Rating: 
Summary: Saved by S & M!
Review: I looked forward to reading this novel as I'd often heard positive comments on this Goodkind series. Early on, I was disappointed by what I saw as its hackneyed plot, regurgitated characters, and retread Tolkienesque quest.Surprisingly, somewhere along the way, I found myself starting to enjoy the story, and admiring the character of Richard Cypher. As the story went along, he became more and more interesting--and less and less predictable. By the time I got to his rather hot S & M "thing" with his delicious Mord Sith [sic?] torturer, I couldn't put it down. Unlike some other reviewers, I consider the "breaking" of Richard Cypher to be the best thing about the book. It certainly complicated his relationship with Kahlan--and hopefully made for a more interesting romance down the road.
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Summary: If you like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, you will like it!
Review: Although there are several parallels between this novel and Robert Jordan's WOT, I believe that this is still a great piece of literature on its own. He weaves a very compelling story of Richard being drawn into a quest to save the world. Terry does weave an interesting history that sets the stage for the events that are unfolding. He also doesn't drown in the details of this history, like other novelists have. When Richards sets out, he knows nothing of the world that he is entering, giving the novel a real sense of the unkown. This keeps you involved personally with the main character by seeing the world through the eyes of a child. The only thing about the novel which is getting annoying to me is that his main idea is perception. He is basically saying that the ideas of 'good' and 'evil' all depend upon perception. It isn't bad that he states it, but he beats you over the head with it. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoyed WOT.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly a great beginning...
Review: In this novel there are monsters with and without magic, a hero who faces an actually believable amount of foes, the fighting scenes are terrific (some even bordering on the "oh, God! That was too brutal!" It has a share of the erotic, a splended array of characters, and the world that is built is exquisite. Another top-notch author who truly understands the need to paint a picture as vivid as possible to suck the reader in. Once you start this, and get into it about 5 chapters or so, you'll be fully hooked.
Rating: 
Summary: How did this ever become a best seller???????
Review: Thick, heavy epics of magic and politics are my guilty pleasure, and after seeing Goodkind's books on so many lists and promoted on so many bookstore endcaps, I picked up the first 2 volumes and was stunned by just how bad and uninteresting this story was. With the exception, perhaps, of the Confessor, these characters are are bad copies of archetypical characters found in pulp fantasies like those of David Eddings and Piers Anthony (You have to be pretty bad for your characters to have less depth than Piers Anthony!!). And if you can't deliver enaging characters, you need to be able to give the readers plot and creative settings. Goodkind delivers neither. I still have not figured out how a book that is filled with so little creativity, character and story got to be so hefty. As you probably guessed, I did not even pick up the second book.
Rating:
Summary: Read the book. Forget the series.
Review: The Sword of Truth series, in general, is not my favorite. It grows to become a Robert Jordan clone, complete with the equivalent of a Creator, Aes Sedai, Maidens of the Spear, and much more. However, I found Wizard's First Rule to be an excellent book, and superior to anything written by Robert Jordan. The reason? Goodkind, despite what other reviewers might say, was tremendously original. Instead of a God and a Devil, as Robert Jordan has, or an array of important gods, as David Eddings chose, the people in Goodkind's world prayed to the 'good spirits'. These 'good spirits' are not gods at all. However, later in the series, Terry Goodkind forgets this concept, and has a Robert Jordan-esque Creator. Another reason why Wizard's First Rule is superior to the rest of the series. Then, there were the Confessors and the Mord-Sith. Both of these are quite original concepts. And, surprisingly for a male author, these powerful roles are -only- filled by women. The Mord-Sith, while cruel, are quite human. The Mord-Sith Denna was the most interesting character in the book -- I actually cried when she died. Another good point was that Richard did not -depend- on magic. In too many books, the hero wins at the end by extraordinarily powerful magic. It gets tiring. While this becomes a major problem with the Sword of Truth series later on, in this book Richard does not win at the end by magic. Good job, Goodkind! The book was also an exciting, fast-paced read. Except for the first chapter, there were no real 'slow points'. The scenes of torture and killing, while gruesome, just added to the excitement. I read this book quickly, and enjoyed almost every minute of it. As far as fantasy novels go, this book did not have much character depth or complexity. Yes, the characters were cliched, and black or white. But the excitement of the book made up for most of this. Still, I'm not going to give this five stars. There were definite weak points. Richard did -many- things that had never been done before -- he was the first person to ride a red dragon, for example, as shown on the cover image. It got a bit tiring -- why hadn't anyone else come up with these simple-sounding ideas? The characters were still quite flat -- and the villain, Darken Rahl, was inhumanly evil. There was no way to sympathize, even for a little, with him. And it was not amazingly well-written. However, this is a very enjoyable read. I would definitely recommend it. Too bad the rest of the series -- with the possible exception of the second book, Stone of Tears -- does not equal this one.
