Spears&Buckler

So I’ve read the first seven of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth books after watching and enjoying the TV show Legend of the Seeker which was based (loosely) on those books.

Please.

Don’t judge me.

Of the seven I read, I really enjoyed two (Stone of Tears and Soul of the Fire) I thought three were okay (Wizard’s First Rule, Blood of the Fold and Faith of the Fallen) and I really hated the other two (Temple of the Winds and The Pillars of Creation). After finishing The Pillars of Creation and thanking God that the torment was over (it took me over 4 weeks to finish. Brutal!) I read a couple RA Salvatore books and then dove into A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin.

Whoa.

A great book which I enjoyed thoroughly from cover to cover. This book also took me over four weeks to finish. More like five. But the difference between Thrones and Pillars is that I took my time and savored the 700+ pages of Thrones as opposed to not wanting to pick up Pillars. I went back to reread certain passages of Thrones that really struck a cord with me (“And Grey Wind threw back his head and howled.”). When something happened that may have been hinted at previously, I had to find that previous scene and read it again. I don’t do those things often, but I did them a lot with this book. I haven’t enjoyed a read this much since R. Scott Bakker’s The Warrior Prophet, which is a bold statement because in my opinion Bakker’s work is second to none. Will GRRM’s series measure up to Bakker’s? If the subsequent books are as good as Thrones it certainly will.

It’s also fun to geek out while watching HBO’s awesome adaptation because I already know what is coming. “Cool there’s Ghost!” and “Yeah, choke on THAT Viserys!” The book is full of characters you love and those you hate. Sometimes the hate is stronger than the love, though. Yeah, I’m talking to you, Joffrey.

I’m on page 58 of Goodkind’s Naked Empire and I’m not liking it at all. I’m really stubborn, so I always finish a book that I started, and since I already invested a lot of time into reading the first seven Sword of Truth books, I really wanted to finish off the last four and complete the series. But you know what? Screw that. I’m done with Goodkind and his repetitive, tired plots which he seems to recycle from book to book.

And what does all this have to do with GRRM making me see the light? Mr. Martin has shown me that life is too short to read shitty books.