Fans only - not one for newbies to the series (Soul of the Fire - Terry Goodkind)

Member Name: Serafina

Product:	Soul of the Fire - Terry Goodkind
Date:	30/07/00 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good as it is a continuation of a good series but....

Disadvantages: bad as it is considerably weaker that the earlier novels.

Although the series started with the undoubtably excellent 'Wizard's First Rule' and 'Wizard's Second Rule' I have to say I think Goodkind has somewhat lost his way as far as the story is concerned.

The series follows Richard Rahl, a powerful wizard and his exploits with Zedd, the First Wizard and Kahlan, the Mother Confessor through a world fighting against the evil magic of wizards such as Darken Rahl ironically Richard's father. Goodkind writes many new concepts into his fantasy that have not been touched upon previously yet he does unfortunately have a tendency to forget what skills he has given to his characters. He often makes them all powerful one minute only to have them captured by a single inexperienced warrior the next. Goodkinds biggest fault is his lack of character continuity, with perhaps the worst example of this being in the character of Kahlan whom he spends 2 books enforcing the power of this woman and the fact that in a way she is the ruler of the entire land and her ability to call down the Con Dar only to have her weak and pathetic and sobbing over Richard.

Nevertheless despite the problems I have with Goodkind's Sword of Truth series it is worth reading. Zedd is an extremely likeable character and he amply makes up for Richard's often simpering attitude. Goodkind also creates some interesting races such as the Mud People who have an very interesting culture. Maybe with any luck in the next book he will rediscover what it was that made the first two or three books so good and inject a bit of it into book 6.

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