Sword of truth how many pages

At its best, it is a clunky and self-indulgently obtuse hero's journey. Then there's the hundred page BDSM tangent, where the hero goes through excruciating Wizard's First Rule is a good example of why people think all post-Tolkien Fantasy is trash. Then there's the hundred page BDSM tangent, where the hero goes through excruciating pseudo-bondage games with his captor. This part borders on self-parody, because the outrageous subject matter is stretched out for so long that it becomes boring and we're just waiting for it to end, and we know it will, because this isn't an inventive story that's going to venture to brave new intellectual worlds.

The romance is similarly brutal, but on the weepy side rather than the sado-masochistic. There isn't even the hero-empowerment fun of Eragon to turn this into a fun immature adventure - it's too slow and anxious for that.

Instead it builds to a ludicrous climax and a plot twist that you wouldn't think anyone would pen after Star Wars came out. But this book would. View all 43 comments. I very much enjoyed this book! View all 49 comments. Dec 12, seak rated it liked it Shelves: , audio. So I made this review into a short parody video on my new booktube youtube for book reviews channel here. I hope you enjoy! Please subscribe if you do, thanks! It's only been three days? Well, that still seems sensible.

More Details: So, I didn't quite go into this with the best of intentions. I wanted to jump on the bandwagon since I felt like the only one not making fun of Goodkind. I can, however, say that I enjoyed Wizard's First Rule. Ten years ago, I would have loved it more than anything. Five years ago, I still would have really really liked it. Today, I've realized I'm not quite the same reader I was before. I've always loved what many term the "traditional" fantasy.

While I enjoyed Goodkind's twist on this traditional tale, it was still a bit much for me at times. Richard is the boy-who-would-be-insert-title and he's just too perfect. Okay, he's a wilderness guide, so he's good at tracking and woodsy stuff that's the technical term, believe me, I'm a woodsy guide.

I can get behind that. But then he can fight and solve riddles and do rubik's cubes and everything. Then, and I kinda feel like a tool talking about this since I don't really know all that much what I'm talking about, there's the lack of foreshadowing.

There's probably a better term that would qualify this, but we jump from one adventure to the next. There's the ultimate good versus bad tale going on, but to get to the end, there's so much padding with multiple adventures in between. We have to go to the mud people so they can tell us stuff. Oops, the mud people can't tell us, we have to go to that mountain over there and it's such a dangerous mountain. Oops again, now we have to call a fairy by tapping our ankles twice while holding our breath, doing a somersault on a donkey and spelling the word Goodkind backward.

I know Eddings' Belgariad does much the same thing, but that has a special place in my heart, whereas The Sword of Truth was just too late in my reading career.

Add to that the less than stellar feelings toward the later volumes in the series, you may not see me carrying on. I will say, the ending was pretty good and will actually be moving my 3 star rating up to a 3. Lucky duck. View all 63 comments. Jun 05, k. Shelves: quit-reading. Okay everyone. Below is my review from when I tried to read Wizard's First Rule back in I was fresh out of college.

You know, back when you thought your opinion mattered. While I didn't personally like the book and couldn't get into it, I really went for it in this review. I now regret it. You don't really understand how difficult it is to write something good until you try and write a book yourself.

It's taxing, time consuming, alienating. Sometimes you think you wrote something amazing, Okay everyone. Sometimes you think you wrote something amazing, and then someone will come around and tell you they'd rather lick their own dog's teeth than read what you wrote.

It's hurtful. I'm leaving my review up below because I think it's a good lesson. If you don't like something, cool, that's fine.

But you don't have to tear it down publicly. Better yet, why not point out the good you saw in it? There will be, inevitably, some person who shows up to point out all the bad. Nobody's worried that that person won't show up, so they now must shoulder the responsibility. I'm also leaving this review up so that I don't run from it. This review has gotten a lot of likes here on Goodreads, and with each new like, I feel more and more guilty about it.

