Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10) by Terry Goodkind Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10)
Book Review: Phantom
Summary: 5 Stars
I had a problem with the original shipment and the dealer responded with a new book for no cost. Great service. I love the book.Book Review: Terry Goodyear
Summary: 4 Stars
I listened to my first audio, two weeks ago, which was The Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodyear. I had never listened to an audio book before but was simply intrigued with the book. Of course I am a romantic and rooter for the underdog (Richard Guerlin), who is in love with Karlann the Mother Confessor. They both have their own magic and are supposed to never be able to really have a relationship, as they would be fatal to each other. The narrator for both the books was very dramatic and entertaining and made you want to listen to more, so I listened to the first series, which had 20 cds in three days.
Then, I listened to Phantom and enjoyed it even more than the first book. If you like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, or something that you can really sink your teeth into, you will like this book as well. It had a little bit more adult theme, and did contain some parts, it perhaps, didnt need. But this book kept my attention and seemed both fantasy/adventure with a little bit of magic and love dust thrown in. I ordered audio books two and three and am raptly waiting for them to arrive.
Book Review: The Sword of Truth series is excellent reading.
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like adventure, fantasy, magic, metaphysic and want to be entertained, you can't lose! Terry Goodkind is an excellent author. Detailed characters and settings, make you feel as you are there. Enjoy.Book Review: book
Summary: 5 Stars
The book was in the shape as described by the vender. I would have liked for the vender to notify when the item had been shipped and estimated arrival.Book Review: readable, but nothing like Wizard's First Rule
Summary: 2 Stars
Wizard's First Rule is a remarkable book. It's probably the only book in the series that should've been written (Faith of the Fallen is a possible exception, although with it begins Goodkind's fall into explicit, philosophical moralizing). I love Richard and Kahlan. As archetypal heroes they are perhaps the most numinous I've encountered in high fantasy. I just wish they'd been treated more respectfully. The tortures they've been made to endure have been difficult for me to bear (not only narratively, but also literarily [Wizard's First Rule aside]). I would rather he had written a trilogy than a... meandering hendecalogy.
In all, the series reminds of many I've seen on T.V. Shows like: Alias, Lost, Heroes. Each had great first seasons, but from there descended agonizingly into Soap Opera. It is appropriate, then, that the final insult has been delivered to the Sword of Truth Series and there is now a Legend of the Seeker T.V. show. Apparently Goodkind was excited about this (judging by the press blurbs on his website), but I wonder if he still is. I watched the first two episodes on Hulu and find it difficult to believe that such a great vision could be so handily slaughtered (it's as if they were handled by an anti-seeker, a master of destroying noble visions). But then, I've seen the many attempts at Dune, so I don't know why I was surprised. I get the sense, from the books, that Richard is in or nearly in his 30's. That before meeting Kahlan he was already a mature, quiet man, whose slightly older brother was the political leader of the region. In the series, however, he is cast as a muscle-bound 21 year old with a disproportionately small, immature face. In the book Zedd had been teaching Richard, covertly, his entire life. In the Show, Zedd was just a "crazy old man that talks to chickens". Kahlan is played by an actress without facial musculature necessary to express true depth of emotion or judgement. (I only speak of the T.V. Show to give a second example of the sort of betrayal the original vision has endured.)
I like the philosophy that Goodkind presents... within reason :) Having read Ayn Rand long before I picked up his books, I recognized immediately the sense of life he was portraying. But he falls into many of the same errors as she did. Not the least of which is shallow, unbelievable depictions of the "other side". I admit, the anti-life philosophy can be comical when stripped of its dressings and custumes. It can also be depressing to realize how many people really "live by", in essence, the abdication of the Self. But I don't think the sanctity of life is truly expressed by simplifying beyond recognition the complexities of the ways we fall into error and the difficulties we face in prising right from wrong. One dimensional representations of man cannot provide the necessary contrast for a true appreciation of the great achievement that is a truly moral life.
In summary, the trajectory of this series of books is as follows: what started as an archetypal human struggle against darkness has ended in the sado-masochistic catharsis of an author. Does Goodkind enjoy torturing the soul-personified with his agiel-pen? I don't know, but many times I've had to put my inner hero in'an inner box to protect him from this series' relentless cruelty.
-Jerome Meyers
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