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Richard and Kahlan #1
The Omen Machine
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Fantasy (2011)Hannis Arc, working on the tapestry of lines linking constellations of elements that constituted the language of Creation recorded on the ancient Cerulean scroll spread out among the clutter on his desk, was not surprised to see the seven etherial forms billow into the room like acrid smoke driven on a breath of bitter breeze. Like an otherworldly collection of spectral shapes seemingly carried on random eddies of air, they wandered in a loose clutch among the still and silent mounted bears and beasts rising up on their stands, the small forest of stone pedestals holding massive books of recorded prophecy, and the evenly spaced display cases of oddities, their glass reflecting the firelight from the massive hearth at the side of the room.
Since the seven rarely used doors, the shutters on the windows down on the ground level several stories below stood open as a fearless show of invitation. Though they frequently chose to use windows, they didn’t actually need the windows any more than they needed the doors. They could seep through any opening, any crack, like vapor rising in the early morning from the stretches of stagnant water that lay in dark swaths through the peat barrens.
The open shutters were meant to be a declaration for all to see, including the seven, that Hannis Arc feared nothing.
#1 New York Times-bestselling author Terry Goodkind returns to the lives of Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell—in a compelling tale of a new and sinister threat to their world.
In addition to concluding the Sword of Truth series, The Omen Machine also launches the new series of "Richard and Kahlan."
Since the seven rarely used doors, the shutters on the windows down on the ground level several stories below stood open as a fearless show of invitation. Though they frequently chose to use windows, they didn’t actually need the windows any more than they needed the doors. They could seep through any opening, any crack, like vapor rising in the early morning from the stretches of stagnant water that lay in dark swaths through the peat barrens.
The open shutters were meant to be a declaration for all to see, including the seven, that Hannis Arc feared nothing.
#1 New York Times-bestselling author Terry Goodkind returns to the lives of Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell—in a compelling tale of a new and sinister threat to their world.
In addition to concluding the Sword of Truth series, The Omen Machine also launches the new series of "Richard and Kahlan."
528 pages, Hardcover
First published August 16, 2011
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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June 22, 2012
The Omen Machine
By Terry Goodkind? Maybe? Are we sure about this? REALLY? Did Terry Goodkind REALLY write this crap?
A review by Eric Allen
Before I get started I’d like to make a point. I’ll do this by telling you a story; it’s called A Tale of Two Goodkinds. It was the best of times. It was the blurst of times, and if you don’t get the reference, it’s your loss. Once upon a time there was an author named Terry Goodkind with a retelling of Arthurian legend he called The Sword of Truth book 1: Wizard’s First Rule. It was imaginative, but a little cliché, and full of things that we, his fans, would come to know as his vices. These things include his overuse of deus ex machina rather than letting characters think their way out of tight spots on their own cunning and abilities, and his need to preach to us for page after page (see the entire novel of Naked Empire). Despite these things, it was extraordinarily well written, especially considering his claims that it was his first attempt at writing a novel. The characters were solid, three dimensional, and had very different personalities, strengths and weaknesses. The world was vivid and realistic. The dialog and interaction between the characters was witty and entertaining. We came to know and love them through the good times and the bad. His prose was excellent. Despite an ending to The Sword of Truth--the biggest cop out in literary history--which I personally believe to be incredibly lazy and insulting to his fans, it was one of the better series of epic fantasy that I’ve ever read.
Goodkind number two reared his ugly head here and there throughout The Sword of Truth, most notably in Soul of the Fire, Pillars of Creation, and Naked Empire, but he didn’t really come onto the scene until The Law of Nines, a supposed sequel to The Sword of Truth, which read like bad fan fiction. The style of writing between The Sword of Truth and The Law of Nines, and now The Omen Machine, is completely different. Gone is the perfect prose. Gone is the witty banter between characters. Gone is the depth to those characters and to the world they live in. The difference is something akin to the difference in quality between the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequels. They happen in the same universe, but the man that made the magic of the originals seems to be dead, replaced with a soulless, plaid-wearing monster intent on brutally raping all of my favorite childhood memories in the name of the almighty dollar. The Omen Machine was not written by the same man that wrote Wizard’s First Rule. The man that could write a book as powerful and beautiful as Faith of the Fallen did not write this book. I do not know what happened to the real Terry Goodkind, but this sure as hell is not his work.
Goodkind had his duds within The Sword of Truth. Despite the fact that I didn’t care for those books, they were still well written, well thought out, and bore powerful thematic messages. (sometimes a little too powerful, like the 700 page long rant that was Naked Empire) Even at his worst during The Sword of Truth, Terry Goodkind was better than he is in The Law of Nines and The Omen Machine. Don’t think I’m just saying what I’m saying because I didn’t like the story. I’m saying that this book reads like something written by a completely different author, one without the same imagination, depth, and skill of Terry Goodkind. Either that, or he's succumbed to the dreaded wasting illness known as selling out. Stephen King is the most notably afflicted carrier of this disease. This is an illness wherein an author realizes that people will buy his books regardless of what's in them so long as his name is on the cover, and stops putting any real effort into telling a good story.
Anyway, on with the review. Let me first begin by saying that many of Goodkind's previous books cost me a lot of sleep in high school and college because I just couldn't put them down. With The Omen Machine I had no trouble at all putting it down, even in mid-scene, and then had a great deal of trouble forcing myself to pick it back up again. Despite its ridiculously short length it took me over a week to read because I was just so disinterested and abhored by what I was reading.
The Omen Machine begins a single day after the end of The Sword of Truth with dignitaries from all across the Empire of D’Hara coming to pay their respects to the newly married Cara and Benjamin. Let me repeat that so you can truly understand exactly when and where this book nukes the fridge. The Omen Machine begins a SINGLE DAY after the end of The Sword of Truth.
A sick child delirious with fever speaks some disturbing words to Richard and his wife Kahlan, before running off. The boy’s mother blatantly shoehorns a reference to the book’s villain, the Hedgemaid, into the conversation with about as much subtlety as a meteor obliterating the Earth. A fortuneteller gives him another strange prediction on his way to the palace.
Uneasy about these two events Richard goes to confer with his grandfather Zedd and distant ancestor Nathan the prophet, as they are far more experienced in such matters than he. Nathan produces the Book of MacGuffin out of thin air, which has these same prophecies, word for word, in it.
Through far too many chapters of confused and extremely repetitive dialog, the characters decide to do exactly nothing about this obviously contrived plot device and go on about their day. Someone seems to be trying to watch Richard through mirrors. Zedd basically pulls that explanation right out of his ass, again with the subtlety of a semi slamming into a smart car, and seems as surprised to have found it there as we are. Yes Terry, I know that was a big plot point in your last book, but if it didn't work there, it sure as hell won't work here. Plus, you're breaking your own rules for how it works by using it here. Stop jingling keys in front of your readers, it's insulting!
People all over the city begin having visions of horrible things to come, and all of their predictions appear to be held within the Book of MacGuffin. The visiting dignitaries demand that Richard reveal the prophecies he has in his possession that they might know what to do about it. Let me remind you that this is a SINGLE DAY after The Sword of Truth and already these people are talking with almost religious fervor about reading prophecy as though it has been a lifelong obsession when yesterday they could not have cared a single bit less. This painfully contrived setiment toward prophecy that magically appeared in the space of a few hours within previously loyal people begins to cause unrest in the Empire.
Confusing events that really have nothing to do with anything ensue, and a machine is discovered by the power of contrived plot convenience that prints out the exact same omens that people all around the city are beginning to see visions of. And it is obvious that neither Goodkind nor his editor owns a dictionary, because he seems not to know what the word "omen" means. He only uses the word incorrectly about 7000 times during the course of the book. An even more painful bit of plot contrivance yeilds the book that deciphers what the machine is saying. I can only think of the homocidal computer H.A.L. from 2001 through most of Richard's interactions with the Machine. The idea of a self-aware machine in a FANTASY SETTING seeing the future is nothing short of uproariously laughable.
There’s a lot of trying to decipher things, and find the purpose of the machine. There’s a really pointless subplot about Kahlan having an infected scratch that is dwelt on far too much. Pages upon pages of regurgitated garbage about prophecy, subplots about seers and dissidents, and an overly pointless subplot about rearranging the libraries that reeks of padding for a book that can’t be more than 70,000 words even with said padding. The people become more ignorant and belligerent about prophecy by the page until the Hedgemaid uses her magic to give Kahlan a sudden case of Damsel in Distress Syndrome. What’s Damsel in Distress Syndrome, you ask? Why, that’s when a strong, capable, intelligent and resourceful female character that has previously shown herself more than able to fend for herself suddenly realizes she has a vagina, puts the back of her hand to her forehead and cries "woe is me, I'm nothing but a weak and helpless woman who can do nothing for myself! Oh cursed feminity, if not for these damn breasts getting in my way, I might be able to escape, but alas, they weigh me down as well as shackles!" Then she sits down, starts crying, and waits for the male lead to rescue her with the power of testosterone instead of getting herself out of the situation as she’s shown herself more than capable of doing. Richard rushes to rescue her and faces the Hedgemaid in her own lair in a final showdown that is as abrupt in arriving as it is in ending.
The good? There is nothing about this book that I would call good. It was bad from page one to the end. It was horribly written, boring, lacking anything resembling character, and it rambled all over the place to little point or purpose. Goodkind was obviously stretching to make a novel length story out of something that should have been nothing more than a short story at best. The worst thing is that he has already published eleven perfect examples of how much a better writer he is than this. Even the short story Debt of Bones featured in the Legends anthology was better concieved and written.
The bad? Where do I even begin? First of all, I think I’ll talk about the characters themselves. Richard, a very smart, cunning, and generally likable protagonist comes off as more of an angry douchebag that hates everyone in this book. There's not a single chapter where he's not thinking about how annoyed at one person or another he is because he can't bludgeon them around to his way of thinking. Kahlan has that sudden bout of Damsel in Distress Syndrome. Zedd, Nicci and Nathan, all old, wise, and usually ready with a plausible explanation seemed to have all become utter idiots, repeatedly asking why? What do you mean? What’s going on? Why is this happening? Where did my brain go? And other such things that they never asked before because they were always wise enough to know the answers, or at least where to start looking for them. This is a perfect example of classic role reversal. Previously we had Richard a naïve and inexperienced protagonist who was guided, taught and led by these three characters at different points of the series. This gave the author a perfect way to explain aspects of his world to us, the readers, without sounding like he's lecturing us. The need arises to explain things to the reader again in this book, but now Richard seems to just know everything because the plot says so, and these wise old teachers of his are the ones constantly asking questions to which they should already know the answers for our benefit.
Not just the characters, but the dialog and the general wording of the whole book reads like a very dumbed down version of Goodkind’s previous work. None of the witty banter seen in previous books can be found in this one. The characters all seem like two dimensional cardboard cutouts that only speak when the plot needs someone to ask why so Goodkind can pull an explanation out of his ass with no real explanation as to where it came from.
None of these characters are even a shadow of who they were. They’re all cold, emotionless drones dancing on the strings of the book’s plot rather than driving it like they used to. The Dignitaries, people who supported Richard in his war for freedom JUST YESTERDAY, begin to fall away because they seem to have suddenly remembered a lifelong obsession with prophecy that never mattered AT ALL to them until today. They all seem extraordinarily gullible, every one of them believing obvious lies about the man they trusted and practically worshiped for so long because some stranger happened to say so. The ease with which they are talked into rebellion is completely, mind-numbingly astounding. Some characters are introduced only for the shock value of their inevitable, brutal demises. An example would be that of a pregnant woman introduced two chapters before being ripped to shreds by wild dogs. Yes Terry, it's sad that a pregnant woman died so horribly, but we don't know this character so when she dies horribly, we don't care. The only character trait we're given is that she is pregnant. To REALLY shock us, she should have been a big player in the story up to that point, rather than a faceless piece of cannon fodder. Using her as such was in very poor taste.
The plot is rambling, boring, and nonsensical. Nothing in it happens for any visible reason except to move on to the next scene. This entire book is incredibly, blatantly, and painfully contrived. It’s extremely fake and feels very forced. Compare this to Goodkind's earlier, more character driven books and you will see why I’m making a point of this. Things in this book simply happen for no other reason than because the plot says so. As a result it’s boring, sterile, and highly predictable.
The book is packed full of false tension. False tension is where rather than actually building tension with events and the skillful manipulation of mood and tone, the author simply tells you that there’s tension, tries to fake you out, or withholds information that you can plainly see every character in the book is already aware of. It is not tense when everyone knows what's going on except the reader, who is, by the way, the ONLY ONE THAT COUNTS! Rather than asking what happens next, it leaves you impatient to just get on with things already. There was not a single moment in the entire book where I actually cared about the characters, or about what was happening, because there was no emotion. The only attachment comes from previous books and does not really carry over to this one. There was no tension at all because I didn't care what was happening or who it happened to.
