Wizard's Sixth Rule: The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason. (Faith of the Fallen - Terry Goodkind)

Member Name: defiler

Product:	Faith of the Fallen - Terry Goodkind
Date:	10/10/01 (422 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast Pace, Interesting Story

Disadvantages: Some views a bit too simplistic

Just how many of these wizards rules are there and how is anyone actually supposed to remember them all? A new one is introduced in every book and there are probably hundreds more than haven’t been mentioned yet.

This opinion is on the sixth book in a series, if you haven’t already read the first 5 books and plan to at sometime you may want to miss out bits of this opinion, especially “The Story So Far”.

It was the fourth book in the sword of truth series that made me realise that Terry Goodkind really could write well. The first 2 books in the series, while great books, lacked depth trying to make up for it by instead containing a lot of action and a very well written, if predictable, story. The third book in the series was a disappointment to me, it seemed to be trying to be more mature than the first two books but failed as with a slower pace the first 3/4 of the book were actually quite boring. The fourth book was when I felt that the world and characters in it truly became real, the author seemed to work out exactly what he wanted to do and set about doing it creating a storyline that took the best elements of the first few books and added a great deal to them.

--The Story So Far--
This will be a very brief mention of the story (although the length of it won’t seem brief at all), it will miss out many details and is more a reminder than anything else.

Wizard's First Rule: Richard Cypher in investigating his Father's murder comes across a woman in danger. The woman is Kahlan (who turns out to be the Mother Confessor who has the ability to release her power into someone which will make the person obey her every command until they die) who has travelled from her home in the Midlands to try and find the first wizard so that he can name someone seeker in the hope that they will have a chance in stopping the danger than Darken Rahl poses, they find that the first-wizard is Richard&#
39;s long time friend Zed and much to the dismay of Kahlan who knows the short life most seekers have he names Richard as the new seeker and gives him the sword of truth, a powerful magical weapon. The boundaries that split the world into 3 parts and prevent anyone from passing from one part to the other are slowly fading away and once they are destroyed Darken Rahl will be free to send his army into the Midlands to capture what he needs, he is searching for 3 boxes which contain powerful magic and will allow him full control over all life. Richard, Kahlan and Zed set off to the Midlands to find the box before Darken Rahl can, on the journey Richard and Kahlan fall in love but are unable to do anything about it as Kahlan's power would be accidentally released into Richard destroying him. On their journey Richard is captured and tortured by the Mord-Sith (women who live only to serve their Master Rahl and who are experts at torture) and Kahlan and Zed are betrayed by Richard's brother who gives the final box to Darken Rahl. Richard escapes the control of the Mord-Sith by learning a new side to the magic contained in the sword of truth. Kahlan uses her power on Richard who has realised a way to prevent it from affecting him but pretends it has affected him so that he can trick Darken Rahl that he is unable to lie, in doing so he gets him to open the wrong box which kills him. Richard and Kahlan set off on a much needed break while Zed tries to bring order to Darken Rahl's old empire.

Stone Of Tears: Richard and Kahlan journey back to the Mud People's village where they have made many friends and hope to get married there, after they have been there a short time Richard starts to get very bad headaches, 3 sisters of the light arrive who claim that Richard is a wizard and the only way he can stop the headaches from killing him is to follow them alone to be taught how to control his power. Knowing this is the only way to prevent Richard fr
om dying Kahlan makes Richard go with the sisters and in doing so has a collar placed around his neck which allows the sisters to control and hurt Richard, claiming that this is the only way they can help him to control his power. Richard having been a prisoner before at the hands of the Mord-Sith hates the collar and for a while believes that Kahlan only made him put it on to be rid of him. While in the mud peoples village Richard accidentally brought Darken Rahl back from the dead, summoning the spirit of his ancestor not fully realising that Darken Rahl was his father, Darken Rahl is attempting to completely break the barrier between this world and the afterlife that is already fragile after events in the previous book. Richard escapes from the sisters but not before he discovers that many of them are serving the keeper, in his journey back to the midlands he breaks the barrier that has stood between the new world and the old world allowing safe passage in the future to all who want to. After a battle against Darken Rahl he is finally banished back to the afterlife and takes the stone of tears with him, the item that helps prevent the keeper from gaining access to life on this world.

Blood Of The Fold: With the barrier between the old world and the new world broken the leader of the imperial order who already has control over most of the old world takes the opportunity to prepare to extend his rule. Meanwhile Richard decides that the only way the world can stand against the imperial order is if all the lands join with the D'Haran empire under his command believing that only through being united does everyone stand a chance to survive, convincing everyone else to join with him though isn't an easy goal. The blood of the fold who aim to eliminate all magic set their sites upon the mother confessor and mriswith who are undetectable by almost everyone have some hidden goal of their own. Several lands join with the D'Haran Empire and with t
heir help the blood of the folds army is defeated, Richard brings the mriswith queen to life but manages to defeat her before she can bring more mriswith to threaten the world.

Temple Of The Winds: Back together again Richard and Kahlan set about trying to get all the remaining lands to join with them in the stand against the imperial order. As well as the arrival of a woman from Richards old home who believes herself to be his wife and Richard's half brother comes a more deadly threat in the form of a deadly plague that appears impossible to stop. Finding out that the item that caused the plague was stolen from the temple of the winds Richard sets about finding a way in, unfortunately it was long ago banished from this world by wizards who feared the use of the items contained within. In order to gain access Richard needed to be betrayed by a person who loved him, something he only found out after it had happened and he had gained access. Richard used the magic to stop the plague but not before it has killed a vast number of people including more than one of his friends. In order to journey back to this world Richard has to pay the price the spirits set, this price is that he must be infected with the plague. When he gets back he finds that his brother has taken over in his rule but is more concerned about his power and being able to do what he wants that the public good. Kahlan travels to the prophet Nathan to find the cure for the plague and uses this to cure Richard and defeat his brother.

