Rating: 
Summary: Fell Short
Review: This is a great series but what happened? This book was good, yes, but not as good as the others. Alot of it seemed pointless and the plot was a little weak. The main characters seemed to dissapear and new, less likable characters entered the scene. Even with all the new twists and turns the book fell short of the rest of the series by a lot. I just hope Goodkind can get himself together for the next book.
Rating: 
Summary: At least they are getting better
Review: Wizard's first rule was amazing. I stayed up all night reading it because the characters were dear to me, and the plot was simply exciting. However, the sequels that have followed have not had the same edge that the orginal had. But if you fell in love with the characters in the first book, like me, you have HAD to read the sequels to know what happened to those poor souls fighting to save the land from certain destruction. So, you are forced to read this book, as I was, out of curiosity. The good news: I felt this book was quite a lot better than the other sequels. Less twisted violence, and honest plot development. Its not a completle waste of time. But don't buy it in hardback.
Rating: 
Summary: The best of the best
Review: I'm a reader from a small country in Europe. But this book (and the entire series) gave me a sense of belonging to a greater, magical world. Read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Oh please
Review: This soap opera started with a fairly decent book. Despite some clunking language and amateurish flaws, Wizard's First Rule was exciting, and showed a lot of promise that peaked in Stone of Tears. It all went rapidly downhill from there. Terry Goodkind's stock in trade is sexual deviance. For all that some of his fans acclaim his great storytelling ability, what they really like is the sex. There really is no other major series out there with the consistent inclusion of rape, pedophilia, wife-swapping, S & M, torture, and sexual humiliation that Goodkind revels in. Say all you like that it is the writing; it's the same plot, hashed over and over again, frosted with perversion. And I am not against sex, even if it is explicit, as long as it is not gratuitous. This is just cheap titillation. It is clear to me that Goodkind was very frustrated and incensed about the recent Clinton sex scandal. [There is a good deal of irony there, since sexual perversion paid for Goodkind's swimming pool, or second house, or whatever he spent his millions on.] His thinly veiled portraits of Hillary [Hildemara] and Bill [Betrand] are one dimensional and cheap. They also point to a bigger problem--the fact that Goodkind is willing to use his stature as a writer to rage about this scandal at the expense of his readers. What, pray tell, does any of this have to do with the story he set out to write in Wizard's First Rule? This author is overrated. This series is overrated. The characters are flat stereotypes, the writing is poor and the plot is a repeat of the same situation over and over, poor Richard and Kahlan fighting for their lives, betraying each other in order to save the other, ad nauseum infinitum. Save your money and go to a good porn shop.
Rating:
Summary: Richard Rahl, Kahlan, Zedd and friends..
Review: I was given Wizards First Rule as a present a few months ago, and was excited beyond belief that the series had continued...all the way to 5 books already. This was great...I finally finished the last in the series...which has kept me awake very late at night. The books are all excellent. In this last book, without ruining it for everyone, I just didn't like the ending, with what Richard did...I expected a better ending...I can't wait until the next book comes out...hope that the last book (whenever that is), has an enormous and smashing ending...Thanks!
Rating:
Summary: Soul of the Fire
Review: This book was not as interesting as the first four books of the series, I could not put the first four down until I finished them. I do not think enough was focas on the main characters, the author strayed from the main characters and this is what I though made the story interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Do we smell a ghost-writer?
