A friend recommended this series to me, so I read it.

tl;dr : I read it, and I hated it.

I found it be a terrible fantasy series, full of cliches and unlikable, stereotypical characters. Furthermore, he writes in such a way as to make his protagonist (Richard) to always be right. However, anyone with half a brain notices that Richard's actions are immoral at best. For example:

Richard's latest battle tactics are simple - his army of D'Harans is too small to take on the huge enemy force, so instead he orders them to go to the enemy homeland and slaughter all the civilians, removing the ears of anyone who preaches the enemy faith. Because this is the only moral thing to do.

There is also a scene in the books where Richard pretty much justifies gang-rape because it is part a culture's customs, and therefore must be protected. He also kills peaceful protesters because... I dunno. He just does. Yet, he is never portrayed as anything other than right. Richard = Gary Stu.

The worst part is that Goodkind appears to fully believe that Richard is doing the right thing. The rest of his novels reek of radical left and right wing ideas - apparently his characters can't decide whether or not they prefer communism or fascism (edit: it leans towards fascism in the late books). His characters contradict themselves constantly.

Of course, this is but one dimension of the retardation that Goodkind has in his novels. I didn't understand how anyone could like this series enough to rec it to me.

So I did something a Harry Potter reader should have learned not to do. I went online to read his comments/interviews.

This:
http://cgi1.usatoday.com/mchat/20030805003/tscript.htm
http://www.scifidimensions.com/Aug03/terrygoodkind.htm

Which led to this:

Also, apparently he revolutionized fantasy - without writing fantasy according to him.

In the end, I figured he is just an arrogant prick, who writes terrible stories.

Is there anyone who dis/agrees with me?

P.S. I am well aware this seems like a horrible rant... but I needed it to get it off my chest.

 

Terry Goodkind is a hack and his books are terrible.

Check out this bit of news. I mean, really? He's basically regurgitating the plot from his Sword of Truth series, including character names.

For must read Goodkind bashing, check out this site.

 

I enjoyed the books.

That being said: Goodkind is an asshole and some of his views are really twisted.

 

There’s an interview where Goodkind confesses that Richard is how he sees himself, with his views of morals (meaning Goodkind would massacre innocents and civilians if in a position to do so). So Richard is literally a self-insertion character.

 

I've read the entire series, and I used to be a huge fan of the series, but I am going to say that the series is not exactly as bad as you've painted it.

First of all, it needs to be noted that Goodkind wrote the series as following from his personal philosophies (which are a somewhat garbled version of what Ayn Rand tries to preach), and he wrote the series not with fantasy in mind, but with the philosophies. Furthermore, he has also claimed that he does not read other books (so a lot of the comparisons with Jordan's work tend to fall flat). However, there's nothing wrong with trying to make a point through one's writing. I can admire that - as I can also admire any author who can complete eleven books with the kind of length/epic plot as he had.

Secondly, one has to realize that Goodkind's plotting is not great. His novels could easily be trimmed significantly, cutting significantly on the prose and redundant dialogue (hell, he could have chucked Naked Empire entirely, and it wouldn't have been a great loss). I also feel inclined to say that the series peaked around Temple of the Winds and Faith of the Fallen and went downhill from there as his political philosophies took over from his good story-telling.

And calling Richard a Gary-Stu is a bit ridiculous. Did you even read Temple of the Winds or Blood of the Fold or Stone of Tears? Talk about a character who makes mistakes, screws up, and watches his plans fall to pieces. And I'm perfectly comfortable with saying that after what he went through with Denna, it's amazing the man is still sane, let alone functional.

If anything, I'm surprised you didn't point the finger at Kahlan - talk about the character that strained one's suspicions of disbelief.

And I'd like you to quote the scene where Richard justifies gang-rape - if I remember correctly, he flies into a rage when that is implied in Stone of Tears when he's crossing through the forest with Verna on the way to the People's Palace. And while you're at it, quote the scene where he justifies the murder of civilians for the hell of it.

