Rating: 
Summary: Similar but still a good book
Review: First of all I have to admit that this book gets dangerously close to the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. If you haven't read them, I highly recommend doing so before you read this series. Books 7 & 8 are a little slow, but be patient it gets better. Story plots in Goodkinds books are in some ways the same, some of the character types show some similarities, and some of the objects closely match things in the Wheel of Time. The way the magic is expressed in this book makes you think of the One Power in Wheel of Time. In fact I think he even mentions "weaving" a spell. Even after that, I thought the character development in the book was very good. At times you can really sympathize with the characters. Goodkind is also good at making the reader picture the scenes or the actions that are currently happening. The books are remarkebly fast paced. Things begin to happen in the first chapter and every chapter has an event that keeps the book going. Alot of people complain about the sexually oriented scenes. Lets face it, if anyone knows any history times were like that and Goodkind is just portraying it in his writing. These are books for adults. Even though the book has alot of elements that aren't original, Goodkind takes those ideas and twists them for his own use. The first book to the series is much like this one. I highly recommend both.
Rating: 
Summary: Probably the best in the series!
Review: I'll admit, I havn't read the entire series (just finished Blood of the Fold), but Stone of Tears is the best of the first three. I'll have to agree that it was extremely slow at the beginning, but the battles with the Imperial Order make up for that. Goodkind delivers a extremely well written story, that packs a punch. During the first few hundred pages, Goodkind is winding up, but the last twenty or so, the delivery is so great, that I got in trouble by my parents for not listening to them when they called. A very good foothold for a very promising series!
Rating:
Summary: Great Fantasy
Review: I honestly think this sequel is an improvement over Wizard's First Rule. I didn't like the fact that there were basically two main characters in the first novel, with a few subordinate characters that served little purpose. This has been remedied in Stone of Tears, where Goodkind has done a fine job of developing a host of additional cast members. I've read other reader's complaints that many plot elements in this novel were borrowed from elsewhere, but taken alone I think the plot is excellent. Towards the end, the story got especially riveting, and I couldn't get enough sleep because of it. A few things, however: It wouldn't be advisable to read this without having read Wizard's First Rule, as Goodkind seems to assume you have. Secondly, it's definitely a novel for mature audiences only.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: The Goodkind,Sword of Truth novels, are the best books I've read.They kept me on my toes and Goodkind has a way of writing that the stories took me with it.This is a book that I would share with anyone with an imagination.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Goodkind needs an editor
Review: Everyone knows the Wizards First Rule. This is MY first rule: Mr. Goodkind couldn't write a graceful, believable line of dialogue to save his soul from Darken Rahl. This is my second rule: Mr. Goodkind's editor is either so incompetent that he/she should be hung from the highest rafter of the Palace of the Prophet OR he/she has been collared and tortured to the extent he/she can no longer performed his/her duties. (Hasn't Mr. Goodkind ever learned to HINT?) Finally, my third rule: every character in this book is too stupid to escape the Keeper.
Rating: 
Summary: A Pretty Mediocre Fantasy Epic
Review: In starting off my review i should probably say that i think this book really only deserves about 2.5 stars, but because of Amazons ratings limititations i decided to err on the generous side and give the book 3. The realitively low rating i give the book and my own personal feelings of dissatisfaction towards 'Stone of Tears', are due to several reasons. The first of these is the sheer length of the book, 'Stone of Tears' is over 1050 pages long. Yet despite this length, the action only really gets going around page 600, with much of the previous bit of the book spent on largely unnecesary characterisation that seems to do not very much to advance the plot. This excessive length is made worse by (and/or caused by) the disjointed rambling nature of the plot. The story seems to crawl for the first 600 pages, at which point it then seems to take drugs and proceeds to race the characters through 2 seperate major conflicts awfully fast and unsatisfactorily. The author seems to spend little time fleshing out the background world around these plotlines and even less building up the conflicts into the gritty enthralling fights for life we expect from other authors such as George R.R Martin, Robert Jordan, Janny Wurts and even Raymond E Feist. Indeed the main characters seem to spend little time dealing with the "big issues" and seem to have little trouble (either morally or practically) in winning and resolving all the conflicts they are presented with. To make things worse the book has a wildly fast forwarded conclusion spaced over the last 70 pages of the book where the main character Richard solves 3 epic problems, zips around half the world and has a passionate reconciliation with his beloved. This gives the conclusion the distinct feel of something that was written hastily to try and bring to an end a book that was already much too long and going no where. The substance of the plot isnt all that much better either with too much cheap prophecy, enemy armies materialising out of nowhere, little plot situation background and a rather depresing lack of originality at certain points. However despite this there is still more than enough action and exitement, combined with a bit of practical philosophy/wisdom for a moral to make the book readable. I personally believe this all probably indicates a lack of pre-planning by the author about where the books plot and indeed series is heading. Another reason the 'Stone of Tears' isnt exactly my cup of tea, is the excessive Sado-eroticisim (to copy another reviewers phrase) in the book. There are several quite disturbing scenes