The Ugly? Once again, I have to bring up Kahlan’s Damsel in Distress Syndrome. Kahlan has proven herself time and time again to be the absolute most capable character in this entire series. She has led troops to war. She has fought off pursuers single-handedly. She has personally led daring raids. She has found answers to questions that other, much wiser characters could not. She has battled wizards with her bare hands and WON. Even when she’d lost her memory and was a prisoner of the Sisters of the Dark she was ALWAYS looking for a way out, or to lessen the numbers of her captors. She is the perfect example of a strong female lead. She’s faced rape, brutal beatings, the horrors of war, survived an extermination attempt on her people, and was literally born and bred to lead nations. She proves that she can do everything a man can, and some things they can’t, and still retains her femininity. Despite some weaknesses that really only illustrate the fact that she’s only human, she is probably the strongest character in this series, hands down. To have her suddenly lose all of that, and become nothing more than a whimpering mockery of her former self that does nothing but cry about being rescued by her man is not only insulting, it’s unforgivable. Capable women do not suddenly look down, realize they have breasts, and turn into cowering weaklings. It’s actually, physically painful to see such a strong woman brought so low only to give the male lead of the story something to do at the end. She doesn’t even TRY to think of a way out herself. This is a woman that walked willingly into the freaking UNDERWORLD to save her people in the first book, and she only got stronger from there! The Kahlan I know would have been fighting every step of the way with her mind racing on what she could do to escape or to help anyone that came to rescue her.
The writing is just plain bad and repetitive. The same thing will be repeated ten times in a single conversation if you’re lucky, most times more. The same thing will be repeated ten times in a single conversation if you’re lucky, most times more. This, again, reeks of padding. Characters that once had life and depth are cardboard cutouts, seemingly following the scripts of whatever stereotypes Goodkind has suddenly decided that they are. It really reads like a fanfic written by a fourteen-year-old with no real understanding of the characters he's writing about. None of the characters got character descriptions, as if Goodkind thought that it wasn’t necessary because you could remember it from the previous books. The attention to detail was highly lacking. There was no tension at all except the false tension, and the plot didn’t feel as though there was anything driving it. Things simply happened for no real reason, and people did things that were highly out of character for them because the plot said so.
Goodkind has always been a firm believer in deus ex machina solutions in his books. That is where a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. The whole point of a story is for the characters to learn and grow to the point that they are able to overcome the antagonist on their own merits. And in Goodkind’s books, they rarely do, often finding some new magic, or some artifact, or some sort of book with all the answers to their problems in it. The biggest example was the series finale to The Sword of Truth, or the end of Naked Empire. I can forgive a few uses of deus ex machina here and there, so long as the characters have learnt, grown, and struggled to find their answers. But when the main character literally pulls the solution to the problem out of his ass at the end without a single word or thought on the matter, things are going just a little too far. Richard seems to have been endowed with the power of deus ex machina, and has no need to suffer through trials to be able to save the day at the end of the story. He simply appears and defeats the undefeatable with no real explanation of how he came to his conclusion of how to do so.
In conclusion, don’t read this book. Save your money for a GOOD book, like The Way of Kings, or A Dance with Dragons. Go read Wizard’s First Rule, Stone of Tears or Faith of the Fallen again, and remember the good times you had with Terry Goodkind, rather than seeing for yourself the lazy sell out that he’s become today. Every single word of this book was horribly and painfully contrived. It feels so fake and forced, with all of the color and emotion leeched out of the world, and no real tension making you want to continue. It’s boring and nonsensical, and it turns all of your favorite characters into blithering idiots that couldn’t tie their own shoes. There really are no words for how truly awful this book is. I see other reviewers that can’t give it enough praise and I wonder if they actually read the thing before posting. Whatever book they read, it sure as hell wasn’t this one. If you absolutely HAVE to read this book either for completion’s sake, or just to see the train wreck for yourself in morbid curiosity, check it out of the library and read it first before spending money on it.
I give The Omen Machine 1 star because the rating doesn't show up with 0. From a writer of Terry Goodkind’s caliber, this book is unforgivable. The absolute worst part of it all is that I KNOW he’s capable of so much better than this. What happened to you Terry? You used to have passion, now you’re just turning in crap for a paycheck. After The Law of Nines and now The Omen Machine I doubt I will ever buy another Terry Goodkind book without reading it first.
Check out my other reviews.
By Terry Goodkind? Maybe? Are we sure about this? REALLY? Did Terry Goodkind REALLY write this crap?
A review by Eric Allen
Before I get started I’d like to make a point. I’ll do this by telling you a story; it’s called A Tale of Two Goodkinds. It was the best of times. It was the blurst of times, and if you don’t get the reference, it’s your loss. Once upon a time there was an author named Terry Goodkind with a retelling of Arthurian legend he called The Sword of Truth book 1: Wizard’s First Rule. It was imaginative, but a little cliché, and full of things that we, his fans, would come to know as his vices. These things include his overuse of deus ex machina rather than letting characters think their way out of tight spots on their own cunning and abilities, and his need to preach to us for page after page (see the entire novel of Naked Empire). Despite these things, it was extraordinarily well written, especially considering his claims that it was his first attempt at writing a novel. The characters were solid, three dimensional, and had very different personalities, strengths and weaknesses. The world was vivid and realistic. The dialog and interaction between the characters was witty and entertaining. We came to know and love them through the good times and the bad. His prose was excellent. Despite an ending to The Sword of Truth--the biggest cop out in literary history--which I personally believe to be incredibly lazy and insulting to his fans, it was one of the better series of epic fantasy that I’ve ever read.
Goodkind number two reared his ugly head here and there throughout The Sword of Truth, most notably in Soul of the Fire, Pillars of Creation, and Naked Empire, but he didn’t really come onto the scene until The Law of Nines, a supposed sequel to The Sword of Truth, which read like bad fan fiction. The style of writing between The Sword of Truth and The Law of Nines, and now The Omen Machine, is completely different. Gone is the perfect prose. Gone is the witty banter between characters. Gone is the depth to those characters and to the world they live in. The difference is something akin to the difference in quality between the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequels. They happen in the same universe, but the man that made the magic of the originals seems to be dead, replaced with a soulless, plaid-wearing monster intent on brutally raping all of my favorite childhood memories in the name of the almighty dollar. The Omen Machine was not written by the same man that wrote Wizard’s First Rule. The man that could write a book as powerful and beautiful as Faith of the Fallen did not write this book. I do not know what happened to the real Terry Goodkind, but this sure as hell is not his work.
Goodkind had his duds within The Sword of Truth. Despite the fact that I didn’t care for those books, they were still well written, well thought out, and bore powerful thematic messages. (sometimes a little too powerful, like the 700 page long rant that was Naked Empire) Even at his worst during The Sword of Truth, Terry Goodkind was better than he is in The Law of Nines and The Omen Machine. Don’t think I’m just saying what I’m saying because I didn’t like the story. I’m saying that this book reads like something written by a completely different author, one without the same imagination, depth, and skill of Terry Goodkind. Either that, or he's succumbed to the dreaded wasting illness known as selling out. Stephen King is the most notably afflicted carrier of this disease. This is an illness wherein an author realizes that people will buy his books regardless of what's in them so long as his name is on the cover, and stops putting any real effort into telling a good story.
Anyway, on with the review. Let me first begin by saying that many of Goodkind's previous books cost me a lot of sleep in high school and college because I just couldn't put them down. With The Omen Machine I had no trouble at all putting it down, even in mid-scene, and then had a great deal of trouble forcing myself to pick it back up again. Despite its ridiculously short length it took me over a week to read because I was just so disinterested and abhored by what I was reading.
The Omen Machine begins a single day after the end of The Sword of Truth with dignitaries from all across the Empire of D’Hara coming to pay their respects to the newly married Cara and Benjamin. Let me repeat that so you can truly understand exactly when and where this book nukes the fridge. The Omen Machine begins a SINGLE DAY after the end of The Sword of Truth.
A sick child delirious with fever speaks some disturbing words to Richard and his wife Kahlan, before running off. The boy’s mother blatantly shoehorns a reference to the book’s villain, the Hedgemaid, into the conversation with about as much subtlety as a meteor obliterating the Earth. A fortuneteller gives him another strange prediction on his way to the palace.
Uneasy about these two events Richard goes to confer with his grandfather Zedd and distant ancestor Nathan the prophet, as they are far more experienced in such matters than he. Nathan produces the Book of MacGuffin out of thin air, which has these same prophecies, word for word, in it.
Through far too many chapters of confused and extremely repetitive dialog, the characters decide to do exactly nothing about this obviously contrived plot device and go on about their day. Someone seems to be trying to watch Richard through mirrors. Zedd basically pulls that explanation right out of his ass, again with the subtlety of a semi slamming into a smart car, and seems as surprised to have found it there as we are. Yes Terry, I know that was a big plot point in your last book, but if it didn't work there, it sure as hell won't work here. Plus, you're breaking your own rules for how it works by using it here. Stop jingling keys in front of your readers, it's insulting!
People all over the city begin having visions of horrible things to come, and all of their predictions appear to be held within the Book of MacGuffin. The visiting dignitaries demand that Richard reveal the prophecies he has in his possession that they might know what to do about it. Let me remind you that this is a SINGLE DAY after The Sword of Truth and already these people are talking with almost religious fervor about reading prophecy as though it has been a lifelong obsession when yesterday they could not have cared a single bit less. This painfully contrived setiment toward prophecy that magically appeared in the space of a few hours within previously loyal people begins to cause unrest in the Empire.
Confusing events that really have nothing to do with anything ensue, and a machine is discovered by the power of contrived plot convenience that prints out the exact same omens that people all around the city are beginning to see visions of. And it is obvious that neither Goodkind nor his editor owns a dictionary, because he seems not to know what the word "omen" means. He only uses the word incorrectly about 7000 times during the course of the book. An even more painful bit of plot contrivance yeilds the book that deciphers what the machine is saying. I can only think of the homocidal computer H.A.L. from 2001 through most of Richard's interactions with the Machine. The idea of a self-aware machine in a FANTASY SETTING seeing the future is nothing short of uproariously laughable.
There’s a lot of trying to decipher things, and find the purpose of the machine. There’s a really pointless subplot about Kahlan having an infected scratch that is dwelt on far too much. Pages upon pages of regurgitated garbage about prophecy, subplots about seers and dissidents, and an overly pointless subplot about rearranging the libraries that reeks of padding for a book that can’t be more than 70,000 words even with said padding. The people become more ignorant and belligerent about prophecy by the page until the Hedgemaid uses her magic to give Kahlan a sudden case of Damsel in Distress Syndrome. What’s Damsel in Distress Syndrome, you ask? Why, that’s when a strong, capable, intelligent and resourceful female character that has previously shown herself more than able to fend for herself suddenly realizes she has a vagina, puts the back of her hand to her forehead and cries "woe is me, I'm nothing but a weak and helpless woman who can do nothing for myself! Oh cursed feminity, if not for these damn breasts getting in my way, I might be able to escape, but alas, they weigh me down as well as shackles!" Then she sits down, starts crying, and waits for the male lead to rescue her with the power of testosterone instead of getting herself out of the situation as she’s shown herself more than capable of doing. Richard rushes to rescue her and faces the Hedgemaid in her own lair in a final showdown that is as abrupt in arriving as it is in ending.
The good? There is nothing about this book that I would call good. It was bad from page one to the end. It was horribly written, boring, lacking anything resembling character, and it rambled all over the place to little point or purpose. Goodkind was obviously stretching to make a novel length story out of something that should have been nothing more than a short story at best. The worst thing is that he has already published eleven perfect examples of how much a better writer he is than this. Even the short story Debt of Bones featured in the Legends anthology was better concieved and written.
The bad? Where do I even begin? First of all, I think I’ll talk about the characters themselves. Richard, a very smart, cunning, and generally likable protagonist comes off as more of an angry douchebag that hates everyone in this book. There's not a single chapter where he's not thinking about how annoyed at one person or another he is because he can't bludgeon them around to his way of thinking. Kahlan has that sudden bout of Damsel in Distress Syndrome. Zedd, Nicci and Nathan, all old, wise, and usually ready with a plausible explanation seemed to have all become utter idiots, repeatedly asking why? What do you mean? What’s going on? Why is this happening? Where did my brain go? And other such things that they never asked before because they were always wise enough to know the answers, or at least where to start looking for them. This is a perfect example of classic role reversal. Previously we had Richard a naïve and inexperienced protagonist who was guided, taught and led by these three characters at different points of the series. This gave the author a perfect way to explain aspects of his world to us, the readers, without sounding like he's lecturing us. The need arises to explain things to the reader again in this book, but now Richard seems to just know everything because the plot says so, and these wise old teachers of his are the ones constantly asking questions to which they should already know the answers for our benefit.
Not just the characters, but the dialog and the general wording of the whole book reads like a very dumbed down version of Goodkind’s previous work. None of the witty banter seen in previous books can be found in this one. The characters all seem like two dimensional cardboard cutouts that only speak when the plot needs someone to ask why so Goodkind can pull an explanation out of his ass with no real explanation as to where it came from.
