A review by spellvexit7
Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

This book baffled me.  At times the writing style, especially the dialogue, seemed artless and naive.  If you had told me this book was written in English, translated to another language, then translated back to English, I would have thought that plausible.  At the same time, its simplicity was kind of refreshing.  I found myself enjoying the unadorned descriptions of their travels and even the mundane tasks they performed.

Other times, especially near the end, there were gleeful depictions of horrific torture and suffering.  While I enjoyed that the least, and started skimming a rather lengthy torture porn section, I ironically found this to be some of Goodkind's most compelling writing.

There were some big ideas in this book: love vs hate, difficult choices, everything having a price, and so forth.  These themes were delivered with such a heavy hand that even though I got through to the end, I can't tell if this novel was successful with me. 
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