Hmm, I wouldn't call characters like Denna or Berdine or Cara or any of the Mord-Sith as really stereotypical characters - if anything, they created the stereotype. And I had honestly never seen a character like Jagang in writing before. And frankly, characters like Nicci and Zedd and Nathan and Warren were very likeable characters - or at least ones I personally sympathized with and found highly entertaining. And if anything, you'll find that Richard is seldom always right - he makes mistakes, and he sure as hell isn't perfect.

So yeah, the series is flawed, and it gets bad near the end, but so did HP with HBP and DH. I'm just of the opinion that the series ends at Faith of the Fallen. From your commentary, it sounds like you only ranted on the last three books (some of the worst of the series, IMO) - honestly, did you read the rest of them? And yeah, Goodkind can be a pretentious git, but I tend to forget about the author when I'm reading the book (unless it's Terry Pratchett, but that guy is awesome).

And yeah, the TV series is NOT great, but it's good for a laugh, at least. And it's a hell of a lot better than most of the shit on TV. And the actor playing Zedd is great (and the actress playing Kahlan is hot as hell).

 

I have read the entire series and must say after the first two books it goes pretty down hill. Every single book seemed to follow the same path, Richard has no power or can't use his power for whatever reason, overcomes his enemies anyways, regains powers or gains a new one and then at the end of the book gets caught up with another enemy that puts him back to square one. That being said there are some interesting moments, and interesting ideas and some characters you might like but it the books just keep getting worse and worse.

It bears mentioning that one of the later books, The Pillars of Creation, pulls a crappy move and subs out the normal characters for two new unheard of characters you probably won't like and spends the entire book following their rather boring adventure until you finally meet up again with Richard at the very end. From that book onwards the rest of the books are not worth reading. Not to mention the ending was a let down, a complete let down.

 

A beautiful, mysterious, woman appears in village and sets boy off on a quest. Boy receives a sword from his mentor - a sword that is more than it seems etc.

This site lists more - I'm too tired to reread all of SoT to find more.
http://www.angelfire.com/wizard2/comparisonsite/page2.html

Exactly. It is amazing that the man is still sane. How? Unconquerable powers. The thing is, when Richard makes mistakes, it always turns into a huge advantage for him, or it turns out that he was right all along. He deflects Wizard Fire with a sword. He has immeasurable ability to wield magic. He makes random women fall in love with him.

Seems like a Gary-Stu to me.

Also, he can grab arrows while they're flying at him.

I could not agree more. And speaking of disbelief:

How can a handful of soldiers from a destroyed nation defeat an army? Guerilla tactics? Impossible to implement with only horsemen in winter. They're not even horse archers so..?

In Naked Empire, there is a peaceful protest against violence. If you have the paperback, 2003 published by TOR, then it begins on page 660:

Note: The people are unarmed. Also note: Richard kills a woman protester - because? Dunno. I guess he disagrees with her ability to express herself freely. Aggressive debate, maybe?

The gang-rape thing: sorry, I meant that Goodkind appears to justify it for the bad guys, and continually makes the reader read about it. My sentences get a little mixed-up when I type fast.

For example, the Sisters of the Dark have crazy Monster!Sex, and are later sent to the brothels of Jagang'sa army. He then describes their feelings on the matter in great detail.

The only character I liked was Nicci - she had some depth. The rest were simple too stupid. Jagang? Didn't do shit, except for moving his army around. There are hundreds of characters like him, Obould from R.A. Salvatore comes to mind. Zedd is basically Gandalf.

And Richard always ends up right. Prove me wrong.

I did read all of the series - it is the only way to criticize properly. And Goodkind got really preachy after Stone of Tears. Temple of the Winds was my favourite, but even I gagged when all the mord-sith suddenly loved Richard. Not one, but the entire community. It's like in bad HP fanfiction - Harry shows a goblin a bit of respect and abruptly he's their king. WTF.

You can't forget about Goodkind while reading, because he's forcing his ideology on you every fucking page of the novels. It's not subtle either (Chronicles of Narnia) - but full on preaching.

And yes, Terry Pratchett is beyond awesome.