None of these characters are even a shadow of who they were. They’re all cold, emotionless drones dancing on the strings of the book’s plot rather than driving it like they used to. The Dignitaries, people who supported Richard in his war for freedom JUST YESTERDAY, begin to fall away because they seem to have suddenly remembered a lifelong obsession with prophecy that never mattered AT ALL to them until today. They all seem extraordinarily gullible, every one of them believing obvious lies about the man they trusted and practically worshiped for so long because some stranger happened to say so. The ease with which they are talked into rebellion is completely, mind-numbingly astounding. Some characters are introduced only for the shock value of their inevitable, brutal demises. An example would be that of a pregnant woman introduced two chapters before being ripped to shreds by wild dogs. Yes Terry, it's sad that a pregnant woman died so horribly, but we don't know this character so when she dies horribly, we don't care. The only character trait we're given is that she is pregnant. To REALLY shock us, she should have been a big player in the story up to that point, rather than a faceless piece of cannon fodder. Using her as such was in very poor taste.
The plot is rambling, boring, and nonsensical. Nothing in it happens for any visible reason except to move on to the next scene. This entire book is incredibly, blatantly, and painfully contrived. It’s extremely fake and feels very forced. Compare this to Goodkind's earlier, more character driven books and you will see why I’m making a point of this. Things in this book simply happen for no other reason than because the plot says so. As a result it’s boring, sterile, and highly predictable.
The book is packed full of false tension. False tension is where rather than actually building tension with events and the skillful manipulation of mood and tone, the author simply tells you that there’s tension, tries to fake you out, or withholds information that you can plainly see every character in the book is already aware of. It is not tense when everyone knows what's going on except the reader, who is, by the way, the ONLY ONE THAT COUNTS! Rather than asking what happens next, it leaves you impatient to just get on with things already. There was not a single moment in the entire book where I actually cared about the characters, or about what was happening, because there was no emotion. The only attachment comes from previous books and does not really carry over to this one. There was no tension at all because I didn't care what was happening or who it happened to.
The Ugly? Once again, I have to bring up Kahlan’s Damsel in Distress Syndrome. Kahlan has proven herself time and time again to be the absolute most capable character in this entire series. She has led troops to war. She has fought off pursuers single-handedly. She has personally led daring raids. She has found answers to questions that other, much wiser characters could not. She has battled wizards with her bare hands and WON. Even when she’d lost her memory and was a prisoner of the Sisters of the Dark she was ALWAYS looking for a way out, or to lessen the numbers of her captors. She is the perfect example of a strong female lead. She’s faced rape, brutal beatings, the horrors of war, survived an extermination attempt on her people, and was literally born and bred to lead nations. She proves that she can do everything a man can, and some things they can’t, and still retains her femininity. Despite some weaknesses that really only illustrate the fact that she’s only human, she is probably the strongest character in this series, hands down. To have her suddenly lose all of that, and become nothing more than a whimpering mockery of her former self that does nothing but cry about being rescued by her man is not only insulting, it’s unforgivable. Capable women do not suddenly look down, realize they have breasts, and turn into cowering weaklings. It’s actually, physically painful to see such a strong woman brought so low only to give the male lead of the story something to do at the end. She doesn’t even TRY to think of a way out herself. This is a woman that walked willingly into the freaking UNDERWORLD to save her people in the first book, and she only got stronger from there! The Kahlan I know would have been fighting every step of the way with her mind racing on what she could do to escape or to help anyone that came to rescue her.
The writing is just plain bad and repetitive. The same thing will be repeated ten times in a single conversation if you’re lucky, most times more. The same thing will be repeated ten times in a single conversation if you’re lucky, most times more. This, again, reeks of padding. Characters that once had life and depth are cardboard cutouts, seemingly following the scripts of whatever stereotypes Goodkind has suddenly decided that they are. It really reads like a fanfic written by a fourteen-year-old with no real understanding of the characters he's writing about. None of the characters got character descriptions, as if Goodkind thought that it wasn’t necessary because you could remember it from the previous books. The attention to detail was highly lacking. There was no tension at all except the false tension, and the plot didn’t feel as though there was anything driving it. Things simply happened for no real reason, and people did things that were highly out of character for them because the plot said so.
Goodkind has always been a firm believer in deus ex machina solutions in his books. That is where a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. The whole point of a story is for the characters to learn and grow to the point that they are able to overcome the antagonist on their own merits. And in Goodkind’s books, they rarely do, often finding some new magic, or some artifact, or some sort of book with all the answers to their problems in it. The biggest example was the series finale to The Sword of Truth, or the end of Naked Empire. I can forgive a few uses of deus ex machina here and there, so long as the characters have learnt, grown, and struggled to find their answers. But when the main character literally pulls the solution to the problem out of his ass at the end without a single word or thought on the matter, things are going just a little too far. Richard seems to have been endowed with the power of deus ex machina, and has no need to suffer through trials to be able to save the day at the end of the story. He simply appears and defeats the undefeatable with no real explanation of how he came to his conclusion of how to do so.
In conclusion, don’t read this book. Save your money for a GOOD book, like The Way of Kings, or A Dance with Dragons. Go read Wizard’s First Rule, Stone of Tears or Faith of the Fallen again, and remember the good times you had with Terry Goodkind, rather than seeing for yourself the lazy sell out that he’s become today. Every single word of this book was horribly and painfully contrived. It feels so fake and forced, with all of the color and emotion leeched out of the world, and no real tension making you want to continue. It’s boring and nonsensical, and it turns all of your favorite characters into blithering idiots that couldn’t tie their own shoes. There really are no words for how truly awful this book is. I see other reviewers that can’t give it enough praise and I wonder if they actually read the thing before posting. Whatever book they read, it sure as hell wasn’t this one. If you absolutely HAVE to read this book either for completion’s sake, or just to see the train wreck for yourself in morbid curiosity, check it out of the library and read it first before spending money on it.
I give The Omen Machine 1 star because the rating doesn't show up with 0. From a writer of Terry Goodkind’s caliber, this book is unforgivable. The absolute worst part of it all is that I KNOW he’s capable of so much better than this. What happened to you Terry? You used to have passion, now you’re just turning in crap for a paycheck. After The Law of Nines and now The Omen Machine I doubt I will ever buy another Terry Goodkind book without reading it first.
Check out my other reviews.
September 21, 2011
Being a big fan of this series I'm sorry to say this book was a huge disappointment. It seems that all of the characters who were very intelligent and insightful have become idiots who need to be explained every detail over and over. Zed in particular didn't seem to have a clue most of the time until it was all laid out for him. Not what you would expect from Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander wizard of the First Order. It was like I was reading a fantasy for dummies book. At this point in the series characters should have a better understanding of prophecy and magic and to be able to think a little more out side of the box instead of running around clueless.
July 11, 2013
Dafuq?
This book earns a star solely because Goodkind mostly resisted his natural urges to retell every goddam story he's ever written before, which must have been hard for him. So hard that the story suffered horribly.
Now, The SOT novels were my first real venture into fantasy written for adults. I was 13 and fell in love with WFR. I think I've attached a lot of sentimentality to the series because of this. It is, undoubtedly, my favorite genre to read, and I'm grateful to these books for the introduction.
I loved every single book in the series, even the ill-received Pillars of Creation. Yeah, even Naked Empire. I defended them. The story couldn't always be as good as WFR. There had to be some downtime, no? All action and magic and discovery just isn't practical. I'm not going to go on to review the books now, and I likely won't any time soon. Suffice it to say, I was blinded by the world, the potential of it all, and the memory of what was. Not that I don't still hold a soft spot in my mind for them (I think I rated most 4/5?), but I know they wouldn't all hold up to another reading. Most would likely earn 2 or 3 of 5 stars.
So, I read Law of Nines. And it was TURRIBLE. Not just terrible. Only my love for the characters and their world kept me going.
Then came news of a new Richard and Kahlan novel. YES! I was so excited. The excitement was tempered by having discovered newer, better authors, but still! Excited! But then Goodkind kinda started being a serious dick on his Facebook fan page. He outed someone for pirating his book and encouraged retribution. I'm not advocating that, but dude, get you fucking shit together. Not cool. Use legal means, but don't release a guy's information to your rabid fans. Actually, thinking of that makes me a bit mad I read this book, but not entirely, because I have it on loan from the library, and I will NOT be buying a copy, so I'm not actually supporting him, but still. Anyhow... So, I stopped following anything he said, and basically didn't give any thought to the new novel until I was at the library, scanning the shelves, and noticed The Omen Machine sitting pretty right there in front of my face. I figured, hey, they had lost the next Dresden Files book I was there to check out originally (I'll be buying those as soon as I can), so why not?
If you're scanning this review looking for the ACTUAL review, here it is:
It's been said, but I'll say it again. The font size was irritating. You think you're getting a decent sized story (525 pages), but really it reads nothing like that many pages. More like under 300. If that.
The story. Yeah, it's a tiny bit intriguing, but not at all suspenseful. Thankfully we don't hear too much about how Richard was a simple guide back in the day, and Kahlan was utterly unloved and secluded because of her Confessor ability, so that was nice. But lacking all the repetitive backstory that every.single.goddam.book before utilized, the story was short. It wasn't developed. It was like a bad fanfiction, I'd imagine. Someone thought they knew the characters and could flesh them out, but they couldn't. It was predictable. HA! And I swear, if I read the word "omen" one more time, I was going to scream. It was as bad as "phantom" in the final trilogy before this.
More on the characters. They were shells. Just, empty shells. The cunning, bravery, intelligence, wit, sarcasm, just... every goddamn thing you might expect from these once wonderfully fleshed out characters was gone. GONE. Don't bother trying to find it because it's nowhere to be found. That was possibly the most disappointing aspect of this book. Richard, Kahlan, Zedd, Cara, even freaking Nathan - they all fell so flat that it's an insult to flatness to call them flat. I don't even know what I mean by that.
The grammar was atrocious. The most glaring example was when Goodkind was telling us (and he did nothing but tell) about a feast Kahlan got together to entertain the guests at the palace. There was a particular sentence about Kahlan eating herself. I couldn't get past it, and 300+ pages later, I'm still like, what the fuck? He meant that she, herself, did not eat. But he wrote that she didn't eat herself. There were so many times I was like, really? Really, Goodkind, you creepy motherfucker? THOSE are the words you chose to use when you have the whole fucking English language at your disposal? So irritating and so many passages would have benefited from fewer words (I'm one to talk, right?) and a lot more clarity.
BUT! The ABSOLUTE most irritating thing of all is that this book is quite obviously not the end. He's writing more. Not just the First Confessor novel, but MORE. With this story arc. Which means eventually, I will likely be reading more of this because I really cannot help it. It's like how I got back together with my first boyfriend a few times, despite being utterly repulsed, because he was something special at one time. Shit. I'm an awful human being.
Goodkind, get your shit together. Write novels like WFR, knock it off with the repetitive junk, keep the deus ex machina shit FAR away because that isn't going to fly.
I was once completely enraptured with the SOT world, and I could be again. He seems to have laid off the Rand, which was a pretty big irritant with some of the later SOT novels. But his writing needs to get back to what it was. I'm not asking for another WFR or FotF, but dude is CLEARLY writing for the money he's getting because suckers like me are all sentimental about what the series used to be.
This book earns a star solely because Goodkind mostly resisted his natural urges to retell every goddam story he's ever written before, which must have been hard for him. So hard that the story suffered horribly.
Now, The SOT novels were my first real venture into fantasy written for adults. I was 13 and fell in love with WFR. I think I've attached a lot of sentimentality to the series because of this. It is, undoubtedly, my favorite genre to read, and I'm grateful to these books for the introduction.
I loved every single book in the series, even the ill-received Pillars of Creation. Yeah, even Naked Empire. I defended them. The story couldn't always be as good as WFR. There had to be some downtime, no? All action and magic and discovery just isn't practical. I'm not going to go on to review the books now, and I likely won't any time soon. Suffice it to say, I was blinded by the world, the potential of it all, and the memory of what was. Not that I don't still hold a soft spot in my mind for them (I think I rated most 4/5?), but I know they wouldn't all hold up to another reading. Most would likely earn 2 or 3 of 5 stars.
So, I read Law of Nines. And it was TURRIBLE. Not just terrible. Only my love for the characters and their world kept me going.
Then came news of a new Richard and Kahlan novel. YES! I was so excited. The excitement was tempered by having discovered newer, better authors, but still! Excited! But then Goodkind kinda started being a serious dick on his Facebook fan page. He outed someone for pirating his book and encouraged retribution. I'm not advocating that, but dude, get you fucking shit together. Not cool. Use legal means, but don't release a guy's information to your rabid fans. Actually, thinking of that makes me a bit mad I read this book, but not entirely, because I have it on loan from the library, and I will NOT be buying a copy, so I'm not actually supporting him, but still. Anyhow... So, I stopped following anything he said, and basically didn't give any thought to the new novel until I was at the library, scanning the shelves, and noticed The Omen Machine sitting pretty right there in front of my face. I figured, hey, they had lost the next Dresden Files book I was there to check out originally (I'll be buying those as soon as I can), so why not?
If you're scanning this review looking for the ACTUAL review, here it is:
It's been said, but I'll say it again. The font size was irritating. You think you're getting a decent sized story (525 pages), but really it reads nothing like that many pages. More like under 300. If that.