Writing is hard. My hat's off to you, Mr. I apologize for my distasteful and mean review. Thankfully, you have so many fans out there that love your book and will stand by it, even when little shits like me throw out a mean review. I really did try for this one, as I love my boyfriend very much who loves this book. I found the writing unbearable, as I would rather smell my dog's breath and lick his teeth than have to read words written by Terry Goodkind.

That being said, I was interested in the story, but it was as if the guy did not have an editor. I did love reading his acknowledgements page. Does that count? Also, just incase Terry Good and Kind is out there, I am very sorry too. I wasn't too keen on your book, and I'm sorry this attack on your book was personal to your writing style and abilities. I think you are a cool looking man - one of the best with a ponytail - and I am sure you are as your last name implies. View all 29 comments.

Feb 05, Jen rated it did not like it Recommends it for: Dungeons and Dragons fans, sadists. I am adding this author to the list of people that I wouldn't want to have lunch with. After this review, I suspect he won't want to have lunch with me either. This book reads like a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It's a quest, a bit formulaic, and at times I could practically hear the narrator telling me to roll the ten-sided die to see what happens when we go down the left fork.

In this book, we have the hapless regular guy who through a great series of coincidences finds himself traveling to sa I am adding this author to the list of people that I wouldn't want to have lunch with.

In this book, we have the hapless regular guy who through a great series of coincidences finds himself traveling to save the world with the beautiful, mysterious woman formerly, the damsel in distress , the great and powerful wizard who is utterly disappointing and mostly serves as comic relief , and the hardened, streetwise soldier.

It almost feels like the author drew a map of his new fantastical world, decided to put the main character at one end, and the solution at the other, and then gave him a veritable obstacle course of classic problems on the way. He runs into underworld beasts, monsters, dragons, deluded armies, and betrayal which, consequently, the rest of us saw coming pages before he did.

To say this book is plot-driven would be an understatement. Sadly, though, even the pacing of that plot isn't good. But none of that has anything to do with why I wouldn't want to hang out with the author. I found the creations of his imagination really disturbing. I could almost feel his delight in divining new and more horrible atrocities to detail as the story went on. Yes, the bad guy is very, very bad. But there was a definite sick, sadistic side to the story.

I just have to wonder what kind of person decides to spend something like eight chapters on very descriptive and imaginative torture of one character, when the great love that supposedly drives the story took a comparative flash to develop. He's great at devising innovative ways to cause pain and anguish, but terrible at imagining realistic human interaction. The dialogue, sadly, reflects that. When the author isn't describing pain or evil, a sitcom-like feeling prevails.

A paraphrased typical scene: a genuinely disturbing challenge with an emotional resolution that should leave everyone drained and perhaps scarred, until big old wizard asks, "When do we eat? If you love Dungeons and Dragons, or if you're someone who enjoys causing or experiencing pain, this book is for you. For me, not so much.

I wonder if his other books get any better? View all 13 comments. Shelves: fantasy. The sheer depth of Wizard's First Rule is simply amazing. His characters are unique and original, yet seem simple when you realize that they aren't perfect. Every chapter you read will cling you tighter to his series.

Of course, many will dislike Terry Goodkind's works, either because he establishes dead on ethics in an 'I'm right, your wrong' approach, or because of dissatisfaction with his writing style, but it would be a baseless altercation to state that he is a run-in-the-mill, and mediocre The sheer depth of Wizard's First Rule is simply amazing. Of course, many will dislike Terry Goodkind's works, either because he establishes dead on ethics in an 'I'm right, your wrong' approach, or because of dissatisfaction with his writing style, but it would be a baseless altercation to state that he is a run-in-the-mill, and mediocre author.

Terry Goodkind deserves nothing but praise for this extraordinary novel. View all 18 comments. Apr 09, Julio Genao rated it did not like it. View all 38 comments. Mar 26, Suzanne rated it did not like it Recommends it for: Nobody with taste in fiction. Recommended to Suzanne by: Somebody who I will have a hard time forgiving.