Review: The cover says this is a Terry Goodkind book, in fact I think it should say Terry Goodkind and James Frenkel. In a nutshell, here's what I think happened with Soul of the Fire. Terry Goodkind was working on a separate book (the entire Anderith story) which originally had nothing to do with the Sword of Truth. But the deadline was approaching for a new SOT novel, so he took this unrelated book and adapted it to SOT and wrote a brief SOT story arc to build around it. Then the editor - James Frenkel - put it all together, which meant writing the Sword of Truth storyline. The dedication to the editor says "a man of great patience, courage, integrity and talent." The patience is in waiting for a new SOT manuscript which was way overdue, the courage and talent is from taking on the task of writing the manuscript from Mister Goodkind's outline and adapting a separate novel to fit within it, and the integrity is from not demanding writing credit for the novel. A wise move. The first clue is right there on the cover. It says "A Sword of Truth Novel" not "Sword of Truth: Book Five." The Anderith storyline is classic Goodkind. But the rest of the book is inconsistent and at times seems unedited. People repeat themselves endlessly to make a point which they could have made once. There are logic and continuity flaws galore. Cara uses "the breath of life" (mouth to mouth resuscitation) to bring back DuChaillu. So why hasn't this ability been mentioned before? Why didn't she use it earlier to save Juni? He had also been dead for just minutes when they found him. After all they've been through, Kahlan seems unwilling to believe any of Richard's instincts. Kahlan herself seems self-centered, jealous, and at times ditzy, but in the blink of an eye can suddenly be the all-wise Mother Confessor again. No one in this book can put two and two together. Franca knows about "the ovens" where the power is so strong, yet when Zed tells her the chimes are entombed somewhere in Anderith, she doesn't think of the ovens? Wouldn't that be an obvious suggestion? And Anderith seems like it should be a country of some importance in the Midlands. Yet we've never heard of it until this book, it wasn't even included on the map in the first four books. Anderith is protected by Dominie Dirtch, a weapon of magic. Kahlan knows all about it and the history of the land, yet Richard seems ignorant of it until she tells him, even though supposedly he has delivered his "ultimatum" to them. Wouldn't a country with a defense like this be important? Shouldn't we have heard about it before? Why is everyone so surprised that the Imperial Army is headed there? It seems like a natural springboard to the Midlands. Richard was in such a hurry to get back to Aydindril he didn't have time to talk to Zed at length about their adventures. So why did Zed bother to fabricate a lie to get him there? He was headed there anyway! And Fitch and Morley's encounter with Cara in the Wizard's Keep? One, having never been out of their own country, how did they get there so fast, beating Cara? And two, why didn't Cara kill Fitch the first time she touched him, thereby stopping the childish "keep away" game with the sword? "You boys give that back! That's not yours!" And how did Fitch stay two minutes ahead of Cara all the way from Aydindril to Anderith? Did they never sleep? Never rest the horses? And why did he go back there? To clear his name in the rape of Beata? Did he forget that he was guilty of murdering Claudine Winthrop? With the exception of the long Anderith story, the rest of the book feels rushed. Patched together by someone who doesn't remember the first four books. I almost expected to find one of them waking at the end to find the entire book having been a dream. That's the only way any of it would have made sense. As it stands it was a very frustrating entry in the series.
Rating:
Summary: What is everyone griping about
Review: I just finished reading Soul of the Fire, after reading all the negative reviews people have posted here. All I can say is what are you people griping about. I found this novel thouroughly enjoyable. Zedd, Khalan, and Richard all had significant part, unlike what some people are saying. I loved how Goodkind described a whole new culture and the characters he added to make this culture real. While some of the characters from the previous novels were absent, they were not needed during this storyline. This novel helped advance the plot of the series in a very real, and imaginative way. The only thing I could wish more for is for Richard to start learning to use and control his magic, instead of the fly by the seat of his pants way he's been doing. But then again, this is the way Goodkind has decided to portray Richard, and has it's own positives in and of itself. This is definitly a Sword of Truth novel and does what it needs to do. A 'must read' if you're a fan of the Sword of Truth series.
Rating:
Summary: Still better than Jordan
Review: A good book in the series. I don't mind the departure from the supporting cast as much as other seem to. The way the story was written, including a more diverse cast of "mundane" charecters, was fine with me, these charecters were intresting and varied. I got the feeling that in his next book we will be seeing a return of the supporting cast. My only annoyance was one I see in every Goodkind novel. The formula seems to be several charecters go on long journey meeting intresting people and having intresting side-quests (400 pages) and then when they finally reach their destination, resolve the story in 50 pages. Not terrible because Goodkind keeps it fresh but not awesome either. Final thought: Not an epic like Wizard's First Rule but a darn good book.
Rating:
Summary: Not enough of Richard or Kahlan or Zedd and so on and so
Review: I liked the book. It was excellently written, with an imaginative plot that was complex and well thought out. But where on my favorite characters, Richard and Kahland and Zedd and everyone else. I waited a whole year to read about them, but instead I got a book about Dalton Campbell and Tess Campbell and Fitch and Chanboor. Not that I didn't like them. All of them we very good bad guys, but more than half the book was spent on them, and I didn't wait a year to read about them. I waited a year to read about Richard and co.
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