True to Rand, then.
I think the first one is excellent and can stand alone. Sure it’s the “naive farmboy meets up with wizard, discovers the world, and falls in love with a beautiful woman” but it was an entertaining read. I loved the villian and I think it all wrapped up nicely.
After that…well, the next few books are the same. But more of the same soon becomes creepy specifically because the creepiest parts of the book start to take center stage.
I finally trudged through book 5(?) the one where Richard is a slave (yes…again…) and builds a statue. I got frustrated with the book not because of its blatantly obvious communism storyline, but because Goodkind couldn’t keep his philosophy straight. The Emperor was set up as someone beyond dark and light. A guy who scoffed at both sides because he could easily control anyone.
Now suddenly he and his minions are working on the side of the Dark? What the hell? This makes no sense whatsoever.
And so when that book finished, another never took its place.
Awful. Awful awful awful. Pretty much redefined “crap” for me.
SPOILERS FOR THESE BOOKS. No bitchin’.
Last year for Christmas my step father bought me the entire series. I read about two thirds of the first book and gave up…and I’ve read a lot of crap over the years. I very rarely give up.
Imagine the most comically over the top unbelievable bad guy. Give him a silly name. Something like Lord Evilton, but that’s just silly, so let’s make it something like Ordlay Viletonay. Make him a bigger cartoon than the bad guy in “Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire” - and he was supposed to be ridiculous. Then make him sillier and less believable. The make him evil for the sake of evil - like making his primary henchman a creepy pedophile or having it where a bunch of non-volunteers are stuck in dead dad’s tomb, and if a rose petal hits the ground in the tomb the tomb tenders are executed. Or make it where all red food (ie. apples) in the land of magic get poisoned because red is the color kids kids like the best.
Or you can make it where the bad guy pulls off stuff that would make Sherlock Holmes say “That’s just a ridiculously far-fetched plan” (ie. Richard’s vine), yet said bad guy is also unable to find the good guys throughout most of the book, even though he’s been magically marked so that anyone can look at the sky and see where he is.
You can also enjoy some of the mysteries of the book - for example, who is the Great Wizard? If you didn’t figure out who it was as soon as we find outabout the wizard’s last spell…I can only assume you’re drunk.
Or the coincidence that Our Hero just happened to be the guy that dad made memorize the Necronomicon before destroying it. That makes most Star Wars level coincidences look downright probable.
Then there’s the magic sword (of course) that’s basically powered by anger and rage. I can only assume he started these books when Marvel was putting Wolverine on the cover of every comic book - whether they actually contained Wolverine or not.
Bad. Bad. Terrible. Bad.
ETA: I posted this after reading just the OP. I had no idea I’d have so many people agreeing with me. Totally expected the opposite.
-Joe
For anybody interested in laughing long and loud at how rubbish Terry Goodkind actually is, you might enjoy this site:
http://sandstormreviews.blogspot.com/2006/08/goodkind-parodies.html
Its perhaps best enjoyed by those who know the source material though.
I read the first two books. I’ve read shitty Star Wars books and shitty Dragonlance/Forgotten Realms books and I’ve even read shitty Piers Anthony books. I know a thing or two about shitty books. The two Goodkind books are the worst books I have ever read.
The characters are morally bankrupt hypocrites who literally advocate genocide and rape as fitting punishment for opposing them. I’m serious, at one point they tell a woman (who they consider a friend!) that if she doesn’t comply with their demands they will throw her into a rape pit. They believe that murdering the innocent children of your enemies is a reasonable course of action. They could possibly make for interesting characters in an ‘American Psycho’ sort of way if they were written well (they aren’t) and if it wasn’t so easy to tell that the author unironically considers them to be totally awesome.
I guess this is a complain about Goodkind thread now so can I complain about the Wizard’s First Rule?
To recap:
People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true.
Now to me the most important part of this rule is people believing in something because of fear or ignorance. Yet as far as I can remember it is NEVER used this way. Everytime anyone believes in any sort of lie no matter how briefly someone (usually Richard) jumps up and screams “You’ve fallen for the First Rule!”. Now to me that doesn’t make sense. If someone gives me plausible information and the source is one that has usually been reliable I’m not going to feel like I’m ‘stupid’ for believing them until more information comes along.
Of course it manages to cut both ways for Richard. Someone believes his lies they’ve been tricked by the first rule. Someone refuses to take Richard at his word with no other proof…well they’ve violated some other rule (and are probably evil as well and it might not be a bad idea to murder them on the spot).
The main character is tortured for like 100 pages…
Okay, I’ve got to ask after reading that…
Is HighLordMightyEvil Richard’s father, like biological, or did dear or dad fake his death and it turns out he was actually HLME?
-Joe
Richards mother is the daughter of Super Wizard Zed. Somehow Draken Rahl raped her without knowing who she was (what are the odds?) and Zed took her to Westland where she could raise her rape baby in peace. Later she married George Cypher who raised Richard as his own.
You know, my friends and I used to make fun of the “Deathstalker” movies because it seemed like the only purpose of a forest was as a place for women to go so that the bad guys could attempt to rape them.
Awful lot of woods in these books, huh?
Allow me to reiterate: Crap crap crap.
-Joe
It is the most rape-happy series of books you will ever read. If Pyramid Head and Edmund Kemper collaborated on a fantasy series, it would probably be a lot like the Sword of Truth series, only without the long-winded political rants in between all the raping and killing.
Sure, but everyone (except Evil Captor, IIRC) acknowledges "Deathstalker"as (BOOBS!) B-movie (BOOBS) crap (BOOBS!) with only a couple redeeming features: I believe it’s boobs.
But somehow this series gets treated like something other than crap. I mean, hell, where would “Deathstalker” be without boobs? Utter crap. Hmm…
-Joe