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Sword of Truth #6
Faith of the Fallen
There is an alternate cover edition here.
As his beloved Kahlan lies close to death, Richard Rahl, who distrusts prophecy more than anyone, is confronted by a compelling vision - one that bears a terrible price. It would mean taking Kahlan away to safety while abandoning his people to a grim fate.
As savage hordes stand poised to invade their homeland, Richard and Kahlan's devotion, not only to each other but to their cause and their duty, is imperiled in the descending fury of war. Amid the turmoil, Nicci, a woman from Richard's past, haunted by her memory of him, makes a fateful decision. Despite Nicci's hunger to understand the source of Richard's indomitable will, her burning passion to destroy him commits her to the unthinkable.
As his beloved Kahlan lies close to death, Richard Rahl, who distrusts prophecy more than anyone, is confronted by a compelling vision - one that bears a terrible price. It would mean taking Kahlan away to safety while abandoning his people to a grim fate.
As savage hordes stand poised to invade their homeland, Richard and Kahlan's devotion, not only to each other but to their cause and their duty, is imperiled in the descending fury of war. Amid the turmoil, Nicci, a woman from Richard's past, haunted by her memory of him, makes a fateful decision. Despite Nicci's hunger to understand the source of Richard's indomitable will, her burning passion to destroy him commits her to the unthinkable.
785 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 2000
About the author
Terry Goodkind
214 books12k followersTerry Goodkind was a contemporary American writer and author of the best-selling epic fantasy series, The Sword of Truth, creator of the television show The Legend of the Seeker, and writer of the self-published epic, The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus (a prequel and origin story of the first Mother Confessor). He had over 20 million copies in print and has been translated into more than 20 different languages, world-wide.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,290 reviews
June 30, 2009
This book has become an unusual point of discussion between me and my literary fantasy friends. It all started years ago when this kid from fencing and I were discussing what fantasy books we read. I was a Goodkind fan, but I admitted that, partway through this book, I just couldn't do it anymore. Something in me just stopped responding, and I never managed to finish it.
He creased his brow and frowned and said the same thing had happened to him. He'd been following the series and at this book, it was just over. We started asking around and it seemed to be the same for everyone: they liked the series, then this book, and they were done.
We knew other Goodkind books had been written and published since this one, but for years, we couldn't find anyone who had made it past the sixth book. Eventually, we all moved on, read better books, and looked back at our love of Goodkind, Jordan, Martin, and all the rest as a sign of our naive youth.
But it's still one of those things, like Ninja Turtles or late nights playing Dungeons & Dragons, that can be fun to think back on. Then, one day, it happened: that fencing kid, who grew up to be my college roommate and dearest friend, found someone at his law school who claimed this was their favorite Goodkind.
He asked them why, but to no avail: they had no critical theory to describe what they liked. We wrote it off as a fluke--then it happened again. There seems to be a small, devoted group who actually really liked this book, but so far, none of them have been able to give us any clue as to why.
At this point, it's less concerning, since Goodkind is just another long-winded, cliche fantasy writer who writes okay adventures, and has a weirdly high opinion of himself:
"The books I write are first of all novels, not fantasy, and that is deliberate; I'm really writing books about human beings."(1)
"To define me as a fantasy writer is to misunderstand the context of my books by misidentifying their fundamentals."(2)
"The stories I'm telling are not fantasy-driven, they're character-driven, and the characters I want to write about could be set in any world. I'd like to address a broader audience."(3)
Plus the fact that all of his interviews inevitably devolve into a discussion of Ayn Rand and 'the meaning of art', just in case you missed the pretension of declaring fantasy books 'not fantasy!'
The guy certainly has a chip on his shoulder, but it's pretty clear that this guy has never actually read any fantasy. He doesn't seem to realize that the things he says 'separate him from fantasy' are fundamental parts of how modern fantasy works. A novel that's fundamentally about character interactions with a magical setting? How original!
This is why it's often important to be familiar with the genre you intend to write in: if you don't know what others have done, you will probably end up reinventing the wheel, and accidentally creating something that sounds just like everyone else.
Michael Moorcock critiqued Tolkien as a false romantic, which is rather apt considering that his love story takes place almost entirely in absentia (prompting Peter Jackson to infuse some extra loving with a hot, elven, psychic dream sequence). Most fantasy authors rectify this by having the girl come along for the journey. Goodkind likes to keep the separation for much of the story as our hero tries to seek her out across a continent (though she is often just in the next room! Oh! What a tragic coincidence!)
Actually, after the first time it's just an annoying and painfully artificial way to try to hold off the conclusion for another hundred pages. It's a good thing Terry doesn't have to rely on magical or artificial means to keep his stories fresh.
The rest of the time, the hero finds the girl and lovingly transfixes her on his mighty sword. No, really. I'm not sure why these authors always end up feeling as if they have to dump their sex fetish issues at this particular juncture: "Huh, I dig BDSM. Maybe I should confide my fantasies in a book for mass publication".
I cannot think of a single female character in the entire series who isn't either raped or threatened with rape. If you want to give me an example of one, remember: I'm counting magical psychic blowjob rape as rape. I wish I never had the opportunity to qualify a statement with 'don't forget the psychic blowjob rape'.
I don't mind actual BDSM literature, but I'd rather have my own reaction to it than be told "isn't it totally dirty and wrong!? (but still super sexy, right?)" Porn for porn's sake is fine, but remember, Goodkind isn't some escapist fantasy author, these are 'real stories about real people' so he has to act like his magic porn is somehow a reflection of real life.
Goodkind's series is cookie-cutter genre fantasy, but it's not that badly done, and if you like people narrowly missing one another, bondage, masochism, rape, and dragons, it's pretty good. But by this point, the characters have thinned out into shadows of themselves and Goodkind's self-absorbed obsessions are all over the place; because the one thing you want from a fluff fantasy series is a long, incoherent attempt to argue politics.
If you are enjoying the series, you should probably avoid reading any of his interviews, as he rarely misses an opportunity to claim that he is superior to all other fantasy authors, and never compare him to Robert Jordan, because
"If you notice a similarity, then you probably aren't old enough to read my books."(4)
Goodkind truly lives in his own fantasy world if he thinks his mediocre genre re-hash is 'original' or 'deep'.
Then again, I've never met an adherent of Ayn Rand who didn't consider themselves a brilliant and unique snowflake trapped in a world of people who 'just don't understand'. The Randian philosophies are also laid on pretty thickly in his books, but at least he found a substitute grandmother figure to help him justify his Gorean sex-romp as 'high art'.
All in all, he's just another guy who likes to hear himself talk, and you can tell from his writing. Just like most modern fantasy authors, his greatest failing is the complete lack of self-awareness that overwhelms his themes, plots, and characters. And if anyone thinks this is the best Sword of Truth book and wants to take a shot at explaining why, my teenage self would appreciate it.
My Fantasy Book Suggestions
He creased his brow and frowned and said the same thing had happened to him. He'd been following the series and at this book, it was just over. We started asking around and it seemed to be the same for everyone: they liked the series, then this book, and they were done.
We knew other Goodkind books had been written and published since this one, but for years, we couldn't find anyone who had made it past the sixth book. Eventually, we all moved on, read better books, and looked back at our love of Goodkind, Jordan, Martin, and all the rest as a sign of our naive youth.
But it's still one of those things, like Ninja Turtles or late nights playing Dungeons & Dragons, that can be fun to think back on. Then, one day, it happened: that fencing kid, who grew up to be my college roommate and dearest friend, found someone at his law school who claimed this was their favorite Goodkind.
He asked them why, but to no avail: they had no critical theory to describe what they liked. We wrote it off as a fluke--then it happened again. There seems to be a small, devoted group who actually really liked this book, but so far, none of them have been able to give us any clue as to why.
At this point, it's less concerning, since Goodkind is just another long-winded, cliche fantasy writer who writes okay adventures, and has a weirdly high opinion of himself:
"The books I write are first of all novels, not fantasy, and that is deliberate; I'm really writing books about human beings."(1)
"To define me as a fantasy writer is to misunderstand the context of my books by misidentifying their fundamentals."(2)
"The stories I'm telling are not fantasy-driven, they're character-driven, and the characters I want to write about could be set in any world. I'd like to address a broader audience."(3)
Plus the fact that all of his interviews inevitably devolve into a discussion of Ayn Rand and 'the meaning of art', just in case you missed the pretension of declaring fantasy books 'not fantasy!'
The guy certainly has a chip on his shoulder, but it's pretty clear that this guy has never actually read any fantasy. He doesn't seem to realize that the things he says 'separate him from fantasy' are fundamental parts of how modern fantasy works. A novel that's fundamentally about character interactions with a magical setting? How original!
This is why it's often important to be familiar with the genre you intend to write in: if you don't know what others have done, you will probably end up reinventing the wheel, and accidentally creating something that sounds just like everyone else.
Michael Moorcock critiqued Tolkien as a false romantic, which is rather apt considering that his love story takes place almost entirely in absentia (prompting Peter Jackson to infuse some extra loving with a hot, elven, psychic dream sequence). Most fantasy authors rectify this by having the girl come along for the journey. Goodkind likes to keep the separation for much of the story as our hero tries to seek her out across a continent (though she is often just in the next room! Oh! What a tragic coincidence!)
Actually, after the first time it's just an annoying and painfully artificial way to try to hold off the conclusion for another hundred pages. It's a good thing Terry doesn't have to rely on magical or artificial means to keep his stories fresh.
The rest of the time, the hero finds the girl and lovingly transfixes her on his mighty sword. No, really. I'm not sure why these authors always end up feeling as if they have to dump their sex fetish issues at this particular juncture: "Huh, I dig BDSM. Maybe I should confide my fantasies in a book for mass publication".
I cannot think of a single female character in the entire series who isn't either raped or threatened with rape. If you want to give me an example of one, remember: I'm counting magical psychic blowjob rape as rape. I wish I never had the opportunity to qualify a statement with 'don't forget the psychic blowjob rape'.
I don't mind actual BDSM literature, but I'd rather have my own reaction to it than be told "isn't it totally dirty and wrong!? (but still super sexy, right?)" Porn for porn's sake is fine, but remember, Goodkind isn't some escapist fantasy author, these are 'real stories about real people' so he has to act like his magic porn is somehow a reflection of real life.
Goodkind's series is cookie-cutter genre fantasy, but it's not that badly done, and if you like people narrowly missing one another, bondage, masochism, rape, and dragons, it's pretty good. But by this point, the characters have thinned out into shadows of themselves and Goodkind's self-absorbed obsessions are all over the place; because the one thing you want from a fluff fantasy series is a long, incoherent attempt to argue politics.
If you are enjoying the series, you should probably avoid reading any of his interviews, as he rarely misses an opportunity to claim that he is superior to all other fantasy authors, and never compare him to Robert Jordan, because
"If you notice a similarity, then you probably aren't old enough to read my books."(4)
Goodkind truly lives in his own fantasy world if he thinks his mediocre genre re-hash is 'original' or 'deep'.
Then again, I've never met an adherent of Ayn Rand who didn't consider themselves a brilliant and unique snowflake trapped in a world of people who 'just don't understand'. The Randian philosophies are also laid on pretty thickly in his books, but at least he found a substitute grandmother figure to help him justify his Gorean sex-romp as 'high art'.
All in all, he's just another guy who likes to hear himself talk, and you can tell from his writing. Just like most modern fantasy authors, his greatest failing is the complete lack of self-awareness that overwhelms his themes, plots, and characters. And if anyone thinks this is the best Sword of Truth book and wants to take a shot at explaining why, my teenage self would appreciate it.
My Fantasy Book Suggestions
May 8, 2014
Faith of the Fallen
Sword of Truth book #6
By Terry Goodkind
A Retroview by Eric Allen
Due to my scathing reviews of Terry Goodkind's more recent work, I have recieved quite a few people saying that "if you claim to be so much of a Goodkind fan, then why don't you review one of his good books." So here, for all of you who asked for it, is my review of my most favorite Goodkind book of them all.
There's one thing that many complainers have in common when speaking of Goodkind's works. They don't like how much he likes to preach. Yes, his soapbox does get an inordinate amount of use, I am aware of this fact, but the only volume in the original eleven Sword of Truth books that I found it to be overly objectionable was Naked Empire, which was a thinly veiled excuse to rant about morality for 700 pages in my opinion. It seems that the book that gets the absolute most hatred for the preaching is Faith of the Fallen, and I simply do not understand this at all. I'll explain a bit more later in the review, but first, allow me to tell you why this book is so near and dear to my heart.
When Faith of the Fallen came out, I was in a very dark place in my life. I had lost everything I had. I was virtually crippled, not just by physical injury, but by the depression that resulted from it. For those of you who have never experienced depression before, it is very hard to explain how it feels. It's like you're so deep in a pit of blackness that you can't see how you will ever see the light again. Everything and anything seems hopeless, and simply continuing to live feels like a pointless exercise in futility. These are only mere words that don't really give you the full impact of what this debilitating illness does to a person, but you get the idea, right?
I was in my second year of college, riding my motorcycle home from work one night when I was hit by a drunk driver. My right leg was pinned between my bike and a tree and broken in seventeen places. At the time, it was doubtful that I would ever walk again without the aid of a leg brace and a crutch. The driver was uninsured and so my medical expenses fell to my own insurance. When I could not return to work, I lost my job, and my insurance. As my job was paying the majority of my college tuition for me through a reimbursement program, I found myself unable to pay for school as my medical bills began to pile up. I went through three separate surgeries to put the bones in my leg back together, and the pain was really unbelievable. I've felt nothing like it before or since. The girl I planned to marry left me, I lost my house, and had to move back in with my parents after selling off every single thing I owned of value to pay the bills. I could not walk. I could not work. I had no health insurance. I could not continue with college. The woman I loved was marrying another man. I was in an obscene amount of physical pain. And I was stuck in my parents' basement once more, after having been out on my own, and lost everything I had, while my medical debt steadily grew larger and larger. As I lay, trying to recover, and having no idea what I was going to do, or how I was even going to live my life now, I was given a copy of this book.
It was the exact thing that I needed to reach out a hand and pull me from the depths of oblivion. "Your life is yours alone, rise up and live it." It seemed as though Goodkind wrote those words with me and my situation in mind. The message that this book brings is so beautiful and powerful, and delivered in such an uplifting way, that it managed to pierce the darkness that was suffocating the life out of me and help pull me back into the world of the living. I recovered. I found a way to pay for my physical therapy. I got a new job, with better insurance, and finished college. Now I have a wonderful career, a side job that is basically getting paid for doing my hobby, and I walk with barely a limp. Although I do set off just about every metal detector that I walk through due to all of the screws, pins and metal plates holding the bones in my leg together. I love this book. When I was close to killing myself because there seemed no point in even going on, it brought me hope for a better tomorrow when nothing else could. In essence, it saved my life. It made me WANT to get out of bed. It made me WANT to get on with my life. It made me WANT to find a way to pay for everything, recover, finish college, and get back out there and live.
Now on with the review.
Kahlan has been brutally beaten within an inch of her life, and Richard and Cara, after escaping the Imperial Order as they swarmed over Anderith, have taken her to Westland, where Richard grew up to hide while she recovers.
Meanwhile, Nicci, Sister of the Dark, has come to a realization. She needs to find some point and purpose in life, and the only man she thinks can show her the way is Richard Rahl. Through an ancient magic spell, Nicci bonds herself to Kahlan in such a way that any harm that befalls her also befalls Kahlan. She takes Richard hostage and brings him to the heart of the Old World where she hopes that his reaction to the hardships of the people there will bring her the answers that she has sought for her entire life.
While Richard works to improve his life and show the people of the Old World how to live theirs by example, Emperor Jagang and his massive army is moving into the Midlands. Kahlan takes command of the D'Haran armies in a desperate year long battle to delay him while the Midlands can be evacuated.
In the end, Richard has come to believe that he cannot lead a people who do not truly know the value of freedom. In the heart of the Imperial Order, he makes a final, desperate attempt to teach them the true meaning of life, that they will see and know the Order for the evil that it is, and rise up to take their lives back, and in so doing, save Richard's own home from destruction.
The good? As I said before, Goodkind gets a lot of hate for his preaching. He is rarely ever subtle, and frequently beats you over the head with his message until you're bloody. However, amongst his books, I feel that Faith of the Fallen is one of the more subtle ones. Yes, Richard does a lot of ranting about the worth of life, and what it's all for, but he never goes too far with it as he does in other books. He never steps over the line from passionate exclamations into boring lectures. I know that Goodkind and subtle rarely find themselves in the same sentence with one another, however, as far as Goodkind books go, I feel that this one struck the perfect balance in presenting its message.
