Scan barcode
A review by oliviamnsnll
The Third Kingdom by Terry Goodkind
3.0
The Third Kingdom was a mixed bag for me. I wasn't as pleased with The Omen Machine as I would have liked, due to almost never seeing any of the other amazing characters in Goodkind's world bedside Richard and Kahlan, the fact that even they didn't really feel like the Richard and Kahlan from the first 11 books, and Goodkind's need to constantly re-explain everything from the first series.
But then I read The First Confessor, which was an amazing novel. The writing, story, and characters were all equally compelling. Suddenly I had hope that Third Kingdom would be another amazing entry.
I was wrong. While Mr. Goodkind is a wonderful writer, he has never mastered the art of writing for new readers and long time followers. For me the problem lies in the fact that The First Confessor explains the origins of the threat seen in TTK, and did a really excellent job explaining it too, but TTK needed to re-explain for the characters and new readers, and almost a full third of the book was dedicated to Richard reading about the half-dead and their ilk, in the most repetitive way possible.
Something would be read on one page, and then repeated almost word for word three or four times over the next 2-3 pages, sometimes within the same paragraph. The frustrating thing was I felt like I was having to edit the book as I was reading. There is such a thing as TMI Mr. Goodkind. And then there was Henrik's super repetitive explanation of what happened between Omen Machine and this one, that again took way longer than necessary.
It wasn't until the first Kahlan chapter, Chapter 53, that this stopped and it really felt like I was reading another excellent entry in The Sword of Truth. After that everything was amazing, and the ending left me in tears, eager for the next book.
But I felt like I had to wade through a sludge of crud to get there. :/
But then I read The First Confessor, which was an amazing novel. The writing, story, and characters were all equally compelling. Suddenly I had hope that Third Kingdom would be another amazing entry.
I was wrong. While Mr. Goodkind is a wonderful writer, he has never mastered the art of writing for new readers and long time followers. For me the problem lies in the fact that The First Confessor explains the origins of the threat seen in TTK, and did a really excellent job explaining it too, but TTK needed to re-explain for the characters and new readers, and almost a full third of the book was dedicated to Richard reading about the half-dead and their ilk, in the most repetitive way possible.
Something would be read on one page, and then repeated almost word for word three or four times over the next 2-3 pages, sometimes within the same paragraph. The frustrating thing was I felt like I was having to edit the book as I was reading. There is such a thing as TMI Mr. Goodkind. And then there was Henrik's super repetitive explanation of what happened between Omen Machine and this one, that again took way longer than necessary.
It wasn't until the first Kahlan chapter, Chapter 53, that this stopped and it really felt like I was reading another excellent entry in The Sword of Truth. After that everything was amazing, and the ending left me in tears, eager for the next book.
But I felt like I had to wade through a sludge of crud to get there. :/