The story. Yeah, it's a tiny bit intriguing, but not at all suspenseful. Thankfully we don't hear too much about how Richard was a simple guide back in the day, and Kahlan was utterly unloved and secluded because of her Confessor ability, so that was nice. But lacking all the repetitive backstory that every.single.goddam.book before utilized, the story was short. It wasn't developed. It was like a bad fanfiction, I'd imagine. Someone thought they knew the characters and could flesh them out, but they couldn't. It was predictable. HA! And I swear, if I read the word "omen" one more time, I was going to scream. It was as bad as "phantom" in the final trilogy before this.
More on the characters. They were shells. Just, empty shells. The cunning, bravery, intelligence, wit, sarcasm, just... every goddamn thing you might expect from these once wonderfully fleshed out characters was gone. GONE. Don't bother trying to find it because it's nowhere to be found. That was possibly the most disappointing aspect of this book. Richard, Kahlan, Zedd, Cara, even freaking Nathan - they all fell so flat that it's an insult to flatness to call them flat. I don't even know what I mean by that.
The grammar was atrocious. The most glaring example was when Goodkind was telling us (and he did nothing but tell) about a feast Kahlan got together to entertain the guests at the palace. There was a particular sentence about Kahlan eating herself. I couldn't get past it, and 300+ pages later, I'm still like, what the fuck? He meant that she, herself, did not eat. But he wrote that she didn't eat herself. There were so many times I was like, really? Really, Goodkind, you creepy motherfucker? THOSE are the words you chose to use when you have the whole fucking English language at your disposal? So irritating and so many passages would have benefited from fewer words (I'm one to talk, right?) and a lot more clarity.
BUT! The ABSOLUTE most irritating thing of all is that this book is quite obviously not the end. He's writing more. Not just the First Confessor novel, but MORE. With this story arc. Which means eventually, I will likely be reading more of this because I really cannot help it. It's like how I got back together with my first boyfriend a few times, despite being utterly repulsed, because he was something special at one time. Shit. I'm an awful human being.
Goodkind, get your shit together. Write novels like WFR, knock it off with the repetitive junk, keep the deus ex machina shit FAR away because that isn't going to fly.
I was once completely enraptured with the SOT world, and I could be again. He seems to have laid off the Rand, which was a pretty big irritant with some of the later SOT novels. But his writing needs to get back to what it was. I'm not asking for another WFR or FotF, but dude is CLEARLY writing for the money he's getting because suckers like me are all sentimental about what the series used to be.
November 26, 2011
http://www.rantingdragon.com/the-omen...
Note: while Goodreads only supports full stars, one star is indeed too much for this book. If you go to our site via the link above, you will see that we gave this book a half star.
The Omen Machine is the thirteenth installment in Terry Goodkind’s persistently popular Sword of Truth series and marks the author’s return to the fantasy genre after a short-lived stint with contemporary fiction. While no doubt many fans have been eagerly anticipating the continued adventures of Goodkind’s signature characters, Richard and Kahlan, the reality is far from ideal. Unfortunately, the novel reads like rather rushed and repetitive amateur fantasy at the best of times and one cannot help being left with a niggling suspicion that Goodkind merely wrote this book to fulfill a contract, investing only minimal effort in the endeavor.
The Omen Machine picks up almost immediately from where the previous book, Confessor, left off. The war is finally over and Richard and Kahlan now rule over D’Hara from the People’s palace. The city is full of well-wishers who have come to celebrate the nuptials of Mord-Sith Cara and General Benjamin. However, what should be a time of celebration takes a horrifying turn for the worse due to a series of strange and disturbingly accurate prophecies and the discovery of the ancient machine that seemingly gives rise to them. While Richard and his confidants attempt to discover the mechanism and purpose of the machine, civil unrest brews as the people of D’Hara demand answers that their rulers cannot provide. Yet our protagonists’ troubles don’t end there; eventually the Omen Machine issues another omen, which, if fulfilled, may see Richard and Kahlan torn apart forever.
Repetitive and condescending
Despite weighing in at over 500 pages, the plot of the novel is rather simple; some might say overly simple. While a straightforward plot is not necessarily a bad thing, The Omen Machine contains a phenomenal amount of seemingly unnecessary padding that does nothing to contribute to the story. Relatively basic descriptions of people or places are often drawn out into multiple sentences, each containing slightly reworded variants on the same concept. This repetition becomes even more noticeable when the same key phrases constantly reappear throughout the novel, sometimes to the point of appearing at least once on almost every page. At one stage, I was almost convinced that the entire book was an ill-conceived personal joke or a badly disguised experiment by Goodkind to determine how many times he could work the words ‘red leather’ into each chapter. Personally, I found the constant repetition very wearing and consider it one of the main factors that contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the novel.
Stilted dialogue and profoundly unintelligent characters
The dialogue is just as repetitive as the description and frequently feels unbelievable and forced. The characters reiterate the same points over and over in a single conversation just in case the reader missed something that might be important later. For instance, we are treated to a chapter-long discussion on how to order the books in one of the castle’s libraries, which culminates in the characters deciding to leave each book exactly where they found it. Later in the novel, lo and behold, the position of one particular book turns out to be relevant to the story.
This, along with some rather nonsensical actions, contributes to Goodkind’s characters coming across as almost inconceivably unintelligent. Some of the most obvious examples of this stupidity include an instance where the Omen Machine issues forth a prophecy regarding Kahlan which Richard finds extremely personally upsetting. Instead of acting to prevent the prophecy’s fulfillment, Richard gets angry and attempts to cleave the machine in two with his sword; as we all know, violence is the answer to every problem. Yet this doesn’t work, so he recruits various other accomplices to come and try their hand at destroying the machine. Eventually, some time later, they realize that this course of action is not achieving anything and Richard finally goes to check on Kahlan, who has been left alone sleeping this whole time. Imagine his surprise to find that the prophecy has been fulfilled and that she is nowhere to be found!
Another memorable example occurs early in the book when Cara and Benjamin admit that they had a strange feeling they were being watched by some malevolent disembodied presence on their wedding night. Their excuse for their inaction was that they were ‘otherwise occupied’. Forgive me if I’m being a prude, but is that not even more reason to investigate? Or are we supposed to believe that spectral voyeurs are an accepted aspect of D’Haran life?
Just in case you missed the point
Goodkind has never been accused of being too subtle in conveying his point and the way he does so throughout this novel may seem a little overdone and somewhat condescending. For instance, we learn that prophecy is bad and that such knowledge is disastrous in the hands of the masses, as they lack the intelligence to view it objectively. Instead, it must be left to the select few who supposedly know how to deal with it—in this case, Richard and Kahlan. He proceeds to hammer this point home by depicting those who oppose this view as ridiculously irresponsible and having them die rather horrible deaths. In case this still wasn’t enough to convince us, we are provided with various instances in which loving parents proceed to gruesomely murder their own children after receiving prophetic visions of their deaths. Apparently, this is their way of acting to prevent the prophecies from being fulfilled.
Some small comforts
On a more positive note, one of the antagonists, a ‘Hedge Maid’ called Jit, is actually quite creepy and disturbing. This is possibly due to the fact that we do not really see much of her until the very end of the book so there is not as much time for the horror to be dispelled by repetitive description.
Readers may also be pleased, or disappointed, to hear that The Omen Machine contains none of the sadomasochistic sex that featured in some of the previous novels, and that there is a less dominant focus on the Objectivist values that permeate Goodkind’s other works.
Why should you read this book?
I believe that every book has something to offer its reader, even if it is just to help us determine what we do or don’t enjoy or agree with, and as a result I would never flat out tell someone not to read a particular book. However, there are countless other novels I would suggest over this one. Personally, I probably wouldn’t have finished the novel had I not promised to review it, and I found it such a tedious read that it took me well over a month to finish. In good faith I could only recommend The Omen Machine to the most dedicated Goodkind completionists, fans of Robert Newcombe, or those who genuinely enjoy being force-fed conservative values. The unresolved ending would seem to to indicate that the series will continue, so we can only hope that the following installments show a vast improvement on this one.
Note: while Goodreads only supports full stars, one star is indeed too much for this book. If you go to our site via the link above, you will see that we gave this book a half star.
The Omen Machine is the thirteenth installment in Terry Goodkind’s persistently popular Sword of Truth series and marks the author’s return to the fantasy genre after a short-lived stint with contemporary fiction. While no doubt many fans have been eagerly anticipating the continued adventures of Goodkind’s signature characters, Richard and Kahlan, the reality is far from ideal. Unfortunately, the novel reads like rather rushed and repetitive amateur fantasy at the best of times and one cannot help being left with a niggling suspicion that Goodkind merely wrote this book to fulfill a contract, investing only minimal effort in the endeavor.
The Omen Machine picks up almost immediately from where the previous book, Confessor, left off. The war is finally over and Richard and Kahlan now rule over D’Hara from the People’s palace. The city is full of well-wishers who have come to celebrate the nuptials of Mord-Sith Cara and General Benjamin. However, what should be a time of celebration takes a horrifying turn for the worse due to a series of strange and disturbingly accurate prophecies and the discovery of the ancient machine that seemingly gives rise to them. While Richard and his confidants attempt to discover the mechanism and purpose of the machine, civil unrest brews as the people of D’Hara demand answers that their rulers cannot provide. Yet our protagonists’ troubles don’t end there; eventually the Omen Machine issues another omen, which, if fulfilled, may see Richard and Kahlan torn apart forever.
Repetitive and condescending
Despite weighing in at over 500 pages, the plot of the novel is rather simple; some might say overly simple. While a straightforward plot is not necessarily a bad thing, The Omen Machine contains a phenomenal amount of seemingly unnecessary padding that does nothing to contribute to the story. Relatively basic descriptions of people or places are often drawn out into multiple sentences, each containing slightly reworded variants on the same concept. This repetition becomes even more noticeable when the same key phrases constantly reappear throughout the novel, sometimes to the point of appearing at least once on almost every page. At one stage, I was almost convinced that the entire book was an ill-conceived personal joke or a badly disguised experiment by Goodkind to determine how many times he could work the words ‘red leather’ into each chapter. Personally, I found the constant repetition very wearing and consider it one of the main factors that contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the novel.
Stilted dialogue and profoundly unintelligent characters
The dialogue is just as repetitive as the description and frequently feels unbelievable and forced. The characters reiterate the same points over and over in a single conversation just in case the reader missed something that might be important later. For instance, we are treated to a chapter-long discussion on how to order the books in one of the castle’s libraries, which culminates in the characters deciding to leave each book exactly where they found it. Later in the novel, lo and behold, the position of one particular book turns out to be relevant to the story.
This, along with some rather nonsensical actions, contributes to Goodkind’s characters coming across as almost inconceivably unintelligent. Some of the most obvious examples of this stupidity include an instance where the Omen Machine issues forth a prophecy regarding Kahlan which Richard finds extremely personally upsetting. Instead of acting to prevent the prophecy’s fulfillment, Richard gets angry and attempts to cleave the machine in two with his sword; as we all know, violence is the answer to every problem. Yet this doesn’t work, so he recruits various other accomplices to come and try their hand at destroying the machine. Eventually, some time later, they realize that this course of action is not achieving anything and Richard finally goes to check on Kahlan, who has been left alone sleeping this whole time. Imagine his surprise to find that the prophecy has been fulfilled and that she is nowhere to be found!
Another memorable example occurs early in the book when Cara and Benjamin admit that they had a strange feeling they were being watched by some malevolent disembodied presence on their wedding night. Their excuse for their inaction was that they were ‘otherwise occupied’. Forgive me if I’m being a prude, but is that not even more reason to investigate? Or are we supposed to believe that spectral voyeurs are an accepted aspect of D’Haran life?
Just in case you missed the point
Goodkind has never been accused of being too subtle in conveying his point and the way he does so throughout this novel may seem a little overdone and somewhat condescending. For instance, we learn that prophecy is bad and that such knowledge is disastrous in the hands of the masses, as they lack the intelligence to view it objectively. Instead, it must be left to the select few who supposedly know how to deal with it—in this case, Richard and Kahlan. He proceeds to hammer this point home by depicting those who oppose this view as ridiculously irresponsible and having them die rather horrible deaths. In case this still wasn’t enough to convince us, we are provided with various instances in which loving parents proceed to gruesomely murder their own children after receiving prophetic visions of their deaths. Apparently, this is their way of acting to prevent the prophecies from being fulfilled.
Some small comforts
On a more positive note, one of the antagonists, a ‘Hedge Maid’ called Jit, is actually quite creepy and disturbing. This is possibly due to the fact that we do not really see much of her until the very end of the book so there is not as much time for the horror to be dispelled by repetitive description.
Readers may also be pleased, or disappointed, to hear that The Omen Machine contains none of the sadomasochistic sex that featured in some of the previous novels, and that there is a less dominant focus on the Objectivist values that permeate Goodkind’s other works.
Why should you read this book?
