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A review by theanswerisbooks
Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind
2.0
I'm about to get all up in this book's craw for some terrible choices on the part of the author, and the part of his characters, but I would like to state up front that I am not opposed to characters making choices that are morally questionable. If characters--especially "the good guys"--don't mess up every now and again, we usually find them flat or boring. What I AM opposed to is characters making morally questionable choices without either the characters or the author bothering to question those questionable choices. When the hero of your series leaves an entire country to be slaughtered at the end of your book as punishment for not voting for him (essentially, it's complicated), and doesn't feel the least bit guilty about it (in fact, you get the idea he feels righteous in his decision), that's not moral complexity or shades of grey. That's fascism.
Perhaps in the hands of another author, the character of Richard Rahl (who used to be a kindhearted woods guide, but is now more and more becoming an arrogant, oftentimes cruel, dictator) would have been interesting and dynamic. I mean, we are a culture obsessed with anti-heroes right now, to the point that even motherfucking Superman can't be a straight up good guy because that would be "boring." (Except: we have Captain America also, so maybe all is not lost. I will stop this tangent now.) Good guys breaking bad (and potentially redeeming themselves later on) can make for good drama. Unfortunately, in Terry Goodkind's hands, this is not that story. It is abundantly clear from reading these books that Goodkind not only sees absolutely nothing wrong with Richard's increasingly dickish, tyrannical behavior (to everyone, even those he loves), but he clearly believes all of Richard's actions to be 100% gold, hero material. Those people who didn't vote for him? They deserve what they will get (being slaughtered by the Imperial Order, who promised them--the uneducated, fearful masses--peace) because they were too stupid to see the truth and do it Richard's way. In Richard's worldview, and I have to assume Goodkind's, Richard's subjects are there to be ruled, not protected. And that is disgusting.
This series has never been one I enjoy for its high quality. I've always been entertained by it, like once a year this sexist, idiotic, over the top, childishly executed BDSM circus rolls into town, and I'm just there for the ride, wondering what fool thing is going to happen next. But this book wasn't fun to read. I did not enjoy the experience of being asked to empathize with our main characters Richard and Kahlan. I actively rebelled against it and judged them constantly as stupid, reactionary, mean, childish, sexist assholes.
On top of all that, structurally, this book is a mess. The first hundred pages are spent LITERALLY watching Richard run around chasing after a "chicken that is not a chicken". The chicken is possessed by the Chimes, evil spirit things Kahlan accidentally set loose at the beginning of the last book. Kahlan spends that hundred pages complaining to Richard and disbelieving him, even though he is the Seeker of Truth, and she should trust his judgment by now. Instead it's WHY WON'T YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME. Goodkind is constantly ruining Kahlan as a character. Why couldn't she have just supported Richard, and acting in her role as Mother Confessor and leader of the Midlands, I don't know? Tried to help him? What a novel idea.
So after they are done chasing after this chicken, which they FINALLY all agree is evil, we then spend the next 160 pages with characters we've never met in a location we've never even heard of before. 160 pages, after we've just been told that our heroes have this incredibly important and urgent mission to save magic and the world, let's just ignore that and go do this other thing! Richard and Kahlan (and Zedd and the others) show up for like thirty more pages, and then it's time for 200 more pages of this new location and characters. It wasn't well balanced at all.
Not to mention, the new location (Anderith) is also full of idiots and assholes. Again, in the hands of another author, this section might have played out like one of those experimental one-off Star Trek episodes where things are very different in order to explore some metaphorical concept. Anderith is a country inhabited by two peoples, the Hakens and the Anders. Long ago, the Hakens invaded and due to a lot of complicated factors, eventually turned from being the rulers to the ruled, to the point where the Anders are looked upon as almost gods, and the Hakens are kept uneducated and aren't allowed to have last names. The Anders teach the Hakens (and their fellow Anders) that the Hakens are evil and did terrible things in their past, which is not true, and also a gross oversimplification of complicated history. The Hakens are also forced to spend required "penance days" where they are taught about how their culture is inherently evil, and about all the terrible things they did to the Anders back in the day. It might have been an interesting way to explore the way that history so often becomes convoluted when people seeking power change the narrative, but it was just so unpleasant the way Goodkind handled it. The characters in Anderith were either idiots or power hungry jerks. I hated all of them. And then of course, Richard and Kahlan arrive at like, page 600, and both the Hakens and the Anders start doing all this bad shit to them, and you're meant to hate them all enough so that when we get to the point that Richard abandons them to the Order, you think it the right decision. It's an unholy soup of crap.
And all of that terrible stuff takes away from my enjoyment of some of the genuinely cool stuff Goodkind includes. Zedd is always a fun character, and here he spends half the book as a raven, and he is STILL one of the more interesting things going on. The Chimes are a cool idea as an antagonistic force, but Goodkind barely utilizes them, choosing instead to focus on the stupid Haken/Ander conflict, which does nothing but paint his "hero" Richard in a very bad light.
I knew I was in for trouble at the beginning of this book when a character we haven't seen in a couple of books shows up and greets Richard by totally reaming him out, calling him on all of his shit, and demanding an apology. The whole time she was talking I was just like, YES YES YOU ARE SO RIGHT DU CHAILLU YOU TELL HIM YESSSS. And then? Richard shuts her down. He refuses to acknowledge her many and various salient points. He refuses to take any responsibility for the role he's played in fucking up her life, not even just to say that even if he would do all of it again, he's still sorry for her suffering. Except he's not. He's not sorry at all. He couldn't give less of a fuck if he tried. He clearly feels nothing but contempt for this woman, who is eight months pregnant by the way, carrying a baby Richard begged her not to abort, even though she was basically gang-raped, and the father is one of the rapists.
