Fantasy fans rejoice: what a good series !!! People have said that Goodkind has borrowed too much from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and you do find several points in common between the two. What people forget to point out is that there are also very marked differences.
For one, I think that Goodkind's writing seems more "to the point" and you don't have to turn 500 boring pages with nothing going on (true of the latest books in TWoT, in my opinion). Another major distinction is that these books are not for the faint of heart. I've heard of people who have put them down because of explicit gore and I do agree that there is a long passage in the first book that is a bit too bloody. But, is that bad ? The point is: it's a passage where a character undergoes a major experience in his life and his suffering is to change him substantially from that point on. The author succeeds in making the reader feel what his characters feel and I can't say it's a bad thing. You may double up in pain with every new wound your favourite character receives, but that's a sign you've been pulled into the story. Maybe it's just not everyone's cup of tea.
In it's utmost essence the plot is not terribly original: the story revolves around someone who led a peaceful, bucolic life until the world as he knew it collapsed under his feet: Richard Cypher is swept into a life of magic, mythical creatures and constant adventure. This seems to be a well beaten formula since Tolkien and perhaps even before his days, but it works: it fires the imagination and delivers a lot of excitement.
I highly recommend this "Sword of Truth" series to anyone into fantasy.
No comments:
Post a Comment