I believe that every book has something to offer its reader, even if it is just to help us determine what we do or don’t enjoy or agree with, and as a result I would never flat out tell someone not to read a particular book. However, there are countless other novels I would suggest over this one. Personally, I probably wouldn’t have finished the novel had I not promised to review it, and I found it such a tedious read that it took me well over a month to finish. In good faith I could only recommend The Omen Machine to the most dedicated Goodkind completionists, fans of Robert Newcombe, or those who genuinely enjoy being force-fed conservative values. The unresolved ending would seem to to indicate that the series will continue, so we can only hope that the following installments show a vast improvement on this one.
February 11, 2024
Overwritten, overwrought, under-thought, and under-edited …
… and noticeably weaker than elder siblings in the long-running SWORD OF TRUTH series!
THE OMEN MACHINE opens improbably with a D’Haran populace suddenly and inexplicably angry and dissatisfied with the leadership of Richard and Kahlan, the day after a riotous and joyful celebration of their stunning defeat of the evil forces of Darkness and the ending of the story in CONFESSOR. The dialogue, the narrative descriptions of settings and the sketches of the dramatis personae, both good and evil, are strained and repetitive. The problems and their solutions appear as deus ex machina constructions as opposed to evolving naturally out of a well-crafted plot. The lead nasties, Hannis Arc and his “companions”, the Hedge Maids are cartoonish and too hastily created without any meaningful depth or motivation beyond an overwhelming, simple drive for power and the consuming need to kill their enemies. All of that, of course, would leave any reader of this review reasonably convinced that I would part with at most one or two stars for the novel … and, grudgingly, at that!
But to do that would also leave the impression that THE OMEN MACHINE was unenjoyable or without merits and that would, simply put, be wrong and unfair! While I acknowledge that the foundations for the plot were poorly laid and some plot resolutions came out of left field, it was actually pretty gripping stuff and I’ll readily admit that I read the novel quite quickly. My hope is that the nature, the history, the meaning and the motivation (given its obvious description as a sentient entity, albeit whirring metal cogs and gears) of the Omen Machine, Hannis Arc and the Hedge Maids will be more completely developed and meaningfully explored in the second installment of the new Richard and Kahlan trilogy, THE THIRD KINGDOM. I would also hope that patient readers and long-time fans can look forward to a face-off between the Mord-Sith who have sworn allegiance to Richard Rahl and those who have chosen to remain as “Sisters of the Dark”!
So … the solution? A three-star rating and a provisional recommendation contingent on reading THE THIRD KINGDOM.
Paul Weiss
… and noticeably weaker than elder siblings in the long-running SWORD OF TRUTH series!
THE OMEN MACHINE opens improbably with a D’Haran populace suddenly and inexplicably angry and dissatisfied with the leadership of Richard and Kahlan, the day after a riotous and joyful celebration of their stunning defeat of the evil forces of Darkness and the ending of the story in CONFESSOR. The dialogue, the narrative descriptions of settings and the sketches of the dramatis personae, both good and evil, are strained and repetitive. The problems and their solutions appear as deus ex machina constructions as opposed to evolving naturally out of a well-crafted plot. The lead nasties, Hannis Arc and his “companions”, the Hedge Maids are cartoonish and too hastily created without any meaningful depth or motivation beyond an overwhelming, simple drive for power and the consuming need to kill their enemies. All of that, of course, would leave any reader of this review reasonably convinced that I would part with at most one or two stars for the novel … and, grudgingly, at that!
But to do that would also leave the impression that THE OMEN MACHINE was unenjoyable or without merits and that would, simply put, be wrong and unfair! While I acknowledge that the foundations for the plot were poorly laid and some plot resolutions came out of left field, it was actually pretty gripping stuff and I’ll readily admit that I read the novel quite quickly. My hope is that the nature, the history, the meaning and the motivation (given its obvious description as a sentient entity, albeit whirring metal cogs and gears) of the Omen Machine, Hannis Arc and the Hedge Maids will be more completely developed and meaningfully explored in the second installment of the new Richard and Kahlan trilogy, THE THIRD KINGDOM. I would also hope that patient readers and long-time fans can look forward to a face-off between the Mord-Sith who have sworn allegiance to Richard Rahl and those who have chosen to remain as “Sisters of the Dark”!
So … the solution? A three-star rating and a provisional recommendation contingent on reading THE THIRD KINGDOM.
Paul Weiss
August 21, 2011
I wasn't optimistic about the idea of a continuation of the SOT series taking place after Confessor; Terry Goodkind did such a fantastic job of wrapping up all the loose ends in the eleventh book that I was afraid a twelfth installment would just be beating a dead horse. I'm afraid to report that my gut instinct was correct. Although I will admit that I sat down and read this book cover to cover in an afternoon (a compelling plot has never been a problem with the SOT series), I was thoroughly disappointed. Terry Goodkind's writing is entirely predictable (I honestly had all the major plot points figured out within 100 pages) and fraught with grammatical errors, which are sometimes serious enough to impede meaning. He relies heavily on stock characters and makes no effort to further develop his protagonists. Furthermore, although The Omen Machine was already less than half the length of most of the books in this series, he was in serious need of a harsh blue pencil; I spent most of the day feeling as though I was being talked in circles, hearing the same contrived conversations repeated over and over again.
If you (like myself) are one of the unfortunate people who simply must read this book solely on the grounds that is a continuation of our beloved Richard and Kahlan, I would advise you to lower your expectations. If you haven't been lured into this world yet, there are plenty of fantastic books out there; go read one of those. Or at least start at the beginning with Wizard's First Rule, that way you'll have a few thousand pages of enjoyment before you get to this disappointing finale.
If you (like myself) are one of the unfortunate people who simply must read this book solely on the grounds that is a continuation of our beloved Richard and Kahlan, I would advise you to lower your expectations. If you haven't been lured into this world yet, there are plenty of fantastic books out there; go read one of those. Or at least start at the beginning with Wizard's First Rule, that way you'll have a few thousand pages of enjoyment before you get to this disappointing finale.
June 13, 2023
Nowhere near as good as the original series.
January 4, 2013
Thank you for destroying a decent series with a hurried and poorly thought out conclusion. It is almost as if Goodkind had a gun pointed at his crotch and a knife poised above his right hand, with red hot pokers in front of his eyes... And then being told to type on an archaic typewriter. Quickly. Or Die! Left handed.
Thank you for destroying a decent series with a hurried and poorly thought out conclusion. It is almost as if Goodkind had a gun pointed at his crotch and a knife poised above his right hand, with red hot pokers in front of his eyes... And then being told to type on an archaic typewriter. Quickly. Or Die! Left handed.
Thank you for destroying a decent series with a hurried and poorly thought out conclusion. It is almost as if Goodkind had a gun pointed at his crotch and a knife poised above his right hand, with red hot pokers in front of his eyes... And then being told to type on an archaic typewriter. Quickly. Or Die! Left handed.
I repeated myself there. Did you get the similarity between the above and Goodkind's last SoT book?
Thank you for destroying a decent series with a hurried and poorly thought out conclusion. It is almost as if Goodkind had a gun pointed at his crotch and a knife poised above his right hand, with red hot pokers in front of his eyes... And then being told to type on an archaic typewriter. Quickly. Or Die! Left handed.
Thank you for destroying a decent series with a hurried and poorly thought out conclusion. It is almost as if Goodkind had a gun pointed at his crotch and a knife poised above his right hand, with red hot pokers in front of his eyes... And then being told to type on an archaic typewriter. Quickly. Or Die! Left handed.
I repeated myself there. Did you get the similarity between the above and Goodkind's last SoT book?
September 27, 2011
After reading "Chain Fire" I really didn't expect much. Somehow I was still massively disappointed. I'm sure that others have already said it better than I care to, but I wouldn't wipe my ass with these pages. It didn't have the voice or style of Terry Goodkind. it didn't really have voice or style at all. Maybe the "omen machine" wrote this book. It felt hollow enough. It was like SOT on sesame street. These were not the characters that have been building in complexity over the years.
There were so many loose ends and plot problems that I can't even begin to recount them. If you're like me and figure that you have been a loyal fan for so long that you should just give it a try .....DONT. This book is a slap in the face to all SOT fans. Try something like "Name of the Wind" by Rothfus... you will be glad you did.
P.S. I've never written a review before....this book was just that bad and disappointing. I hope that I save someone the time I'll never get back form reading this garbage.
There were so many loose ends and plot problems that I can't even begin to recount them. If you're like me and figure that you have been a loyal fan for so long that you should just give it a try .....DONT. This book is a slap in the face to all SOT fans. Try something like "Name of the Wind" by Rothfus... you will be glad you did.
P.S. I've never written a review before....this book was just that bad and disappointing. I hope that I save someone the time I'll never get back form reading this garbage.
August 6, 2012
At the risk of repetitively (purposeful irony) I will briefly summarise the major beefs I share with the majority of likeminded reviewers.
This book begins immediately after Confessor, the day after the biggest war in history, a gathering of the most powerful rulers in the Empire of D’Hara. These rulers have lead their people through horrors beyond imagination and are quite used to postures of head down and bottom up singing prayers to their mighty Lord Rahl in both fear and love. Not one would be foolish enough to gainsay him, let alone insulting a Mord’Sith. But yes they do the very next day, they act like a bunch of spoilt silly children and jump up and down about prophecy for the first time as if born to it. TG may have been able to carry this off if the baddie person had some magical brainwashing thingie to make such a drastic change .. but alas no, we have to just accept this ?????-ie.
The highly developed characters from previous have all been struck down with a stupidity mallet. Not a one seems to have retained even the common sense granted to a 12yr old, I was especially sad to see this happen to Zedd.
There is no plot or story, there is no tension, the book is a nothing. We have the dumbed down good guys, something bad is identified, baddie then killed .. not even by good writing skills, just something pulled out of a place the sun doesn’t shine, just when it is needed like almost every plot piece in this book. There are no twists or turns, just a plain piece of ungifted lazy writing. I never felt a thing about any character or thing in the book, even the omen machine itself. You expect a new book to start a bit slow to introduce you to the new … this whole book could have been condensed into a couple of chapters without much trouble, then TG could have gotten on with an actual tale utilising his past and proven awesome writing skills.
We have a new baddie, let’s stick with the hedge witch as the other fellow is only being introduced and I expect him to flower a bit in future offerings. The hedge witch doesn’t do much at all. She and crew of evil familiars are identified then described to each pustule, rash and dribbling bit of slime. The epitome of a cardboard evil witchy-poo. Then terminated. Compared to past evil types like Jagang the hedge witch is not even a footnote. How the heckery did Richard know to plug ears … ?
Small spoiler
The whole book was a fail. But the biggest one to me was …..
Something attacked Richard and Kahlan in their bed one night, it magically escaped (cool something interesting finally happened) ….. later, Kahlan’s infected hand sent her to bed, lets skip the bit about no trusted Mord’Sith guarding in the actual room. Richard ties two mirrors face together as it is suspected baddies jump out of mirrors. I’m fine with this as it is a normal fantasy novel plot point .. but he still leaves the mirrors in the room with his much loved wife, still unguarded from the inside. Later he and mallet struck Zedd hear terrible screams from the room, Richard mentions the tied mirrors and how a baddie was scared by its reflection. They laugh like it is a great jape and walk off smiling, thinking how smart Richard was leaving a great evil in the room with his supposedly loved wife, an evil they haven’t identified and don’t know its capabilities. Man that is dumb, maybe it was a stupidity Mack Truck and not a mallet that hit them/TG.
All in all there were many other low points I cannot bother mentioning. The only point of interest I noted was a rogue Mord’Sith … I like this idea!
Telling you not to read this useless novel won’t work as it is a TG book and his name alone will sell the book. I do suggest however not to waste your money, read your friends copy. Let’s all hope TG returns to form next book. If he looks at the reviews and forgets pride he will see a large part of his readership will disappear if another offering similar in quality to the omen machine is produced.
PS … Did TG really write this book ????
This book begins immediately after Confessor, the day after the biggest war in history, a gathering of the most powerful rulers in the Empire of D’Hara. These rulers have lead their people through horrors beyond imagination and are quite used to postures of head down and bottom up singing prayers to their mighty Lord Rahl in both fear and love. Not one would be foolish enough to gainsay him, let alone insulting a Mord’Sith. But yes they do the very next day, they act like a bunch of spoilt silly children and jump up and down about prophecy for the first time as if born to it. TG may have been able to carry this off if the baddie person had some magical brainwashing thingie to make such a drastic change .. but alas no, we have to just accept this ?????-ie.
The highly developed characters from previous have all been struck down with a stupidity mallet. Not a one seems to have retained even the common sense granted to a 12yr old, I was especially sad to see this happen to Zedd.
There is no plot or story, there is no tension, the book is a nothing. We have the dumbed down good guys, something bad is identified, baddie then killed .. not even by good writing skills, just something pulled out of a place the sun doesn’t shine, just when it is needed like almost every plot piece in this book. There are no twists or turns, just a plain piece of ungifted lazy writing. I never felt a thing about any character or thing in the book, even the omen machine itself. You expect a new book to start a bit slow to introduce you to the new … this whole book could have been condensed into a couple of chapters without much trouble, then TG could have gotten on with an actual tale utilising his past and proven awesome writing skills.