Anyway, all of that long-windedness, and we can probably sum up my reaction to this book with one gif:
Perhaps in the hands of another author, the character of Richard Rahl (who used to be a kindhearted woods guide, but is now more and more becoming an arrogant, oftentimes cruel, dictator) would have been interesting and dynamic. I mean, we are a culture obsessed with anti-heroes right now, to the point that even motherfucking Superman can't be a straight up good guy because that would be "boring." (Except: we have Captain America also, so maybe all is not lost. I will stop this tangent now.) Good guys breaking bad (and potentially redeeming themselves later on) can make for good drama. Unfortunately, in Terry Goodkind's hands, this is not that story. It is abundantly clear from reading these books that Goodkind not only sees absolutely nothing wrong with Richard's increasingly dickish, tyrannical behavior (to everyone, even those he loves), but he clearly believes all of Richard's actions to be 100% gold, hero material. Those people who didn't vote for him? They deserve what they will get (being slaughtered by the Imperial Order, who promised them--the uneducated, fearful masses--peace) because they were too stupid to see the truth and do it Richard's way. In Richard's worldview, and I have to assume Goodkind's, Richard's subjects are there to be ruled, not protected. And that is disgusting.
This series has never been one I enjoy for its high quality. I've always been entertained by it, like once a year this sexist, idiotic, over the top, childishly executed BDSM circus rolls into town, and I'm just there for the ride, wondering what fool thing is going to happen next. But this book wasn't fun to read. I did not enjoy the experience of being asked to empathize with our main characters Richard and Kahlan. I actively rebelled against it and judged them constantly as stupid, reactionary, mean, childish, sexist assholes.
On top of all that, structurally, this book is a mess. The first hundred pages are spent LITERALLY watching Richard run around chasing after a "chicken that is not a chicken". The chicken is possessed by the Chimes, evil spirit things Kahlan accidentally set loose at the beginning of the last book. Kahlan spends that hundred pages complaining to Richard and disbelieving him, even though he is the Seeker of Truth, and she should trust his judgment by now. Instead it's WHY WON'T YOU PAY ATTENTION TO ME. Goodkind is constantly ruining Kahlan as a character. Why couldn't she have just supported Richard, and acting in her role as Mother Confessor and leader of the Midlands, I don't know? Tried to help him? What a novel idea.
So after they are done chasing after this chicken, which they FINALLY all agree is evil, we then spend the next 160 pages with characters we've never met in a location we've never even heard of before. 160 pages, after we've just been told that our heroes have this incredibly important and urgent mission to save magic and the world, let's just ignore that and go do this other thing! Richard and Kahlan (and Zedd and the others) show up for like thirty more pages, and then it's time for 200 more pages of this new location and characters. It wasn't well balanced at all.
Not to mention, the new location (Anderith) is also full of idiots and assholes. Again, in the hands of another author, this section might have played out like one of those experimental one-off Star Trek episodes where things are very different in order to explore some metaphorical concept. Anderith is a country inhabited by two peoples, the Hakens and the Anders. Long ago, the Hakens invaded and due to a lot of complicated factors, eventually turned from being the rulers to the ruled, to the point where the Anders are looked upon as almost gods, and the Hakens are kept uneducated and aren't allowed to have last names. The Anders teach the Hakens (and their fellow Anders) that the Hakens are evil and did terrible things in their past, which is not true, and also a gross oversimplification of complicated history. The Hakens are also forced to spend required "penance days" where they are taught about how their culture is inherently evil, and about all the terrible things they did to the Anders back in the day. It might have been an interesting way to explore the way that history so often becomes convoluted when people seeking power change the narrative, but it was just so unpleasant the way Goodkind handled it. The characters in Anderith were either idiots or power hungry jerks. I hated all of them. And then of course, Richard and Kahlan arrive at like, page 600, and both the Hakens and the Anders start doing all this bad shit to them, and you're meant to hate them all enough so that when we get to the point that Richard abandons them to the Order, you think it the right decision. It's an unholy soup of crap.
And all of that terrible stuff takes away from my enjoyment of some of the genuinely cool stuff Goodkind includes. Zedd is always a fun character, and here he spends half the book as a raven, and he is STILL one of the more interesting things going on. The Chimes are a cool idea as an antagonistic force, but Goodkind barely utilizes them, choosing instead to focus on the stupid Haken/Ander conflict, which does nothing but paint his "hero" Richard in a very bad light.
I knew I was in for trouble at the beginning of this book when a character we haven't seen in a couple of books shows up and greets Richard by totally reaming him out, calling him on all of his shit, and demanding an apology. The whole time she was talking I was just like, YES YES YOU ARE SO RIGHT DU CHAILLU YOU TELL HIM YESSSS. And then? Richard shuts her down. He refuses to acknowledge her many and various salient points. He refuses to take any responsibility for the role he's played in fucking up her life, not even just to say that even if he would do all of it again, he's still sorry for her suffering. Except he's not. He's not sorry at all. He couldn't give less of a fuck if he tried. He clearly feels nothing but contempt for this woman, who is eight months pregnant by the way, carrying a baby Richard begged her not to abort, even though she was basically gang-raped, and the father is one of the rapists.
Anyway, all of that long-windedness, and we can probably sum up my reaction to this book with one gif: