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lh_ 's review for:
Wizard's First Rule
by Terry Goodkind
The first book in the epic Sword of Truth series…I have some very good memories with this book and this series. 2006-ish, Freshman year of college, I started my first read of this series, and I powered through them without any issue or thought of the length, as I could just read them through my mandatory physics or chemistry lectures. Fast forward to now, 2024, with a full time job and 3 kids, I don’t have the same free time as I used to have, but Terry Goodkind’s writing still makes the length an afterthought, and I finished this behemoth quickly.
My motivation for starting this again was two fold: 1. I needed an easy read to get me out of a lull I’ve been in with my reading. 2. I didn’t capture thoughts or reviews on my first read, and this series really re-introduced me to reading fiction for fun and had a big impact on me, so I wanted to relive that in a way while getting my thoughts down on paper.
Overall, Goodkind was a great storyteller. This book captures your attention early, and throws you into a massive adventure quickly. Richard, a basic woods guide whose father was recently mysteriously murdered, runs into a beautiful and intriguing lady in mortal danger and he decides to help her escape from enemies. Before you know it, you’re in the middle of a forbidden love story, a clashing worlds story (magic and non-magic), the creation of a massive fantasy world, and a very powerful wizard that needs to be stopped to save the worlds story. All of these stories and more are told with a straightforward plot structure and style, while letting you into the protagonist’s inner dialogues and thoughts often, which allows for the exploration of morality and adding some depth to the book.
While the story is cleverly built and moves at a great and even pace (for the most part), there are some traits of Goodkind’s early style that may be a bit off putting. Some of the inner dialogue and thoughts being shared are over the top obvious. In some cases, re-telling of basic character connections like “Richard loves Zedd” (we know) and at other times “Richard was furious at so and so for doing that to his friends”, all things that could seemingly be edited out. This is a big reason for some of the length. Goodkind also doesn’t hold back on making the evil characters evil. There are a lot of gruesome acts piled on to the bad guys’ rap sheets which don’t always feel natural (necessary or adding to the story). There are also long sequences of the book for sharing details in this realm (mord siths!), which I actually had to change to speed read during those sections. And finally, there are some cringy/dated things here (Rachel’s speaking style, ‘bestest’, and the like). Regarding an even pace for the most part, the final 25% of the book packs in an Odyssey like solo adventure for Richard, which felt a bit packed with information and hurried.
That’s enough for negatives, as there are plenty enough positives to make up for them. Although Goodkind might not say the fantasy elements are what bring people to the novels, there are some cool ideas in this. The magic creature, the Gar, has a substance on its body that attracts flies. The flies leave the Gar and look for prey to bite, which cause the prey to make noise by swatting or just being agitated, attracting the Gar. And the twist is that there are two types of Gar’s identified by their tail length and intelligence: the short-tailed Gars count their flies. There are several details like this that are pretty cool. Prophecy is also central to the book and is a part of the world in an intelligent way: the various magic creatures have different ways of obtaining visions or derivatives of prophecy, and none of them are clairvoyant. Their tellings usually come true in broad and unpredictable ways. This adds a nice element of mystery to go along with the adventure and other qualities.
The story itself centers around an evil wizard who has discovered long lost powerful magic in the form of 3 boxes. He has 2 of the boxes and needs to obtain the third and the instructions on how to use them. Richard, the protagonist finds himself as the key to stopping this from happening. The book is an end in itself, but also leaves a clear and open canvas for continuation which is very satisfying. There isn’t a huge cliff hanger, giving you an easy decision on if the next book is for you.
One final note on Goodkind and Objectivism (Ayn Rand). His reviews on this book and several others take a hit for this association, but this particular book has 0 connection to the philosophy. So either way: if you are just reading this as an Objectivist looking for inspired fiction or an Objectivist hater who can’t stand to read anything associated with the concepts of Rand, you will be disappointed, because at this point in his life he was clearly not writing the philosophy into his protagonists. I would be very surprised if he had fully read the Objectivist literature at this point. This is not a knock or anything but to say: just read the book for what it is and make up your own mind.