When I tell people that this is my favorite book in the series, I often get replies of "oh yeah, there's some really awesome battles in that one." But that's not what I like about this book. In fact, I rarely even think of that part. It's all about Richard and Nicci, and the mutual redemption that they both find in each other, for me. Nicci is redeemed through Richard's example, but Richard is also in need of redemption here. Most people tend to ignore that part of it, or not even notice at all in the first place. He has lost his faith in humanity. He truly believed that, given the chance, people would choose the right path. But when they didn't, it shook him to the core. He lost his confidence as a leader, and in the people he was supposed to lead. They had shown him that they just didn't understand what it was all about, and so he ran away from it all, stunned, hurt, and confused. Richard, as the hero of the story, was also seeking redemption, and found it in an oppressed people that, when given the right push, were finally able to see what he was fighting for, and join him of their own accord, rather than because he happens to be their leader. The way it all builds up to its final rebellious climax is so perfect and well crafted that I simply cannot understand where all of this talent, fire and passion has gone when reading Goodkind's more recent work.
Richard's character arc here is really well written, going deeply into his thoughts and feelings on life, liberty, and what is worth fighting and dying for. This book is not simply another Richard is the good guy who hand waves away all the conflict brought by the bad guy of the week through his magical powers. Instead of resorting to Deus Ex Machina as he tends to do, Goodkind built up his triumph over the ideals of the Imperial order throughout the entire book to the point where Richard didn't have to hand wave it away. This is one of the few books by Goodkind where Deus Ex Machina is not used to resolve any and all problems, but rather through Richard's own sweat, blood and tears, and a year of his life showing the people of the Old World, and Nicci, how to live their lives, whilst rarely ever outright telling them. And it ties in so well with Nicci's own redemption.
This book is really well written, and extremely well constructed. I consider it to be Goodkind's masterpiece. It is, by far, his best book, in terms of writing, in terms of character development, in terms of the message it delivers, and in the way that it is delivered, in terms of its climax, and in terms of its story. It takes you, step by step through the redemption of those who were previously thought to be unredeemable in such a perfect and well constructed way. It's one of those books that I can read over, and over, and over again, and still be filled with as much joy and wonder as my first time through it.
I have been told that this book is highly derivative of the work of Ayn Rand, as if that would, somehow, make me like it less. I simply do not care if a book I love was influenced by another author's ideals. I have never read the work of Ayn Rand, I do not plan to, and I do not need to in order to know that I enjoyed THIS book. I am not familiar with her ideals and beliefs, and I frankly don't really care. You can point to any book on any shelf in any bookstore throughout the world and say that it was influenced by several others, so I don't really see what the complaint is. This is one aspect of the book that I am ignorant of, and frankly, care little to educate myself on. I don't need to read other books to know if I like or dislike this one. That I like it is enough for me. If you dislike it because of its similarities to the ideals or writings of another author, that's your right. I can understand disliking something that someone else loves *cough*Patrick Rothfuss*cough* but please don't try to argue with me over whether or not my enjoyment of the book is valid or not because of it. I respect your differing opinion, but I do not agree with it. One thing I would like to point out, however, is that a work of fiction being influenced by another work is far different than a work of fiction shamelessly stealing entire scenes and whole sections of dialog from another work. I'm looking at YOU Paolini!!!
I honestly have nothing bad to say about this book. The entire series is worth reading just for this one book, in my opinion. It has some very high sentimental value to me, but it is also a very well put together book that is highly entertaining, and with several extremely good messages. When I was at my lowest, this book gave me hope and strength to pull myself out of it, and get on with my life. I will always be grateful for that. There may be those that criticize the message it brings, or the way that it is delivered, but I found it to be given in a well thought out and constructed manner, in perfect balance with everything else in the book and in the series as a whole. This is Goodkind at his very best, and I hope that you will find as much meaning and enjoyment in it as I have. The Sword of Truth series and Goodkind himself do get a lot of hate, but this one book is my argument against the haters.
So there, all you people who keep telling me that I'm no true Goodkind fan because I happen to think that his last few books were written by his mentally deficient clone. A 5 star review of what was, until the release of The Law of Nines, considered by many to be Goodkind's worst book. Suck on THAT! Seriously though, I don't get why this book gets all of the hate, while Naked Empire is virtually ignored. Any and all criticisms I've seen about Faith of the Fallen are a thousand times more valid when applied to Naked Empire. That book just did not know when to stop. Richard spent the entire thing ranting and raving like a lunatic, and then, in the most LAZY way imaginable, hand-waved away all of the book's conflict as if all of the tension and drama built up around it never even existed. And yet, the book where there is no Deus Ex Machina hand-waved resolution, with a message that never really steps over the line into oppressive is the far more hated of the two. People are funny sometimes. Cest la vie.
Check out my other reviews.
Sword of Truth book #6
By Terry Goodkind
A Retroview by Eric Allen
Due to my scathing reviews of Terry Goodkind's more recent work, I have recieved quite a few people saying that "if you claim to be so much of a Goodkind fan, then why don't you review one of his good books." So here, for all of you who asked for it, is my review of my most favorite Goodkind book of them all.
There's one thing that many complainers have in common when speaking of Goodkind's works. They don't like how much he likes to preach. Yes, his soapbox does get an inordinate amount of use, I am aware of this fact, but the only volume in the original eleven Sword of Truth books that I found it to be overly objectionable was Naked Empire, which was a thinly veiled excuse to rant about morality for 700 pages in my opinion. It seems that the book that gets the absolute most hatred for the preaching is Faith of the Fallen, and I simply do not understand this at all. I'll explain a bit more later in the review, but first, allow me to tell you why this book is so near and dear to my heart.
When Faith of the Fallen came out, I was in a very dark place in my life. I had lost everything I had. I was virtually crippled, not just by physical injury, but by the depression that resulted from it. For those of you who have never experienced depression before, it is very hard to explain how it feels. It's like you're so deep in a pit of blackness that you can't see how you will ever see the light again. Everything and anything seems hopeless, and simply continuing to live feels like a pointless exercise in futility. These are only mere words that don't really give you the full impact of what this debilitating illness does to a person, but you get the idea, right?
I was in my second year of college, riding my motorcycle home from work one night when I was hit by a drunk driver. My right leg was pinned between my bike and a tree and broken in seventeen places. At the time, it was doubtful that I would ever walk again without the aid of a leg brace and a crutch. The driver was uninsured and so my medical expenses fell to my own insurance. When I could not return to work, I lost my job, and my insurance. As my job was paying the majority of my college tuition for me through a reimbursement program, I found myself unable to pay for school as my medical bills began to pile up. I went through three separate surgeries to put the bones in my leg back together, and the pain was really unbelievable. I've felt nothing like it before or since. The girl I planned to marry left me, I lost my house, and had to move back in with my parents after selling off every single thing I owned of value to pay the bills. I could not walk. I could not work. I had no health insurance. I could not continue with college. The woman I loved was marrying another man. I was in an obscene amount of physical pain. And I was stuck in my parents' basement once more, after having been out on my own, and lost everything I had, while my medical debt steadily grew larger and larger. As I lay, trying to recover, and having no idea what I was going to do, or how I was even going to live my life now, I was given a copy of this book.
It was the exact thing that I needed to reach out a hand and pull me from the depths of oblivion. "Your life is yours alone, rise up and live it." It seemed as though Goodkind wrote those words with me and my situation in mind. The message that this book brings is so beautiful and powerful, and delivered in such an uplifting way, that it managed to pierce the darkness that was suffocating the life out of me and help pull me back into the world of the living. I recovered. I found a way to pay for my physical therapy. I got a new job, with better insurance, and finished college. Now I have a wonderful career, a side job that is basically getting paid for doing my hobby, and I walk with barely a limp. Although I do set off just about every metal detector that I walk through due to all of the screws, pins and metal plates holding the bones in my leg together. I love this book. When I was close to killing myself because there seemed no point in even going on, it brought me hope for a better tomorrow when nothing else could. In essence, it saved my life. It made me WANT to get out of bed. It made me WANT to get on with my life. It made me WANT to find a way to pay for everything, recover, finish college, and get back out there and live.
Now on with the review.
Kahlan has been brutally beaten within an inch of her life, and Richard and Cara, after escaping the Imperial Order as they swarmed over Anderith, have taken her to Westland, where Richard grew up to hide while she recovers.
Meanwhile, Nicci, Sister of the Dark, has come to a realization. She needs to find some point and purpose in life, and the only man she thinks can show her the way is Richard Rahl. Through an ancient magic spell, Nicci bonds herself to Kahlan in such a way that any harm that befalls her also befalls Kahlan. She takes Richard hostage and brings him to the heart of the Old World where she hopes that his reaction to the hardships of the people there will bring her the answers that she has sought for her entire life.
While Richard works to improve his life and show the people of the Old World how to live theirs by example, Emperor Jagang and his massive army is moving into the Midlands. Kahlan takes command of the D'Haran armies in a desperate year long battle to delay him while the Midlands can be evacuated.
In the end, Richard has come to believe that he cannot lead a people who do not truly know the value of freedom. In the heart of the Imperial Order, he makes a final, desperate attempt to teach them the true meaning of life, that they will see and know the Order for the evil that it is, and rise up to take their lives back, and in so doing, save Richard's own home from destruction.
The good? As I said before, Goodkind gets a lot of hate for his preaching. He is rarely ever subtle, and frequently beats you over the head with his message until you're bloody. However, amongst his books, I feel that Faith of the Fallen is one of the more subtle ones. Yes, Richard does a lot of ranting about the worth of life, and what it's all for, but he never goes too far with it as he does in other books. He never steps over the line from passionate exclamations into boring lectures. I know that Goodkind and subtle rarely find themselves in the same sentence with one another, however, as far as Goodkind books go, I feel that this one struck the perfect balance in presenting its message.
When I tell people that this is my favorite book in the series, I often get replies of "oh yeah, there's some really awesome battles in that one." But that's not what I like about this book. In fact, I rarely even think of that part. It's all about Richard and Nicci, and the mutual redemption that they both find in each other, for me. Nicci is redeemed through Richard's example, but Richard is also in need of redemption here. Most people tend to ignore that part of it, or not even notice at all in the first place. He has lost his faith in humanity. He truly believed that, given the chance, people would choose the right path. But when they didn't, it shook him to the core. He lost his confidence as a leader, and in the people he was supposed to lead. They had shown him that they just didn't understand what it was all about, and so he ran away from it all, stunned, hurt, and confused. Richard, as the hero of the story, was also seeking redemption, and found it in an oppressed people that, when given the right push, were finally able to see what he was fighting for, and join him of their own accord, rather than because he happens to be their leader. The way it all builds up to its final rebellious climax is so perfect and well crafted that I simply cannot understand where all of this talent, fire and passion has gone when reading Goodkind's more recent work.
Richard's character arc here is really well written, going deeply into his thoughts and feelings on life, liberty, and what is worth fighting and dying for. This book is not simply another Richard is the good guy who hand waves away all the conflict brought by the bad guy of the week through his magical powers. Instead of resorting to Deus Ex Machina as he tends to do, Goodkind built up his triumph over the ideals of the Imperial order throughout the entire book to the point where Richard didn't have to hand wave it away. This is one of the few books by Goodkind where Deus Ex Machina is not used to resolve any and all problems, but rather through Richard's own sweat, blood and tears, and a year of his life showing the people of the Old World, and Nicci, how to live their lives, whilst rarely ever outright telling them. And it ties in so well with Nicci's own redemption.
This book is really well written, and extremely well constructed. I consider it to be Goodkind's masterpiece. It is, by far, his best book, in terms of writing, in terms of character development, in terms of the message it delivers, and in the way that it is delivered, in terms of its climax, and in terms of its story. It takes you, step by step through the redemption of those who were previously thought to be unredeemable in such a perfect and well constructed way. It's one of those books that I can read over, and over, and over again, and still be filled with as much joy and wonder as my first time through it.
I have been told that this book is highly derivative of the work of Ayn Rand, as if that would, somehow, make me like it less. I simply do not care if a book I love was influenced by another author's ideals. I have never read the work of Ayn Rand, I do not plan to, and I do not need to in order to know that I enjoyed THIS book. I am not familiar with her ideals and beliefs, and I frankly don't really care. You can point to any book on any shelf in any bookstore throughout the world and say that it was influenced by several others, so I don't really see what the complaint is. This is one aspect of the book that I am ignorant of, and frankly, care little to educate myself on. I don't need to read other books to know if I like or dislike this one. That I like it is enough for me. If you dislike it because of its similarities to the ideals or writings of another author, that's your right. I can understand disliking something that someone else loves *cough*Patrick Rothfuss*cough* but please don't try to argue with me over whether or not my enjoyment of the book is valid or not because of it. I respect your differing opinion, but I do not agree with it. One thing I would like to point out, however, is that a work of fiction being influenced by another work is far different than a work of fiction shamelessly stealing entire scenes and whole sections of dialog from another work. I'm looking at YOU Paolini!!!
I honestly have nothing bad to say about this book. The entire series is worth reading just for this one book, in my opinion. It has some very high sentimental value to me, but it is also a very well put together book that is highly entertaining, and with several extremely good messages. When I was at my lowest, this book gave me hope and strength to pull myself out of it, and get on with my life. I will always be grateful for that. There may be those that criticize the message it brings, or the way that it is delivered, but I found it to be given in a well thought out and constructed manner, in perfect balance with everything else in the book and in the series as a whole. This is Goodkind at his very best, and I hope that you will find as much meaning and enjoyment in it as I have. The Sword of Truth series and Goodkind himself do get a lot of hate, but this one book is my argument against the haters.
So there, all you people who keep telling me that I'm no true Goodkind fan because I happen to think that his last few books were written by his mentally deficient clone. A 5 star review of what was, until the release of The Law of Nines, considered by many to be Goodkind's worst book. Suck on THAT! Seriously though, I don't get why this book gets all of the hate, while Naked Empire is virtually ignored. Any and all criticisms I've seen about Faith of the Fallen are a thousand times more valid when applied to Naked Empire. That book just did not know when to stop. Richard spent the entire thing ranting and raving like a lunatic, and then, in the most LAZY way imaginable, hand-waved away all of the book's conflict as if all of the tension and drama built up around it never even existed. And yet, the book where there is no Deus Ex Machina hand-waved resolution, with a message that never really steps over the line into oppressive is the far more hated of the two. People are funny sometimes. Cest la vie.
Check out my other reviews.
October 26, 2010
Faith of the Fallen is a wonderful example of explaining Marxism in terms anyone can understand. It should be mandatory reading for all US History and English classes. It takes you on a progressive journey of one individual, Nicci, and how she became the way she was, believing what she believed, and eventually realizing the truth in all of what she had done. It also takes you on a journey into seeing exactly how something so small as doing something "for the good of all people" turns into the majority barely surviving in a slavery type of life, no joy, no dreams, no wish to better themselves, only expecting those in power, or those who have more than "their fair share" to take care of those "less fortunate". This book is a journey of those who feel there is more to all this and their efforts to "rise up and live their own life".
The only thing I felt cheated out of was the fact that Nicci's own journey to find this out was too gradual and her eventual epiphany was nearly anti-climactic and did not include the most important element of "self-sacrifice" to feel her own "self-worth". I did, however, understand that because it was a gradual journey for her, she came to her own conclusions in the end and didn't need someone else to show her the way. So, that, in itself, was a redeeming quality.
The only thing I felt cheated out of was the fact that Nicci's own journey to find this out was too gradual and her eventual epiphany was nearly anti-climactic and did not include the most important element of "self-sacrifice" to feel her own "self-worth". I did, however, understand that because it was a gradual journey for her, she came to her own conclusions in the end and didn't need someone else to show her the way. So, that, in itself, was a redeeming quality.
July 19, 2007
Alrighty, then ... I just finished it. I will be on to something else in my library for a while. Tired of Goodkind rehashing who characters are and their past relationships for pages. If one's been reading in sequence, we arlready know who they are.
There is two points that crossed the line of tedium:
1. Goodkind dives in headfirst into exploration ofsocialism vs. capitalism and totalitarianism vs. deomocracy with two of the characters for what seems like an eterinty. While I embrace this exploration with Victor Hugo, Goodkind's journey on the subject feels more like five courses of McDonalds rather than (for expample)Hugo's thought provocing five courses of delicacies. Goodkind dictates his theories like a preacher at a podium. It becomes tedious and preachy. This is not his idiom.
2. Head on journey into the dogma of religion. It is becomming page after page of debate. Many pages are filled with no character interaction, but character refelction on what their current perception of morality and righ and wrong is. Again, not an exploration, but a tiresome rut of sticky mud.
Both topics are concentrated on two main characters. I found myself dreading the chapters visiting these two. It is making the last half a quick read, as I am just skimming through. Victor Hugo can do this: Terry Goodkind should not.
I would only recomend this book if you are reading the series and want to visit your charaters whilst skimming through the muck and mire.
Not sure if I will read the next book. The others I've read give me cause to give the next one a chance, but I am honestly borderline at present.
