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givethatbooknerd 's review for:
Wizard's First Rule
by Terry Goodkind
2 stars: enjoyed reading it, but honestly, it was Quite Bad.
Trigger warning: this review briefly mentions violence, torture, death, pedophilia and rape.
The storyline: man from humble origins must save the world, with the help of a wise quirky wizard and a beautiful mysterious woman. Man and woman fall in love, but can't be together. Man must choose between saving the world and saving the woman. Sound familiar? This storyline is used a lot, but that doesn't matter if the book does it with a cool twist, or has redeeming qualities in other aspects. Unfortunately, this book doesn't. You think it kind of sounds like Lord of the Rings? Even Gollum makes an appearance here. (in 1994, this might have been new, but now it's just cliche)
The characters: at the beginning of the book, Richard gets a speech from Zedd, saying something like "no one is purely good or purely evil, even the bad guys believe they're doing the right thing". How ironic is it, then, that the characters from this book are either purely good or purely evil? Let's start with the main bad guy Darken Rahl. His motivations for ruling the land/world are quite weird (he wants to), but that goal and the way he goes about that don't add up. He loves to torture people by pulling out their intestines, and to rape women. The only redeeming qualities are trivial: he doesn't eat meat (except for the occasional human sacrifice), and the wears white (obviously white = good and black = bad). His right hand man Demin Nass loves to rape little boys. Even the not-so-significant evil people in power love saying "off with their heads!". And oh boy, let's talk about Mistress Denna. She used a combination of Sado Masochism and Stockholm syndrome on one of the characters that in this day and age would probably be called "manipulation" and "rape". But hey, she was raised that way, so she can't help it, and the victim actually feels sorry for her. How? (in the words of Brooklyn Nine Nine's Jake Peralta: "Cool motive. Still murder rape."
When it comes to the good guys, they seem quite stock characters. Zedd is wise, but keeps his secrets. Like a lot of magic characters in fantasy books, his magic system doesn't really add up and his powers are a bit used as a plot device, like if the writer feels stuck, he decides "well the wizard will magic us out of this situation", but at other points, it's "only the Hero can save us now, the wizard is powerless". I felt somehow sorry for Kahlan's character. She was conjured into existence by the author for the sole reason of becoming Richard love interest (before they even spoke, Richard noted that she was super beautiful and from the look in her eyes could tell she was very intelligent and so on and so on). At one time, she would be super powerful, and at other times, she would be a damsel in distress, having to be saved by Richard. The feelings of love that develop between them feel like a 1 dollar romance novel (you'll know what I mean when you get to the scene with the apple). Richard himself just feels like a very bland guy. He's supposed to be very clever but I felt like that wasn't showed anywhere, except for when it was an important plot point.
The worldbuilding: for a fantasy world, it sure has one of the most boring maps I've ever seen. Just a slab of land, with some mountain ranges, and a sea off to the south (that we don't even get to see). We hardly find out how any of the three countries work, what the government is like, what the relation is between different parts of the same country, etc. For the huge amount of travelling they do, they only visit 3 villages and 2 castles and hardly meet anyone on the road. The only thing that's really fleshed out is some fantasy creatures (the gars and dragons). For me, worldbuilding is one of the most important things in a fantasy book, and here, it just really fell short. I would have liked to know more about Michael's government position, about why all those people were at the People's Palace, or the history and relationship between dragons and people.
The atmosphere: nothing really significant. It felt like a bit basic way of writing, but there were some pretty good metaphors and descriptions.
Best part: I liked the interaction between Rachel and Giller.
Despite all these criticisms, I did really enjoy reading the book (even if I were slowly shaking my head all the while). That being said, I'm not going to invest my time into reading the next parts of the series.
Trigger warning: this review briefly mentions violence, torture, death, pedophilia and rape.
The storyline: man from humble origins must save the world, with the help of a wise quirky wizard and a beautiful mysterious woman. Man and woman fall in love, but can't be together. Man must choose between saving the world and saving the woman. Sound familiar? This storyline is used a lot, but that doesn't matter if the book does it with a cool twist, or has redeeming qualities in other aspects. Unfortunately, this book doesn't. You think it kind of sounds like Lord of the Rings? Even Gollum makes an appearance here. (in 1994, this might have been new, but now it's just cliche)
The characters: at the beginning of the book, Richard gets a speech from Zedd, saying something like "no one is purely good or purely evil, even the bad guys believe they're doing the right thing". How ironic is it, then, that the characters from this book are either purely good or purely evil? Let's start with the main bad guy Darken Rahl. His motivations for ruling the land/world are quite weird (he wants to
Spoiler
outlaw fire, since his father was killed by fireWhen it comes to the good guys, they seem quite stock characters. Zedd is wise, but keeps his secrets. Like a lot of magic characters in fantasy books, his magic system doesn't really add up and his powers are a bit used as a plot device, like if the writer feels stuck, he decides "well the wizard will magic us out of this situation", but at other points, it's "only the Hero can save us now, the wizard is powerless". I felt somehow sorry for Kahlan's character. She was conjured into existence by the author for the sole reason of becoming Richard love interest (before they even spoke, Richard noted that she was super beautiful and from the look in her eyes could tell she was very intelligent and so on and so on). At one time, she would be super powerful, and at other times, she would be a damsel in distress, having to be saved by Richard. The feelings of love that develop between them feel like a 1 dollar romance novel (you'll know what I mean when you get to the scene with the apple). Richard himself just feels like a very bland guy. He's supposed to be very clever but I felt like that wasn't showed anywhere, except for when it was an important plot point.
The worldbuilding: for a fantasy world, it sure has one of the most boring maps I've ever seen. Just a slab of land, with some mountain ranges, and a sea off to the south (that we don't even get to see). We hardly find out how any of the three countries work, what the government is like, what the relation is between different parts of the same country, etc. For the huge amount of travelling they do, they only visit 3 villages and 2 castles and hardly meet anyone on the road. The only thing that's really fleshed out is some fantasy creatures (the gars and dragons). For me, worldbuilding is one of the most important things in a fantasy book, and here, it just really fell short. I would have liked to know more about Michael's government position, about why all those people were at the People's Palace, or the history and relationship between dragons and people.
The atmosphere: nothing really significant. It felt like a bit basic way of writing, but there were some pretty good metaphors and descriptions.
Best part: I liked the interaction between Rachel and Giller.
Despite all these criticisms, I did really enjoy reading the book (even if I were slowly shaking my head all the while). That being said, I'm not going to invest my time into reading the next parts of the series.