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A review by khourianya
The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind
3.0
When Terry Goodkind wrapped up the Sword of Truth series, I had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't be able to stay away from Richard and Kahlan for long. And I was proven right with the release of The Omen Machine.
In a nutshell - at the gathering for the wedding of Cara and Benjamin, prophecy hangs in the air. As an obsession of the people. As the strange words on everyone's tongues. As the violent acts that happen to prevent its realization. Most of all - it is coming true. The prophecies are coming true almost as fast as they are revealed.
Suddenly, Richard and Kahlan feel like they are being watched. As though the people's palace is no longer safe. And when a strange machine is discovered that has been buried for thousands of years and it starts spewing forth the same prophecies as the people - things get very strange indeed.
This book was an odd one. It jumped around A LOT. It also left a lot of loose ends and never seemed to be able to provide concrete reasoning for much of what transpired. It was as though Goodkind decided that he needed to give his bank account an injection that only his fans could provide so he took a bunch of random ideas and loosely strung them together.
Not only that, but the writing really irked me. Goodkind isn't a great writer on the best of days, but he can usually string a decent story together. This one felt as though he was repeating himself over and over and I found myself growing weary of the repetitiveness as the book wore on. I think it is safe to say he only wrapped up about a third of the plotlines and he would lead the reader to believe the characters would take a certain action only to leave that line dangling. Perhaps he was rushed to get it to a publisher and forgot to map it out in advance.
So - I withhold a recommendation on this one. It feels too disjointed, but if you are a fan of the Sword of Truth series - you might enjoy a step back into that world again. I didn't but I can be weird like that.
In a nutshell - at the gathering for the wedding of Cara and Benjamin, prophecy hangs in the air. As an obsession of the people. As the strange words on everyone's tongues. As the violent acts that happen to prevent its realization. Most of all - it is coming true. The prophecies are coming true almost as fast as they are revealed.
Suddenly, Richard and Kahlan feel like they are being watched. As though the people's palace is no longer safe. And when a strange machine is discovered that has been buried for thousands of years and it starts spewing forth the same prophecies as the people - things get very strange indeed.
This book was an odd one. It jumped around A LOT. It also left a lot of loose ends and never seemed to be able to provide concrete reasoning for much of what transpired. It was as though Goodkind decided that he needed to give his bank account an injection that only his fans could provide so he took a bunch of random ideas and loosely strung them together.
Not only that, but the writing really irked me. Goodkind isn't a great writer on the best of days, but he can usually string a decent story together. This one felt as though he was repeating himself over and over and I found myself growing weary of the repetitiveness as the book wore on. I think it is safe to say he only wrapped up about a third of the plotlines and he would lead the reader to believe the characters would take a certain action only to leave that line dangling. Perhaps he was rushed to get it to a publisher and forgot to map it out in advance.
So - I withhold a recommendation on this one. It feels too disjointed, but if you are a fan of the Sword of Truth series - you might enjoy a step back into that world again. I didn't but I can be weird like that.