Rating: 
Summary: Decent plot, poor dialogue
Review: Goodkind writes entertaining stories, but I find his dialogue to be downright poor. The exchanges between Richard and Kahlan seem to me like little kids talking - simple sentences, explaining everything in brutal detail. This series isn't awful, but I admit I'm having trouble finding a reason to keep reading.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened to the real ending
Review: The book was great right up to the ending. A good portion of the ending must of ended up on the cutting room floor. Goodkind is usually quite detailed in his writing but not in the ending. Maybe he got tired of the book. It was like we got the readers digest version of the ending instead of the real ending. Richard managed to do some quite amazing things is about 100 pages. It is too bad because I sure would have enjoyed learning why his "wife" was needed to get through the towers. In the first book he was quite unsure of himself and this theme carried on into this book until he met the Spirit of Darken Raul. Amazingly he did what was necessary and he was off like it was a walk through the candy store. Very disappointing. If the editors did this they should be ashamed! Might there be a true unabridged version?
Rating:
Summary: A Great Continuation of Book 1!
Review: I have read the first book and I have to say that this is the best series to come along yet! I am an avid reader of fantasy/ sci-fi and am very picky about my books. This series hit the spot. As Richard is taken away from his beloved Kahlan, you feel the pain that defines just how deep their love for each other goes. And it starts you on a journey that only surprises and pleases the need for unusual and imaginative plots and twists. There is also a good dose of humor. You find yourself supporting Richard in his vow to remain unkempt and surly towards his captor. The rest of the characters in this book only adds to the story that you know will appear in future books. The Sisters prove to be despicable and lovable at the same time. I only hope that Goodkind continues to write in this intriguing manner.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunate.
Review: The only thing that keeps Goodkind from being the most popular fantasy writer to date is the fact that all the plots are unoriginal, the dialogue is often unrealistic, and the characters never change. Wizard's First Rule was worth buying and reading; it supplied hours upon hours of entertainment for me. I enjoyed the characters and the action. However, if Goodkind is only going to write one plot through out the entire series, I find no purpose in reading the rest of the 'Sword' books. There's always some kind of badguy/villian who wants to conquer the world with either an object or his powers, and Richard along with Kahlan go out to destroy this evil being before his plans are accomplished. While Kahlan and Richard are torn apart in this book, there's also an aggrivating sense of Dramatic irony, much like there was, (Irritatingly) in Wizard's First Rule with the Box of Orden being held right underneath their noses for about two hundred pages before they even think about it being held where it was. Used with the right pen of the right author, this could be used as a suspenseful element, but when Goodkind uses it, it turns out as pure disaster. Goodkind, leave the dramatic irony for Shakespeare. Also, might I add, Terry Goodkind's imagination is kind of warped in a weird sense. It's not as sadistic as people are really saying it is, because Goodkind is just adding an element of gritty realisticness that chills to the bone, (The Mord-Sith are so scary, and the torture scenes are really brutal and it makes you feel as if you're there) but even with some experience and a rather good hand with the pen, he often bores the reader and drags out some scenes with romance scenes that feel like a daytime ABC soap opera.
However, I would like to point out that he's not as bad as some people are saying he is. He's not the worst writer in the world; he keeps the ingredients of a modern fantasy novel at hand to use, (Dragons, Kings, wizards, heroes, escapism, rescues, damsals in distress,) but his plotlines are often predictable. Like I said earlier, they're really all the same.
What I just said, though, does not mean I support his stories. The first one was a gem, yes, but it is because of writers like Goodkind, Jordan, and millions of others that fantasy is in the major piles of crud that it is. Tolkien was a good author, but it is because of him that every other author of fantasy is constantly trying to conquer and dominate his world, which is simply impossible. When will fantasy writers get over trying to be Tolkien? There used to be such a thing as independant heroes who didn't wine during grave situations where they always had to have the help of friends or family or the local 'wizard' to come and save them. We need more stories like the Red Sonja books, which are now, most unfortunately, out of print. Howard's 'Conan' books. I'm still convinced that no author has ever tried to pluck this genre which is going nowhere in my book out of the frustrating area that it dwells in. We need real fantasy books with real, muscle-bound broadsword wielding heroes that slay beasts and monsters while laughing. Not scared wanna-be Frodo's that travel across a land to get tortured and be broken in spirit until they accidentally stumble across the bad guy and then somehow get the magical item they started on the journey for in the first place.
What I'm saying is, read Wizard's First Rule. Then stop there. The other books, simply in my opinion, are not worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: Who is writing these reviews? Have they read any OTHER fantasy? Have they read Jordan, Martin, Tolkien? Have they read King's Dark Tower series? This book "borrows" so much material from Jordan it's almost ridiculous. This, in itself, is inexcusable, but even worse the story is terrible.
Rating: 
Summary: Terry Goodkind Does it again
Review: This is an AWESOME follow up to "Wizards First Rule". There is no doubt that Terry has set the bar a little higher for those that follow. This is a definate page turner. Again, the bad news: the book ends, the good news: he has a sequel to this one too. If you haven't already started reading Terry's books, start NOW.
Rating:
Summary: Another Breath-Taking Book By Goodkind
Review: After picking up Wizard's First Rule and finishing it in under a week, I quickly ran out and purchased this. It leaves off where the first one did, and does it seamlessly. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy novels, I now do.
Rating:
Summary: Decent follow up to "Wizard's First Rule"
Review: In "Wizard's First Rule," we met Richard Rahl, a humble woodsguide. Or so he thinks, until he goes through a series of adventures, finally overthrowing the wicked Darken Rahl at the end of WFR. The fact that Richard is Darken's son through rape doesn't please Richard; worse, he's in love with Kahlan, the powerful Mother Confessor, and he wants to marry her. He's already proven his power vanquishes hers (well, enough so she won't take him over during the act of mating, as they'd both feared during book 1). But, because of politics, he's having trouble. To put it mildly. The strong points of the book were the relationship between Kahlan and Richard, whenever Zedd (aka Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander) shows up, and the fanatical loyalty of the remaining Mord-Sith. The weak points include the politics; too much time is spent on this aspect, in my opinion, getting in the way. Also, there are many hints and portents of things to come in following books, some of which do little to advance the action at this stage of the game. "Stone of Tears" is good, though; it's by far better than the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth books in the series, but still weaker than the first book. I hope Goodkind will find some way to return to the humanity and realism of the first two books soon, as the endless changes on the themes of politics, religion, and how they interrelate grew stale way before the middle of the third book.
Rating:
Summary: Action Packed
Review: This book is action packed and kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. Were it not for the Mord Sith scene being way too long and sappy, I would have given it 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: I could not bear to finish this one....
Review: I really enjoyed the first volume in this series. There were one or two places where I winced at the obvious "borrowing" of characters and concepts from other fantasy series, but there was a lot of creativity there to counterbalance those minor lapses.
I cannot say the same about this second volume. I was shocked at concept after concept that appeared to have been lifted directly from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, shifted slightly in context, then placed into Goodkind's storyline.
Eventually I became too distracted by the large amounts of "borrowed" material to be able to enjoy the creative and original aspects of the story (which were less in evidence here than in the first volume), so I am sending this one off to the used book store -- unfinished.
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