Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

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Submitted by Dan Goss 
(Mar 22, 2002)

I just finished the seventh book in the Sword of Truth series. I had a hard time putting the books down at the end of each night! So I got to bed quite late. Terry Goodkind has a way of making you become part of the cast of characters which are extremely well developed. He keeps the plot moving and is never boring. Lots of action. A bit gory at times but excellent story. He is very good at instilling his own belief system into his story. It's very obvious.
The seventh book however, threw me off a little. I was expecting the story to continue with the same cast but was surprised to find two new characters, never before mentioned in previous books dominate the entire book to the exclusion of all the main characters. It was a good book though and in the end kind of slid back in to the main plot. Highly recomended series.

The SoT series was one of the best series of books I've read ever. But, I've just started reading the WoT series, and like Sarah said, the SoT series is a lot like the WoT series, but anyway both those series have what I think all fantasy books should have. I started reading the SoT series about two years ago and finished Faith of the Fallen last year. I hope Goodkind keeps writing. because I will keep reading.

I've always been a big reader, and when a friend recommended this series, I picked it up and after Wizard's First rule, Went through the rest with a vengeance. The character development is excellent, and the characters themselves seem realistic in the ways they act alone and interact with each other. Even simple characters who only step in for moments are given some definition. A grievance I had was the similarity to other series, but that can be forgiven, since fantasy is a genre that is similar to itself in almost every variety. Some of the books didn't keep up pace at some points, (Temple of the Winds, Soul of the Fire) But Faith of the Fallen was once again excellent, and Pillars of Creation was decent, though it was lacking the focus on the main characters of the series in most respects. Introducing a character is important, but it shouldn't shift the focus from the main points of the series. As a reader, I respect the time and effort Mr.Goodkind put into his works, and am looking forward to the next installment. In my opinion, a series worth the read.

I want to say that I really enjoyed reading the SoT series. I just finished Faith of the Fallen today and I believed it to be one of my favorites. Unfortunately I do have to agree with many others about how SoT resembles Robert Jordan's WoT series way too much. All major aspects were the same, such as Sisters of the Light and the Aes Sedi, Sisters of the Dark and the Black Ajah, the young country boy forced to be a hero, etc. I read WoT series first. It was a great series, but I found that some of the books lagged, causing me to lose interest in some of the characters. Robert Jordan is a great author, but I just couldn't finish Path of Daggers, I got disinterested. Terry Goodkind on the other hand was able to keep my attention through all the books. They don't slow down, they stay at a fast pace, with new suprises at every new turn.

On top of all this I have heard numerous people complain or critisize Goodkind's use of some rather vulgar and disgusting scenes in the books. I personally didn't mind all that much, though I was quite bothered by a couple of scenes, none which I will go into detail about. Though it was vulgar, I am glad it was in the book. This, in my opinion adds a unique flavor to the SoT novels that can't be found in many other books. It may have turned my stomach a bit, but Goodkind made it feel real, and thus made the entire story feel more real to me as well.

The best element of the SoT books is that it displays well the true nature of man, good and bad. It brings all of humanities qualities, good and bad, into another world , making the world feel all that more real. I would actually suggest that this aspect alone makes Goodkind's books better than Jordan's since Jordan doesn't overwhelm the reader with the powerful sense of good and evil within man that Goodkind does.

I am starting to become very disappointed in these long series. I read all of WoT and all of SoT which I think are the best known for it. I've read a lot of fantasy, and when I first started reading SoT I was ready to say they were the best books ever written. Like a lot of people, I read them in under a week. They're amazing, or at least the first 3 were. The 4rth and 5th weren't that great but Faith of the Fallen was once again, amazing. So I was really disappointed when I read Pillars of Creation. It was just plain and simply garbage. A few new, very undeveloped characters, going through the same things the original characters did. There was nothing new in the plot at all. I am hoping very much that Goodkind's next book in the series is back to the quality that the first ones were.