There is two points that crossed the line of tedium:
1. Goodkind dives in headfirst into exploration ofsocialism vs. capitalism and totalitarianism vs. deomocracy with two of the characters for what seems like an eterinty. While I embrace this exploration with Victor Hugo, Goodkind's journey on the subject feels more like five courses of McDonalds rather than (for expample)Hugo's thought provocing five courses of delicacies. Goodkind dictates his theories like a preacher at a podium. It becomes tedious and preachy. This is not his idiom.
2. Head on journey into the dogma of religion. It is becomming page after page of debate. Many pages are filled with no character interaction, but character refelction on what their current perception of morality and righ and wrong is. Again, not an exploration, but a tiresome rut of sticky mud.
Both topics are concentrated on two main characters. I found myself dreading the chapters visiting these two. It is making the last half a quick read, as I am just skimming through. Victor Hugo can do this: Terry Goodkind should not.
I would only recomend this book if you are reading the series and want to visit your charaters whilst skimming through the muck and mire.
Not sure if I will read the next book. The others I've read give me cause to give the next one a chance, but I am honestly borderline at present.
June 22, 2022
4.5 stars
Faith of the Fallen is in some ways Goodkind at his best - Richard and Kahlan are both being VERY Richard and Kahlan, the plot is engaging and pretty well-paced, Nicci is an interesting antagonist with a fairly compelling character arc, and it's a fun, kind of campy story with an ending that's so ridiculous it makes me laugh. It has heart and celebrates goodness in humanity.
At the same time, this book is overtly anti-socialist and essentializes socialist vs. capitalist ideas, snowballing them to a patently absurd level. It is an intense version of boot-strapping, suggesting that hard work is all someone needs to succeed in the right kind of economy, disregarding the genuine existence of structural barriers that do affect people.
Some readers will hate that. I don't agree with his views on a societal level, but the portrayal so over the top that my reading experience was more entertaining than anything else. We get to see Richard just be nice to everyone, work his way up, and make everyone around him better along the way. Sure it lacks nuance for real world ideas, but as a fantasy it works. And for some individuals, the messaging here about making the best of a bad thing could be inspiring. Personally I think this is one of the best books in the series and has a lot of what I enjoy about Goodkinds writing.
Faith of the Fallen is in some ways Goodkind at his best - Richard and Kahlan are both being VERY Richard and Kahlan, the plot is engaging and pretty well-paced, Nicci is an interesting antagonist with a fairly compelling character arc, and it's a fun, kind of campy story with an ending that's so ridiculous it makes me laugh. It has heart and celebrates goodness in humanity.
At the same time, this book is overtly anti-socialist and essentializes socialist vs. capitalist ideas, snowballing them to a patently absurd level. It is an intense version of boot-strapping, suggesting that hard work is all someone needs to succeed in the right kind of economy, disregarding the genuine existence of structural barriers that do affect people.
Some readers will hate that. I don't agree with his views on a societal level, but the portrayal so over the top that my reading experience was more entertaining than anything else. We get to see Richard just be nice to everyone, work his way up, and make everyone around him better along the way. Sure it lacks nuance for real world ideas, but as a fantasy it works. And for some individuals, the messaging here about making the best of a bad thing could be inspiring. Personally I think this is one of the best books in the series and has a lot of what I enjoy about Goodkinds writing.
June 5, 2009
Oh god. Bad fantasy novel is bad.
*besides* the poorly executed and tedious allegory of his socialism v capitalism setup, the endless rehashing of previous happenings and relationships (yes, exposition is good, but repeating the same explanation 4 times in one book is boring and patience-trying), and nearly dime-store bodice-ripper aspect of everything being the swooning best or evil worst, this is a mediocre effort at best.
Oh, and I nearly put out my own eyes at the point where his rip-off of The Fountainhead (don't get me started on Ann Rand and objectivism) went from silly to obnoxious. Did he actually say "rational self interest"?
Yes, yes he did.
This book (and the one before it) are examples of me falling victim to my compulsive finishing-a-series-at-all-costs reading.
I haven't felt this ill-treated by a thousand pages since the last Robert Jordan novel.
*besides* the poorly executed and tedious allegory of his socialism v capitalism setup, the endless rehashing of previous happenings and relationships (yes, exposition is good, but repeating the same explanation 4 times in one book is boring and patience-trying), and nearly dime-store bodice-ripper aspect of everything being the swooning best or evil worst, this is a mediocre effort at best.
Oh, and I nearly put out my own eyes at the point where his rip-off of The Fountainhead (don't get me started on Ann Rand and objectivism) went from silly to obnoxious. Did he actually say "rational self interest"?
Yes, yes he did.
This book (and the one before it) are examples of me falling victim to my compulsive finishing-a-series-at-all-costs reading.
I haven't felt this ill-treated by a thousand pages since the last Robert Jordan novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2020
Left in the Wetherspoons book swap, someone new may find it magical.
December 3, 2018
Ironically, this was the least rape-y of the series thus far, but it made me the most angry.
First, rape. There wasn't a lot of that here. There was that one scene where Nicci gave away all of their money and then everyone decided to attack her for more. Pretty sure that was headed in a rape-y direction. Then there was that one scene later where she used sex as a weapon against Richard by having that one asshole have sex with her because Kahlan would feel it via the spell that was the excuse for the entire plot. Pretty sure it was not established that that's how that spell worked until Goodkind wanted to basically rape Kahlan at a distance this way.
Lastly, there was the threat of rape BY OUR SUPPOSEDLY STRONG FEMALE LEAD. She literally threatens to throw her half sister back into the rape pit from the second book. I can't stress this enough: This is a book where even our protagonists use sex as a weapon. Rape is just another tool, the go-to punishment of choice.
Similarly, when the assassin is captured later on (of COURSE it's the asshole from the proxy rape scene, there are only 3.5-4.0 million people in the Order army, it makes total sense that this ONE person would be involved), there is an extended scene of extreme torture. This is supposedly the side of good, torturing someone for a day before finally killing him, simply for petty vengeance.
Conveniently, because this just happened to be the guy who was involved with Richard and Nicci, this choice is vindicated because it leads to the information necessary to set up the usual "let's wrap everything up in a nice bow in 10 pages at the end" anticlimax.
The usual criticisms continue to apply. There is no growth of any character, except Nicci in a superficial, forced way. Her whole "I need to learn something from Richard" quest was baffling, and seemed entirely contrived as an excuse to capture Richard and force him into these horrible situations again. The biggest growth is in the ancillary characters Richard influences in the old world; it's a bit small, and a bit simple, but the bar here is so low that it stands out as an anomaly.
Before I get to the big theme here, I now have a new hobby: finding and highlighting the worst simile Goodkind constructs (he can't quite take that next leap to actual metaphor, from what I can see).
If you say so, Terry. Moving on....
The big elephant in the room here: Libertarianism.
There were a few undertones throughout the series that were so thoroughly overshadowed by the extremely troubling social problems (i.e. rape is basically a currency here), so it was not a complete shock that this came up. However, it was a very abrupt shift that this was dragged out as the sole focus, and we are treated to my favorite repetition again, this time in political screed form!
I have not been this angry while reading a book in a long, long time, if ever. We're chugging along with the routine annoyances that I'm numb to at this point, when suddenly Nicci and Richard are in the old world in some city. Side note: Again, distance and time are treated for convenience here. Weeks and months pass over one sentence, continents that were impassable barriers in book 1 are crossed without a thought.
Richard basically bumbles around the city trying to find a job and a place to live. Each person he interacts with provides the least subtle diatribe possible revealing that they are FILTHY SOCIALISTS!!!
I have highlighted so many passages here that made me rage. There was one in particular that was something that has literally come out of the mouth of my father (a Trump-supporting racist who once criticized me for posting about how grateful I was that my food stamps finally kicked in, saying I should feel proper shame about it and also it makes HIM look bad since he, despite being very well off, wasn't helping me himself at all).
About 3 pages after Goodkind stepped onto his soapbox, I had to put the book down. I was getting indescribably angry, but also felt a need to finally google this guy. I had avoided this as I came into this series spoiler-free, both about the plot but also why everyone disliked the author. I wanted my opinion to be entirely informed by the writing, and this section reeked of libertarian hatred of taxation, social programs, and the poor....to an almost comically exaggerated extent.
Sure enough, I googled around and discovered a few things. Firstly, because of his name, I had apparently been picturing him as Terry PRATCHETT. If there is an afterlife or you're a ghost or something, I'm so sorry good Terry. This dude, however, looks like the polar opposite of a kindly grandpa. He looks like a guy you'd go out of your way to avoid in a bar if you were a woman BEFORE you knew he wrote about all of this problematic shit like red leather dominatrices and rape pits.
But most importantly, I found this quote....
Nailed it.
It's very clear from these ramblings that Goodkind hates poor people. He very emphatically believes that if you are not successful, it is only due to your own laziness. He presents the idea of taxation (again exaggerated on a cartoonish level) as literal theft. The entire section is one giant reductio ad adsurdum of what he mistakenly believes is what socialism looks like.
Without further ado, let's get to specific passages....
This is one I highlighted as a positive. I KNOW, RIGHT?! My exact note in the text is, "This is perhaps the most oddly cogent thing in this series so far."
I just wanted to lead off with this because I do give credit where it is due. Oddly, he goes on to be vehemently anti-union, which is the polar opposite of this idea, but for a brief moment of clarity, there was sense and actual valid commentary coming out of this contrived exploration of the filthy commie city.
It's an idea I have been discovering as I've moved up to a very well-paying job, a long way from the days I was applying for food stamps. It's something that was, of all places, in a Cracked.com article a while back: Having money, after being poor for so long, leads to having to make huge adjustments to the way you think. One of those ways is in buying higher quality products. Your instinct to buy the cheapest thing, out of necessity when you had no other option, is actual -- counter-intuitively -- the most wasteful choice.
I did this with computers. I bought whatever laptop was on special because I didn't have over a grand to drop on a machine. Even the $600 clearance sale was stretching it, but I needed a computer to function. They usually lasted two years, max. Flash forward to my first programming job where I decided to invest in a quality machine so I had something more powerful and reliable to work on the road. That $1400 machine lasted me seven years and is still going strong.
Investing in quality costs more up-front, both in purchasing merchandise and in choosing someone to perform a service, but it does, in the end, cost you less in the long term.
It's a wonderful gem I found in the mountain of horse shit surrounding it I wanted to share.
Cue the Member-Berries. But I highlighted this because it was a half-assed attempt at excusing the recycling of the same plot for the third time. It's getting old, having Richard or Kahlan kidnapped and stripped of their power....again.
Sorry, I'm literally just going through these in chronological order to keep all the quotes in one section, so we're back on rape.
It's "good", I guess, that men can be raped, too? Far from an #alllivesmatter counter to rape culture, it is often completely dismissed that men can also be rape victims. But it's funny how differently he treats the concept of rape when it is a man as the victim. It is not a flippant plot device, it is given gravitas and is a looming threat. It feels so different from "I'm going to throw you in the rape pit for three days to break you before your execution".
This is a REALLY contentious point with me. Please take a look at my review of a fantastic book, Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. It is an argument I have with my father repeatedly.
Luck is a massive factor in success. Saying so is not intended to strip away one's accomplishment; as I say in that review, one must necessarily work hard to take advantage of opportunities. But luck is necessary to have those opportunities that others do not.
Here, Richard falls backwards into a lucky break. Sure, he worked hard hauling that iron to secure himself a place to sleep and a connection to use to claw his way into a job....but how was it even possible for him to do so? He happened to arrive in this specific city, on this very particular street, at the EXACT time that this man's driver was abandoning him (more on the "I can only do what's in my exact job description" nonsense later).
Yes, Richard, you worked hard, but that opportunity was not presented to literally anyone else on the planet. Had that man not been making a delivery that day, had you arrived an hour sooner or taken a slightly different path through the city, none of this would have happened. You have an advantage over others who might have been just as willing and able to do just as you did, namely that you were fortunately at the right place at the right time.
This is at the core of the idea of privilege. The concept is not that you should feel guilty for having advantages, but merely that you acknowledge them. That simple act shifts your perception of others. When you acknowledge that not everything you have flows 100% from your own skill and effort, when you factor in that there were factors you cannot control that give you a leg up, then you begin to give the benefit of the doubt to others who are less successful.
Sure, that poor person might just be lazy and mooching off of the system. Or, like I was, they could have been laid off without notice or reason. They were not prepared with massive savings to live on because they had just (seemingly) found their feet again and were working hard toward that goal but didn't have enough time before it happened again. You begin to develop this alien concept, to so many Americans, called empathy.
You start to support social programs because you begin to see them for what they really are: Giving those less fortunate an opportunity. They don't "encourage laziness and dependence", but simply pass on a small measure of the good fortune required to get started. Sure, there are those who don't take advantage of that opportunity, but the argument then becomes that we shouldn't help anyone lest we accidentally help one person who doesn't "deserve it".
Here we see his hatred of the poor coming to the fore. He is directly blaming the poor for simply being lazy and "waiting and hoping for someone else to do something for me". It's the classic argument against "entitlement", aka social programs to help people, and it is ludicrously applied here.
The situation was that the stairs into this building were in disrepair. Richard lectures these people for not simply fixing it themselves....but it becomes very clear that no one has the skills to do so (Richard does because of course he does....even more on that later). When this comes out, he continues by saying it's their choice to "waste their time", and they should be using their time to "learn" instead.
Once again, a classic argument used to blame the poor for their own situation. To a privileged douchecanoe like Goodkind, you are not allowed any "luxury" when you are poor. If you take out a smartphone at the grocery store while paying with food stamps, you should be executed on the spot, never mind that it's not really optional anymore and was probably purchased before you unexpectedly lost your job.
The poor should be dedicating every moment of their waking lives to "learning", implying that they are simply jobless because they have nothing of value to make them employable....the long way of saying they are lazy and worthless. These same people will often launch into diatribes against any poor person going to the movies or watching television, as that is proof positive that they are responsible for their own lot in life, wasting it as they are on frivolous entertainments (never mind that these brief distractions are the only thing holding their mental health together sometimes).
Actual opinions aside, just fuck this author for so blatantly lecturing his readers in this way. In an interview I found when I was googling around, I found some rant he had about how he thinks good writers should tell their readers how life should be lived correctly. Just fuck this guy's arrogance.
This is a point where I highlighted this with a note: "Holy fuck did my dad write this?" and then put the book down to take a long break.
This is literally something he has said, out loud and unironically. He and others like him constantly use the fallacious argument that, "There's no point in working harder, because if you make more money, they take more taxes away." He sincerely believed at some point that if he made more money he would actually end up with less, as his taxes would increase more than his pay. That's theoretically possible only in the tiniest band of incomes...we're talking a few thousand dollars at most, and the difference is a few hundred in the end.
These people believe taxes are literal theft. There is no argument to use against this level of willful ignorance, no amount of logic or reason will ever convince them otherwise.
This, in isolation, might have been another gem extracted from the horseshit. However, in context, this is presented as literally an evil idea. It is the core idea behind this straw-man society Goodkind has set up that he then extrapolates to the point of lunacy, where "the good of others" means "you are literally forbidden from delivering goods because other companies need a chance to deliver some too".
I really never thought I would read a book where "you need to care about other people" is presented as an evil ideology.
Here we are drinking deeply from the Kool-Aid of Randian economics. The free market and competition are king. Never mind that we tried that once and it led to monopolies that fostered a class of a few billionaires you could count on your fingers and millions in poverty working for same.
He literally argues for vertical monopolies at one point! He has some discussion with a charcoal maker, who wants to also own and control the means to deliver his own product. He also wants to chop his own trees rather than pay outside loggers to do so.
It's a simplified example (don't expect complexity from Goodkind...ever), but he is describing a vertical monopoly where one company controls the supply, production, and distribution, thereby allowing them to set prices however they like without outside interests to keep them in check. Where raising charcoal prices might lead to loggers charging more for their wood (since it now has greater implicit value since what it becomes is more valuable), thereby canceling out some or all of he additional profit, if you control things end to end every price change only affects your profit margin, not expenses.
Again, we tried this. This is why we have Anti-Trust law in this country, albeit in a now-weakened state....
Fuck. You.
That's all I have to say about that one. It's so blatantly, transparently hateful that that's all the response this preaching deserves.
Let's end on one last item: Richard being perfect. This last quote, I attached the note: "Getting severe Kvothe vibes now", referring to The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss, wherein the hero Kvothe is the most perfect man to ever live, who can do anything and pick up any skill instantly.
Screw you lazy carvers who study this their entire lives, Richard learned that shit in two months to the point where he finishes the book creating a statue so beautiful that everyone who looks upon it weeps and it literally converts an evil woman to the side of good and provokes a revolution.
What.
It hilariously parallels Kvothe's musical prowess, where at one point any woman who hears him play his lute and sing dissolves into a weeping mess.
At no point was this ability implied until the very beginning of this specific book when he inexplicably carves these things for Kahlen at their cabin. There is also a huge difference between carving wood and stone, Terry.
