[ChrisW]

Was just looking at the review section and I noticed SoT has four worlds(the rating). I find it strange that the majority of people who use this forum really dislike Goodkind but that the people who post reviews seem to really like him.

So which group should newbies listen to? The mad people in the forum or the people who write reviews?

[Cannon Fodder]

Personally I wouldn't trust the majority of the overly gushy reviews from this site. At least half of all the books reviewed are described as the best book or fantasy book ever.

[Cadfael]

Actually Caldazar... I am one of the sane ones... I LIKE The Sword Of Truth, and all newbies should listen to me! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Lani]

You shouldn't listen to either of them. Just try the book and if you start gagging on page 30, then just put it away and try something else.

[Elan Morin Tedronai]

As for me I DON'T LIKE tSoT series, but I recommend to you to try reading only the first three books!

[Alucard]

I'd say to throw both opinions out the window and give it a shot. You might love it, you might hate it. With this particular series, the opinions seem to be very strong one way or the other. It's either considered the worst thing ever to happen to the written word, or the most touching a beautiful love story in existence (genreally, at least). But the only way for you to develop your own opinion is to read it.

[Lady Fox]

I think one reason you see such a strong love/hate relationship for this series is because the first book was REALLY GOOD, then second book was almost as good, and then the series just degenerated from there. Goodkind started out with a great magic system, superb world building, and interesting characters. Then he seemed to run out of things to do with these charecters half way through the third book. The series became repetitive and somewhat silly at times. Some people like his writing and the story so well that they want to see where it ends. I say give this series a try and see how long you can stand it.

[Pete-Gas]

Sword of Truth:

Wizard's First Rule
-really good, but his writing style could use improvement. His sentences are amazingly short!

Stone of Tears
-excellent. Really long, which i love. Writing style improves drastically.

Blood of the Fold
-this is my favorite of the series. Tons of action, really cool villians, some major plot developments etc

Temple of the Winds
-excellent again. Different, with a really cool ending.

Soul of the Fire
-very different, uses different main characters. A bit preachy at times, but an overall good read.

Faith of the Fallen
-excellent again. Ending is sort of vague.

Pillars of Creation
-very cool because it is very different. Not much to do with the main characters though!

Actually, its one of my favorite series'. I know my little "reviews" didnt really explain much of anything, but whatever!

[Elan Morin Tedronai]

The first three are really good:
WFR - really good
SoT - maybe one of the most epic books in the series.
BotF - my favourite, standing among with SoT

And after the 3rd book:
TotW - BIG ****, you could pass without it. All Kahlan and Richard are doing is sex and nothing more.
SotF - I don't have words for that scoff, which is pretending to be fantasy. It's a voting between the Comunisme (Jagang) and the Democracy(Richard). You could pass without it.

Not so bad:
FotF - it isn't so bad after books 4 and 5 which are the worst books in the series. Kind of different.

Haven't read it yet:
PoC - Yup! I have to wait to be translated. But I heard she's very different.

[Blizzaurel]

Everyone here's crazy. Myself included. Read it if you want, but honestly- I wouldn't not read a book based on this forum.
That said, I really like tSoT... but the love story isn't that great, it's pretty insipid.