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A review by esthergreenwoodx
Phantom by Terry Goodkind
2.0
I will finish this series because I'm invested in the characters, but this installment was so disappointing. There are plenty of other reviews on Goodreads that describe exactly how Goodkind got off track with the series, but there were two major things that really got to me throughout reading the book.
There are a few very exciting and interesting plot developments (Richard sending troops to the Old World, for example) that were certainly worth slogging my way through the unnecessary repetition that comprises most of the book's pages. This was sometimes LITERALLY verbatim from previous parts of the book. Upon beginning Confessor, I realized this was not over, and it makes me sad that this is about as inventive as the series gets now.
However, I can deal with that. It was the gratuitous, heavy-handed, poorly-written rape and near-rape scenes made this book nearly unreadable. Not only was it the principle of the thing (men using rape as a plot device is one of my least favorite things in the world) but also in terms of the way Goodkind wrote and handled the scenes. During Kahlan's time as a captive, Goodkind eliminates the gravity of the situation leading up to her near-rape by removing Kahlan's memories and essentially her personality; her voice is much less mature and intelligent throughout the book. I was willing to ignore this at first, but ultimately I found it repugnant during the amateur hour of suspense leading up to the almost-rape scene. Rather than choosing to portray Kahlan as she might have been in the past books, he portrays her as scared, almost ambivalent, and completely lacking in any control, strategy, power, or autonomy. It was an incredibly nauseating chunk of pages that stripped some fairly well-written characters (Kahlan especially, but also Jagang) of anything that once made them interesting or complex.
There are a few very exciting and interesting plot developments (Richard sending troops to the Old World, for example) that were certainly worth slogging my way through the unnecessary repetition that comprises most of the book's pages. This was sometimes LITERALLY verbatim from previous parts of the book. Upon beginning Confessor, I realized this was not over, and it makes me sad that this is about as inventive as the series gets now.
However, I can deal with that. It was the gratuitous, heavy-handed, poorly-written rape and near-rape scenes made this book nearly unreadable. Not only was it the principle of the thing (men using rape as a plot device is one of my least favorite things in the world) but also in terms of the way Goodkind wrote and handled the scenes. During Kahlan's time as a captive, Goodkind eliminates the gravity of the situation leading up to her near-rape by removing Kahlan's memories and essentially her personality; her voice is much less mature and intelligent throughout the book. I was willing to ignore this at first, but ultimately I found it repugnant during the amateur hour of suspense leading up to the almost-rape scene. Rather than choosing to portray Kahlan as she might have been in the past books, he portrays her as scared, almost ambivalent, and completely lacking in any control, strategy, power, or autonomy. It was an incredibly nauseating chunk of pages that stripped some fairly well-written characters (Kahlan especially, but also Jagang) of anything that once made them interesting or complex.