Terry Goodkind Wizard Rules

[Moraven]

Go start your camp fires with his books, you have to buy them first which means he's getting money for your purchase, so on behalf of Terry Goodkind thank you for your patronship. As well as contributing to his stature as a New York Times Number One Best Selling Author.

Actually, I bought them off Amazon, used, so he gets nothing.

I've also realized that this thread is about his topics. I'd like to throw out there this little fact: his writing is also horrible. I mean the actual way in which he puts the words together to tell the story. NOTHING HAPPENS for huge chunks of his books. Everything is repeated about seven thousand times per novel. Even the discussion of plans. For Example:

Kahlan: I think we should go to Westland.
Richard: I think we should go to Aydindril.
Kahlan: I don't think so. We should for sure go to Westland.
Richard: Do you think so?
Kahlan: Yes.
Richard: Let's sit here for 8 chapters and talk about why, and we'll use a monotone narative voice while we do it. Also, nothing exciting will happen.
Kahlan: Ok, but I think we should go to Westland.
Richard: You know, I really think I'm the Seeker of Truth. Oh, and I think we should go to Aydindril.

You get the idea. I think, if I cut out all the unneeded scenes and unneeded speech, I could rewrite Soul of the Fire in about 150-200 pages.

EDIT: Obviously the above scene was totally fictitious, as I don't know if that choice ever had to be made. But these kinds of scenes happen over and over in Goodkind's work.

 

[jenna]

He was conceited? Did you point out to him that until he learns how to write he probably shouldn't get a big head about it?

Ay, I probably should have done. But I was really just blown away at the things he said. For example, there was a question from a starry-eyed audience member, "How have Richard and Kahlan changed your life?" to which he replied (and I'm not joking, his actual words and entire answer), "Well, I have a Ferrari now."

My sister and I were just in disbelief. To actually hear him go on with the stupid stuff you hear him say in interviews was painful. Things like "You see, the thing about all other fantasy books, although I don't read fantasy, is that blah blah blah they're all crap except mine, which isn't actually fantasy though." OK everything after blah blah blah I made up, but the first part was a quote, and the second part wasn't too far from the truth anyway. There is such a difference between reading the interviews and hearing his arrogance in person. I was so crushed that I spent money on like 4 of his books, I wish I could turn back the clock. To think, I helped him buy that Ferrari........

 

[Tilion]

Ay, I probably should have done. But I was really just blown away at the things he said. For example, there was a question from a starry-eyed audience member, "How have Richard and Kahlan changed your life?" to which he replied (and I'm not joking, his actual words and entire answer), "Well, I have a Ferrari now."

My sister and I were just in disbelief. To actually hear him go on with the stupid stuff you hear him say in interviews was painful. Things like "You see, the thing about all other fantasy books, although I don't read fantasy, is that blah blah blah they're all crap except mine, which isn't actually fantasy though." OK everything after blah blah blah I made up, but the first part was a quote, and the second part wasn't too far from the truth anyway. There is such a difference between reading the interviews and hearing his arrogance in person. I was so crushed that I spent money on like 4 of his books, I wish I could turn back the clock. To think, I helped him buy that Ferrari........

Good god! I have read negative things about him before, but nothing quite like this. Where does this arrogance come from? Surely not from his writing!

I think the Publishers Weekly review sums the first book up real nice:

Big, bland and conventional, Goodkind's first novel is an epic fantasy that doesn't conjure up much magic. Its hero, Richard Cypher, is no ordinary woodsman. He is, at first unknown to himself, the "Seeker," wielder of the Sword of Truth and the only possessor of the arcane knowledge contained in the powerful Book of Counted Shadows. After his father is killed for refusing to disclose that book's location, Richard is wandering in his beloved forest when he spies a beautiful woman, Kahlan, being stalked by several assassins who have pursued her from her magic-filled homeland of the Midlands. Stalwart Richard saves Kahlan and, along with a wizard named Zedd, sets out to foil the power-hungry designs of the evil Midlands tyrant Darken Rahl. Many of the best moments here come during encounters with secondary characters: Adie, a crotchety old woman who traffics in Underworld magic by using bones; Rachel, an abused child who longs for her hair to be evenly trimmed; and Mistress Denna, a sadist who tortures Richard. Goodkind's writing improves as the book winds on, giving hope that the promised sequel will outclass this volume, but, for the most part, his prose is flat, his ideas hackneyed (Wizard's First Rule is, "people are stupid"), his characters tediously moralistic and his plot without originality.

Sadly, I have made it only about half way through, so I must have missed out on the "writing improves as the book winds on..." part, so I might give the book another go just to be fair.

 

[Marvolo]

Good god! I have read negative things about him before, but nothing quite like this. Where does this arrogance come from? Surely not from his writing!