Soul Of The Fire: Richard and Kahlan have travelled to the mud peoples village again to get married, this time with more successful results. They soon find out however that in curing Richard, Kahlan has unleashed the chimes on the world, beings from the underworld that will remove all magic from the world, something that could have far more disastrous effects than may first be imagined. As everyone sets off on their own path to try and stop the
chimes another battle takes place in Anderith as to whether they will join the D'Haran empire or the Imperial Order. Anderith is a powerful and large land protected by an ancient weapon that will destroy anyone who comes too close unless they wish them to pass. Richard and Kahlan attempt to persuade them to join with the D'Haran empire while at the same time searching for a cure to the chimes, deciding to give the public the choice of voting for who they wish to rule them Richard soon finds out how easily public opinion can be changed to what the leaders of the land wish them to believe and they vote against Richard. Richard finds that the weapon that protects the land is linked to the chimes and when he works out how to banish the chimes he leaves the weapon useless. Kahlan realising she is pregnant wonders what to do about it, she knows that any child she has could be a threat to the world but is unwilling to kill it, as she reaches the decision to keep the baby she is attacked and nearly killed, left lying on the brink of death and losing her baby. Richard feeling that the fight is useless and wishing to care for Kahlan flees with her and Cara west, away from all the fighting and his duties as the leader of the D'Haran Empire. Anderith is left to the imperial order.

--The Story In This Book--
The book starts with Richard caring for Kahlan as she begins to slowly heal, something which takes many months. Richard feels that it is too soon to lead the people, believing that if he leads now then the battle will be lost and even more people will die than otherwise would and for no reason as the battle would still be lost. Kahlan doesn't follow this view but is too injured to do anything about it for now. As Kahlan is nearly recovered Nicci, a sister of the dark, feeling that Richard can show her something that was taken from her as a child takes him away from the others under the threat that if he doesn't go she will end Kahlan
s life. Kahlan feeling that the only thing she can now do is go and fight for her homeland against the imperial order does just that, despite the hopeless odds they face.

The book is a little slow to start but this is important as it brings more depth and understanding to one of the most important characters in the book, you get to see what happened in their past to turn them into the person they are today and become to understand that they aren't the person that everyone else believes them to be. Other than these details the slow start is also important to people who are new to the series, while it is much better to start from the first book in the series and read from there this book does reveal all the important details you need to know to understand the story, however you may miss out on a lot of small details that aren't pivotal to the plot but do add to your understanding of it.

Once the book has got started though it is not at all slow and follows as fast a pace as all the previous books have had. A lot happens in the book but yet as you read it, it managed to seem much shorter than it actually is due to the fast pace which prevents you from getting bored.

As enjoyable as the book is it also displays a number of strong messages. It shows how sometimes it is impossible to win a struggle unless the people you are trying to save are truly committed to the cause, that people cannot always value freedom until it is taken away from them. It shows how no matter how committed you are to what you believe in and no matter how right you know you are in what you do your enemy probably feels the exact same thing about what they are doing and will be just as committed to their cause and as sure they are right and you are wrong. The enemy faced in this book is not evil, they truly believe that what they are doing is for the good of the world and this belief makes them far more dangerous than someone evil would be.

The boo
k has been criticised in some ways for having a simplistic view of communism in that the book seems to be showing it as evil and nothing more, this is true in many ways but I don't believe it is the whole of what the book is showing. The book is more showing how the enemy carries out their beliefs more than that anything else, the books view of communism shouldn't really be taken as a view of real life but instead just the way it is carried out in the book.

As with the previous book Soul Of The Fire this book seems a lot darker than earlier books in the series. Even at the start of the book we have Kahlan badly injured and taking a lot of time to recover, as she does recover she Richard and Cara are living in almost paradise but the second that Richard is taken away this paradise is shattered and the book sets off down its darker path. It’s darker in that the book seems almost to be saying that the battle that many people are fighting for is at the moment hopeless and that no matter how much they struggle the Imperial Order will take over their land and do what they want, it is only after people start to value what they have lost and are truly committed to the fight against the Order will they have a chance of winning, at the moment people are going to die no matter what.

The war depicted in past books never seemed as real as it does here, in earlier books you knew deep down that no matter how many people died in the fights good would always win over evil, the fighting often seemed terrible but it always felt like it was for a good cause. In this book the battles seem almost pointless at times, the people are facing such a strong enemy that no matter how much they struggle they will eventually lose and the longer and harder the struggle is the more people will die in the defeat.

I still think that the author needs to work on his endings though, like with almost all his past books the ending seems rushed and a little t
oo easy, this book isn't the worst ending out of any of the books but it is still fairly poor compared to what other authors can manage. The ending is also fairly predictable, you will probably work out what is going to happen quite a while before it does, something that is a shame considering that the first half of the book introduces quite a few things that will make you wonder what will happen.

---Conclusion---
One of the best books in the series so far but even so it's still only really for people who have read the past books, there is little point in reading this book if you haven't already read the other 5 books in the series as though you will understand the basic story you will miss out on small but vital details which add to the story a lot. The series has changed in my opinion from how it started in the first 2 books and anyone who was disappointed by the third book and stopped reading the series should really try and read Temple Of The Winds as I found that from this point the series just got better.

The book is available in both paperback and hardback, many discount book shops seem to have book club editions of the book for sale fairly cheaply (cheaper than a paperback book anyway) and are worth looking in.

Summary: