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Submitted by Anonymous  (Nov 15, 2009)I'm young and read LOTS of books. I especially enjoy fantasy and science fiction. After the 4 TV series came out, I mentioned it to my brother. He said that it sounded familiar and then he said that there were books to the TV show. I got terribly excited and read them very quickly. Unfortunately, the books weren't part of my school's system of reading (Accelerated Reading). I started the books in June of '09 and am almost done with the last book. I find the books very exciting and gripping. Sometimes, I get lost in Richard's words. Like when he was addressing the people of the banished empire in the 8th book, I got confused and lost in his speeches to them. Maybe I'm just not that wide in my vocabulary yet, but I can still feel Richard's emotions and his feelings toward everything that goes on. I highly recommend this book to high school and possibly middle school students. I enjoyed these books greatly :) Submitted by Spenser  (Oct 28, 2009)This series is not for the light of heart. It is an epic saga, and is a book that is worth rereading many times as you go through your own saga in life.
Some people may overanalize this book, and try to find political bias or riddicule. But it is not meant to be a money-making book by targeting a certain audience, but rather a testimony of the protaganists life and morals; and it will take a lot of thinking on your part before you see the full picture. Submitted by Adam  (Sep 20, 2009)I love this series. The characters and the world are awesome, and the plot is interesting. The action sequences are very intense, and his descriptive style makes you feel like you are the person swinging the sword of truth, not Richard. While some elements of the series are common pieces of fantasy, there are enough original, or at least uncommon aspects to make it interesting. For example, how many fantasy heroes do you know that are imprisoned at some point? Then think about how many of them are raped and tortured with an agiel for months, something presumable much worse than regular torture. From my experience, the latter is not a common occurrence. The ending novel, Confessor, is easily great enough to redeem the series from any poor qualities. A very epic ending, where you have to read the series over again to look for the clues Goodkind put right in front of you.. The only major downside to the series is that, in some of the later books, like Naked Empire, Goodkind tends to get preachy. Some of his philosophy gets redundant, as if he's trying too hard to make sure everyone understands. Otherwise, this is a great series. Submitted by KrishnaPrasad Bhat  (Sep 10, 2009)The concept is good as such. But TG has the habit of dragging the story too much when there is no need of it. And major irritation is repetitions and flashbacks. Since this is a series, nobody will read book 4 before reading book 1-2-3. Why repeat the story of those books in book 4? That too not once, several times (I just used a book number, the flashbacks are in all books, not just 4). And in the story line also, he made the hero a Superman with all the ideas & power. But till the end, he never realizes how to use his gift. Then what is the use of having gift at all.
And think about the world where all people look alike. Richard is taken as a captive in one of the books by Nikki. He travels to the other end of Old world, but nobody thinks and realizes that he is not from that place at all. No different races of humans?
Submitted by Taylor_Rahl  (Mar 09, 2009)The first time I ever heard of the book, my dad was read 'Temple of the Winds.' He gave me 'The Wizard's First Rule,' and I was captured. When I read the book at age 14, I was entranced. The character seemed so real compared to what I had been reading(Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.) When he introduced the characters, I came to know each as though I was actually meeting them, and eventually came to love many of them as though they were friends. Some of my favorites were actually not main characters(Funny how that happens.) A couple good mentions were Zedd, Cara, and Nicci. Goodkind writes with real people, not some people who have everything going for them and can do no wrong.
The first book was great, probably in the top five of the series(of course, out of an eleven book series.) While it did get a little long winded, in the 'Pillars of Creation' and 'Naked Empire' it seemed as though he was just writing for writing's sake. 'Faith of the Fallen' was another great one. Another thing he could have improved on was not overplaying Richard and Kahlan(BTW, pronounced Kay-lin) getting seperated all the time. It was when the Imperial Order got deep, not just a face villian like they were up until Chainfire when Nicci explains their ideals, was when the book got intresting. The Imperial order was obviously a crack at the crusaders back in the day. Goodkind is not against religion, like many believe, he just thinks reason is the greatest gift to man ever.
Finally, I loved the last three books. Goodkind outdid himself in those three books. The only complaint I had from the last book was that Nicci didn't get something better. But a great series(If you really want to, you can skip the third and the eighth, they really don't add much to the story)
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