I'm not even going to get into how he got away with working on that statue with no oversight to be able to pull these shenanigans. I'm reaching the character limit allowed for a review on here and my brain is incapable of parsing this atrocious writing anymore.
I'm probably going to take a break from this series now. This book was so terrible and made me so angry that I need to walk away and maybe reread a beloved COMPETENT series as a palate cleanser.
This was one of the single worst books I've ever read. Not only was the plot utterly stupid and pointless, but the amount of righteous preaching was intolerable. The entire book is one giant reductio ad absurdum against the evils of filthy socialism.
First, rape. There wasn't a lot of that here. There was that one scene where Nicci gave away all of their money and then everyone decided to attack her for more. Pretty sure that was headed in a rape-y direction. Then there was that one scene later where she used sex as a weapon against Richard by having that one asshole have sex with her because Kahlan would feel it via the spell that was the excuse for the entire plot. Pretty sure it was not established that that's how that spell worked until Goodkind wanted to basically rape Kahlan at a distance this way.
Lastly, there was the threat of rape BY OUR SUPPOSEDLY STRONG FEMALE LEAD. She literally threatens to throw her half sister back into the rape pit from the second book. I can't stress this enough: This is a book where even our protagonists use sex as a weapon. Rape is just another tool, the go-to punishment of choice.
Similarly, when the assassin is captured later on (of COURSE it's the asshole from the proxy rape scene, there are only 3.5-4.0 million people in the Order army, it makes total sense that this ONE person would be involved), there is an extended scene of extreme torture. This is supposedly the side of good, torturing someone for a day before finally killing him, simply for petty vengeance.
Conveniently, because this just happened to be the guy who was involved with Richard and Nicci, this choice is vindicated because it leads to the information necessary to set up the usual "let's wrap everything up in a nice bow in 10 pages at the end" anticlimax.
The usual criticisms continue to apply. There is no growth of any character, except Nicci in a superficial, forced way. Her whole "I need to learn something from Richard" quest was baffling, and seemed entirely contrived as an excuse to capture Richard and force him into these horrible situations again. The biggest growth is in the ancillary characters Richard influences in the old world; it's a bit small, and a bit simple, but the bar here is so low that it stands out as an anomaly.
Before I get to the big theme here, I now have a new hobby: finding and highlighting the worst simile Goodkind constructs (he can't quite take that next leap to actual metaphor, from what I can see).
Kahlan sighed. Sometimes attempting to follow Richard's reasoning was like trying to spoon ants.
If you say so, Terry. Moving on....
The big elephant in the room here: Libertarianism.
There were a few undertones throughout the series that were so thoroughly overshadowed by the extremely troubling social problems (i.e. rape is basically a currency here), so it was not a complete shock that this came up. However, it was a very abrupt shift that this was dragged out as the sole focus, and we are treated to my favorite repetition again, this time in political screed form!
I have not been this angry while reading a book in a long, long time, if ever. We're chugging along with the routine annoyances that I'm numb to at this point, when suddenly Nicci and Richard are in the old world in some city. Side note: Again, distance and time are treated for convenience here. Weeks and months pass over one sentence, continents that were impassable barriers in book 1 are crossed without a thought.
Richard basically bumbles around the city trying to find a job and a place to live. Each person he interacts with provides the least subtle diatribe possible revealing that they are FILTHY SOCIALISTS!!!
I have highlighted so many passages here that made me rage. There was one in particular that was something that has literally come out of the mouth of my father (a Trump-supporting racist who once criticized me for posting about how grateful I was that my food stamps finally kicked in, saying I should feel proper shame about it and also it makes HIM look bad since he, despite being very well off, wasn't helping me himself at all).
About 3 pages after Goodkind stepped onto his soapbox, I had to put the book down. I was getting indescribably angry, but also felt a need to finally google this guy. I had avoided this as I came into this series spoiler-free, both about the plot but also why everyone disliked the author. I wanted my opinion to be entirely informed by the writing, and this section reeked of libertarian hatred of taxation, social programs, and the poor....to an almost comically exaggerated extent.
Sure enough, I googled around and discovered a few things. Firstly, because of his name, I had apparently been picturing him as Terry PRATCHETT. If there is an afterlife or you're a ghost or something, I'm so sorry good Terry. This dude, however, looks like the polar opposite of a kindly grandpa. He looks like a guy you'd go out of your way to avoid in a bar if you were a woman BEFORE you knew he wrote about all of this problematic shit like red leather dominatrices and rape pits.
But most importantly, I found this quote....
Weymouth, MA: In your opinion who is the most must-read, cutting edge writer publishing today?
Terry Goodkind: Ayn Rand.
Nailed it.
It's very clear from these ramblings that Goodkind hates poor people. He very emphatically believes that if you are not successful, it is only due to your own laziness. He presents the idea of taxation (again exaggerated on a cartoonish level) as literal theft. The entire section is one giant reductio ad adsurdum of what he mistakenly believes is what socialism looks like.
Without further ado, let's get to specific passages....
Of course, the land's projects would, in the end, cost more. Unskilled workers were, after all, unskilled. A man who was expensive, but knew his job, in the end cost less, and the finished job was sound.
This is one I highlighted as a positive. I KNOW, RIGHT?! My exact note in the text is, "This is perhaps the most oddly cogent thing in this series so far."
I just wanted to lead off with this because I do give credit where it is due. Oddly, he goes on to be vehemently anti-union, which is the polar opposite of this idea, but for a brief moment of clarity, there was sense and actual valid commentary coming out of this contrived exploration of the filthy commie city.
It's an idea I have been discovering as I've moved up to a very well-paying job, a long way from the days I was applying for food stamps. It's something that was, of all places, in a Cracked.com article a while back: Having money, after being poor for so long, leads to having to make huge adjustments to the way you think. One of those ways is in buying higher quality products. Your instinct to buy the cheapest thing, out of necessity when you had no other option, is actual -- counter-intuitively -- the most wasteful choice.
I did this with computers. I bought whatever laptop was on special because I didn't have over a grand to drop on a machine. Even the $600 clearance sale was stretching it, but I needed a computer to function. They usually lasted two years, max. Flash forward to my first programming job where I decided to invest in a quality machine so I had something more powerful and reliable to work on the road. That $1400 machine lasted me seven years and is still going strong.
Investing in quality costs more up-front, both in purchasing merchandise and in choosing someone to perform a service, but it does, in the end, cost you less in the long term.
It's a wonderful gem I found in the mountain of horse shit surrounding it I wanted to share.
"Therein lies the problem. Remember when we came through? How those people were killed when the Dominie Dirth rang?"
....
"Remember when we came in, how they said they all rang, and everyone out in front of the Dominie Dirth was killed? They all rang together, as one."
Cue the Member-Berries. But I highlighted this because it was a half-assed attempt at excusing the recycling of the same plot for the third time. It's getting old, having Richard or Kahlan kidnapped and stripped of their power....again.
"But if I should decide I do, Richard, you will comply with that, too."
Nicci was a beautiful woman, the kind of woman most any man would eagerly accept. It was hardly that, though, that made him believe her. It was the look in her eyes. Never had the vague possibility of the act of sex seemed so vicious
Sorry, I'm literally just going through these in chronological order to keep all the quotes in one section, so we're back on rape.
It's "good", I guess, that men can be raped, too? Far from an #alllivesmatter counter to rape culture, it is often completely dismissed that men can also be rape victims. But it's funny how differently he treats the concept of rape when it is a man as the victim. It is not a flippant plot device, it is given gravitas and is a looming threat. It feels so different from "I'm going to throw you in the rape pit for three days to break you before your execution".
"Ordinary people don't have your luck, Richard. Ordinary people suffer and struggle while your luck gets you into a job."
"If it was luck," Richard asked, "then how come my back hurts from lugging that load of iron bars into the warehouse?"
This is a REALLY contentious point with me. Please take a look at my review of a fantastic book, Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. It is an argument I have with my father repeatedly.
Luck is a massive factor in success. Saying so is not intended to strip away one's accomplishment; as I say in that review, one must necessarily work hard to take advantage of opportunities. But luck is necessary to have those opportunities that others do not.
Here, Richard falls backwards into a lucky break. Sure, he worked hard hauling that iron to secure himself a place to sleep and a connection to use to claw his way into a job....but how was it even possible for him to do so? He happened to arrive in this specific city, on this very particular street, at the EXACT time that this man's driver was abandoning him (more on the "I can only do what's in my exact job description" nonsense later).
Yes, Richard, you worked hard, but that opportunity was not presented to literally anyone else on the planet. Had that man not been making a delivery that day, had you arrived an hour sooner or taken a slightly different path through the city, none of this would have happened. You have an advantage over others who might have been just as willing and able to do just as you did, namely that you were fortunately at the right place at the right time.
This is at the core of the idea of privilege. The concept is not that you should feel guilty for having advantages, but merely that you acknowledge them. That simple act shifts your perception of others. When you acknowledge that not everything you have flows 100% from your own skill and effort, when you factor in that there were factors you cannot control that give you a leg up, then you begin to give the benefit of the doubt to others who are less successful.
Sure, that poor person might just be lazy and mooching off of the system. Or, like I was, they could have been laid off without notice or reason. They were not prepared with massive savings to live on because they had just (seemingly) found their feet again and were working hard toward that goal but didn't have enough time before it happened again. You begin to develop this alien concept, to so many Americans, called empathy.
You start to support social programs because you begin to see them for what they really are: Giving those less fortunate an opportunity. They don't "encourage laziness and dependence", but simply pass on a small measure of the good fortune required to get started. Sure, there are those who don't take advantage of that opportunity, but the argument then becomes that we shouldn't help anyone lest we accidentally help one person who doesn't "deserve it".
"It's my choice to fix those stairs and make the place I live a little better instead of whining and waiting and hoping for someone else to do something for me"
Here we see his hatred of the poor coming to the fore. He is directly blaming the poor for simply being lazy and "waiting and hoping for someone else to do something for me". It's the classic argument against "entitlement", aka social programs to help people, and it is ludicrously applied here.
The situation was that the stairs into this building were in disrepair. Richard lectures these people for not simply fixing it themselves....but it becomes very clear that no one has the skills to do so (Richard does because of course he does....even more on that later). When this comes out, he continues by saying it's their choice to "waste their time", and they should be using their time to "learn" instead.
Once again, a classic argument used to blame the poor for their own situation. To a privileged douchecanoe like Goodkind, you are not allowed any "luxury" when you are poor. If you take out a smartphone at the grocery store while paying with food stamps, you should be executed on the spot, never mind that it's not really optional anymore and was probably purchased before you unexpectedly lost your job.
The poor should be dedicating every moment of their waking lives to "learning", implying that they are simply jobless because they have nothing of value to make them employable....the long way of saying they are lazy and worthless. These same people will often launch into diatribes against any poor person going to the movies or watching television, as that is proof positive that they are responsible for their own lot in life, wasting it as they are on frivolous entertainments (never mind that these brief distractions are the only thing holding their mental health together sometimes).
Actual opinions aside, just fuck this author for so blatantly lecturing his readers in this way. In an interview I found when I was googling around, I found some rant he had about how he thinks good writers should tell their readers how life should be lived correctly. Just fuck this guy's arrogance.
"What's the difference? They just take it from me anyway and give it out. I'm not really losing any pay, other people are losing my pay."
This is a point where I highlighted this with a note: "Holy fuck did my dad write this?" and then put the book down to take a long break.
This is literally something he has said, out loud and unironically. He and others like him constantly use the fallacious argument that, "There's no point in working harder, because if you make more money, they take more taxes away." He sincerely believed at some point that if he made more money he would actually end up with less, as his taxes would increase more than his pay. That's theoretically possible only in the tiniest band of incomes...we're talking a few thousand dollars at most, and the difference is a few hundred in the end.
These people believe taxes are literal theft. There is no argument to use against this level of willful ignorance, no amount of logic or reason will ever convince them otherwise.
You got to take other people's needs into consideration. You have to consider the good of everyone.
This, in isolation, might have been another gem extracted from the horseshit. However, in context, this is presented as literally an evil idea. It is the core idea behind this straw-man society Goodkind has set up that he then extrapolates to the point of lunacy, where "the good of others" means "you are literally forbidden from delivering goods because other companies need a chance to deliver some too".
I really never thought I would read a book where "you need to care about other people" is presented as an evil ideology.
I can't put other people out of business by being unfair and delivering more than they do, or else I have trouble, and I get replaced by someone who will not be so unfair to his competitors.
Here we are drinking deeply from the Kool-Aid of Randian economics. The free market and competition are king. Never mind that we tried that once and it led to monopolies that fostered a class of a few billionaires you could count on your fingers and millions in poverty working for same.
He literally argues for vertical monopolies at one point! He has some discussion with a charcoal maker, who wants to also own and control the means to deliver his own product. He also wants to chop his own trees rather than pay outside loggers to do so.
It's a simplified example (don't expect complexity from Goodkind...ever), but he is describing a vertical monopoly where one company controls the supply, production, and distribution, thereby allowing them to set prices however they like without outside interests to keep them in check. Where raising charcoal prices might lead to loggers charging more for their wood (since it now has greater implicit value since what it becomes is more valuable), thereby canceling out some or all of he additional profit, if you control things end to end every price change only affects your profit margin, not expenses.
Again, we tried this. This is why we have Anti-Trust law in this country, albeit in a now-weakened state....
"The workers' group assesses most of my wages, since I'm able to produce, and gives it to those who don't work. Because I can work, I've becomes a slave to those who can't, or don't wish to. Their methods encourage people to find an excuse to let others take care of them."
Fuck. You.
That's all I have to say about that one. It's so blatantly, transparently hateful that that's all the response this preaching deserves.
Let's end on one last item: Richard being perfect. This last quote, I attached the note: "Getting severe Kvothe vibes now", referring to The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss, wherein the hero Kvothe is the most perfect man to ever live, who can do anything and pick up any skill instantly.
In the two months Richard had worked at carving for the Retreat, he had come to understand the nuance of carving in stone.
Screw you lazy carvers who study this their entire lives, Richard learned that shit in two months to the point where he finishes the book creating a statue so beautiful that everyone who looks upon it weeps and it literally converts an evil woman to the side of good and provokes a revolution.
What.
It hilariously parallels Kvothe's musical prowess, where at one point any woman who hears him play his lute and sing dissolves into a weeping mess.
At no point was this ability implied until the very beginning of this specific book when he inexplicably carves these things for Kahlen at their cabin. There is also a huge difference between carving wood and stone, Terry.
I'm not even going to get into how he got away with working on that statue with no oversight to be able to pull these shenanigans. I'm reaching the character limit allowed for a review on here and my brain is incapable of parsing this atrocious writing anymore.
I'm probably going to take a break from this series now. This book was so terrible and made me so angry that I need to walk away and maybe reread a beloved COMPETENT series as a palate cleanser.
This was one of the single worst books I've ever read. Not only was the plot utterly stupid and pointless, but the amount of righteous preaching was intolerable. The entire book is one giant reductio ad absurdum against the evils of filthy socialism.
January 30, 2020
In my teen years Faith of the Fallen was my favourite instalment of the SoT series. My recent reread of the SoT series has been going really well so I was interested to see how well this one held up to my good memories of it. It ended up holding up pretty well! I really enjoyed my reread of Faith of the Fallen even if I was far more cognizant of its failings and flaws this second time around. I'm still of the opinion this is one of the very best books in the series!
The story is engaging and interesting. After the disasterous events at the end of the 5th instalment Richard has taken Kahlan to a secluded location to recover from her life threatening wounds. He is also avoiding leading the D'Haran Empire as he has lost faith in the people of the Midlands. That leaves the Sisters of the Light, Ann and Zedd, and the D'Haran military commanders in charge of the war against the Imperial Order who have arrived in the Midlands in massive numbers. Even Jagang himself has come to oversee the Imperial Orders war effort. Things get even bleaker for Richard and Kahlan when Nicci, a Sister of the Dark nicknamed Death's Mistress and feared even by her allies, arrives with a mad plan and abducts Richard with the intent of forcing him to see the error of his ways. She drags him to the heart of the Old World to see what life is like in the spiritual home and capital of the Imperial Order. Kahlan is left picking up the pieces and torn between Richard's wishes not to engage the Imperial Orders troops in open warfare or stepping in and taking command of the D'Haran forces.
It was a fast paced and fairly engaging tale and delivered most of the stuff one would expect from a Sword of Truth story. The war between the D'Haran Empire and Imperial Order was a bleak and dark affair but that was offset by the fact that the story was intense and engaging and we were invested in the fate of a lot of the characters on the D'Haran side of the conflict. Richard's side of the story was even more engaging. He got to see life at the heart of the Imperial Order and got to see what life was like for the ordinary folk rather than just the prime killers and soldiers of the IO. He also got to inspire people by being himself rather than by being a mage or warrior for once which was something I really enjoyed. The added plus side was the fact that Nicci played a significant role as a POV character and her journey and character development was one of my favourite things that has happened across this whole series.