We have a new baddie, let’s stick with the hedge witch as the other fellow is only being introduced and I expect him to flower a bit in future offerings. The hedge witch doesn’t do much at all. She and crew of evil familiars are identified then described to each pustule, rash and dribbling bit of slime. The epitome of a cardboard evil witchy-poo. Then terminated. Compared to past evil types like Jagang the hedge witch is not even a footnote. How the heckery did Richard know to plug ears … ?
Small spoiler
The whole book was a fail. But the biggest one to me was …..
Something attacked Richard and Kahlan in their bed one night, it magically escaped (cool something interesting finally happened) ….. later, Kahlan’s infected hand sent her to bed, lets skip the bit about no trusted Mord’Sith guarding in the actual room. Richard ties two mirrors face together as it is suspected baddies jump out of mirrors. I’m fine with this as it is a normal fantasy novel plot point .. but he still leaves the mirrors in the room with his much loved wife, still unguarded from the inside. Later he and mallet struck Zedd hear terrible screams from the room, Richard mentions the tied mirrors and how a baddie was scared by its reflection. They laugh like it is a great jape and walk off smiling, thinking how smart Richard was leaving a great evil in the room with his supposedly loved wife, an evil they haven’t identified and don’t know its capabilities. Man that is dumb, maybe it was a stupidity Mack Truck and not a mallet that hit them/TG.
All in all there were many other low points I cannot bother mentioning. The only point of interest I noted was a rogue Mord’Sith … I like this idea!
Telling you not to read this useless novel won’t work as it is a TG book and his name alone will sell the book. I do suggest however not to waste your money, read your friends copy. Let’s all hope TG returns to form next book. If he looks at the reviews and forgets pride he will see a large part of his readership will disappear if another offering similar in quality to the omen machine is produced.
PS … Did TG really write this book ????
March 11, 2021
It was FINE. For high fantasy, felt like it should have been longer. I also do not appreciate the repetitive writing and dumbing things down for the readers. We ain’t stupid. Also, where’s the map? It needs a map!
September 10, 2016
The Sword of Truth (SoT) was one of the first epic fantasy series that I read, consuming my teenage years and early twenties as I waited patiently and eagerly devoured each instalment in the twelve book series. While Goodkind copped a lot of flak for his “preachy” style of writing becoming more prevalent as the series progressed, book twelve did everything the final book of a series should do – it tied up every loose end that had been introduced over the course of the series and delivered a conclusion that was epic in scope and immensely satisfying. After everything Richard and Kahlan have been through, and given the magnitude of “evil” forces they defeated, it’s hard for me to imagine how Goodkind could come up with a new Richard and Kahlan story that can compare to the SoT series and make sense.
Enter The Omen Machine, a machine hidden within the depths of The People’s Palace whose one line prophecies have a habit of manifesting in the real world faster than Richard and Kahlan can react. Without knowing it, this is exactly what I was looking for, a credible threat with real consequences that Richard and the team can resolve over the course of a book. This is a story that should work, but while reading the book I couldn’t shake the feeling that something just wasn’t right. The world was built, the characters were established and yet Goodkind chose to play it safe, chose to challenge the characters physically but not metaphysically, and chose to resolve the main threat by means that were so poorly foreshadowed that I am going to call it Deus Ex Machina. There were so many opportunities for Goodkind to really make a splash with this story, and yet he steered clear of them, preferring to stay in his comfort zone and even returning to the preachy writing that caused so much derision during the middle books of SoT. The concept is great, it has been well woven into the SoT mythos, but overall The Omen Machine just smacks of lazy story telling. So much so that I started seeing these little mistakes that were inconsistent with the world and characters that had been established over the previous twelve books.
The lazy story telling also wormed it’s way into the character development. All our favourite characters are back, and that seems to be enough for Goodkind in terms of developing protagonists. Richard and Kahlan are their usual selves, and despite the credibility of the threat, neither of them show any respect for it, and at no point do they gain respect for the threat during the story. The lack of even the most rudimentary character arc is concerning with Richard and Kahlan reaching the end of the story by being belligerent and stubborn, having learnt nothing along the way. Worse still are Zedd, Cara and the rest of the support cast. They have gone from being complex individuals with their own stories to tell to being nothing more than sound boards for Richard as he tries to decipher every riddle. It goes a little something like this – Richard says something profound, Zedd rephrases what Richard just said in layman’s terms, Richard has another epiphany and says some more profound things, rinse/repeat. What happened to the enigmatic and arrogant Zedd, First Wizard of Aydindril who knows the answers to everything? What happened to the brutal yet caring Cara, Mord Sith and protector of the Lord Rahl? These characters are shells of their former selves, and add nothing to the story. Except for the introduction of a few mysterious antagonists who are more that what they seem, I am very disappointed with the way Goodkind treated the characters in this story.
One thing that hasn’t waned is Goodkind’s technical writing skills. His use of very short chapters were off putting at first, but looking back on it I think it was a very clever ploy as it kept me going “just one more chapter” every time I tried to put the book down. His pacing was consistent, his use of language was appropriate, the book was so easy to read that I had finished it before I even realised that I had so many issues with it. If Goodkind can fix the issues with his characters and just take a risk with his storytelling, he will be able to do his technical writing justice and get back to producing high quality works in a world that I love exploring.
I was quite excited when I first heard about The Omen Machine and the underlying concept. It made a lot of sense to me that the biggest threat to Richard and Kahlan is the rediscovery of ancient and powerful magic, and I would have gladly read a few stand alone stories aimed at dealing with these new threats. Unfortunately, The Omen Machine fails to cash in on this concept with Goodkind delivering a substandard product that has been lazily written and fails to engage with the reader. If you are a big fan of Goodkind and his works (like me) there is still plenty in The Omen Machine for you to enjoy, but I don’t feel like there is enough in there to satisfy readers new to the world of Richard and Kahlan. While I will definitely be back to read the second book in this new series, I will be taking it on with far more trepidation and will be far less forgiving of a substandard performance.
Enter The Omen Machine, a machine hidden within the depths of The People’s Palace whose one line prophecies have a habit of manifesting in the real world faster than Richard and Kahlan can react. Without knowing it, this is exactly what I was looking for, a credible threat with real consequences that Richard and the team can resolve over the course of a book. This is a story that should work, but while reading the book I couldn’t shake the feeling that something just wasn’t right. The world was built, the characters were established and yet Goodkind chose to play it safe, chose to challenge the characters physically but not metaphysically, and chose to resolve the main threat by means that were so poorly foreshadowed that I am going to call it Deus Ex Machina. There were so many opportunities for Goodkind to really make a splash with this story, and yet he steered clear of them, preferring to stay in his comfort zone and even returning to the preachy writing that caused so much derision during the middle books of SoT. The concept is great, it has been well woven into the SoT mythos, but overall The Omen Machine just smacks of lazy story telling. So much so that I started seeing these little mistakes that were inconsistent with the world and characters that had been established over the previous twelve books.
The lazy story telling also wormed it’s way into the character development. All our favourite characters are back, and that seems to be enough for Goodkind in terms of developing protagonists. Richard and Kahlan are their usual selves, and despite the credibility of the threat, neither of them show any respect for it, and at no point do they gain respect for the threat during the story. The lack of even the most rudimentary character arc is concerning with Richard and Kahlan reaching the end of the story by being belligerent and stubborn, having learnt nothing along the way. Worse still are Zedd, Cara and the rest of the support cast. They have gone from being complex individuals with their own stories to tell to being nothing more than sound boards for Richard as he tries to decipher every riddle. It goes a little something like this – Richard says something profound, Zedd rephrases what Richard just said in layman’s terms, Richard has another epiphany and says some more profound things, rinse/repeat. What happened to the enigmatic and arrogant Zedd, First Wizard of Aydindril who knows the answers to everything? What happened to the brutal yet caring Cara, Mord Sith and protector of the Lord Rahl? These characters are shells of their former selves, and add nothing to the story. Except for the introduction of a few mysterious antagonists who are more that what they seem, I am very disappointed with the way Goodkind treated the characters in this story.
One thing that hasn’t waned is Goodkind’s technical writing skills. His use of very short chapters were off putting at first, but looking back on it I think it was a very clever ploy as it kept me going “just one more chapter” every time I tried to put the book down. His pacing was consistent, his use of language was appropriate, the book was so easy to read that I had finished it before I even realised that I had so many issues with it. If Goodkind can fix the issues with his characters and just take a risk with his storytelling, he will be able to do his technical writing justice and get back to producing high quality works in a world that I love exploring.
I was quite excited when I first heard about The Omen Machine and the underlying concept. It made a lot of sense to me that the biggest threat to Richard and Kahlan is the rediscovery of ancient and powerful magic, and I would have gladly read a few stand alone stories aimed at dealing with these new threats. Unfortunately, The Omen Machine fails to cash in on this concept with Goodkind delivering a substandard product that has been lazily written and fails to engage with the reader. If you are a big fan of Goodkind and his works (like me) there is still plenty in The Omen Machine for you to enjoy, but I don’t feel like there is enough in there to satisfy readers new to the world of Richard and Kahlan. While I will definitely be back to read the second book in this new series, I will be taking it on with far more trepidation and will be far less forgiving of a substandard performance.
May 9, 2024
After having not really enjoyed the last few books of the original Sword of Truth series, I felt like this was a return to form. It had all of the classic Goodkind tropes, for good and for worse. Hopefully the series continues this way.
August 27, 2016
I've been a devoted fan of the books for over a decade. Even as the writing style became more and more, for lack of a better word, annoying. From Book 2 I noticed pages upon pages were filled with reminding us of the first story. I always stayed patient thinking this was for those who may pick up a book mid-series. I was glad I did. I, too, had fallen in love with the characters and wanted to know what their fates would be.
However, I have been very disappointed in this latest book. To the point that I had to put it down 2/3 of the way through. I read the review before mine, and I have to agree with everything stated. The main characters don't seem like their usual selves. They suddenly became weaker and more stupid, perhaps simply to give Goodkind an easy way to explain things. This is supported by the fact that sometimes important things weren't dealt with fast enough. A monster was in their bedroom. How long did it take Richard to mention that to someone? And this book is filled with so much reminder of back story that its almost like its not useful for the reader, but more Goodkind himself reflecting as if to say "remember when I wrote that awesome story?" Yes, that's why we wanted more.
I noticed that compared to other books, little real action had happened yet. I thought maybe I was reading slowly, but nope. I was half way done.
The reason I had to put it down in the end was that I found myself not wanting to start another chapter reading about the idiots that were the rulers of lands all gathered. Maybe more so than the main characters, these people did not seem like themselves. I agree, they had all forgotten in a matter of a couple days what had been done for them by Richard. Obama didn't even suffer that harsh a fate.
In short, this book is too fluffed with back story of a Terry Goodkind Era well passed, slow in the action department, characters are shadows of their former selves, and the people are dumb to the point of annoying, making it hard to stomach chapter after chapter of them.
My suggestion. Either don't read and give up on the series, or write in and demand a story better fitting these characters. Seriously, this is as bad a turn as the TV show was.
However, I have been very disappointed in this latest book. To the point that I had to put it down 2/3 of the way through. I read the review before mine, and I have to agree with everything stated. The main characters don't seem like their usual selves. They suddenly became weaker and more stupid, perhaps simply to give Goodkind an easy way to explain things. This is supported by the fact that sometimes important things weren't dealt with fast enough. A monster was in their bedroom. How long did it take Richard to mention that to someone? And this book is filled with so much reminder of back story that its almost like its not useful for the reader, but more Goodkind himself reflecting as if to say "remember when I wrote that awesome story?" Yes, that's why we wanted more.
I noticed that compared to other books, little real action had happened yet. I thought maybe I was reading slowly, but nope. I was half way done.
The reason I had to put it down in the end was that I found myself not wanting to start another chapter reading about the idiots that were the rulers of lands all gathered. Maybe more so than the main characters, these people did not seem like themselves. I agree, they had all forgotten in a matter of a couple days what had been done for them by Richard. Obama didn't even suffer that harsh a fate.
In short, this book is too fluffed with back story of a Terry Goodkind Era well passed, slow in the action department, characters are shadows of their former selves, and the people are dumb to the point of annoying, making it hard to stomach chapter after chapter of them.
My suggestion. Either don't read and give up on the series, or write in and demand a story better fitting these characters. Seriously, this is as bad a turn as the TV show was.
September 9, 2011
I had been eagerly waiting for this book since it was announced.. another Richard and Kahlan book! In the SOT universe! YES!!!!!!!!
Except... this book was a joke. The story sucked, the characters were familiar only be their names (I mean, WTF was Goodkind thinking making Kahlan so powerless? And Richard so.. bland? Zed so.. not Zed? And all the other characters so one-dimensional, if that!), the typos were ANNOYING AS HELL, and the repetition drove me crazy. It was like the book was written for someone in grade school, who had to be constantly reminded of the plot twists over and over again or they wouldn't understand it's development.
It could easily have been half it's size and still be the same story.
I was so disappointed.. The SOT books are among my top favorite books of all time. But Terry let me down with this one.. I feel like his heart was not in it, he just wanted to sell books and he wrote a really crappy one, depending on lifelong fans to eat it up.