I can honestly say this is the worst piece of fiction I have ever encountered, in any genre. It's hard to know where to start critiquing this book since I hated so very many things about it.

First off, it is about four times too long. I'm all for an epic sized novel if the story can support it, but this one doesn't come close. The dialogue is, for the most part, trite and boring and the characters are all astoundingly two-dimensional and unauthentic.

They are all constantly doing things against I can honestly say this is the worst piece of fiction I have ever encountered, in any genre.

They are all constantly doing things against their described nature, and so many of their actions are inconsistent with what the characters know and how they would logically act. This is part of what makes the story read like a rough draft where the author is trying to get the plot down and needs to go back and do some serious polishing. The polishing never occurred. The characters all make the most idiotic mistakes about things that a kindergartner would have been able to reason out.

This is just bad writing. The author could have achieved the same results in far more plausible ways, while at the same time giving the characters some consistency, intelligence, forethought, and reasoning ability. Like many other negative reviewers, I am astounded by the sheer quantity of trite plot devices. He really pushes Jungian literary theories of collective conscious and archetypes to the limit. The real show stopper on the trite-fest that is this book is the "Luke, I am your father"-esque moment at the end.

The plot line in the book was not well planned out, if it even was planned out; I would not be the least bit surprised to hear that the author just winged it. Think of the plot of a good book as an enjoyable road trip. The route will turn, taking you past several interesting vistas, while still generally heading towards the destination. The plot for Wizard's First Rule stops at every turn out and explores every cul de sac along the way, and frequently stops, goes back a ways, and then drives over the same stretch a second time.

It is chock full of sequences that do nothing to advance the story or aid character development. I don't have a problem with the content of this message, just that it was so blatant and heavy handed. The other oft-repeated and preachy moral was that of relative morality, which I did have an issue with. The main character, through the preaching of his trusted wizard friend, keeps having deep thoughts about how there is no good or evil from the viewpoint of those making a choice or performing an action.

Like we are supposed to believe that, from the viewpoint of the child-molesting serial killer character, he considers his actions good and morally acceptable. Boo, Mr. Goodkind, boo. Speaking of the child-molesting serial killer, he was only one of several deeply disturbing elements of the book.

Not only do we have evil characters doing horribly naughty things, we, as readers, are treated to graphic descriptions of said naughty things.

We get to hear about the molester's love of buggery, the dominatrices passion for torture, and how the pointlessly-vegetarian-turned-cannibal evil ruler first brainwashed his child victim before pouring molten lead down his throat, mutilated his body, and ate parts of it. Oh, and a bunch of rape. This was just pages of a horribly written waste of time.

If I didn't enjoy meeting with my book-club which is discussing this in a few weeks , I wouldn't have continued past the first chapter. I deeply resent the time this book took to read, as I have so many more worthy things I could have been reading in its stead. View all 9 comments. The gender ideologies underlying the novel's cosmology are just so profoundly disturbing that I couldn't enjoy what there was of the story -- not that I was likely to enjoy it anyway, since it featured large amounts of sexual torture of Our Hero.

It's really not any more tasteful when gender-reversed. View all 14 comments. Nov 23, Jason rated it did not like it Recommends it for: people 10 years old or younger. I was referred to Terry Goodkind as a better alternative to Robert Jordan.

I feel betrayed and lied to. Or maybe it was some kind of joke. Goodkind's characters are simply not believeable, and this absolutely kills the book. The dialog is forced, and it feels as if no one ever proof read Goodkind's "masterpiece. View all 4 comments. Jan 24, Choko rated it really liked it Shelves: fantasy. It is a linear story, no multiple POV's or constant action sequences, but engrossing nonetheless Recommend it to all Fantasy lovers, but I think those new to the genre would enjoy it most!