Faith of the Fallen was a lot of fun and quite entertaining but it definitely had a few flaws. I admit I likely enjoyed it so much as it touched on two of my favourite tropes: redemption tales and heroes inspiring folks without having to use magic or fighting skills. My biggest issue with this book was actually Kahlan. She was awful in the middle of this one. She went full on tyrant at times and was more difficult to like than Nicci most of the time! She is the WORST when she is in charge. I sort of chalk stuff like this down to Goodkind's crazy views on ethics and morality. I think the guy means well but he hold some dangerously crazy views and it shows at times in the actions of his "heroes". I know a lot of people had issues with how active Goodking was in pushing his political views in this instalment but I did not feel like they hurt the story too badly. I think by this point I just expect a bit of insanity from Goodkind so I just sort of shake off the worst of the Objectivist philosophising and his pro-capitalism messages. I must admit I was amused with the statue so beautiful it inspired the collapse of Communism in this crazy fantasy world but I'm not as against the concept as most of the critics seem to be. It might be a little ridiculous but I'm an idealist at heart so I'm fine with fantasy tales that try to push crazy but uplifting and hopeful ideas. Makes a change from all the bleakness!
I feel awful about saying it but I was sort of hoping Richard added a second wife in the form of Nicci especially with how awful Kahlan was in this one and that is amusing to me as I always HATED Rand's harem of women while reading WoT!
All in all I really enjoyed my reread of this 6th SoT book. Still one of my favourite books in the series. I can see why others might hate it but I'm glad it worked for me. The downside to finishing this book is that my memories tell me this was the end of peak SoT and the the next two books were a big drop off in quality. I'm more hopeful Pillars of Creation will work better the second time around, as it was the bait and switch of lead character that hurt that so bad rather than the story, but I'm definitely dreading Naked Empire as I recall that just being a bad book in general. I'll press on though as I'm determined to finally finish the main SoT series in 2020. I'm also quite looking forward to the Nicci spin-off books after reading this one. She is definitely a strong enough character to lead a book series on her own.
Rating: 4.5 stars. I'm going to round up to 5 stars just for nostalgia's sake as this was my absolute favourite book as a teen so it deserves the top rating for that reason alone.
Audio Note: I went with the Nick Sullivan narrated version. The guy is fantastic and really should have been chosen for the commercial versions rather than just the version released for the NLB.
The story is engaging and interesting. After the disasterous events at the end of the 5th instalment Richard has taken Kahlan to a secluded location to recover from her life threatening wounds. He is also avoiding leading the D'Haran Empire as he has lost faith in the people of the Midlands. That leaves the Sisters of the Light, Ann and Zedd, and the D'Haran military commanders in charge of the war against the Imperial Order who have arrived in the Midlands in massive numbers. Even Jagang himself has come to oversee the Imperial Orders war effort. Things get even bleaker for Richard and Kahlan when Nicci, a Sister of the Dark nicknamed Death's Mistress and feared even by her allies, arrives with a mad plan and abducts Richard with the intent of forcing him to see the error of his ways. She drags him to the heart of the Old World to see what life is like in the spiritual home and capital of the Imperial Order. Kahlan is left picking up the pieces and torn between Richard's wishes not to engage the Imperial Orders troops in open warfare or stepping in and taking command of the D'Haran forces.
It was a fast paced and fairly engaging tale and delivered most of the stuff one would expect from a Sword of Truth story. The war between the D'Haran Empire and Imperial Order was a bleak and dark affair but that was offset by the fact that the story was intense and engaging and we were invested in the fate of a lot of the characters on the D'Haran side of the conflict. Richard's side of the story was even more engaging. He got to see life at the heart of the Imperial Order and got to see what life was like for the ordinary folk rather than just the prime killers and soldiers of the IO. He also got to inspire people by being himself rather than by being a mage or warrior for once which was something I really enjoyed. The added plus side was the fact that Nicci played a significant role as a POV character and her journey and character development was one of my favourite things that has happened across this whole series.
Faith of the Fallen was a lot of fun and quite entertaining but it definitely had a few flaws. I admit I likely enjoyed it so much as it touched on two of my favourite tropes: redemption tales and heroes inspiring folks without having to use magic or fighting skills. My biggest issue with this book was actually Kahlan. She was awful in the middle of this one. She went full on tyrant at times and was more difficult to like than Nicci most of the time! She is the WORST when she is in charge. I sort of chalk stuff like this down to Goodkind's crazy views on ethics and morality. I think the guy means well but he hold some dangerously crazy views and it shows at times in the actions of his "heroes". I know a lot of people had issues with how active Goodking was in pushing his political views in this instalment but I did not feel like they hurt the story too badly. I think by this point I just expect a bit of insanity from Goodkind so I just sort of shake off the worst of the Objectivist philosophising and his pro-capitalism messages. I must admit I was amused with the statue so beautiful it inspired the collapse of Communism in this crazy fantasy world but I'm not as against the concept as most of the critics seem to be. It might be a little ridiculous but I'm an idealist at heart so I'm fine with fantasy tales that try to push crazy but uplifting and hopeful ideas. Makes a change from all the bleakness!
I feel awful about saying it but I was sort of hoping Richard added a second wife in the form of Nicci especially with how awful Kahlan was in this one and that is amusing to me as I always HATED Rand's harem of women while reading WoT!
All in all I really enjoyed my reread of this 6th SoT book. Still one of my favourite books in the series. I can see why others might hate it but I'm glad it worked for me. The downside to finishing this book is that my memories tell me this was the end of peak SoT and the the next two books were a big drop off in quality. I'm more hopeful Pillars of Creation will work better the second time around, as it was the bait and switch of lead character that hurt that so bad rather than the story, but I'm definitely dreading Naked Empire as I recall that just being a bad book in general. I'll press on though as I'm determined to finally finish the main SoT series in 2020. I'm also quite looking forward to the Nicci spin-off books after reading this one. She is definitely a strong enough character to lead a book series on her own.
Rating: 4.5 stars. I'm going to round up to 5 stars just for nostalgia's sake as this was my absolute favourite book as a teen so it deserves the top rating for that reason alone.
Audio Note: I went with the Nick Sullivan narrated version. The guy is fantastic and really should have been chosen for the commercial versions rather than just the version released for the NLB.
January 28, 2018
I have SO MANY THOUGHTS.
For most of the time reading this book, I was pretty sure I was going to give it three stars. I haven't given a Sword of Truth book three stars since the first one, which I read way back in 2009. (Knowing how the series turns out from there, I think that may have been an optimistic rating, and if I read it again now, I might round it down to two stars.) Then somewhere around the middle I was like, nah, two stars. Then I changed my mind again at the end. If I don't rate this three stars, I have to retroactively go back and rate all the others one star. That seems like too much work. Plus, aside from a really big flaw (BIG), this is actually the most assured, least erratic, least weird, best structured, and most character-centric of these books by far. So sure, let's do it. Three stars!
Faith of the Fallen picks up shortly after that abomination of a last book, with Kahlan healing from her injuries. Richard and Cara take her to a secluded place in the mountains to heal. If this makes it seem like Richard is abandoning the fight with the Imperial Order, that's because he is. He has had a realization, which he tries to pass off as a prophecy, that if they directly fight the Order, they will lose. He says that the people need to fight and truly believe in freedom, and he can't make them want to. He believes they need to prove themselves to him, which is a such a dick way of going about it. But the whole book's like that, taking the seeds of good ideas and impulses, and being a dick about them. So either live with that or stop reading it, I guess. Point is, Richard may be having a genuine moment of insight, or he may be having a crisis of faith because of what happened in the last book, where all the people of Anderith chose the easy subjugation of the Order instead of the hard cause of freedom (as Richard sees it). Months pass, Kahlan is healed, and then Richard is kidnapped by Nicci, the Sister of the Light/Dark who is now Emperor Jagang's "Mistress of Death".
Nicci is actually a much more complex character than I had been expecting. I knew ahead of time this book revolved around her taking him, so I had some assumptions going in, and most of them weren't met. Nicci is a headcase. She is so indoctrinated into the ideals of the Order her moral compass is all fucked up and doesn't calibrate anything for shit. She is also the only person Jagang's psychic assaults don't always work on, and she doesn't know why (spoiler: it's because of her obsession with Richard). She is entirely selfless, and believes giving everything of herself at all times is the only way for her to redeem her naturally corrupt and evil state in the eyes of the Creator. Her own life means nothing to her, quite literally. But she sees something in Richard that bothers her, to the point of anger, and she can't figure out what it is. So she kidnaps him, lying to Jagang and telling him she's doing it for him, and then absconds with him to the Old World, where either she'll find the answers she's looking for (to questions she doesn't even know how to ask) or she will show Richard the true good of the Imperial Order. So, once again, Kahlan and Richard are tragically separated, but at least here the way Goodkind goes about is moderately clever. He has Nicci tie herself magically to Kahlan, so that whatever befalls Nicci also befalls Kahlan, including injury and death, and so she has Richard on an invisible leash and he'll do whatever she wants him to in order to preserve Kahlan's life.
The book takes place over the course of a little over a year, most of which time Kahlan and Richard are apart. Kahlan defies Richard and spends most of it fighting a guerrilla war against a vastly superior force (which I was side-eyeing pretty hard, because 1-3 million troops in a single area seems practically not feasible), trying to prevent the Order for as long as possible (until Richard can return, and they figure something out) from gaining as much ground as possible. These sections were actually pretty engaging. Aside from the logistical doubts I had about the army size, Goodkind is actually pretty confident when he's writing military strategy. His battles have never been the things I've complained about. I did get angry, though, when his black and white view of the world would infect his characters. At points, Kahlan becomes an unfeeling murderous monster, because Goodkind has no concept of subtlety or nuance in human behavior, and his morality is definitely of the "if you're not with me, you're evil and deserve to die" mentality. (I'm thinking particularly of two sequences, one involving Kahlan's half-brother Harold, the other where Kahlan states that she would like to personally kill almost two million men one at a time.)
Meanwhile, Nicci and Richard are off learning about Why Communism is Bad and why Equality is a Lie and also There Is No In Between.
So here's the big flaw I was talking about.
Goodkind is without doubt a staunch Libertarian, devout Capitalist, and student of Objectivism. Even if I had never read anything about the guy, and had only read his books, I would know this 100% for sure after finishing this book. I have varying degrees of fondness all along the spectrum for all of those things listed above, but regardless of my personal feelings, I am a firm believer that belief systems should not be the backbone of a book. Character arcs should. Any meaning one gets from a story should be derived naturally from the movement of character and plot. A superimposed meaning should not dictate a character's actions. That is when literature becomes didactic, which in my opinion causes it to lose nearly all of the power you get from a story well told. This book hops back and forth across a very fine line in regards to which is ruling the story, character or Goodkind's philosophy, and ultimately I'm not entirely sure which one dominated the most. It's only that uncertainty that is allowing me to three star this book.
Because both Nicci and Richard do grow from their time in the Old World. Richard regains his faith in people, and Nicci finds inner peace by finally dismantling the myths of her upbringing, and toxic belief systems that molded her mind. I have zero problems with either of their arcs in that regard. My problem comes when Goodkind insists on detailing ad nauseam how terrible the Imperial Order's ideals and methods are without any nuance at all. It's just a wholesale dismissal, followed by an imposing of a new and just as equally radical set of beliefs with no acknowledgement of any gray areas at all. Nicci's backstory is designed specifically to show how the practices of his fake-communism are evil. He creates characters and then has them behave in ways to illustrate the points he feels we need to learn about why communism (or whatever) doesn't work. He shows no compassion or attempts to understand the factors and potential good intentions that led to the creation of such a system. Its leaders are all unrepentantly evil, not only in committing to such a terrible social system, but also acting with greed and corruption, raping, murdering, thieving, take your pick, etc.
That whole section would have been SO MUCH BETTER without the injected philosophy lessons. A fight against tyranny, inspiring revolution, those plots can work and could have worked better here without Goodkind having to resort to all the rest of it. Even some of his "messages" when divorced from the larger context of the rest of his belief systems have some good points, and he could have used those without needing to resort to all the rest of it. I appreciate complexity and acknowledgement of complexity in the world, and there was none of that here.
Also, I couldn't decide if I thought it was terrible or great that Richard basically inspires a revolution by Doing The Best Art Ever (see the cover of the book). Because of course he can do that, he's Richard Fucking Rahl, Mr. Perfect.
And yet, I was entertained, and I will read the next book, which I've heard is abysmal, so maybe it will be the last one for me? We'll see!
[2.5 stars, rounded up because when you compare it to the others, wow]
For most of the time reading this book, I was pretty sure I was going to give it three stars. I haven't given a Sword of Truth book three stars since the first one, which I read way back in 2009. (Knowing how the series turns out from there, I think that may have been an optimistic rating, and if I read it again now, I might round it down to two stars.) Then somewhere around the middle I was like, nah, two stars. Then I changed my mind again at the end. If I don't rate this three stars, I have to retroactively go back and rate all the others one star. That seems like too much work. Plus, aside from a really big flaw (BIG), this is actually the most assured, least erratic, least weird, best structured, and most character-centric of these books by far. So sure, let's do it. Three stars!
Faith of the Fallen picks up shortly after that abomination of a last book, with Kahlan healing from her injuries. Richard and Cara take her to a secluded place in the mountains to heal. If this makes it seem like Richard is abandoning the fight with the Imperial Order, that's because he is. He has had a realization, which he tries to pass off as a prophecy, that if they directly fight the Order, they will lose. He says that the people need to fight and truly believe in freedom, and he can't make them want to. He believes they need to prove themselves to him, which is a such a dick way of going about it. But the whole book's like that, taking the seeds of good ideas and impulses, and being a dick about them. So either live with that or stop reading it, I guess. Point is, Richard may be having a genuine moment of insight, or he may be having a crisis of faith because of what happened in the last book, where all the people of Anderith chose the easy subjugation of the Order instead of the hard cause of freedom (as Richard sees it). Months pass, Kahlan is healed, and then Richard is kidnapped by Nicci, the Sister of the Light/Dark who is now Emperor Jagang's "Mistress of Death".
Nicci is actually a much more complex character than I had been expecting. I knew ahead of time this book revolved around her taking him, so I had some assumptions going in, and most of them weren't met. Nicci is a headcase. She is so indoctrinated into the ideals of the Order her moral compass is all fucked up and doesn't calibrate anything for shit. She is also the only person Jagang's psychic assaults don't always work on, and she doesn't know why (spoiler: it's because of her obsession with Richard). She is entirely selfless, and believes giving everything of herself at all times is the only way for her to redeem her naturally corrupt and evil state in the eyes of the Creator. Her own life means nothing to her, quite literally. But she sees something in Richard that bothers her, to the point of anger, and she can't figure out what it is. So she kidnaps him, lying to Jagang and telling him she's doing it for him, and then absconds with him to the Old World, where either she'll find the answers she's looking for (to questions she doesn't even know how to ask) or she will show Richard the true good of the Imperial Order. So, once again, Kahlan and Richard are tragically separated, but at least here the way Goodkind goes about is moderately clever. He has Nicci tie herself magically to Kahlan, so that whatever befalls Nicci also befalls Kahlan, including injury and death, and so she has Richard on an invisible leash and he'll do whatever she wants him to in order to preserve Kahlan's life.
The book takes place over the course of a little over a year, most of which time Kahlan and Richard are apart. Kahlan defies Richard and spends most of it fighting a guerrilla war against a vastly superior force (which I was side-eyeing pretty hard, because 1-3 million troops in a single area seems practically not feasible), trying to prevent the Order for as long as possible (until Richard can return, and they figure something out) from gaining as much ground as possible. These sections were actually pretty engaging. Aside from the logistical doubts I had about the army size, Goodkind is actually pretty confident when he's writing military strategy. His battles have never been the things I've complained about. I did get angry, though, when his black and white view of the world would infect his characters. At points, Kahlan becomes an unfeeling murderous monster, because Goodkind has no concept of subtlety or nuance in human behavior, and his morality is definitely of the "if you're not with me, you're evil and deserve to die" mentality. (I'm thinking particularly of two sequences, one involving Kahlan's half-brother Harold, the other where Kahlan states that she would like to personally kill almost two million men one at a time.)
Meanwhile, Nicci and Richard are off learning about Why Communism is Bad and why Equality is a Lie and also There Is No In Between.
So here's the big flaw I was talking about.
