumes, never feeling like a drag. Sure, it has its ups and downs but there's a lot of "it's so bad it's good". I can't really explain it. Either you get it or not. I don't think the characters here are heroic, and I'm pretty certain I misinterpreted the author's intentions, but unless he tells me exactly that, I think I am allowed to enjoy the absurd situation that I find in this series, along with the emotions, dangers, and sense of wonder the characters go through.
Pay attention to the bookshelf I've added this to. It's called guilty pleasures. Here you can find books that I know are not perfect and I cannot recommend them wholeheartedly (I'll probably agree with your every criticism) but to me, the time reading them was well spent.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Read this when I was in primary school I think? Maybe early high school? Re-reading it, I really was not prepared for the amount of uh. Weird things. I’m reading it thinking like did this all go over my head the first time round? Did I even know what was going on like damn. Anyway it deserves some applause for being the series with like the only straight ship I shipped back then.