I think the Publishers Weekly review sums the first book up real nice:

Sadly, I have made it only about half way through, so I must have missed out on the "writing improves as the book winds on..." part, so I might give the book another go just to be fair.

No point in finishing the book really as the quality doesn't go up, it goes down. Word after word, sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, page after page, chapter after chapter, book after book, he gets worse. You can actually hear his head expanding when you're reading the eighth book. It is blatantly obvious that he believes he changes the world with every keystroke.

Take my advice man, save yourself while you still can.

I actually read 1 - 8.

 

[Moraven]

No point in finishing the book really as the quality doesn't go up, it goes down. Word after word, sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, page after page, chapter after chapter, book after book, he gets worse. You can actually hear his head expanding when you're reading the eighth book. It is blatantly obvious that he believes he changes the world with every keystroke.

Take my advice man, save yourself while you still can.

I actually read 1 - 8.

You made it to 8?

I don't know if I should be impressed our send you a Get Well Soon card. That must have been brutal.

I'm tempted to go to one of his appearances and ask a totally innocent question like "Are you as surprised by your success as I am?" With the insinuations being obvious.

 

[Wiggum]

I too have made it through the 8th for some unknown reason.

A posted this quote from about page 40 of The Naked Empire on another forum whilst I was reading it:

"You would be creating, not destroying," Richard said. "Magic exists. It cannot posses the 'right' to exist. To think so would be to ignore the true nature - the reality - of things. People, if they don't take the lives of others, have the right to live their life. You can't say that because you were born with red hair you supplanted the 'right' of brown hair to be born on your head."

Hee hee.

 

[Marvolo]

I too have made it through the 8th for some unknown reason.

A posted this quote from about page 40 of The Naked Empire on another forum whilst I was reading it:



Hee hee.

I'll respond to that quote from Naked Empire with a (paraphrased) quote from a work of equal important, Scary Movie 3.

"Man, that's some serious s**t right there!"

"Yeah, I'm putting that on myspace!"

 

[Spade]

Just started Wizard's First Rule a couple of days ago.. haven't had much time to read it, but I'm looking forward to it. If I get addicted, I'll be reading everything I can get my hands on in the series.

 

[the_faery_queen]

i have a couple of friends who like the books. one, tho, says he will read to the end, then never read them again! which says a fair bit
but he also said that tho he agrees they're misognistic, and violent and the writer is an ass, he never noticed the rape
that kinda bothers me. he noticed a torture scene a few pages on, but not the rape.
then we got into a big, how media films/books violence and so on has desensitised people to it.
not sure what my point is. probably something like, even some people who like them, wont' read them again
and that people seem to see in them what they want to. that isn't to say i wanted to hate the books and see nothing but misogny in them, but as misogny is a big issue for me, i noticed it everywhere. and i guess for people who don't take women's rights as extreme as i do, they didn't notice it.

on the child kicking in thing, is it the child's fault she's evil incarnate? NO! the chicken, well, tho i wouldn't allow cruelty to animals, it is a bird. it is a chicken. but a child who happens to be evil incarnate, it's not her fault,s hould you really kick her teeth in and think that's ok? i just can't see it myself. personally because i don't really believe people are evil, just actions. but also because if people ARE evil incarnate, it's not really their fault. and she is still a child. even if she is evil, she's too young to have thought or struggled with it and tried to make a proper choice for what she is.

so yeah, i guess, i will NEVER be able to see kicking a c hild in the tetth as acceptable, no matter how evil she is, because she's a child! she hasn't had time to grow, fight ot overcome whatever evil ness is in her

 

[jenna]

From memory, I don't think she was painted as evil incarnate, if someone could show me where it's made out like that, that would be good. I remember her as just being a brat.

 

[hedgeknight]

I've read Wizard's First Rule twice and read up to book six (I think it was) before finally giving up on the series.
I just lost interest in the seemingly endless struggle of these people and I grew very tired of Goodkind's lengthy preaching and analyzing of subjects that IMO did nothing more than waste paper.

Loved WFR however and will definitely read it again and again. It stands on its own quite well.
-g-

 

[speedingslug]

The series has defiantly gone down hill, they started off well enough but it seems like they have been ssssstretched out far too much they could of been better condensed to a six book series, with less moral crap. I sometimes wish I'd never started, at least there's only one more to go.

 

[Moraven]

I think kicking anyone in the face is fine as long as it makes a story. This is fiction, after all, not to be confused with real life...

 

[Max the Mediocre]

Don't tell us, tell Goodkind.

 

[speedingslug]

I think kicking anyone in the face is fine as long as it makes a story. This is fiction, after all, not to be confused with real life...

Wasn't it in The Wizards First Rule that Darken Rahl had sex with a young boy then killed him and used him to make a spell, I think it was more graphic than that, a lot worse I think than kicking someone in the teeth.