Goodkind is without doubt a staunch Libertarian, devout Capitalist, and student of Objectivism. Even if I had never read anything about the guy, and had only read his books, I would know this 100% for sure after finishing this book. I have varying degrees of fondness all along the spectrum for all of those things listed above, but regardless of my personal feelings, I am a firm believer that belief systems should not be the backbone of a book. Character arcs should. Any meaning one gets from a story should be derived naturally from the movement of character and plot. A superimposed meaning should not dictate a character's actions. That is when literature becomes didactic, which in my opinion causes it to lose nearly all of the power you get from a story well told. This book hops back and forth across a very fine line in regards to which is ruling the story, character or Goodkind's philosophy, and ultimately I'm not entirely sure which one dominated the most. It's only that uncertainty that is allowing me to three star this book.
Because both Nicci and Richard do grow from their time in the Old World. Richard regains his faith in people, and Nicci finds inner peace by finally dismantling the myths of her upbringing, and toxic belief systems that molded her mind. I have zero problems with either of their arcs in that regard. My problem comes when Goodkind insists on detailing ad nauseam how terrible the Imperial Order's ideals and methods are without any nuance at all. It's just a wholesale dismissal, followed by an imposing of a new and just as equally radical set of beliefs with no acknowledgement of any gray areas at all. Nicci's backstory is designed specifically to show how the practices of his fake-communism are evil. He creates characters and then has them behave in ways to illustrate the points he feels we need to learn about why communism (or whatever) doesn't work. He shows no compassion or attempts to understand the factors and potential good intentions that led to the creation of such a system. Its leaders are all unrepentantly evil, not only in committing to such a terrible social system, but also acting with greed and corruption, raping, murdering, thieving, take your pick, etc.
That whole section would have been SO MUCH BETTER without the injected philosophy lessons. A fight against tyranny, inspiring revolution, those plots can work and could have worked better here without Goodkind having to resort to all the rest of it. Even some of his "messages" when divorced from the larger context of the rest of his belief systems have some good points, and he could have used those without needing to resort to all the rest of it. I appreciate complexity and acknowledgement of complexity in the world, and there was none of that here.
Also, I couldn't decide if I thought it was terrible or great that Richard basically inspires a revolution by Doing The Best Art Ever (see the cover of the book). Because of course he can do that, he's Richard Fucking Rahl, Mr. Perfect.
And yet, I was entertained, and I will read the next book, which I've heard is abysmal, so maybe it will be the last one for me? We'll see!
[2.5 stars, rounded up because when you compare it to the others, wow]
March 27, 2024
Just when I think that this series can't teach me something else about fantasy, it does. This book delivered in teaching me in story form why a communist government is very very not good. Until reading this, I had not fully understood why. Now I understand that for each person to give up what they work for in order to help the whole can reduce the individual to nothing. When each individual cannot work and live for themselves, then their life ceases to mean anything to them. Everyone must have the freedom and ability to do what they wish with what they have earned. If the government or ruling body takes everything from you in the name of the "good of everyone," then they have actually taken freedom from everyone in doing this. There are people who believe that wealth should be shared amongst all. I think kindness should be shared and if someone is truly in need then they can find help. But to mindlessly take from everyone in the hopes that it gets redistributed evenly is a utopian ideal.
March 31, 2009
This review refers to the SOT series through book 9.
Terry Goodkind’s first book Wizard’s First Rule was great! Except for the actual First Rule ("People are Stupid"), which was...stupid. The story had so many unique and fascinating characters (especially the secondary ones). I was in love with Richard; I wanted to be a Mord-Sith. The next couple of books of The Sword of Truth were pretty good, too.
Then...I don’t know what happened...it just TOTALLY lost it. The writing style became incredibly annoying and Richard was getting WAY too preachy (constant Ayn Rand-ish humanistic ranting). But, I kept going because I was really invested by this time. And each time I bought one of his $25 hardback books, I found myself rolling my eyes at every passive sentence and starting to fall asleep during the sermons (when did Richard hire a speech writer??).
And the plot really got ssslllllloooowwww (just look at the book covers for Chainfire and Phantom — you can tell we're not going anywhere). But the weirdest thing is that I kept buying these 1 star books! I can’t explain my behavior, except to say that Terry Goodkind is (was) a master at plot and characterization (truly, his secondary characters are so well done). So I kept thinking that things would get better, but they did not. How did he pull off that excellent first booK?? I've learned from this experience that I can put down a book if it's not good. There's too much good literature to read.
According to Mr Goodkind, those of us who have bailed out are ignorant and uneducated. Wow. That is something I have never been called before. I should have realized right from the start ("Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid") what kind of fellow Terry Goodkind is. Here is a quote from a chat session conducted with Mr Goodkind (this used to be on his website, but has now been removed. It is well-documented on the internet, however.):
"Why would they continue to read books they claim are bad? Because they hate that my novels exists. Values arouse hatred in these people. Their goal is not to enjoy life, but to destroy that which is good — much like a school child who does not wish to study for a test and instead beats up a classmate who does well. These people hate what is good because it is good. Their lives are limited to loathing and indifference. It isn't that they want to read a good book, what they want is to make sure that you do not. Ignore them." —Terry Goodkind
I say Terry Goodkind is the one acting like a school child having a tantrum. I regret that he got so much of my money. I hope you won't give him any of yours. If you really want to try a Goodkind book, I would recommend that you go to the library and check out the first few, and then trust me that you don't need to read any further. I will not read the last book. I'm not even tempted. What an ass.
Read more Terry Goodkind book reviews at Fantasy Literature .
Terry Goodkind’s first book Wizard’s First Rule was great! Except for the actual First Rule ("People are Stupid"), which was...stupid. The story had so many unique and fascinating characters (especially the secondary ones). I was in love with Richard; I wanted to be a Mord-Sith. The next couple of books of The Sword of Truth were pretty good, too.
Then...I don’t know what happened...it just TOTALLY lost it. The writing style became incredibly annoying and Richard was getting WAY too preachy (constant Ayn Rand-ish humanistic ranting). But, I kept going because I was really invested by this time. And each time I bought one of his $25 hardback books, I found myself rolling my eyes at every passive sentence and starting to fall asleep during the sermons (when did Richard hire a speech writer??).
And the plot really got ssslllllloooowwww (just look at the book covers for Chainfire and Phantom — you can tell we're not going anywhere). But the weirdest thing is that I kept buying these 1 star books! I can’t explain my behavior, except to say that Terry Goodkind is (was) a master at plot and characterization (truly, his secondary characters are so well done). So I kept thinking that things would get better, but they did not. How did he pull off that excellent first booK?? I've learned from this experience that I can put down a book if it's not good. There's too much good literature to read.
According to Mr Goodkind, those of us who have bailed out are ignorant and uneducated. Wow. That is something I have never been called before. I should have realized right from the start ("Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid") what kind of fellow Terry Goodkind is. Here is a quote from a chat session conducted with Mr Goodkind (this used to be on his website, but has now been removed. It is well-documented on the internet, however.):
"Why would they continue to read books they claim are bad? Because they hate that my novels exists. Values arouse hatred in these people. Their goal is not to enjoy life, but to destroy that which is good — much like a school child who does not wish to study for a test and instead beats up a classmate who does well. These people hate what is good because it is good. Their lives are limited to loathing and indifference. It isn't that they want to read a good book, what they want is to make sure that you do not. Ignore them." —Terry Goodkind
I say Terry Goodkind is the one acting like a school child having a tantrum. I regret that he got so much of my money. I hope you won't give him any of yours. If you really want to try a Goodkind book, I would recommend that you go to the library and check out the first few, and then trust me that you don't need to read any further. I will not read the last book. I'm not even tempted. What an ass.
Read more Terry Goodkind book reviews at Fantasy Literature .
June 14, 2017
Dr. Zhivago, set in the Old World, Oppa Goodkind style.
Dr. Richard "Rahl" Zhivago is separated from his beloved, Kahlana Konfessorskaya, and he travels into the depths of the evil Khanate of the Old World, ruled by Emperor Jagang. There, he spends time sculpting in marble. Artist galore. And he tells us a story.
COMMUNISM BAD. CAPITALISM GOOD.
It takes about 700 pages for the story to be told. Along the following lines:
for (i=1; i<700; i++) {
He misses Kahlana. He wants to save the world from the bad guys, because they are not the good guys. Look at the Imperial Order, they are the bad guys. There isn't enough freedom here.
return Ayn Rand;
}
And then ... Richard gives a speech. It's 70 pages (roughly 100 min) of pure fascism that would make even the most ardent cult leaders shake with zeal, frenzy and adoration. In 70 pages of non-stop nonsense, Richard achieves what not even a modern army of finest propaganda, television, radio, and psychology could do in a year. He topples the evil regime by swaying over a bunch of peasants in a town square. Oops, revolution. Done.
Enough said!
The limerick you've been all waiting for. The stuff you're gonna tattoo on your chest:
Richard Rahl vanished from sight
Old World Communists he went to fight
He gave a long speech
His nonsense to preach
He rambled well into the night
Igor
Dr. Richard "Rahl" Zhivago is separated from his beloved, Kahlana Konfessorskaya, and he travels into the depths of the evil Khanate of the Old World, ruled by Emperor Jagang. There, he spends time sculpting in marble. Artist galore. And he tells us a story.
COMMUNISM BAD. CAPITALISM GOOD.
It takes about 700 pages for the story to be told. Along the following lines:
for (i=1; i<700; i++) {
He misses Kahlana. He wants to save the world from the bad guys, because they are not the good guys. Look at the Imperial Order, they are the bad guys. There isn't enough freedom here.
return Ayn Rand;
}
And then ... Richard gives a speech. It's 70 pages (roughly 100 min) of pure fascism that would make even the most ardent cult leaders shake with zeal, frenzy and adoration. In 70 pages of non-stop nonsense, Richard achieves what not even a modern army of finest propaganda, television, radio, and psychology could do in a year. He topples the evil regime by swaying over a bunch of peasants in a town square. Oops, revolution. Done.
Enough said!
The limerick you've been all waiting for. The stuff you're gonna tattoo on your chest:
Richard Rahl vanished from sight
Old World Communists he went to fight
He gave a long speech
His nonsense to preach
He rambled well into the night
Igor
May 22, 2010
3.0 stars. Probably my favorite book in the series apart from Wizard's First Rule. Some think Goodkind got too preachy in this book and I can see that, but I found myself enjoying his passion for the material. Richard's ordeal (physical, emotional and spiritual) at the hands of the Order and his ultimate triumph was handled well and I think this book contained the best writing (though still not great) of the entire series.
May 8, 2020
3,5 ✨ This volume felt like a meticulous and grand filler if such a thing can exist, but still a filler.
It was basically an opportunity to fully dive into the Order and show what it is that people need to fight against. Richard very strongly expresses that he does not want a faceless army marching against Jagang, he wants each of them to understand the importance of their lives and fight for them to the death.
Terry Goodkind took an incredible swing at communism from its start, its foundations, values, methods and finally its destruction.
The only other times I have seen this kind of mastery of a political system was in George Orwell's works Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm and Alan Moore's V for Vendetta.
The reason why its not a fully 5 star book for me was because the end was annoyingly cheezy and I wish Nicci's fate was different.
I mean, I understand Richard using his gift into his statue without realizing it but aren't all overacting a bit? I mean it’s just a fucking statue.
Also, having reached book 6 in the series, I wonder if at some point before this all ends if Richard will actually ever use magic??? Like real magic, not just his sword or self-discovery of wizard's rules? Otherwise please stop telling me every 5 minutes how rare it is to be a war wizard.
Finally a question I seem to be asking ever since the second book....Where in the old and new world is Nathan????
It was basically an opportunity to fully dive into the Order and show what it is that people need to fight against. Richard very strongly expresses that he does not want a faceless army marching against Jagang, he wants each of them to understand the importance of their lives and fight for them to the death.
Terry Goodkind took an incredible swing at communism from its start, its foundations, values, methods and finally its destruction.
The only other times I have seen this kind of mastery of a political system was in George Orwell's works Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm and Alan Moore's V for Vendetta.
The reason why its not a fully 5 star book for me was because the end was annoyingly cheezy and I wish Nicci's fate was different.
I mean, I understand Richard using his gift into his statue without realizing it but aren't all overacting a bit? I mean it’s just a fucking statue.
Also, having reached book 6 in the series, I wonder if at some point before this all ends if Richard will actually ever use magic??? Like real magic, not just his sword or self-discovery of wizard's rules? Otherwise please stop telling me every 5 minutes how rare it is to be a war wizard.
Finally a question I seem to be asking ever since the second book....Where in the old and new world is Nathan????
October 8, 2012
I'm even going to waste my time on this because of how much I hate this book, the bad writing, and Terry Himself.
Many years ago, I read Atlas Shrugged, and was reminded of Aynd's writing style in this book.
The first few books were ok, but even by the previous book, I noticed that the preachyness was getting a bit much.
Kahlan gets hurt, then, in FOTF, she mends with no use of magic. Richard is taken to the Emperial order to teach him the goodness of the order. We're shown; no, we're bashed over the head, with the evils of this life.
Rihard starts showing everyone that they can make their lives better, and really brings this home with the creation of a Statuee. Seeing this statue of the nobility of man, the people have a huge change of heart.
I'm glossing over a lot admittidly, but it's not my place to cover everything.
From this book on, Goodkind gets more preachy, redundant, and annoying.
In an interview, he said that people who bash his work are like little boys who throw rocks through windows, breaking what they do not understand. What I ubnderstand is thiis. Telling a story does not have to be done with repetitious preaching, over the top characters, and implausible climaxes.
Terry is also unhappy that hsi work is labeled fantasy, since it's the philosophy that counts. Well, better sf authors have made more philosophical statements, and have not complained. So, Terry, may I present
you with this massive soapbox?
Many years ago, I read Atlas Shrugged, and was reminded of Aynd's writing style in this book.
The first few books were ok, but even by the previous book, I noticed that the preachyness was getting a bit much.
Kahlan gets hurt, then, in FOTF, she mends with no use of magic. Richard is taken to the Emperial order to teach him the goodness of the order. We're shown; no, we're bashed over the head, with the evils of this life.
Rihard starts showing everyone that they can make their lives better, and really brings this home with the creation of a Statuee. Seeing this statue of the nobility of man, the people have a huge change of heart.
I'm glossing over a lot admittidly, but it's not my place to cover everything.
From this book on, Goodkind gets more preachy, redundant, and annoying.
In an interview, he said that people who bash his work are like little boys who throw rocks through windows, breaking what they do not understand. What I ubnderstand is thiis. Telling a story does not have to be done with repetitious preaching, over the top characters, and implausible climaxes.
Terry is also unhappy that hsi work is labeled fantasy, since it's the philosophy that counts. Well, better sf authors have made more philosophical statements, and have not complained. So, Terry, may I present
you with this massive soapbox?
January 4, 2013
My husband and I have both been addicted to the Sword of Truth series since my brother introduced it to us. We're down to the last couple of books. FYI- don't bother with the tv series "based" on the books.
This particular book makes you question the widely followed philosophy of always caring for your neighbor. This shows the dark side of putting others before yourself, essentially saying that their lives are more important than your own.
It would certainly be best if you read the books before this in the series, but you could probably get a lot out of it even without all the background the previous books provide.
I've enjoyed the series though there is brutal violence in many books, somehow it doesn't take away from my love of the story. The violence is never superfluous, it is used to make the bad guys truly evil.
Some of the books have been wrapped up rather conveniently and the author does tend to be far too long-winded, but having said all that I would still recommend the series.
This particular book makes you question the widely followed philosophy of always caring for your neighbor. This shows the dark side of putting others before yourself, essentially saying that their lives are more important than your own.
It would certainly be best if you read the books before this in the series, but you could probably get a lot out of it even without all the background the previous books provide.
I've enjoyed the series though there is brutal violence in many books, somehow it doesn't take away from my love of the story. The violence is never superfluous, it is used to make the bad guys truly evil.
Some of the books have been wrapped up rather conveniently and the author does tend to be far too long-winded, but having said all that I would still recommend the series.