I actually was not able to find a copy of this, I ended up getting it from the library and I'm glad I did. I have no plans to buy it. Will still read the rest of the trilogy of course, but I hope they are way better than this one.. or I guess no more TG books for me. I don't want them to taint my earlier SOT-era opinion of his brilliance
Except... this book was a joke. The story sucked, the characters were familiar only be their names (I mean, WTF was Goodkind thinking making Kahlan so powerless? And Richard so.. bland? Zed so.. not Zed? And all the other characters so one-dimensional, if that!), the typos were ANNOYING AS HELL, and the repetition drove me crazy. It was like the book was written for someone in grade school, who had to be constantly reminded of the plot twists over and over again or they wouldn't understand it's development.
It could easily have been half it's size and still be the same story.
I was so disappointed.. The SOT books are among my top favorite books of all time. But Terry let me down with this one.. I feel like his heart was not in it, he just wanted to sell books and he wrote a really crappy one, depending on lifelong fans to eat it up.
I actually was not able to find a copy of this, I ended up getting it from the library and I'm glad I did. I have no plans to buy it. Will still read the rest of the trilogy of course, but I hope they are way better than this one.. or I guess no more TG books for me. I don't want them to taint my earlier SOT-era opinion of his brilliance
April 21, 2012
A disappointing vacation read. The early books in this series set up strong characters and conflict. While the series faltered in the middle, I thought the recent books with the conclusion of the war were a good return to form.
In this latest installment, interestingly framed as a "Richard and Kahlan" novel vs Sword of Truth, Goodkind is setting up a new conflict. The war for the empire is over, and the people of D'Hara are at last at peace. But peace brings new problems. If you aren't worried about survival day-to-day, what do you do? How do you plan for the future? Or, should you rely on someone else's vision of what's to come?
Goodkind has already addressed the conflict between free will and predestination in earlier novels, but he returns to it in full force in this one. The novel is overfull with messages and preaching about the dangers of prophecy. It's too heavy handed and missing the character moments that made earlier books interesting. If you read Goodkind for the messages, you may enjoy this novel. Otherwise, don't bother.
In this latest installment, interestingly framed as a "Richard and Kahlan" novel vs Sword of Truth, Goodkind is setting up a new conflict. The war for the empire is over, and the people of D'Hara are at last at peace. But peace brings new problems. If you aren't worried about survival day-to-day, what do you do? How do you plan for the future? Or, should you rely on someone else's vision of what's to come?
Goodkind has already addressed the conflict between free will and predestination in earlier novels, but he returns to it in full force in this one. The novel is overfull with messages and preaching about the dangers of prophecy. It's too heavy handed and missing the character moments that made earlier books interesting. If you read Goodkind for the messages, you may enjoy this novel. Otherwise, don't bother.
April 21, 2015
Of the books I have read, there have been very few over the years that I have not finished. Unfortunatly, this novel is now added to that list. I tried, but as much as I wanted to like it, I found that I in fact greatly disliked the content and the story.
I only read about 350 pages of this novel, and I don't think I can actually force myself to continue to read.
I have been a fan of the SoT series for years, since the very first release of The Wizard's First Rule, and I have been a diehard fan of Terry's for just as long. That being said, I think that the story and characters that we all fell in love with have been betrayed in The Omen Machine.
There is nothing of substance in this book and the characters do not even feel like they did in the other novels. They are all a dull reflection of what they should be. The set up the story is weak and there are staggering moments of pure "WTF" being passed off as the prose of an author I had loved. If you are looking for a book about Richard and Kahlan, this is not it.
I only read about 350 pages of this novel, and I don't think I can actually force myself to continue to read.
I have been a fan of the SoT series for years, since the very first release of The Wizard's First Rule, and I have been a diehard fan of Terry's for just as long. That being said, I think that the story and characters that we all fell in love with have been betrayed in The Omen Machine.
There is nothing of substance in this book and the characters do not even feel like they did in the other novels. They are all a dull reflection of what they should be. The set up the story is weak and there are staggering moments of pure "WTF" being passed off as the prose of an author I had loved. If you are looking for a book about Richard and Kahlan, this is not it.
September 4, 2011
If you are a fan of the SOT-series, like me, do yourself a favor and don't read this book.
I almost died from boredom while I drudged myself through this. Half of the book consist of long and unintelligent dialog, where Richard try to explain "advanced" ideas to his close friends. I don't know how many times this scentence repeat itself; " Zedd: WHAT DO YOU MEAN ....., RICHARD? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?". The topics and points get over-analyzed and discussed to death. The text almost insult the reader in it's explaining of every little point.
The plot-line is shallow and predictable, and it shines though that Goodkind infact has nothing new to add to this good series.
Do forgive me for my limited skills in the english language.
I almost died from boredom while I drudged myself through this. Half of the book consist of long and unintelligent dialog, where Richard try to explain "advanced" ideas to his close friends. I don't know how many times this scentence repeat itself; " Zedd: WHAT DO YOU MEAN ....., RICHARD? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?". The topics and points get over-analyzed and discussed to death. The text almost insult the reader in it's explaining of every little point.
The plot-line is shallow and predictable, and it shines though that Goodkind infact has nothing new to add to this good series.
Do forgive me for my limited skills in the english language.
Read
February 1, 2018Really, Mr Goodkind?
No stars.
What a bag of arse!
I dnf'ed at about 140 pages in, when it became painfully clear that this book should never have been released.
I only picked it up because I liked the early Sword of Truth stuff - the later books were deathly dull - and I hoped that after a break of a few years, that the author might have remembered how to write.
I was wrong. I also blame the publishers for putting this piece of shit out. Haven't they made enough money out of this series already?
The author and the publishers should be embarrassed at selling this tripe.
Let me give one example of what's wrong with the book. The blurb on the back details the Omen Machine which predicts all sorts of shit.
So, start the fucking book with the Omen Machine and the dire predictions and then go forward from there.
Oh, no. For some reason the book dawdles along from the start with nothing happening. All of the great characters are there; Richard and Kahlan, Zedd, Nathan, the Mord-Sith, Nicci etc etc. But the author doesn't know what to do with them.
Or was this book ghost written by a moron?
I am genuinely angry at being ripped off by this book and I can't think of anything positive to say about it.
No stars.
What a bag of arse!
I dnf'ed at about 140 pages in, when it became painfully clear that this book should never have been released.
I only picked it up because I liked the early Sword of Truth stuff - the later books were deathly dull - and I hoped that after a break of a few years, that the author might have remembered how to write.
I was wrong. I also blame the publishers for putting this piece of shit out. Haven't they made enough money out of this series already?
The author and the publishers should be embarrassed at selling this tripe.
Let me give one example of what's wrong with the book. The blurb on the back details the Omen Machine which predicts all sorts of shit.
So, start the fucking book with the Omen Machine and the dire predictions and then go forward from there.
Oh, no. For some reason the book dawdles along from the start with nothing happening. All of the great characters are there; Richard and Kahlan, Zedd, Nathan, the Mord-Sith, Nicci etc etc. But the author doesn't know what to do with them.
Or was this book ghost written by a moron?
I am genuinely angry at being ripped off by this book and I can't think of anything positive to say about it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2011
I'm not a Terry Goodkind fan, not at all, but this book made me angry. it isn't offensive or infamously over the top as some of his previous books, nor is it dripping with huge morality lessons on a ideology I find distasteful. What made me angry was that it wasn't a complete book. The book itself is actually quite dull and bland and the only moment of distaste is found in a bit of wonderfully described viscera describing a woman being torn apart along with the foetus of her unborn child.
Apart from that... the book honestly goes no-where and it feels like I'm reading an incomplete fragment of one, large novel. Concepts are introduced, a new villain is introduced and the titular Omen Machine is introduced and nothing is really done with them and nothing is really solved. Instead, we're given a book where EVERYONE in the entire world becomes obsessed with prophecy (and they use this word at least five times a page so get used to it) and when I say 'obsessed', I mean 'stupid' and our heroes merely say 'No, prophecy is not real, please go about your lives' and these exchanges make up most of the book.
It seems to me that Goodkind is churning this out in order to satisfy his three book deal with Tor (his three 'modern day thrillers' quite clearly having fallen through after the train wreck that was 'Law of Nines', a book where the author seemed quite happy to plagiarise himself. Indeed, 'Law of Nines' is nowhere to be found amoung the list of books 'by the same author'). Given that the text itself is of a large size (almost as large as the 'large print' books found in libraries), it honestly feels that Goodkind has pulled a Douglas Adams (the abrupt ending for Adams' first Hitchhiker novel is well known simply by the publisher phoning him up and saying 'Right, wrap it up as quick as you can, we've got a guy coming to pick it up in the hour') and simply given the publishers what he had written so far in order to satisfy his contract and his advance. If the book felt like a complete story, I would not feel so cheated. You can write a trilogy of books and have each book feel like it's own individual story and yet still carry on the main plot by and large- Girl with Dragon Tattoo does this, Michael Moorcock's fantasy stories do this, Wheel of Time MOSTLY does this. Here, it feels like the audience is being cheated out of their money.
So, no, not happy with this book. Not at all.
August 31, 2011
This may be a contender for the worst book I've ever read.
It's not so much its tenuous grasp on its own reality - the introduction of places and things that never got mentioned before, the use and understanding of machines in a setting that has never shown anything like it before (I made the mistake on Facebook of referring to it as medieval, but you get my drift).
It's not so much the terrible, terrible writing - writing that used to create lush, interesting landscapes and places, with characters you cared about, and now only exists to jump from scene to scene with little care, and highlight action scenes above plot and character development.
It's not so much the ridiculous, thrown-together plot - the omen machine is literally what the book is about - a machine that generates omens. Why this matters or only comes up directly after Richard and Kahlan effectively save the world, and never comes up in any other way, even if it's effectively retconned into the previous books, we may never know.
It's not so much that the plot is ridiculously predictable from start to finish - riveting, interesting basic plot, but done so poorly that the results are telegraphed from miles away.
It's not even so much that it's billed as "A Richard and Kahlan Novel," even though Kahlan, once a great, strong, effective character, has been reduced to nothing more than a plot device for Richard to go and save like a damsel in distress. That's not why I read Goodkind.
I have a lot of nostalgia for the Sword of Truth series. If the Shannara books were the ones that got me into fantasy, Goodkind's series is what made me love it, even when it devolved into weird S&M/libertarian tracts along the way. The first few books in particular were quite good! This book is simply shameful. It almost come across as a ridiculous money grab given that his attempt into thrillers was such a flop overall (never mind it fit into the SoT universe).
The limited goodwill I had left with Goodkind's books is gone with this. Just a shame.
It's not so much its tenuous grasp on its own reality - the introduction of places and things that never got mentioned before, the use and understanding of machines in a setting that has never shown anything like it before (I made the mistake on Facebook of referring to it as medieval, but you get my drift).
It's not so much the terrible, terrible writing - writing that used to create lush, interesting landscapes and places, with characters you cared about, and now only exists to jump from scene to scene with little care, and highlight action scenes above plot and character development.
It's not so much the ridiculous, thrown-together plot - the omen machine is literally what the book is about - a machine that generates omens. Why this matters or only comes up directly after Richard and Kahlan effectively save the world, and never comes up in any other way, even if it's effectively retconned into the previous books, we may never know.
It's not so much that the plot is ridiculously predictable from start to finish - riveting, interesting basic plot, but done so poorly that the results are telegraphed from miles away.
It's not even so much that it's billed as "A Richard and Kahlan Novel," even though Kahlan, once a great, strong, effective character, has been reduced to nothing more than a plot device for Richard to go and save like a damsel in distress. That's not why I read Goodkind.
I have a lot of nostalgia for the Sword of Truth series. If the Shannara books were the ones that got me into fantasy, Goodkind's series is what made me love it, even when it devolved into weird S&M/libertarian tracts along the way. The first few books in particular were quite good! This book is simply shameful. It almost come across as a ridiculous money grab given that his attempt into thrillers was such a flop overall (never mind it fit into the SoT universe).
The limited goodwill I had left with Goodkind's books is gone with this. Just a shame.
September 15, 2013
Richard and Kahlan are celebrating the wedding of their beloved friend, Cara, when they begin to recieve accounts of various people around the city speaking of prophecies. Richard and Kahlan don't think much of it until they find a strange machine hidden away in a secret chamber underneath the Garden of Life within the palace. A machine that produces the same prophecies the people have been muttering.
Edit: I first read this book when it came out, a little over a year ago, but decided to reread it since the second one just recently came out. I could seriously read this book (and everything by Terry Goodkind) about a million times and never get tired of it.
This book is fantastic! But I'm a very very VERY biased person to listen to, espescially since the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is one of my favorite book series of all time. It was just so wonderful to read about these beloved characters again; Richard, Kahlan, Cara, Nicci, Zedd, and Nathan. It really felt to me as if I was visiting with old friends. What a great feeling to have when reading a new book! In any case, this story is extremely well written, (although not quite as long as the other previous books) and the ending was concluded well, with enough information to keep the reader hoping for at least another book or two! I wouldn't pick up this book unless you have read the previous books in the Sword of Truth series, but if you havn't read them, I really recommend that you do, because it is an awesome series!
