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Submitted by Peter 
(Aug 28, 2005)

I just finished reading the SoT series up to the "Faith of the Fallen" for the second time in so that I could I see if my original opinion still stood. I realised that it was stil the same. Up to the fourth book it was an enjoyable story, although having many repetitions in the storyline of each book (Kahlan betrays Richard, Richard gets mad and leaves, Richard regrets and in the end Kahlan has made no mistake and all was Richard's fault etc.) but that is pretty amusing and doesn't weigh heavily on my opinion.

What did weigh heavily was the next two books which for me changed this easy read story to boring with heavy political referrals and over-descriptive surroundings which is not my idea of entertaining. The "Soul of Fire" dedicates so many pages to characters of absolutely no interest, just to fill some pages and torment its readers. Also the choice of keeping Jagang as the main villain isn't the best that comes to mind. After overcoming the threat of the ultimate evil coming loose in the world(Keeper) i don't think that a human with no power over him and those loyal to him is such a serious threat. Also the whole notion of how the chimes were loosed in to the world was also unbelievably childish... but maybe it's just me.

These books are one of a kind. My dad introduced me to these books and I was hooked from the first pages of Wizard's First Rule. I have read the first five and I can't wait to start Faith of the Fallen. Mr. Goodkind has provided us with a masterpiece of great morality, heroism, mystery, and grandeur. I look forward to his future writings.

I just finished Chainfire and now looking back at the whole set I can say with confidence that this was my least favorite book of the series. I can over look the constantly repeating themes of Richard losing his sword and some force dragging Kahlan and him apart, I can even overlook the countless similarities between SoT and WoT, however this book introduced another theme of Goodkind's that I just can't tolerate. Preaching. I respect the author's view on politics but I don't feel he picked the right venue for them and the tenacity with which he revists these themes again and again.. and again, exhausts the reader. This series didn't start out this way and I can only believe that some real life event prompted the author to add this to his writing but it just doesn't seem to fit. He twists the plot of the book around his need to get his message across and as a result the credibility goes down. From Nicci's transformation to the statues too many pieces of this book aren't believable.

I would describe this series as an entertaining burn of time, but not epic nor a masterpiece by any standards. The series has good character development and plot pacing, which makes this a good casual read. Nevertheless, Goodkind's writing style is overly simplistic and lacks variety. I was also put off by the blatant similarities with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (the similarities are so glaring that it is very hard to overlook them; I found myself thinking, "why does this all seem so familiar" quite often).

I ran across the first book of this series years ago in the library, I was actually quite amazed at how much I enjoyed Wizard's First Rule. I have, of course, heard from oh so many half-wits who have little else to do with their time than point out all the similarities between Jordan and Goodkind's works. (I'd rather read Goodkind's books over Jordan's trite nonsense anytime.)

In general though, I quickly grew bored with the series. The entire plot of each book seems to follow this outline:

A. Richard and Kahlan get into an impossible to escape situation.
B. 20% of the minor characters in the series die.
C. Richard and Kahlan escape the impossible to escape situation.
D. Repeat until you just can't stand to read another.

While I do like the stories and the general concept, there are way too many holes in Goodkind's writing. He incessently contradicts himself, in Stone of Tears alone I counted six different paradoxes. On top of that, the editing of the book is very poor - I note, on average, about two spelling or grammatical errors in every chapter. Do his publishers not bother to have the manuscripts proofread before they publish them? or is the state of modern fantasy fiction in such a sad shape that they know that people will buy any steaming pile of manure they throw to us?