January 15, 2010
As a fan of the Sword of Truth Series from the beginning, I was very disappointed in Faith of the Fallen. I read the series because I have developed an attachment to characters Richard, Kahlan, Zedd and Cara. I am also a fan of the fantasy genre in general. From Tolkien to Robert E. Howard.While I enjoy Goodkind's writing style and feel he is a great fantasy storyteller, this novel is not a great example. To preface my take on the book, I must point out that Terry Goodkind is a follower of the late Ayn Rand and subscribes to her objectivist philosophy.For the uninitiated Ayn Rand and her pro-business objectivist views gave birth to the modern conservative movement currently synonymous with todays Republican Party. In short Goodkind is a right-wing conservative.Albeit a pretentious one. In Faith he uses our beloved characters to blatantly promote his conservative/objectivist political views. The book seems to be an attempt by Goodkind to recreate Ayn Rand's work almost plagiarizing her book the Fountainhead at one point. His antagonist is the Emperor Jagang leader of the Imperial Order. The Imperial Order represents the vast looming threat to free people by tyranny. As Richard is taken to a large city in the Old World and exposed to the real horros inflicted by the Order upon it's citizens. "Horrors" such as evil labor unions,social welfare and the oppressive government. A corrupt government who denies its people the right t make a profit. Seriously! The reader is actually treated to the Seeker of Truth preaching the glory of the free market and deregulation to oppressed small business owners.Business owners are the city's heroes and saviors. Goodkind paints workers as shiftless layabouts that want free handouts without working.Unions are evil oppressive organizations that will have people thrown in prison if they work too hard.It is absolutely laughable. The city Richard is taken to is a crudely veiled metaphor for the old Soviet Union, and it is really obvious. The imperial Order smacks of Reagan's 'Evil Empire', with Richard and his friends fighting to stem the tide of communism.Sort of turning Richard Rahl into a sword weilding Ronald Reagan ( RR a coincidence?) This book reveals that apparently Goodkind as of 2000 still views communism as a the most dire threat to the American way of life that we face. The book conveys a sense of fear that the the Soviet Union could return anytime, we still need to remain vigilant against a communist takeover. And I am not sure Jagang isn't Goodkind's vision of Bill Clinton. With this book, Goodkind tarnishes his whole series in his emphatic need to spread his pro-business conservative message.I guess with the so-called 'Republican Revolution' in 1994 and the Election of the most cnservative president in our history in George W. Bush in 2000, when Faith was published, the author must've felt the world wanted to hear his right-wing gospel. I still think the first four books in the series are brilliant and am witholding judgement on the books following Faith of the Fallen. But Faith of the Fallen is an abomination.
November 27, 2007
In my opinion, this is Goodkind's greatest work. Richard is drug along on an adventure to the heart of the Order to help Nicci find the answer to the questions stuck in the back of her mind since she was taken away so long ago. The writing is beautiful and descriptive, the characters are compelling and the plot is amazing, driving the characters on to bring out their inner personalities. This book takes place near the middle/end of the series and sets up what is hopefully the downfall of the order. Goodkind's characters are well fleshed out and realistic people, striving for what they believe in. Jagang is not just another evil overlord foolishly trying to take over the world but a calculated and intelligent man who believes he is doing the people a service. This sets up a major clash in opinion, who is right, who is wrong as Goodkind tells the wonderful tale of a battle between two sides that believe the Creator has sided with them.
March 29, 2012
Originally posted at coffeeandwizards.wordpress.com
Faith of the Fallen is the sixth book in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It would probably be considered part of the High Fantasy genre, which was my favourite genre until about high school. I enjoyed the first book of this series very much, largely because it contained an entire story, which I wasn’t used to in High Fantasy. The second book was slightly disappointing in comparison and by book three I was struggling to continue on. There were two things keeping me going: 1. I don’t like not finishing series, and 2. it had been recommended to me by someone who I cared about and who had passed away, so I felt if I gave up on the series I would somehow be dishonouring him.
I’m telling you all this because I want you to understand that I’ve generally had good experiences with the High Fantasy genre and that I really did want to enjoy this series, but after Faith of the Fallen, I will not be continuing the series.
It’s not just because the plot is repetitive and there are character inconsistencies and filler chapters up the wazoo, though none of those helped. My main issue is with the treatment of women in this series.
There are tons of “strong” women in this series: the Sisters of the Light, the Mord Sith, the Confessors, but all of them are weak and stupid when compared to Richard Rahl. Because, you know, he’s a man. The Mord Sith are turned into a mixture of broken little girls searching for a father figure and dominatrixes in red leather. The Sisters of the Light are blind to how they should really treat men. The Confessors are all wiped out. And the Mother Confessor and wife of Richard, Kahlan,…well she gets to be raped and she enjoys it.
Yupp.
And that’s the point I decided I could not take any more of this shit.
Thinking about it I get so filled with rage that I can’t come up with a coherent argument. This book was published in 2000 and it contained a pseudo rape scene where the woman is described as enjoying it even though she feels disgusted with herself for enjoying it. This is not right. This will never be right. I am so, so, SO tired of people thinking this is all right.
Faith of the Fallen is the sixth book in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It would probably be considered part of the High Fantasy genre, which was my favourite genre until about high school. I enjoyed the first book of this series very much, largely because it contained an entire story, which I wasn’t used to in High Fantasy. The second book was slightly disappointing in comparison and by book three I was struggling to continue on. There were two things keeping me going: 1. I don’t like not finishing series, and 2. it had been recommended to me by someone who I cared about and who had passed away, so I felt if I gave up on the series I would somehow be dishonouring him.
I’m telling you all this because I want you to understand that I’ve generally had good experiences with the High Fantasy genre and that I really did want to enjoy this series, but after Faith of the Fallen, I will not be continuing the series.
It’s not just because the plot is repetitive and there are character inconsistencies and filler chapters up the wazoo, though none of those helped. My main issue is with the treatment of women in this series.
There are tons of “strong” women in this series: the Sisters of the Light, the Mord Sith, the Confessors, but all of them are weak and stupid when compared to Richard Rahl. Because, you know, he’s a man. The Mord Sith are turned into a mixture of broken little girls searching for a father figure and dominatrixes in red leather. The Sisters of the Light are blind to how they should really treat men. The Confessors are all wiped out. And the Mother Confessor and wife of Richard, Kahlan,…well she gets to be raped and she enjoys it.
Yupp.
And that’s the point I decided I could not take any more of this shit.
Thinking about it I get so filled with rage that I can’t come up with a coherent argument. This book was published in 2000 and it contained a pseudo rape scene where the woman is described as enjoying it even though she feels disgusted with herself for enjoying it. This is not right. This will never be right. I am so, so, SO tired of people thinking this is all right.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2011
There is merit in paying homage to a classic story in a modern novel, but when the homage is so blatant that it leaves nothing to the imagination, the reader is left with a wontonly masturbatory book. This novel is such a blatant rework of atlas shrugged that its only purpose seems to be to amuse the author. I've read atlas shrugged. I thought it pedantic and cumbersome. This book is pedantic, cumbersome, and unoriginal.
Mr Goodkind should stick to writing books about magic, not John Galt. Even if you agree with Rand and Goodkind's politics, why is it necessary to beat the reader over the head with the philosophy?
I've read up to this point because Goodkind writes intriguing cliffhangers that, even when the characters and superfluous descriptors annoy you, leave you wanting just a bit more. But I'm done now. No cliffhanger will convince me to read further because I like to read books that guide or allow me to make my own choice. If I want to read about economic theory, I'll pick up a text book.
Mr Goodkind should stick to writing books about magic, not John Galt. Even if you agree with Rand and Goodkind's politics, why is it necessary to beat the reader over the head with the philosophy?
I've read up to this point because Goodkind writes intriguing cliffhangers that, even when the characters and superfluous descriptors annoy you, leave you wanting just a bit more. But I'm done now. No cliffhanger will convince me to read further because I like to read books that guide or allow me to make my own choice. If I want to read about economic theory, I'll pick up a text book.
January 31, 2009
Terry Goodkind is a superb author, and in my opinion, his "Sword of Truth" series is the best I have ever read. So good, in fact, that I have read the entire series three times in a row, back to back, non-stop. This series is *not* for children. The series covers many aspects of the dark side of humanity, in great detail, as the heroes try to overcome the evils in the world. Goodkind is not afraid to show his readers just what evil *really* is, that is, most often, people who perform acts of evil feel justified in their minds as to why they are doing so, if for illogical reasons, and will that those that oppose them are the evil ones. Goodkind shows his readers that the only way to overcome evil in ourselves and in the world is through use of Reason. The series is *not* light reading, but if one is not afraid to confront the reality of evil (even within ourselves), and how to really defeat evil, the one will find this series extremely rewarding.
June 28, 2013
Unfortunately, Goodkind's Sword of Truth series takes a serious nosedive in this book, and it never recovers. Goodkind gives up on writing a novel and instead writes a bunch of preachy Objectivist propaganda against political straw men that a child could see through.
Basically, this book can be summed up as "Richard Rahl teaches commies about capitalism." The plot deviates seriously from the previous books in that it doesn't really focus on Richard and Co trying to solve the magical problem of the week. Instead, you get to spend most of this book reading about Richard carving stuff (because carving is like swordplay so the Sword of Truth makes him an Awesome Artist) and starting his own small business in the heart of the Imperial Order. The book drags on as Richard upstages a bunch of political straw men to show why communism and religious fundamentalism are Bad Things. The book gets particularly painful because Goodkind can't seem to make any of his antagonists intelligent, so Richard is basically showing up a bunch of brainless morons who probably should have choked on their own tongues ages ago. If you aren't stuck in 1970s Soviet Russia, Richard isn't going to tell you anything you don't know.
The only reason I give this book 2 stars instead of 1 is that the chapters focusing on Kahlan's fight against the Imperial Order are still interesting and compelling. Goodkind drops most of the preachy BS in this sections and just focuses on Kahlan and her army kicking butt with guerrilla tactics.
If you really like Ayn Rand and want to see what would happen if someone put Atlas Shrugged in a fantasy world, then this book is for you. If you're not looking for preachy Objectivist propaganda, though, you could just skip to Chainfire and finish the series from there. You really won't miss anything.
Basically, this book can be summed up as "Richard Rahl teaches commies about capitalism." The plot deviates seriously from the previous books in that it doesn't really focus on Richard and Co trying to solve the magical problem of the week. Instead, you get to spend most of this book reading about Richard carving stuff (because carving is like swordplay so the Sword of Truth makes him an Awesome Artist) and starting his own small business in the heart of the Imperial Order. The book drags on as Richard upstages a bunch of political straw men to show why communism and religious fundamentalism are Bad Things. The book gets particularly painful because Goodkind can't seem to make any of his antagonists intelligent, so Richard is basically showing up a bunch of brainless morons who probably should have choked on their own tongues ages ago. If you aren't stuck in 1970s Soviet Russia, Richard isn't going to tell you anything you don't know.
The only reason I give this book 2 stars instead of 1 is that the chapters focusing on Kahlan's fight against the Imperial Order are still interesting and compelling. Goodkind drops most of the preachy BS in this sections and just focuses on Kahlan and her army kicking butt with guerrilla tactics.
If you really like Ayn Rand and want to see what would happen if someone put Atlas Shrugged in a fantasy world, then this book is for you. If you're not looking for preachy Objectivist propaganda, though, you could just skip to Chainfire and finish the series from there. You really won't miss anything.
December 18, 2011
In which we learn that communism is bad, capitalism is good, religion is bad (apart from faith in Richard/Jesus/Mary Sue), hell is a disgusting concept (well, OK, that's reasonable enough), the Catholic church is really, really bad, as is art depicting hell, and the welfare state (indeed, all taxation) is a crushing burden on normal, honest, hard-working people. Hope is eventually given by a giant statue of Richard and his girlfriend. This hope then crushes the evil welfare state and the remorseless bureaucracy that runs it. Oh yes, and it begins with Richard having an extended hissy fit because some people have refused to vote for him. The stated moral of the story? People should think for themselves, and do what Richard tells them to do. Oh dear. Where do I start?
August 6, 2009
Goodkind at his Ayn Rand-ian worst. If you weren't getting it from the already copious hints that Goodkind has been dropping the whole series, he'll make his black-white morality abundantly clear. This is the book where I finally dropped the series, though I should have about three books earlier when it became clear where it was going.
February 7, 2015
Faith of the Fallen is by far the best book in the Sword of Truth series so far and one of the most entertaining books I’ve read in a while. There is a bit of everything here, action, a beautiful love-story, redemption and all of it was in the right quantity.
This book picks up with Kahlan’s recovery and Richard’s disillusionment following the outcome of the people’s vote in Anderith. He has left his forces to live in Hartland while Kahlan heals and recovers her strength. While they are in Hartland, they live an almost idyllic life, it’s a paradise and everything is perfect. But it comes to an end all too soon when Nicci casts a spell that links her to Kahlan, wherein if Nicci is hurt then Kahlan suffers the pain as well. Her condition is that if Richard wants Kahlan to live, he must leave her and travel with Nicci. He leaves with her after a very bidding Kahlan a very touching farewell. He charges Cara to watch over her and protect her. Meanwhile, the D’Haran forces along with the Keltish and Galean forces are keeping an eye on the Order while trying to avoid a direct conflict.
There is simply too much going on in Faith of the Fallen and yet, this is perhaps the most balanced books in the series so far. We still have the POVs of other characters but for the most part, they are directly linked to the main plot of the book: the Midland forces trying to outfox the Order and Richard trying to get out of Nicci’s clutches. And for once, I found both plots extremely engaging. For too long, in the series, there have been parts that I wished I could skip because they were keeping me from the parts that I was really interested in (those usually revolved around Kahlan and Richard) But this time, it was hard for me to put the book down and close to the end I ended up reading till 4 in the morning and then I was so wound up that I couldn’t sleep for quite sometime.
One of the most problematic aspects of Goodkind’s writing is the unnecessary and unbearably long recaps. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be so painful if he wrote one long detailed recap right in the beginning that one could skip but no, every time something happens or we come across someone we already met in the past, he gives us a detailed blow-by-blow account and I cannot begin to tell you how taxing it is. It grates on my nerves because it immediately brings the flow of the narrative to a grinding halt. The pace comes to dead stop. This time around, I might have skimmed through those and I think the book benefited from this. The beginning of the book was a little slow but I didn’t mind that in the least because it was in keeping with the atmosphere Richard, Kahlan and Cara were in. The pace here reflected their lives in this tranquil place. And yet, as soon as Richard and Kahlan part ways, the pace picks up. It is certainly faster when we read Kahlan’s perspective and somewhat slower in Richard’s. Apart from those pesky recaps, Goodkind’s writing was superb and absolutely immersive.
My primary motivation behind reading this series are the characters. Rarely do you come across such well-realised and developed characters. What’s even more interesting is that, in their own way, they are also flawed. Even though there are many characters the series focuses on, the two main protagonists remain Richard and Kahlan and they are the real heart of the series.
Richard is a war wizard is perhaps the most powerful wizard in the world (with the possible exception of Nathan and Zedd) For most of his life, he was a simple woods guide and then suddenly he was thrust in the war against Darken Rahl and named the Seeker of truth. In a very short time, his entire worldview has turned on its head and through it all he has somehow maintained his humanity. He is a natural leader, wherever he goes, people can’t help but be drawn to him. But he is also a very relatable character. His doubts, motivations are easy to see and understand. What makes his so likeable is that his power hasn’t changed who he is at his very core. He is still the same woods guide and his ultimate goal is not rule D’Hara or the Midlands but rather to live a quiet, peaceful life in the woods with Kahlan by his side.
Kahlan is the Mother Confessor and also the last of her kind and now, one of my all time favourite female characters. She is an incredibly strong woman and does not apologise for it. Hers is the highest authority in all of the Midlands and she wears this power with responsibility and honour. Where Richard is new to power, Kahlan has grown up surrounded by it. What is also interesting is that between the two of them, Kahlan is the more ruthless of the two. Richard is still not always certain of his place, authority and power and can sometimes be reluctant to make harsh decisions (though he does eventually do what has to be done) whereas Kahlan is much more matter of fact and does what needs to be done, she is decisive and doesn’t waste time dilly-dallying. Moreover, she is an excellent war strategist and leads the Midland forces when Richard is unable to. She is fiercely independent and definitely someone who can take care of herself.
What is even more striking about her is that she has no other power apart from her powers of the Confessor (where she can bind people to her will) and using her power weakens her. Yet she still leads first the Galeans and then the Midland forces against the Order and gains victory in the former encounter and inflicts serious damage in the latter. But more than that, once committed to her cause, she lets nothing sway her. She is not merciful and perhaps that is what struck me most about her and I liked her even more for it.
Nicci is the other character whom I hated in the beginning for her misguided notions and then slowly came to like. She was difficult to pin down because her actions were not borne out of malice but rather curiosity. I found her to be very interesting and in true Goodkind fashion, she was a multi-layered and complex character. I look forward to seeing more of her in the future books.
We also saw Zedd, Verna, Warren, Ann and Cara (she’s another favourite) and I was happy that they were all connected to the broader plot. I have always had a problem with blind faith and that was Ann’s attitude with respect to the prophecies and the confrontation involving her and Kahlan was necessary. She needed to have her blind faith challenged although I’m not entirely certain as to whether she learned anything from that encounter.
Through the course of the last few books, Jagang has emerged as the main antagonist. He seems to be more lethal than Darken Rahl and the Keeper put together and truly a force to be reckoned with. He is not reckless and has infinite patience; in addition, his attack on the Midlands is something that he’s been planning for a very long time. All of this makes for a very lethal combination and I’m anxious to see how Richard, Kahlan and their allies will deal with the threat he poses. My only concern is that if it is just stretched too far then I might just lose interest…
This series is also exhaustive especially with regards to the main characters; they are always in peril and more often than not, find themselves in some very tight spots and a lot of trouble. All of this and the slightly slow pace of the books make for a fairly stressful reading experience. What little I know of the rest of the series doesn’t seem very different. Keeping all of that in mind, I don’t know how much longer I’ll stick with the series but for now, I am I shall continue.