 

Yeeeah, I really used to like these books. At least, the first three were pretty enjoyable (Goodkind's love of rape and torture scenes aside) and then it sort of descends into shit after that. I do remember liking Faith of the Fallen, which was like the sixth book I think. And then there was that retarded Pillars of Creation which, like Nocdia said, wasn't even centered around the main characters. But then you get to the next one (Naked Empire) and realize how much of a boon that really was. And then... the last three, which Goodkind describes as the 'Chainfire Trilogy'--and really should have just been condensed down into one book--finish off the series with a whimper. Honestly, it just got so stupid toward the end, and the final scene just made me laugh with the absurdity of it all.

There are things to like about the series--I always thought the character Zedd was actually very funny and sincere--but they're outweighed by all the problems: the general lack of logic, the near constant talk of rape/ violence/ torture, the preachiness of the main character, and the totally unsympathetic antagonists combine to make a story that really just leaves you feeling dirty and cheated.

He could have stopped at the first book, really, and it would have left more of an impact.

 

I've always loved, and probably always will, the first one, and the 6th one. Faith of the Fallen.

Ones between that are decent. Ones after that are just kinda boring. I didn't like the chainfire trilogy at all. The whole series repeated one premise, really. "OH GOD, RICHARD AND KAHLAN ARE APART, HOW WILL THEY GET BACK TOGETHER AGAIN!?"

 

It just happens that I am now re-reading the first few books of the series to refresh my memory before I move on to the later books of the series. While I've read only the intital 4-5 books, I have to say that I found them enjoyable and intriguing. It is true that some of the books are too long and ramble on, but I find that relatively minor.

To OP: I don't see where in the quoted part of the interview that he says he revolutionized fantasy at all. I don't see the arrogance really either. So in short, I disagree with you.

Also, the Gary-Stu characteristics you mentioned are in my opinion, unsubstantiated. Of course he succeeds in the end, just like HP did and every other main character of pretty much every other story wins in the end, because they are the protagonist. In addition, catching arrows is quite possible especially seeing how it is a land with magical powers. The random women I don't really remember, so I can't comment.

I'm sure that after I finish re-reading it, I'll have more to say, especially in regards to the later books.

 

Faith of the Fallen is my absolute favorite of the series.

And AntiChrist: Don't be fooled, he's an arrogant jackass.


Anyone else reading his new book at the moment? The Law of Nines.

Spoiler

I'm incredibly annoyed with it so far, as the main character's last name is Rahl and he lives in Orden, Nebraska. Unless he's planning to link it to the Sword of Truth series somehow, this is just not cool with me.

Also, he seems to have simply repackaged his main characters and put them in a modern setting, but that's just a first impression.

 

Goodkind is a hack to end all hacks, I will let Hitler elaborate further.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCuMN3ndh3U

To see the subtitles you may need to click on the lower right button (the one shaped like a square with a triangle inside) and click on the subtitle button.

@ Rehi - I think you might especially enjoy this one seeing your views on The Law of Nines.

 

... Hitler speaks truth.

 

It will be interesting to see what Disney do with the next series of Legend of the Seeker!!

 

I read the Sword of Shanara about 8 years ago, hated it then, still hate it now. It seems to me to be generic post-LotR fantasy with no unique or distinguishing qualities and far too many races.

 

Er... Sword of Shannara /= Sword of Truth. If it's possible, I hate those Shannara books even more, lol. Was that the one with the freakin elf stones? Such a lame-ass book...

 

What the fuck Taure? Fail.

 

Ah, yeah, that would be Terry Brookes.

Still, generic high fantasy is generic high fantasy. My review probably would work for this Sword of Truth too

 

Read the series a couple years ago. Parts of it really annoyed me, but not enough to stop reading it. Overall I'd say it was worth reading because there were parts that were very good. Faith of the Fallen really was an amazing book, though the series definitley went downhill after that.

 

Well, I've read most of the series in Swedish. I don't really know why, but the translator decided to split each book into three books. This means that every book is around ~150 pages.

I have 14 books in the series (They are all orange and take up a whole shelf, kind of funny actually) and still i think i only got around to like book 8 or so in English.

My mum found a book of him in English(Pillars of Creation) and bought it for my birthday. I started to suspect that this was the series i had been reading around halfway through but didn't get it confirmed until the last chapter. Never read more after that.