View all 11 comments. Nov 04, Ivan rated it liked it Shelves: fantasy. To be honest I started this book with certain bias. Because statements like: "The books I write are first of all novels, not fantasy, and that is deliberate; I'm really writing books about human beings. I star To be honest I started this book with certain bias. I started his book hoping for ammunition against author. Well I have to say I didn't get it, Goodkind may be all of the above but he isn't a bad writer.

No he's books don't transcend fantasy genre, but if we ignore author's delusion of grandeur we have decent heroic fantasy with a twist. I had one big problem with it. Book tries to have serious themes in it but in book with noble heroes and evil, evil villains they often feel out of place.

No matter what Goodkind claims he's book doesn't transcend fantasy genre but it's good enough and it might have been 4 stars if not for 30 page torture porn. I am not sensitive person but I would prefer if authors would leave their kinky fetishes out of their books. Dec 05, Leila rated it it was amazing Shelves: my-wow-books , adventure , fantasy , so-many-books-so-little-time.

I loved it. It was one of the first fantasy books I ever read. I think I must have read the first seven plus books in the series lots of times over the years. After that the series began to gradually become samey! During lock down, it was so enjoyable to read this first book of the series again. I carried it around the home daily reading whenever I got the chance.

I will get round to the next in the series eventually. Highly recommended to all epic fantasy fans. Sep 12, Ed McDonald rated it did not like it. Terry Goodkind's literary crimes are too numerous to go into any detailed sort of exploration, so I'll talk about just one. Goodkind is a sexual fetishist who is disgusted by his own fantasies of rape and sexual violence, portraying them as vile and evil even as he delves into the details.

The more you read of his books, the more titillating sexual violence encounters are foisted onto his female characters. Most of the women in these books are either raped, threatened with rape, are rapists, or i Terry Goodkind's literary crimes are too numerous to go into any detailed sort of exploration, so I'll talk about just one. Most of the women in these books are either raped, threatened with rape, are rapists, or intentionally have sex with demons who have barbed penises, and then get raped later on.

The level of depravity is revolting throughout. All the while, a beautiful young woman in a wedding dress runs around, protected against losing her virginity because of her anti-sex magic, which literally destroys anyone who sleeps with her. Unless they are her one true love, of course.

This grotesque and damaging view of sexuality is really Goodkind's main point after his Ayn Rand objectivist philosophy. He just wants to write grotty, woman-hating stories about his darkly violent sexual desires. Goodkind says he writes stories about people, not stories about fantasy; this is not true. He writes fantasy stories about the imaginary people being subjected to his sexual fantasies.

Which involve demons. And lots of rape. View 1 comment. Mar 14, Gavin rated it it was amazing Shelves: fantasy. I'm not really sure what to say about Wizard's First Rule as a book. Usually I can throw some sort of review together for even the worst books I've read but I'm finding reviewing this one is proving surprisingly tough. It does not help that I've read it multiple times over the years but never had to write a review for it before as I had not found my way to Goodreads on any of those previous occasions.

What is worse is I do not even know how many times I've actually read Wizard's First Rule over the years. I know this is at least my third read. I first read the series when I was still in my teens and it ended up being my absolute favourite fantasy series! Trouble is I do not know if I ever reread it while I was in my teens if only Goodreads was around to keep track of that stuff back then! I was not big on rereading but I did make exceptions for the books I really loved. I know for sure I made a second attempt at the SoT series around I know that as it was when I made the transition from reading to audio.

They were both favourites from my teen years and seemed solid value for money picks as the were all well over 25 hours long in audio. I struggled a bit with SoT second time around as its flaws were more apparent and the audio versions of the series really sucked. So that means this return to Sword of Truth is at least my third attempt at the series. I've never finished the series!

In my teen years I read up to the 6th book and then caught the next few as they got published but I only made it to the 8th or 9th book in the series.

I decided to pause to let a few of them build up as I was forgetting too many of the happenings between instalments. My second attempt of the series ended sometime around the 3rd to 5th book. The series just never held my attention as well as it should have. I was never sure if that was because it was just not as much fun now that I was a more mature reader or if it was simply because I was struggling to make the transition from physical reading to audio and SoT, with its poor narration, was just a bad choice for that experiment.