This book picks up with Kahlan’s recovery and Richard’s disillusionment following the outcome of the people’s vote in Anderith. He has left his forces to live in Hartland while Kahlan heals and recovers her strength. While they are in Hartland, they live an almost idyllic life, it’s a paradise and everything is perfect. But it comes to an end all too soon when Nicci casts a spell that links her to Kahlan, wherein if Nicci is hurt then Kahlan suffers the pain as well. Her condition is that if Richard wants Kahlan to live, he must leave her and travel with Nicci. He leaves with her after a very bidding Kahlan a very touching farewell. He charges Cara to watch over her and protect her. Meanwhile, the D’Haran forces along with the Keltish and Galean forces are keeping an eye on the Order while trying to avoid a direct conflict.
There is simply too much going on in Faith of the Fallen and yet, this is perhaps the most balanced books in the series so far. We still have the POVs of other characters but for the most part, they are directly linked to the main plot of the book: the Midland forces trying to outfox the Order and Richard trying to get out of Nicci’s clutches. And for once, I found both plots extremely engaging. For too long, in the series, there have been parts that I wished I could skip because they were keeping me from the parts that I was really interested in (those usually revolved around Kahlan and Richard) But this time, it was hard for me to put the book down and close to the end I ended up reading till 4 in the morning and then I was so wound up that I couldn’t sleep for quite sometime.
One of the most problematic aspects of Goodkind’s writing is the unnecessary and unbearably long recaps. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be so painful if he wrote one long detailed recap right in the beginning that one could skip but no, every time something happens or we come across someone we already met in the past, he gives us a detailed blow-by-blow account and I cannot begin to tell you how taxing it is. It grates on my nerves because it immediately brings the flow of the narrative to a grinding halt. The pace comes to dead stop. This time around, I might have skimmed through those and I think the book benefited from this. The beginning of the book was a little slow but I didn’t mind that in the least because it was in keeping with the atmosphere Richard, Kahlan and Cara were in. The pace here reflected their lives in this tranquil place. And yet, as soon as Richard and Kahlan part ways, the pace picks up. It is certainly faster when we read Kahlan’s perspective and somewhat slower in Richard’s. Apart from those pesky recaps, Goodkind’s writing was superb and absolutely immersive.
My primary motivation behind reading this series are the characters. Rarely do you come across such well-realised and developed characters. What’s even more interesting is that, in their own way, they are also flawed. Even though there are many characters the series focuses on, the two main protagonists remain Richard and Kahlan and they are the real heart of the series.
Richard is a war wizard is perhaps the most powerful wizard in the world (with the possible exception of Nathan and Zedd) For most of his life, he was a simple woods guide and then suddenly he was thrust in the war against Darken Rahl and named the Seeker of truth. In a very short time, his entire worldview has turned on its head and through it all he has somehow maintained his humanity. He is a natural leader, wherever he goes, people can’t help but be drawn to him. But he is also a very relatable character. His doubts, motivations are easy to see and understand. What makes his so likeable is that his power hasn’t changed who he is at his very core. He is still the same woods guide and his ultimate goal is not rule D’Hara or the Midlands but rather to live a quiet, peaceful life in the woods with Kahlan by his side.
Kahlan is the Mother Confessor and also the last of her kind and now, one of my all time favourite female characters. She is an incredibly strong woman and does not apologise for it. Hers is the highest authority in all of the Midlands and she wears this power with responsibility and honour. Where Richard is new to power, Kahlan has grown up surrounded by it. What is also interesting is that between the two of them, Kahlan is the more ruthless of the two. Richard is still not always certain of his place, authority and power and can sometimes be reluctant to make harsh decisions (though he does eventually do what has to be done) whereas Kahlan is much more matter of fact and does what needs to be done, she is decisive and doesn’t waste time dilly-dallying. Moreover, she is an excellent war strategist and leads the Midland forces when Richard is unable to. She is fiercely independent and definitely someone who can take care of herself.
What is even more striking about her is that she has no other power apart from her powers of the Confessor (where she can bind people to her will) and using her power weakens her. Yet she still leads first the Galeans and then the Midland forces against the Order and gains victory in the former encounter and inflicts serious damage in the latter. But more than that, once committed to her cause, she lets nothing sway her. She is not merciful and perhaps that is what struck me most about her and I liked her even more for it.
Nicci is the other character whom I hated in the beginning for her misguided notions and then slowly came to like. She was difficult to pin down because her actions were not borne out of malice but rather curiosity. I found her to be very interesting and in true Goodkind fashion, she was a multi-layered and complex character. I look forward to seeing more of her in the future books.
We also saw Zedd, Verna, Warren, Ann and Cara (she’s another favourite) and I was happy that they were all connected to the broader plot. I have always had a problem with blind faith and that was Ann’s attitude with respect to the prophecies and the confrontation involving her and Kahlan was necessary. She needed to have her blind faith challenged although I’m not entirely certain as to whether she learned anything from that encounter.
Through the course of the last few books, Jagang has emerged as the main antagonist. He seems to be more lethal than Darken Rahl and the Keeper put together and truly a force to be reckoned with. He is not reckless and has infinite patience; in addition, his attack on the Midlands is something that he’s been planning for a very long time. All of this makes for a very lethal combination and I’m anxious to see how Richard, Kahlan and their allies will deal with the threat he poses. My only concern is that if it is just stretched too far then I might just lose interest…
This series is also exhaustive especially with regards to the main characters; they are always in peril and more often than not, find themselves in some very tight spots and a lot of trouble. All of this and the slightly slow pace of the books make for a fairly stressful reading experience. What little I know of the rest of the series doesn’t seem very different. Keeping all of that in mind, I don’t know how much longer I’ll stick with the series but for now, I am I shall continue.
February 4, 2015
After reading some of the hyperbole and absurd complaints about Goodkind and his writing style, I felt I had to stand up for him and this amazing fantasy series, The Sword of Truth. The worst kind of criticism, though, came from Keely, the first reviewer listed, because she admits to reading only the beginning of the novel before she then proceeds to crap all over the book and the author because of his political/philosophical ideology.
The Objectivist philosophy that Goodkind weaves into his plot-lines and with which he imbues his heroes was the largest and most common criticism from most of the reviewers panning this truly inspiring novel--at least I found it one of the most inspiring books I've ever had the pleasure of reading (and re-reading). But then again, my personal philosophy and politics are probably a lot closer to Goodkind's than most of you reading this (I'm a libertarian, and he is an Objectivist: different, but similar in many ways). Really, the philosophy behind much of Goodkind's writing is about living life to its fullest, not backing down to evil tyrants, and utilizing intellect and emotion to accomplish more than ever thought possible. In short, his message is that life is an end, in and of itself, so it shouldn't be squandered or bartered cheaply.
I'm sure some of you are even considering me preachy, at this time, but I have to ask, if you hate the "preachiness" of this author so much, why did you continue reading through to book six? It's pretty clear from the start (though it does increase somewhat as the series progresses, especially in this book), that he's going to inject his personal philosophy--how he views and interprets the world--into his writing. So if it offends your progressive/socialist/liberal sensibilities so much (call it whatever you want, it's all the same philosophy of wealth distribution, of ignoring the catastrophic consequences wrought from your tragically-flawed "great intentions," and of the revered collective mattering more than the individual), why did you keep reading after Goodkind had Darken Rahl, the evil, autocratic villain of the first book, spew socialist propaganda? Didn't that clue you in to how he was going to write the rest of the series?
It seems to me that individualism tends not to matter as much to people on the left. What they always seem to obsess over are labels and stereotypes. People are interchangeable to them so long as they possess the same superficial traits, like race, gender, etc., or that they "belong" to the same group, whatever it is. To the left, one's "individualism" is comprised only of those superficial traits shared by others. It's not the traits others share that make us who we are, but our differences that highlight our character. What makes Goodkind's characters pop so much is that most of them are a rich tapestry of [sometimes conflicting] emotions and passion tempered by reason and logic. Cara, for example, isn't just a crazed dominatrix. Okay, I'll give you that the S&M in the first book was a little much, but it also helped readers empathize with Richard. By temporarily sharing in his agony the reader is better able to understand and relate to the protagonist. But Cara's insane dominatrix exterior is what matters so much to some people. Underneath she is a strong, proud, and determined survivor and warrior who would proudly give her life to defend the freedom of her loved ones.
So far, I've been referring mostly to the whole series, not just Faith of the Fallen. The 11-book series is my favorite in the entire genre, and Faith of the Fallen is my absolute favorite novel within. So to the reviewers who found it incomprehensible that someone could not only like this book, but elevate it to the top of the series, I say, "Here I am." Really, what wasn't to like about the book besides your political objections--though, if you complained about Goodkind's infusion of politics and philosophy into his fiction/fantasy, I doubt you've been so critical of Noam Chomsky's constant preaching about the glories of socialism.
I feel revitalized every time I've read Faith of the Fallen. The theme of this book (as well as a continuing theme throughout the series) is, as another reviewer mentioned above, the nobility of the human spirit. It's about the individual standing up for himself against the tyranny of mob rule and collectivism. It's about reclaiming your soul (in a metaphorical sense, not religious) after being beaten down to anonymity, about the pull of artwork that comes from the intellect and the heart simultaneously. Truly, it's about the power of one man's talent and indomitable spirit to transform the world. It gives me hope that I, just one man, can actually make a difference and fight back against tyranny. This book is a message of hope and strength, if you are willing to see it as that (meaning you have to overcome your political stubbornness and read with an open mind).
I'm not going to give away any spoilers about the end of the entire 11-book series, but let's just say Goodkind takes care of everything by the conclusion. All the dangling plot threads I thought Goodkind had just forgotten about or failed to reconcile are sewn together masterfully to create the epic conclusion to this long journey. What I thought might be a severe weakness in his writing style proved to be the opposite as he wove all the strands together to form a solid rope tying the first novel to the last. There are no unexplained inconsistencies, and everything comes together so well, I believe he had this ending in mind very early in the series. And while I didn't always anticipate where he would go with some characters, in hindsight it seems clear to me that it was well mapped-out and plotted from the beginning (or at least from the second book, since he wrote the first one initially as a stand-alone product). If you were offended by the politics and philosophy weaved into this book, don't bother reading the rest of this excellent series, or you will only grow more angry (especially from books 8 and 11). If, however, political and philosophical undertones don't bother you so much, then this is the fantasy series for you.
"YOUR LIFE IS YOURS ALONE; RISE UP AND LIVE IT!"
The Objectivist philosophy that Goodkind weaves into his plot-lines and with which he imbues his heroes was the largest and most common criticism from most of the reviewers panning this truly inspiring novel--at least I found it one of the most inspiring books I've ever had the pleasure of reading (and re-reading). But then again, my personal philosophy and politics are probably a lot closer to Goodkind's than most of you reading this (I'm a libertarian, and he is an Objectivist: different, but similar in many ways). Really, the philosophy behind much of Goodkind's writing is about living life to its fullest, not backing down to evil tyrants, and utilizing intellect and emotion to accomplish more than ever thought possible. In short, his message is that life is an end, in and of itself, so it shouldn't be squandered or bartered cheaply.
I'm sure some of you are even considering me preachy, at this time, but I have to ask, if you hate the "preachiness" of this author so much, why did you continue reading through to book six? It's pretty clear from the start (though it does increase somewhat as the series progresses, especially in this book), that he's going to inject his personal philosophy--how he views and interprets the world--into his writing. So if it offends your progressive/socialist/liberal sensibilities so much (call it whatever you want, it's all the same philosophy of wealth distribution, of ignoring the catastrophic consequences wrought from your tragically-flawed "great intentions," and of the revered collective mattering more than the individual), why did you keep reading after Goodkind had Darken Rahl, the evil, autocratic villain of the first book, spew socialist propaganda? Didn't that clue you in to how he was going to write the rest of the series?
It seems to me that individualism tends not to matter as much to people on the left. What they always seem to obsess over are labels and stereotypes. People are interchangeable to them so long as they possess the same superficial traits, like race, gender, etc., or that they "belong" to the same group, whatever it is. To the left, one's "individualism" is comprised only of those superficial traits shared by others. It's not the traits others share that make us who we are, but our differences that highlight our character. What makes Goodkind's characters pop so much is that most of them are a rich tapestry of [sometimes conflicting] emotions and passion tempered by reason and logic. Cara, for example, isn't just a crazed dominatrix. Okay, I'll give you that the S&M in the first book was a little much, but it also helped readers empathize with Richard. By temporarily sharing in his agony the reader is better able to understand and relate to the protagonist. But Cara's insane dominatrix exterior is what matters so much to some people. Underneath she is a strong, proud, and determined survivor and warrior who would proudly give her life to defend the freedom of her loved ones.
So far, I've been referring mostly to the whole series, not just Faith of the Fallen. The 11-book series is my favorite in the entire genre, and Faith of the Fallen is my absolute favorite novel within. So to the reviewers who found it incomprehensible that someone could not only like this book, but elevate it to the top of the series, I say, "Here I am." Really, what wasn't to like about the book besides your political objections--though, if you complained about Goodkind's infusion of politics and philosophy into his fiction/fantasy, I doubt you've been so critical of Noam Chomsky's constant preaching about the glories of socialism.
I feel revitalized every time I've read Faith of the Fallen. The theme of this book (as well as a continuing theme throughout the series) is, as another reviewer mentioned above, the nobility of the human spirit. It's about the individual standing up for himself against the tyranny of mob rule and collectivism. It's about reclaiming your soul (in a metaphorical sense, not religious) after being beaten down to anonymity, about the pull of artwork that comes from the intellect and the heart simultaneously. Truly, it's about the power of one man's talent and indomitable spirit to transform the world. It gives me hope that I, just one man, can actually make a difference and fight back against tyranny. This book is a message of hope and strength, if you are willing to see it as that (meaning you have to overcome your political stubbornness and read with an open mind).
I'm not going to give away any spoilers about the end of the entire 11-book series, but let's just say Goodkind takes care of everything by the conclusion. All the dangling plot threads I thought Goodkind had just forgotten about or failed to reconcile are sewn together masterfully to create the epic conclusion to this long journey. What I thought might be a severe weakness in his writing style proved to be the opposite as he wove all the strands together to form a solid rope tying the first novel to the last. There are no unexplained inconsistencies, and everything comes together so well, I believe he had this ending in mind very early in the series. And while I didn't always anticipate where he would go with some characters, in hindsight it seems clear to me that it was well mapped-out and plotted from the beginning (or at least from the second book, since he wrote the first one initially as a stand-alone product). If you were offended by the politics and philosophy weaved into this book, don't bother reading the rest of this excellent series, or you will only grow more angry (especially from books 8 and 11). If, however, political and philosophical undertones don't bother you so much, then this is the fantasy series for you.
"YOUR LIFE IS YOURS ALONE; RISE UP AND LIVE IT!"
May 10, 2011
Another victory for one of our best fantasy authors..., Faith of the Fallen is bathed in both sentiment and excitement, and I mean both terms in their most positive light. Terry Goodkind never fails to weave a good tail, and the way he built this story around the beauty and power of art and sculpture is just further proof that he wields more tools and weapons of the writing trade than many of us even knew existed. If you, like me, yearn for Richard and Kahlan to continue growing while meeting challenges that would cause most heroes to shy away, you will not be disappointed. By the way, Nicci is back, and you're certain to love her and hate her even more before this novel is done. Definitely an enjoyable investment of time.The Santa Shop
March 17, 2017
I think this is one of my favorites because it shows the power of art and I'm an artist. Of course Richard uses magic to pull it off it's just not that apparent but come on, he has NEVER carved out of marble before and was able to do a beautiful piece...never taught..and I know it takes many years to be a good marble sculpter but of course he pulls it off. I love how this series reveals another depth to the main characters. Khalan shows herself a badass warrior, Richard has a talent for carving, I can see why the writer continues on with these two, so much going on with them. Don't know when I will pick up the next book. This one was pretty long and I want some shorter ones for a bit. This is one of the best and is now a personal favorite of mine. There is also some great things to learn and be inspired by in this book, great work!
December 6, 2022
This was a pretty strong book for Kahlan: I really enjoyed her time recovering in her little paradise with Richard and Cara and for most of the book she is back to war and - while it wasn't the most interesting plotline of the series - it was great to see her in action again.
I also liked getting to know Nicci and focussing in on her insecurities. It was nice to spend some quiet time with her and Richard as a normal working class couple. However, a lot of their part of the story was painfully unsubtle and I don't feel as close to Richard as I used to.
I also liked getting to know Nicci and focussing in on her insecurities. It was nice to spend some quiet time with her and Richard as a normal working class couple. However, a lot of their part of the story was painfully unsubtle and I don't feel as close to Richard as I used to.
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