Rating:
Summary: Adventure/Romance
Review: I love this book it has awsome adventures along with a little bit of heroic romance. Goodkind is one of the best authors I have ever read and has a gift of making you think you know the characters personanly. When you think every thing has come to a terrible end a sudden turn of events changes it into another wounderous adventure. I have also read the Tolkien books and loved them and thought no books where better...until I read this one. I have already recomended this book to all my friends and would do the same to every body else this is deffinetly a 5 star book. I have just started reading the next one and i love it already.
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Summary: Dear Creator, thank you for giving us Terry Goodkind
Review: The whole "The sword of truth" series is just incredible!
I've never before read a book that would inspire me so as has each and every one of Terry's books. Especially "Wizard's first rule" and "Faith of the fallen" have really done something to me, that I don't think I can explain to anyone who did not
read the books.
There are places in these books, where I just could not go on reading, but would stop and just stare blankly, at nothing in particular, for hours at the time, thinking about the books.
As Terry Goodkind wrote once and I only now understand: "I would like to thank two very special people, Richard and Kahlan, for choosing to tell their story. Their tears and triumphs have touched my heart. I will never be the same".
Rating:
Summary: Another Grand Fantasy Epic
Review: This book is a great beginning to another massive fantasy epic. Though considerably more sexualized than many of the genre, it is nonetheless quite well-crafted. Unlike many of its cohorts, this book doesn't leave you wondering what has happened to major characters that seem to drift out of the author's attention. Most importantly, it leaves you wanting to read the next book, but has enough of a conclusion that you can stop reading after just one book, rather than go through the whole series if you are so inclined.
Rating: 
Summary: It seemed very good in the beginning
Review: When I first started reading this book I thought it was very good. The description of the places, the atmosphere, the beginning (although Kahlan acted very strange when she met Richard in the forest (even strange for being what she was and persued)) was excelent. The book was never boring to read. But I think that Terry Goodkind could have changed the name of some of the characters. Calling them Richard, William and so on is a little odd isn't it? Either has Terry Goodkind got very bad imagination (and he hasn't because Kahlan and Darken Rahl are very good names) or he hasn't bothered giving his characters some more unusual names. It's almost like Bilbo Baggins should be called Bob Baggins. Although the names aren't very important for me, just something that I noticed as a little wierd. Now, the reason that I havn't given this book five stars is because of the perverted "bad guys". It's ok to let the readers feel that enemies are evil (killing and torture), but all this sex stuff (brutal rape, a man attracted by young boys and Darken Rahl who need to eat a dead boy's testicles to get to the underworld (I GET SICK!)) is VERY UNNESCECARY! Terry Goodkind shouldn't have such things in his books because it says more about him than it says about Darken Rahl and his people (at least I thought so and I can imagine that other do too).
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Summary: This book changes my life.... I'm serious.
Review: My mother bought this book on an offchance when it first came out, she thought I might enjoy it after she read the synopsis, since I enjoy reading a lot, especially medeval-style stories. She had no idea. I tore through this book, loving each page, quoting it constantly. I've nearly commited it to memory, which is impressive for a book of its girth. I've purchased each book in the Sword of Truth series as soon as they've come out, and stop everything in my life to read them immediatly. Although I don't enjoy them as much now as I did when five or so years ago when I first began to read them, I am unsure whether that is because it is more interesting to a younger mind, or because I've saturated myself in the story. I don't think I've ever read of a stronger set of characters, especially in the first books of the series, like Wizards First Rule, where each character has a personality that is so clear to the reader, and an image made of them that is a hundred times stronger than the ones seen on the cover. The imagery in Wizards First Rule is impressive, just reading the first page will tell you that, when it describes the vine that begins Richards life altering quest. Because of the imagery, and the dialouge, the books are very re-readable too. While I doubt that most people will want to re-read them as many times as I have, I think that most people will enjoy returning to them to catch little descriptions that they missed or forgot about from the first time around.
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