that serve to advance the plot very little, with any benefit to be gained by them quickly undermined by Mr Goodkinds lack of characterisation and time spent developing character interaction, especially at the abbey of the sisters of light (he fails dismally to create a sense of suspense and mystery there). Another issue is the seemingly excessive amount of rape and violence towards women that occurs in the book, which he almost sees to trivalise through the sheer amount of it and his rather simplistic treatment of it. This is made probably worse by Mr Goodkinds rather clumsy and simplistic statement on abortion that occurs in chapter 43. Indeed it makes one wonder whether most of the sex scenes were added primarily by Mr Goodkind for his own jollies ( A recent South park episode featuring Mr Garrison and his book 'The valley of Penises' comes to mind). This all has the effect of making the book seem heavy going, confusing, shallow, disturbing at times and ultimately rather unsatisfying when compared other epic authors. However despite all this the book is still an mildly entertaining read and I will still probably read the other 4 books in the series, if for no other reason than a lot of other people seem to have enjoyed them
Rating:
Summary: Better then the First
Review: The first book in this series, Wizard's First Rule, was very good. This book is better. The author, it seems, is improving on both his writing style and technique. The story, as well, in my view is much better. It starts strong, and continues to be a good read until the end. Literally, literally, the book begins in the garden of the dead wizard, Darken Rahl, moments after he died. Chase and Zedd are discussing what to do with the boxes of Orden when a creatures from the underworld attacks them. The "Keeper" creatures are loose. Will the Keeper follow? I have read others complain that this plot line is too similiar to Robert Jordan's series, the Wheel of Time. This is both true and false. The "Keeper" story is one plot in this book. But, this book is really about much more. There are other villians and other struggles. The Keeper story is only part of the tapestry. It is also interesting, to me, how the "Keeper" is described in this book. He follows are evil, but the Keeper may not be. He function, death, is described as necessary for life. What good function does the villian in the Wheel of Time series perform? I also love the humor found throughout the story. The author here does not beat you over the head with it. He has a singular wit to him, which makes these books much more enjoyable. If you think like the author you will find this book very funny. Mind me, it is not a comedy. But, life is rarely a drama or a comedy or a romance. Life is everyone of those things, and more. The writer here remembers that fact and puts all the elements of life into his book, while remembering and delivering on the fact that he is writing a fantasy adventure series.
Rating:
Summary: A better effort than his first
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Goodkinds first foray into the fanatsy genre. I criticized it for having the story unfold too quickly. Now I realize there's more to the story that happens with later events. The story was well paced, but I started not wanting to set it down about half-way through. I won't bother decribing the story because the page for this book has that. The positivies: It was nice to see Goodkind decide on what kind of character he wanted Zedd to be. In the Wizard's First Rule, Zedd seemed confused as a character. He switched too capriciously between being a serious wizard and as comic relief. On top of that, all the character became more 3 dimensional in the Stone of Tears, whereas they seemed like card-board cutouts in the first one. The negatives: There are too many elements that mirror Jordan's Wheel of Time series. The Sisters of the Light (and the Dark) are too much like the Aes Sedai without the infuriating haughtiness that they possess. The seals being released on the keeper is much like the Dark One being released from Shayol Ghul. Richard being a child of prophecy is too much like Rand Al'Thor being Taveren. Obviously if you haven't read any of those books those references won't mean anything to you. The other negative is that as in the first book, he builds up these horrible situations in the book and through 600+ pages and then everything is resolved all nice and neat in 20 pages at the end. it sometimes smacks of Deus ex Machina for my tastes, but all in all it's a worthy fanatsy novel and fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: Good Sequel
Review: Well I finshed reading the 2nd book and 3rd(which I'll review later) the 2nd book was not bad I really enjoyed it, I know some readers pointed out inthier reviews that they didn't like the so-called graphic sex scenes and could do with out them(especially one reader who only read 1/3 of the book). While there is one scene with the Sisters of Darkness and a Demon,where as part of being a member of the Sisters of Dark they had sex with the Demon the rest of the book was not bad. and the Romance between Rithard and Kahlan was tested to the limit they managed to see it threw.Richard is in my opinion a good character but a bit of a hipocrite who say one thing and does another. Example: he says he doesn't like to hurt people and kill them(which is fine)but turns around and says he is going to kill the sisters of light if they stand in his way of being free of them. I know from the first book he had a bad experiance with the Mord-Sith and the coller he had around his neck, but Kahlan only did it because she loved him and wanted to save his life. I just want to say I can't wait to read the rest of the series. I highly recommened this series.
Rating: 
Summary: More of the Same
Review: Book 2 of The Sword of Truth follows squarely in the footsteps of the first. If you loved the first book, you'll probably love this one. If, like me, you thought that the first one was a generic heroic fantasy pastiche with lots of pointless cruelty thrown in, you'll despise this one too. The sad thing is that Goodkind has a fair amount of talent at jerking reactions out of people. I kept reading because I *did* become involved with the characters, and I kept hoping the overall narrative structure would go someplace interesting. Word to the wise: It doesn't.
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