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A review by theartolater
The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind
1.0
This may be a contender for the worst book I've ever read.
It's not so much its tenuous grasp on its own reality - the introduction of places and things that never got mentioned before, the use and understanding of machines in a setting that has never shown anything like it before (I made the mistake on Facebook of referring to it as medieval, but you get my drift).
It's not so much the terrible, terrible writing - writing that used to create lush, interesting landscapes and places, with characters you cared about, and now only exists to jump from scene to scene with little care, and highlight action scenes above plot and character development.
It's not so much the ridiculous, thrown-together plot - the omen machine is literally what the book is about - a machine that generates omens. Why this matters or only comes up directly after Richard and Kahlan effectively save the world, and never comes up in any other way, even if it's effectively retconned into the previous books, we may never know.
It's not so much that the plot is ridiculously predictable from start to finish - riveting, interesting basic plot, but done so poorly that the results are telegraphed from miles away.
It's not even so much that it's billed as "A Richard and Kahlan Novel," even though Kahlan, once a great, strong, effective character, has been reduced to nothing more than a plot device for Richard to go and save like a damsel in distress. That's not why I read Goodkind.
I have a lot of nostalgia for the Sword of Truth series. If the Shannara books were the ones that got me into fantasy, Goodkind's series is what made me love it, even when it devolved into weird S&M/libertarian tracts along the way. The first few books in particular were quite good! This book is simply shameful. It almost come across as a ridiculous money grab given that his attempt into thrillers was such a flop overall (never mind it fit into the SoT universe).
The limited goodwill I had left with Goodkind's books is gone with this. Just a shame.
It's not so much its tenuous grasp on its own reality - the introduction of places and things that never got mentioned before, the use and understanding of machines in a setting that has never shown anything like it before (I made the mistake on Facebook of referring to it as medieval, but you get my drift).
It's not so much the terrible, terrible writing - writing that used to create lush, interesting landscapes and places, with characters you cared about, and now only exists to jump from scene to scene with little care, and highlight action scenes above plot and character development.
It's not so much the ridiculous, thrown-together plot - the omen machine is literally what the book is about - a machine that generates omens. Why this matters or only comes up directly after Richard and Kahlan effectively save the world, and never comes up in any other way, even if it's effectively retconned into the previous books, we may never know.
It's not so much that the plot is ridiculously predictable from start to finish - riveting, interesting basic plot, but done so poorly that the results are telegraphed from miles away.
It's not even so much that it's billed as "A Richard and Kahlan Novel," even though Kahlan, once a great, strong, effective character, has been reduced to nothing more than a plot device for Richard to go and save like a damsel in distress. That's not why I read Goodkind.
I have a lot of nostalgia for the Sword of Truth series. If the Shannara books were the ones that got me into fantasy, Goodkind's series is what made me love it, even when it devolved into weird S&M/libertarian tracts along the way. The first few books in particular were quite good! This book is simply shameful. It almost come across as a ridiculous money grab given that his attempt into thrillers was such a flop overall (never mind it fit into the SoT universe).
The limited goodwill I had left with Goodkind's books is gone with this. Just a shame.