The Sword of Truth Series

[Evidencebased]

I read through the first book in the series and was surprised at the fact that they chose to have a sense of finality in that one book rather than stretch that story acorss the whole series.... I rate it as a great fantasy series from what i've read so far, but as Zen said, it is a little flawed and sometimes inconsistent in its character development.

Yeah, I liked the first book but I lost interest after the next couple. Like you said, the first one has a plot that actually wraps up pretty neatly and is a cool story. But then I felt like the rest were starting to stretch out more, and the characters got somewhat over-powerful, and I just didn't care about it quite as much; some of the characters and plots seemed like he was just trying to shock the reader ("oh, you liked the gore and rape in the first one? I'll make the next ones gorier and rapier! lololol") rather than tell a well-paced and engaging story.

Just my opinion! I liked WoT too (better than SoT, actually) but I felt there were similar problems as the series progressed; the first few books dithered around less than the later ones, and weren't bogged down in so many characters and evil plots.

 

[Omnific One]

I'm reading the WOT series right now, I am almost done (On Crossroads of Twilight) but it's so fricking S.L.O.W. I mean, do I REALLY need to know that people are making Elayne drink random crap?

WOT is far less cliche, but more dry. I like it better than SoT because it doesn't feel like a generic juvenile power fantasy that has "mature" themes thrown in just to make it seem more adult (which SoT has an issue with).

 

[TakerFoxx]

I used to be really into those books in high school. In fact, I was one of the top posters on the official fan site. Almost everything up through Faith of the Fallen was grade A material, and I dug (again, almost) every moment of it.

Unfortunately, after that the series jumped the shark in a big way and never looked back. Especially the final book. While it does have its fans, to me it was easily the weakest in the series and, to be honest, pretty dull. Left me with a bad taste in my mouth and pretty much killed the entire High Fantasy genre for me.

 

[GrimTuesday]

I read Wizards First Rule and couldn't stand it. Everything always works out, it's fucking stupid. If you want to read something that isn't a cliched piece of crap go read A Game of Thrones, you'll never want to read Goodkind's tired piece of shit writing ever again.

 

[IrateDonnie]

It's a pretty good series. I just finished Soul of the fire, it didn't seem as good as the rest of them though,too much stuff about the secondary characters that doesn't tie together until the last few chapters.

 

[Aesir23]

I've read almost the entire series (I haven't finished the last two or three) and they're really quite enjoyable. Lucky for me, my mother already owned most of the books at the time I started reading them.

While the Sword of Truth series is an absolutely excellent series, I wouldn't call it the 'best ever' as that is all relative to the person reading it. Personally, I think the Legend of Drizzt Saga is the best series I've read, but other people will obviously think differently.

 

[metacree]

The first two books had such a great charm to them, but after that I began to notice a disturbing trend in Goodkind's work; he absolutely loves to torture his characters!

I felt bad for Richard and the gang, it seemed like they could never catch a break.
The book would mostly be characters suffering and then everything would suddenly work out in the very last bit, then when you start a new book they have only a moment's reprieve before everything goes to shit again. I would actually enjoy a book where Richard could wake up, drink some coffee, and just chill in his favorite chair back in his old home.

But regardless of the the sadistic torture of all the characters, I actually enjoyed this series. Anyone who wants to pick up this series, pay attention to the Wizard's rules. They are actually pretty insightful and most can be applied to real life.


Here are the rules for anyone who is interested:

Spoiler

1. People are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want it to be true; or they're afraid it's true

2. The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.

3.Passion rules reason, For better or for worse.

4. There is magic in sincere forgiveness; in the forgiveness you give, but more so in the forgiveness you receive.

5. Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.

6. The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.

7. Life is the future, not the past.

8. Talga Vassternich. (deserve victory)

9. A contradiction can not exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole.

10. Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self.

 

[550456]

i really dont see how WOT is better. its slower, almost no combat scenes, and it really just focuses on political and all-around BORING stuff. sure the SOT series is a bit cliche, but thats the FUN. Goodkind does it in such a way that you don't care! it's a helluva lot better than something "new" but still really boring for the most part. AKA: WOT. i mean, when Rand cleansed saidin i was pumped, but then i realized that i was really excited over him sitting there for the day putting saidin thru saidar. OOOHHHHHH! Not. that's when it hit me that WOT is pretty boring.

 

[550456]

METACREE! YOU FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE! WIZARD'S ELEVENTH RULE, THE RULE UNWRITTEN, THE RULE SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME:
11.

 

[metacree]

You're right, sorry!

I haven't read the series in years and I forgot about that one.
Though I'm not really sure if that one is applicable to real life like the others are.

 

[550456]

lol very true

 

[FalloutJack]

ANSWER: Yes.

And I believe what I liked most about it was Richard himself, like the way he handles things. A rare man, indeed.

 

[gleepious]

Read all the books and then the law of nines which only makes sense if you've read the whole series before hand and am now looking forward to the omen machine and hopefully a whole new series of richard kahlan books!
Loved them all, also liked the TV series and wish they had carried it on.
If your after an amazing trilogy after reading these then read Night angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks... check out the cover art first and then fall in love with an amazing story!

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

i got about halfway through the series and gave up. it was far too bleak for me. between the overwhelming evil of that foreign empire (can't even remember what they were called), and the fucking incredible self-annihilating stupidity of The Blood of the Fold, i just couldn't handle it. when the whole fucking world is against you, why would you even want to win? to quote Professor Hubert Farnsworth, "I don't want to live on this world anymore."

 

[550456]

ok, i didnt put this up there before because i didnt think that it would be needed but apparently it is. Answer the poll?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.276071-Poll-Did-you-like-SOT

 

[Embz]

I love these books, but I do think that maybe it was stretched out a bit too much. Loved the first 4 or 5 books but found the last few a struggle. The Pillars of Creation is by far the weakest book in the series, reading it kind of felt like wading through thick sticky mud lol.

 

[rokkolpo]

I'm not much of a reader, no never will.

 

[mitchell271]

the books are INCREDIBLE until about book 7, then it started to go a little downhill.

 

[Omnific One]

i really dont see how WOT is better. its slower, almost no combat scenes, and it really just focuses on political and all-around BORING stuff. sure the SOT series is a bit cliche, but thats the FUN. Goodkind does it in such a way that you don't care! it's a helluva lot better than something "new" but still really boring for the most part. AKA: WOT. i mean, when Rand cleansed saidin i was pumped, but then i realized that i was really excited over him sitting there for the day putting saidin thru saidar. OOOHHHHHH! Not. that's when it hit me that WOT is pretty boring.

Like I said, SoT is a juvenile power fantasy to some degree. WoT is a lot more like Game of Thrones in that it mixes in a lot of deeper political material.