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nileimaj 's review for:
Wizard's First Rule
by Terry Goodkind
I listened to the audio version of this book while waiting for the next Robert Jordan audio book to arrive from the library. Do not compare these two writers. They are nothing alike! I really enjoy Robert Jordan's books, which are complex and comprehensive. I really disliked this mish-mash of mediocre writing that seemed scripted from a "How to Write a Fantasy Novel" instructional manual.
The narrator for the audio version of this book gives the evil vegetarians a Russian/Eastern European accent. The cannibalistic natives get Chinese accents. The cooks are French. The local villagers sound like they are from Texas.
The story itself seemed very familiar to me, and then I realized that the TV show, Legend of the Seeker is based on it. I've only seen a couple of episodes, so I don't know how close it is to the book or how much of the series the show covers.
This book was kind of awful. It's very typical of what you'd think of the fantasy genre, in the sense that it includes dragons and wizards and magic. Atypically, it includes evil characters who are just absurd. First there's the uber-evil guy, named Darken Rahl of all things, who is blond and handsome and doesn't eat meat, except for when he eats the organs of a human child. His best friend likes to rape little boys, and is eventually forced to cut off and eat his own testicles. And there is a dominatrix dressed in blood red leather who loves to inflict pain, but only because she has been brainwashed all her life.
The plot meanders from mini-adventure to mini-adventure, and nothing is well-developed. There's a long section where the main characters have to spend time with the mud people, natives who can't seem to figure out how to build a roof that won't leak water. Another significant section is written from a young girl's point of view, with repeated descriptions like "the bestest ever". There is a truly awful erotic scene in which the author practices his less than stellar writing skills, using words like "moist" and "wet" and "hard" and "juices" to describe the eating of an apple.
It sounds like it could be funny, but it's not. Stay away!
The narrator for the audio version of this book gives the evil vegetarians a Russian/Eastern European accent. The cannibalistic natives get Chinese accents. The cooks are French. The local villagers sound like they are from Texas.
The story itself seemed very familiar to me, and then I realized that the TV show, Legend of the Seeker is based on it. I've only seen a couple of episodes, so I don't know how close it is to the book or how much of the series the show covers.
This book was kind of awful. It's very typical of what you'd think of the fantasy genre, in the sense that it includes dragons and wizards and magic. Atypically, it includes evil characters who are just absurd. First there's the uber-evil guy, named Darken Rahl of all things, who is blond and handsome and doesn't eat meat, except for when he eats the organs of a human child. His best friend likes to rape little boys, and is eventually forced to cut off and eat his own testicles. And there is a dominatrix dressed in blood red leather who loves to inflict pain, but only because she has been brainwashed all her life.
The plot meanders from mini-adventure to mini-adventure, and nothing is well-developed. There's a long section where the main characters have to spend time with the mud people, natives who can't seem to figure out how to build a roof that won't leak water. Another significant section is written from a young girl's point of view, with repeated descriptions like "the bestest ever". There is a truly awful erotic scene in which the author practices his less than stellar writing skills, using words like "moist" and "wet" and "hard" and "juices" to describe the eating of an apple.
It sounds like it could be funny, but it's not. Stay away!