I don’t know if I’ll make it through the entire series again, but after this reread I feel at least up to the task to finish the first 3 (which if I recall form a nice trilogy). I definitely recommend giving the series a try.
My motivation for starting this again was two fold: 1. I needed an easy read to get me out of a lull I’ve been in with my reading. 2. I didn’t capture thoughts or reviews on my first read, and this series really re-introduced me to reading fiction for fun and had a big impact on me, so I wanted to relive that in a way while getting my thoughts down on paper.
Overall, Goodkind was a great storyteller. This book captures your attention early, and throws you into a massive adventure quickly. Richard, a basic woods guide whose father was recently mysteriously murdered, runs into a beautiful and intriguing lady in mortal danger and he decides to help her escape from enemies. Before you know it, you’re in the middle of a forbidden love story, a clashing worlds story (magic and non-magic), the creation of a massive fantasy world, and a very powerful wizard that needs to be stopped to save the worlds story. All of these stories and more are told with a straightforward plot structure and style, while letting you into the protagonist’s inner dialogues and thoughts often, which allows for the exploration of morality and adding some depth to the book.
While the story is cleverly built and moves at a great and even pace (for the most part), there are some traits of Goodkind’s early style that may be a bit off putting. Some of the inner dialogue and thoughts being shared are over the top obvious. In some cases, re-telling of basic character connections like “Richard loves Zedd” (we know) and at other times “Richard was furious at so and so for doing that to his friends”, all things that could seemingly be edited out. This is a big reason for some of the length. Goodkind also doesn’t hold back on making the evil characters evil. There are a lot of gruesome acts piled on to the bad guys’ rap sheets which don’t always feel natural (necessary or adding to the story). There are also long sequences of the book for sharing details in this realm (mord siths!), which I actually had to change to speed read during those sections. And finally, there are some cringy/dated things here (Rachel’s speaking style, ‘bestest’, and the like). Regarding an even pace for the most part, the final 25% of the book packs in an Odyssey like solo adventure for Richard, which felt a bit packed with information and hurried.
That’s enough for negatives, as there are plenty enough positives to make up for them. Although Goodkind might not say the fantasy elements are what bring people to the novels, there are some cool ideas in this. The magic creature, the Gar, has a substance on its body that attracts flies. The flies leave the Gar and look for prey to bite, which cause the prey to make noise by swatting or just being agitated, attracting the Gar. And the twist is that there are two types of Gar’s identified by their tail length and intelligence: the short-tailed Gars count their flies. There are several details like this that are pretty cool. Prophecy is also central to the book and is a part of the world in an intelligent way: the various magic creatures have different ways of obtaining visions or derivatives of prophecy, and none of them are clairvoyant. Their tellings usually come true in broad and unpredictable ways. This adds a nice element of mystery to go along with the adventure and other qualities.
The story itself centers around an evil wizard who has discovered long lost powerful magic in the form of 3 boxes. He has 2 of the boxes and needs to obtain the third and the instructions on how to use them. Richard, the protagonist finds himself as the key to stopping this from happening. The book is an end in itself, but also leaves a clear and open canvas for continuation which is very satisfying. There isn’t a huge cliff hanger, giving you an easy decision on if the next book is for you.
One final note on Goodkind and Objectivism (Ayn Rand). His reviews on this book and several others take a hit for this association, but this particular book has 0 connection to the philosophy. So either way: if you are just reading this as an Objectivist looking for inspired fiction or an Objectivist hater who can’t stand to read anything associated with the concepts of Rand, you will be disappointed, because at this point in his life he was clearly not writing the philosophy into his protagonists. I would be very surprised if he had fully read the Objectivist literature at this point. This is not a knock or anything but to say: just read the book for what it is and make up your own mind.
I don’t know if I’ll make it through the entire series again, but after this reread I feel at least up to the task to finish the first 3 (which if I recall form a nice trilogy). I definitely recommend giving the series a try.