That is why I'm back for this reread. I had great success recently with rereading, and finally completing, two of my other teen favourite series WoT and Malazan in case you guys were wondering so I figured it was time for a third and probably final go at the SoT series! So how did this read of Wizard's First Rule go? Pretty well and better than I expected considering my memories of my reread were slightly negative. I quite enjoyed Wizard's First Rule even if it was not quite the favourite I considered it to be in my teen years.

Goodkind has a weird writing style but it is still pretty engaging. The story itself really does feel like a typically epic s fantasy series.

It has young heroes banding together to save the world from an evil villain and packs in plenty of action, mystery, adventure, and magic along the way as well as a tad of romance.

It is also not shy in using a lot of the old school tropes as this book alone had everything from prophecy to magic swords and even dragons! The basic story was enjoyable and intriguing enough. Richard Cypher, a young woodsman, finds his life taking a dramatic turn when, in the space of a few weeks, he finds his father brutally murdered and then stumbles across a mysterious woman fighting for her life against four men who are trying to kill her. Richard helps her escape and soon finds himself caught up in events that will shape the fate of the world.

The woman he saves, Kahlan, explains that the magic boundaries that separate the three lands, D'Hara ruled by an evil wizard lord , the Midlands a collection of countries in a land where magic is prevalent , and the Westland a place with no magic at all are failing and that she has come to Westland in order to find the Great Wizard.

She has come come to the Westland as Rahl has started a magic ritual that will give him complete dominion over the living world if he manages to complete it successfully. She needs the help of the Great Wizard to stop it and he fled to the Westland after the rulers of the Midlands turned their back on him years ago. That sounds like fairly standard 90s fantasy fare but Goodkind made it work and this was a pretty fun story. Rahl was an awful guy so it was fairly easy to root for Richard and Kahlan on their various adventures as they tried to stop him gaining the power to rule the whole world.

I found the story engaging most of the time so that is always a good sign and I did like the heroes even if they did indulge in a few morally questionable moments along he way! I know a lot of people hate this series and it does not have a positive reputation with modern fantasy fans and I can see why people might feel that way as this time around a lot of the flaws that I missed in my innocent teen years were clear to me this time around but I have to admit that they did not bother me enough that they ruined the story for me.

This was still a fun read despite them! I'm not sure how much my nostalgia plays a part in my ability to ignore some of the more disturbing stuff that goes on but I guess that does not really matter as long as I do enjoy what I'm reading. I think the three big complaints I see in regards to SoT are Goodkind's Objectivist beliefs, the sexual violence in the story, and the casual sexism so I'll share my thoughts on each of those issues: - The Casual Sexism - Of the three the casual sexism and single outburst of homophobia I spotted in the story are the things that annoyed me the most!

Goodkind has a few flaws for sure but I do think his views on women are what I find most disturbing. Not that I want to slam the guy too much as it is not like he comes across as a guy that hates women and there are a fair few strong female characters in this book and across the rest of the SoT series it is just that he holds to some fairly old school conservative views on women and gender roles that can be quite annoying for the modern reader to have to deal with.

As a hardened fantasy reader I'm well used to this sort of casual sexism so while I found it annoying it did not overly hinder my ability to enjoy the story. For example the sexism in The Last Wish , which I read a few months ago, was far worse than anything one will find in the SoT series! I think in terms of tone the story was not all that bleak or dark but it definitely had a few dark moments. There was a fair bit of torture and death as well as plenty of allusions to rape and sexual violence within the story but I never felt like any of it was all that explicit.

Usually most sexual violence within fantasy stories ends up falling on the female characters but it was fairly well spread gender wise in this particular book. If anything the guys suffered the worst of it! I could have lived without people being castrated and without the Mord-Sith being so over the top but it was not so bad or explicit that it damaged my enjoyment of the story and the nature of the villains did give them a more menacing and human feel than your average fantasy villains.

