Terry Goodkind
![Confessor - The Culminating Novel Of The Sword Of Truth Terry Goodkind]( "Confessor - The Culminating Novel Of The Sword Of Truth Terry Goodkind")
By: Tor: Tom Doherty Associates
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Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Fantasy -> Series -> Sword of Truth
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Culmination of a Remarkable Fantasy Series 5 out of 5 stars.
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The Sword of Truth series was recommended to me this past June, so I set out to buy all 12 volumes and succeeded after a few weeks. I started with volume 1, a novella called "Debt of Bones" and have just finished "Confessor". This was a memorable undertaking, which I found to be mostly rewarding. I have read some of the discussions on the Amazon web site and found some of them interesting; I would like to limit my impressions to an overview of the entire series.
First of all this series contains explicit sex, violence, and horror, it should be given an X rating, and is definitely written for mature adults, not children. Having said that, I doubt if mature adults will be too surprised by what they read; as a U.S. Navy veteran I encountered no shocking new revelations. In that regard, however, I do feel that Terry Goodkind, (TG) did sometime linger much too long on scenes of that sort that could have been dealt with by inference.
It became quite obvious that TG is a fan of words; he uses words with skill and creates mental images of both great beauty and gore with equal facility. There were some instances where I read some of his descriptions of forest beauty to my wife as he had painted word pictures of surpassing beauty.
After having TG's Sword of Truth series recommended to me; I did some preliminary research to try and find out about him before starting to purchase the series. I discovered that TG is an "Objectivist" and brings his Objectivist philosophy into his books. I found that of interest as I too appreciate many of the tenants of Objectivism. During Ayn Rand's lifetime I was a subscriber to the "Objectivist Newsletter" and have read many of her non-fiction books and at least one of her works of fiction. There is, however one major point of departure between the Objectivist philosophy and my personal life outlook, and that is I'm a Christian.
If one should take out TG's lecture portions on Objectivism, the length of the series could well be reduced by 30 to 40 percent. In spite of his devotion to Objectivism, he is a very good story teller and comes up with many unexpected twists and turns to his story line. I found the series, on the whole to be exciting at times and somewhat tedious at others. In all honesty I have to confess to skimming over some of the Objectivist lectures.
This is undoubtedly the longest series I have ever read that involves the same characters all the way through. Actually only one character appears, alive, in all 12 volumes, and that is First Wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander, generally known as Zedd. Generally each book takes up where the last one left off, sometimes in the same scene. As some have pointed out, the last three volumes are essentially one extended book, no effort whatsoever being made to suggest a conclusion in volumes 10 and 11. I can see how frustrating that would be to have to wait until the next book is written to read what is essentially the next chapter.
The length of the series permits extensive character development; this results in one getting to know the characters and really care about them. It was interesting to watch Nicci's development as she emerged into the light of Objectivism.
Objectivist writers find themselves needing a messiah figure; whether this messiah figure is called John Galt (Atlas Shrugged) or Richard Rahl, this character is needed to serve as the focus on whom the implementation of the Objectivist philosophy depends. Richard Rahl rises to the occasion in the conclusion of Confessor by doing all that is needed of a messiah figure in bringing full resolution to the Sword of Truth series.
Terry Goodkind fails to distinguish between Biblical Christianity and religion. Biblical Christianity is not a religion in that righteousness before "The Creator" is not attained by good works, but by simple faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although TG identifies a life and an afterlife, only "The Keeper", the lord of the underworld, is presented clearly in the story as a serious threat. His version of "The Creator" is only referenced in an ineffectual manner by those to whom it is made to appear as a weakness or failure in their reasoning ability.
Having said all this am I glad I read it? I believe the answer is yes and I will, at some point, probably read it again. In spite of TG's efforts to fill the reader in on past action at the beginning of each book, I would stronly recommend starting at the very least, at book 10, the final trilogy starts there. Ideally I would suggest you start with book 1.
I have not thought of myself as a reader of fantasy, but I found the series, even with its Objectivist agenda, a generally exciting adventure. I think there is one thing we can count on, however; this series will never be successfully transferred to the big screen.
![Confessor (Sword of Truth) (Sword of Truth) [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] Goodkind Terry](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31WYDGAYK1L._SL160_.jpg "Confessor (Sword of Truth) (Sword of Truth) [AUDIOBOOK] [CD] [UNABRIDGED] Goodkind Terry")
