Not bad but... - Rated 
From the start of the book I had quite high expectations as it started well and seemed promising. However, although there was huge potential with the characters and plot I was left feeling a little disappointed throughout the book for some of the following reasons:
- the plot had great potential but lacked any depth and in many places was pretty obvious guess twists / outcomes. There were great creatures and places throughout the book that really added to the good point but these were rare and could have been of greater use.
- for quite a weighty book there was hardly much character depth or variety. Sections which the author spent developing characters appeared righteous and repetitive. Being honest, I kind of lost hope of them developing in to something interesting.
- the ending was a bit of an anti-climax. I was left a little disappointed that the characters had struggled throughout the book only to find that it ended so abruptly.
All said and done, the book was over all enjoyable, therefore 3 stars. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to a friend though, unlike other books.
As this has developed in to quite a large series I'm left thinking that there must be something in the other books and I'm hoping they're an improvement on this one as the author develops. I think I'll try the second in the series on the chance things do pick up, but am sceptical.
Well, it impressed me... - Rated 
I know many on this site have poo-pooed this book and in fact the series, and although I do agree with some of it..(how many times do we have to be told that Kahlan wore her 'confessors' face, as her mother taught her) I still thought it was brilliant. I stayed up for far too long, reading far too many pages until my eyes would literally not stay open any more, so it has to have something about it to do that, as I do like my sleep. I guess everyone has their own opinion but I would suggest you give it a go and see if you can put it down...anyway, I'm off to read Robin Hobb now, I'm told it's good.
Creative But Cringeworthy - Rated
I have to agree with many of the more negative reviews of this book, that, although it catches your imagination early on and Goodkind clearly has a fantastic imagination, it was slightly on the corny side. There is a lot of extremely cheesy dialogue, even in the midst of mortal danger, and the worst Hollywood romantic comedy would be proud of some of the exchanges between the two main characters! I also agree that much of the sadism was unnecessary, and did skip over a large chunk of the book detailing the torture. The desired impact of sexual and violent scenes can be produced much more effectively and subtly, without the reader getting to the point where he or she no longer really cares what happens to the characters! One review said that reading one of these books would mean you had to buy the rest - to be honest, this book has had the opposite effect. The idea of spending the next few months/years of my life reading books by the same author doesn't really appeal to me, but particularly not the books in this series.
Truely dreadful - Rated 
One the worse books I have ever read and I have been reading fantasy since the early 1980s. Virtually zero 'world-building', zero charactisation, dreadful lead character. I am astounded how he has managed to keep publishing as I have NEVER met ANYONE else who has enjoyed his work. Jordon had his problems, but he is 20x better than this. It's corny, contrived, preachy and vaguely repellant. Avoid. Stick with George R R Martin, Steven Eirkson and Tad Williams.
Good and bad mixed together - Rated
Well first of all I'd like to say that I'd give some parts of this book 1 star. Goodkind seems to have had great ideas and scenes in his head, but no idea how to fluently join them together.
That said, I have to agree that this book contains some very strong scenes (even if they are soppy and melodramatic and full of cliched language) which elicited some of the strongest emotional reactions of all the fantasy books that I've read.
However the parts which bridged these scenes were mostly indifferent and often simply bad. For example there was one part where *GOLLUM* suddenly jumped out of the woods to lead our main character Richard to the next destination. Also there were some really silly/inane scenes like people being moved to tears by a speech advocating the banning of fire.
This book contained some philosophical pondering, but I don't think it was out of place or overabundant. Yes, (most of) it was obvious if you think those kinds of things, but it was still a good reminder that things aren't always simple and one-sided. And it made you stop and think a little deeper into what was happening.
The characters were mostly mediocre. Richard and Kahlan were likeable, but not loveable. Didn't really like the rest of the good guys. Some of the bad guys were entertaining though.
Oh, and this book does NOT contain rape, it is only hinted at. Same thing with pedophilia. The long torture chapter in the end is more about pain and humiliation than actually describing a medieval torture process in nasty detail.
All in all, this was a good read, if you can get through the really bad parts without your experience being ruined.
|