I even feel like that whole Mord-Sith story arc had a few good moments mixed in with all the cringe-worthy ones. I bet the actresses and scrip writers for the show must have been pissing themselves laughing while writing and acting out Goodkind's kinky dominatrix fantasies lol!

Also worth noting that when I read this series as an innocent teen I had no clue about dominatrix or sadomasochism so just figured the Mord-Sith were some sort of twisted fantasy style torture villains Goodkind had dreamed up on his own. Don't judge me! It was the pre-internet era back in those days so there was still a few of us innocent souls around lol!

Goodkind definitely injects his beliefs and philosophy into his story but I do not think he gets all that preachy until around the 6th book in the series. His objectivist beliefs are clear to see even in this very first book but I do not think they hurt the story. I actually felt like they gave the story an interesting twist.

The heroes in this book had a different feel to those in your average fantasy tale and I found that more intriguing and thought provoking than annoying. I'm not a fan of Objectivism but I do not hate every single aspect of the philosophy just most of them since I'm a super liberal socialist with vastly different ethical and moral values as well as a guy who does not give a fuck about "art" so I found it fascinating to see the ideas interwoven into a fantasy story in a fairly seamless manner.

In terms of feel Wizard's First Rule came across as a weird mix of Robert Jordan and Stephen Donaldson with a little Erikson style philosophising thrown into the blend. It was a strange mix but I felt like it worked especially as old school 90s fantasy series like WoT were clearly the biggest influence on this book. All in all I did not unconditionally love this series like I did in my teen years and would not rate it up to the standards of my modern day fantasy favourites but I do think it was still an entertaining and enjoyable read despite its flaws.

Rating: This is a hard book to rate. Since this was my absolute favourite series in my younger days it is probably worth a 5 star rating for the nostalgia value alone! I think I'd probably still rate it around 4 stars nowadays despite the flaws and issues that are apparent in the story. It was still a fun read even if it was a bit more dark and disturbing than I remembered.

It was the very first audiobook I ever bought from Audible! It is a pretty poor effort and performance. Shelve The Pillars of Creation. Book 8. Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind. Beginning with Wizard's First Rule and continuing … More.

Shelve Naked Empire. Book 9. Chainfire by Terry Goodkind. With Wizard's First Rule and seven subsequent mast… More. Shelve Chainfire. Book Phantom by Terry Goodkind. Bestselling author Terry Goodkind's epic Sword of … More.

Shelve Phantom. Confessor by Terry Goodkind. Descending into darkness, about to be overwhelm…. Shelve Confessor. The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind. Hannis Arc, working on the tapestry of lines linki… More. Shelve The Omen Machine. The Third Kingdom by Terry Goodkind. From the internationally bestselling author of the… More. Shelve The Third Kingdom. Severed Souls by Terry Goodkind.

Shelve Severed Souls. Warheart by Terry Goodkind. Sorceress Nicci and the near powerless wizard Nathan Rahl find themselves traveling on a charge from a witch woman to travel deep into the Old World to help save the world from yet another hidden enemy while Richard and Kahlan deal with threats unseen and dangerous in the Children of D'Hara series.

The Sword of Truth book series was made into a TV series called Legend of the Seeker [1] , which aired in broadcast syndication November 1, It ended in with two seasons of forty-four episodes in total.

The show tells the story of Richard's defeat of Darken Rahl and defeating the "Keeper" mainly covers the general plot of the Darken Rahl duology. There is a campaign to fund a continuation of the series, but no word on production starting. All of Terry Goodkind's books take place in the same universe.

Eleven of the books constitute the Wizard's Rules books, or rather, the Sword of Truth series itself. The series has two prequels to it, a sequel, and a sequel series. The stand-alone sequel takes place far in the future, whereas the sequel series picks up where Confessor leaves off.

Sword of Truth Wiki Explore. Legend of the Seeker Season 1 Season 2.