Edit: I first read this book when it came out, a little over a year ago, but decided to reread it since the second one just recently came out. I could seriously read this book (and everything by Terry Goodkind) about a million times and never get tired of it.
This book is fantastic! But I'm a very very VERY biased person to listen to, espescially since the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is one of my favorite book series of all time. It was just so wonderful to read about these beloved characters again; Richard, Kahlan, Cara, Nicci, Zedd, and Nathan. It really felt to me as if I was visiting with old friends. What a great feeling to have when reading a new book! In any case, this story is extremely well written, (although not quite as long as the other previous books) and the ending was concluded well, with enough information to keep the reader hoping for at least another book or two! I wouldn't pick up this book unless you have read the previous books in the Sword of Truth series, but if you havn't read them, I really recommend that you do, because it is an awesome series!
December 10, 2011
I'd advise fans of Terry Goodkind and The Sword of Truth to not bother to read this. I'm not even sure that Terry Goodkind wrote it. Apart from the fact that some of the major plots in the book didn't even come close to a conclusion, Terry Goodkind seems to have forgotten everything that made us love the previous books. Richard just makes up the answers as he goes along as his longtime advisers (Zedd, Nicci, Nathan) all appear to have been struck with moron disease. Kahlan, who was possibly the strongest female character to ever emerge from fantasy fiction, seems to have forgotten how awesome she is as she becomes on of those female characters we would all like to slap. The book takes place immediately after the events of the last Sword of Truth novel so how the characters are so different, I don't know, I don't think they are supposed to be but the fact is they are. The ending was perhaps the most disappointing of all. It was rushed and not explained properly. I can only assume that there are more books to come since the main bad guy didn't even make an appearance toward the end. Which only makes it more of a cop-out.
I think Goodkind has disrespected the fans big time with this half hearted attempt. I'm not saying every book that came before was awesome (we all remember Pillars of Creation, right?) but this one didn't leave me wanting more as I believe the terrible ending was supposed to.
Thoroughly disappointing and if I could give it less than one star I probably would.
I think Goodkind has disrespected the fans big time with this half hearted attempt. I'm not saying every book that came before was awesome (we all remember Pillars of Creation, right?) but this one didn't leave me wanting more as I believe the terrible ending was supposed to.
Thoroughly disappointing and if I could give it less than one star I probably would.
December 3, 2012
Let me start off first by saying i love Terry Goodkind's work even some of most fans least favorites. This series was my introduction in the fantasy world and led me to read such epics as Game of Thrones and the Wheel of Time Series.
Now on to this book. I couldn't even finish it, this has to be the worst written book i have EVER read. The dialogue alone reads like it was written by a 6th grader. Constant repeating of the same sentence 100 different ways was just plain annoying. Yes i understand you need to get the point across Terry but where the fuck was your editor!? Honestly I've never seen just one idea like "I cant translate this because there's something missing from the book that translates things" repeated at least 15 times but worded differently every time in an adult novel.
OMG and the descriptions in the book! " Kid walking down the path theres some candles, walks even further down the path, there's triple the amount of candles as before. Kids keeps walking down the path and some more candles line the path." ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!!!! Was he just trying to fill space with this crap. Honestly it reads alot like the begging of Lord of the Rings except without all the adjectives and verbs.... If this is how your writing now Terry im not even going to think of picking up The First Confessor.
Now on to this book. I couldn't even finish it, this has to be the worst written book i have EVER read. The dialogue alone reads like it was written by a 6th grader. Constant repeating of the same sentence 100 different ways was just plain annoying. Yes i understand you need to get the point across Terry but where the fuck was your editor!? Honestly I've never seen just one idea like "I cant translate this because there's something missing from the book that translates things" repeated at least 15 times but worded differently every time in an adult novel.
OMG and the descriptions in the book! " Kid walking down the path theres some candles, walks even further down the path, there's triple the amount of candles as before. Kids keeps walking down the path and some more candles line the path." ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!!!! Was he just trying to fill space with this crap. Honestly it reads alot like the begging of Lord of the Rings except without all the adjectives and verbs.... If this is how your writing now Terry im not even going to think of picking up The First Confessor.
September 7, 2011
I'm about halfway through this book and so far its pretty mediocre. Thank goodness Terry G put a cork in the soapbox preaching that overwhelmed the story of Richard and Kahlan in their last three books.
There is indeed a story but I am waiting for the humour and fully realized characters to show up. Just because I know and love these characters doesn't mean you can slack off on fleshing them out. I am hoping for good things in the last half of the book.
UPDATE: Well I finally made it to the end of the book. When its a 'chore' to finish a book then its a real yawner. The Story did not get better; in fact by the time I got to the end I was mad. This story line really encompassed something that could have been done as an hour long episode on their (cancelled) tv show. To have drawn that out to a whole book was a waste of my time.
There was only ONE story line. No secondary story lines and minimal character development for new characters. Also the cast of regulars seemed wooden and 2 dimensional. Are we really sure this guy wrote the first four books? Maybe he had ghostwriter help for those four because the rest of them are lacking and this one most of all. The trouble is that I am an optimist and I keep believing 'the next one will be better'.
There is indeed a story but I am waiting for the humour and fully realized characters to show up. Just because I know and love these characters doesn't mean you can slack off on fleshing them out. I am hoping for good things in the last half of the book.
UPDATE: Well I finally made it to the end of the book. When its a 'chore' to finish a book then its a real yawner. The Story did not get better; in fact by the time I got to the end I was mad. This story line really encompassed something that could have been done as an hour long episode on their (cancelled) tv show. To have drawn that out to a whole book was a waste of my time.
There was only ONE story line. No secondary story lines and minimal character development for new characters. Also the cast of regulars seemed wooden and 2 dimensional. Are we really sure this guy wrote the first four books? Maybe he had ghostwriter help for those four because the rest of them are lacking and this one most of all. The trouble is that I am an optimist and I keep believing 'the next one will be better'.
February 25, 2016
I am a fan of the SOT novels. I think they are an entertaining series which really have something meaningful to say, even if they are hilariously derivative of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. The Omen machine...not so much. It's a decent book, but it's very short (compared to other Goodkind books). My guess is that the story he wrote is twice as long, and he just split it in half so that he could sell two full priced books instead of one. That, or even he is getting tired of writing the same stuff over and over. I get the feeling the whole endeavor is about making some easy money. He is relying on a well-used formula to sell some books. Give the fans Richard and Kahlan in trouble, give them a mysterious problem to solve, ooh, it should be about disturbing prophecies, that way Richard can complain about how much he hates prophecies and doesn't want to think about them, even though he will be the one to ultimately figure it all out and save the day...several books in the future.
Am I still a fan of Terry Goodkind. Yeah. Am I a little disappointed with his newest book? Yeah. Am I convinced it wasn't secretly written by a well-meaning but poorly educated fan? Not really.
Am I still a fan of Terry Goodkind. Yeah. Am I a little disappointed with his newest book? Yeah. Am I convinced it wasn't secretly written by a well-meaning but poorly educated fan? Not really.
December 18, 2020
I read The Omen Machine very quickly. I have always been a fan of Terry Goodkind, and I eat his books like candy! While I know his technical writing isn't completely perfect, Mr. Goodkind can form a plot and push character development like no one else. The Omen Machine was no exception. His technical writing was better than usual in this book. The plot was good, but not in depth enough for me. I am used to the more epic books of the Sword of Truth series. This was a bit different. It was fast paced, for one thing. It have laughable moments and moments where I literally got goosebumps because what was happening was so creepy! The characters we know and love were there in all their glory, and we also met new and interesting characters.
My only complaint, and the reason that I did not give it 5 stars, is that it ended at a strange part for me. I was left feeling like the end of the novel was missing. I know that there will be more books coming, and that they will answer some of the questions I still have, but I still felt as though the story just... stopped. It didn't end, it stopped. It was kind of like pressing pause on a DVD player, and then not getting to finish the DVD until an indeterminate date.
All in all, however, I love the book. And I loved getting back in with some of my favorite characters. I am interested to see how this plays out, knowing the history that we learned in Law of Nines.
My only complaint, and the reason that I did not give it 5 stars, is that it ended at a strange part for me. I was left feeling like the end of the novel was missing. I know that there will be more books coming, and that they will answer some of the questions I still have, but I still felt as though the story just... stopped. It didn't end, it stopped. It was kind of like pressing pause on a DVD player, and then not getting to finish the DVD until an indeterminate date.
All in all, however, I love the book. And I loved getting back in with some of my favorite characters. I am interested to see how this plays out, knowing the history that we learned in Law of Nines.
January 15, 2014
This book was horrible. I started out loving this series so much, then he sort of lost me with the middle books, but by the end I was sad it was over. So when I heard that a new book was coming out (other than the Law of Nines, which I couldn't force myself to finish), I was really excited.
One thing I will give him is that at least this book didn't spend half its pages rehashing what happened in the previous books. And because the Imperial Order is no longer a threat, there was no need to do all that moral preaching. But something similar starts when the ignorant masses start demanding to know about these omens. It's a little tiring that no one else in the world seems to have a brain other than Richard. He's always right and everyone else is always wrong.
My biggest problem with this book is that it felt so incomplete. It felt like the first half of a book. There was no real action or climax worthy of its own book. Just a lot of build up to the next book.
It's been a while since I read it, so I can't really give more specifics. I just remember it was a huge disappointment after being so excited. It feels like Goodkind just put out any old crap and assumes we'll lap it up.
One thing I will give him is that at least this book didn't spend half its pages rehashing what happened in the previous books. And because the Imperial Order is no longer a threat, there was no need to do all that moral preaching. But something similar starts when the ignorant masses start demanding to know about these omens. It's a little tiring that no one else in the world seems to have a brain other than Richard. He's always right and everyone else is always wrong.
My biggest problem with this book is that it felt so incomplete. It felt like the first half of a book. There was no real action or climax worthy of its own book. Just a lot of build up to the next book.
It's been a while since I read it, so I can't really give more specifics. I just remember it was a huge disappointment after being so excited. It feels like Goodkind just put out any old crap and assumes we'll lap it up.
April 3, 2013
I was/am/will always be a huge fan of the first eleven books of the Sword of Truth series. Those books started out as an adventure fantasy and evolved into a philosophical study of logic vs. faith. I loved it. Which is why I was so excited to see this book at first, but after reading it, I couldn't help but be disappointed.
"Confessor" had a really great ending; it wrapped everything up nicely and "The Omen Machine" just absolutely ruined that. I mean, the book starts just seconds after "Confessor", after Richard's won the long and bloody war against the Imperial Order and there's already something wrong in the world. Seriously? Can't these people get just one day of peace?
I don't think I'll be reading any more of these books, if there are in fact more on the way. I think I'll spend my time re-reading the first books and pretending there actually was a happily ever after. Call that denial if you wish, but as Richard Rahl so eloquently pointed out: that is my choice.
"Confessor" had a really great ending; it wrapped everything up nicely and "The Omen Machine" just absolutely ruined that. I mean, the book starts just seconds after "Confessor", after Richard's won the long and bloody war against the Imperial Order and there's already something wrong in the world. Seriously? Can't these people get just one day of peace?
I don't think I'll be reading any more of these books, if there are in fact more on the way. I think I'll spend my time re-reading the first books and pretending there actually was a happily ever after. Call that denial if you wish, but as Richard Rahl so eloquently pointed out: that is my choice.
August 24, 2021
Das Cover gefällt mir sehr gut, es ist freundlichen gehalten und hat Bezug zum Titel. Der Schreibstil ist abwechslungsreich und bildhaft beschrieben, dies beherrscht der Autor sehr gut. Sodass man als Leser in fantastische Welten entführt wird.
Wer die Reihe um das Schwert der Wahrheit gelesen hat, ist hier klar im Vorteil. So findet man sich gut zurecht und kann auch was mit der Vorgeschichte anfangen.
Besonders toll fand ich das Wiedersehen mit alten Bekannten, allerdings fand ich das Buch manchmal etwas langatmig und manchmal nicht auf den Punkt kommend, aber das ist mir ein kleiner Kritikpunkt. Daher gibt es noch 4 Sterne.
Alles in allem eine gelungene Fortsetzung, und man darf gespannt sein wie es weitergeht.
Fazit
Das Buch erhält 4 Sterne, es war doch manchmal etwas langatmig, trotzdem aber relativ gut lesbar.
Wer die Reihe um das Schwert der Wahrheit gelesen hat, ist hier klar im Vorteil. So findet man sich gut zurecht und kann auch was mit der Vorgeschichte anfangen.
Besonders toll fand ich das Wiedersehen mit alten Bekannten, allerdings fand ich das Buch manchmal etwas langatmig und manchmal nicht auf den Punkt kommend, aber das ist mir ein kleiner Kritikpunkt. Daher gibt es noch 4 Sterne.
Alles in allem eine gelungene Fortsetzung, und man darf gespannt sein wie es weitergeht.
Fazit
Das Buch erhält 4 Sterne, es war doch manchmal etwas langatmig, trotzdem aber relativ gut lesbar.
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