Terry Goodkind

[Valko]

My favourite fantasy authors are: Feist, Gemmell, Martin, Jordan, Tolkien, Weis & Hickman and finally Brooks.
I liked the assassin series by Hobb but not the Liveship books which have put me off her.

My question is, how does Terry Goodkind compare?

I've run out of books by the other authors and I'm looking to try someone new but in a similar vein.

Thanks

 

[nixie]

Goodkind, The first few where ok, not brilliant, but as the series goes on it becomes very boring.He also seems over found of rape and torture.

If your looking for a decent read you could try Erikson's Malazan series, Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars, Greg Keyes Kingdom of Thorn and Bone,anything by Guy Gavriel Kaye..to name but a few.

 

[Karsa Orlong]

Yeah, read Erikson's Malazan series; infinitely better than Goodkind (then again this applies to most authors ).

 

[Valko]

Thank you, I was just going to ask about Steven Erikson. I'm going to order Gardens Of The Moon on your recommendations.

Thanks again

 

[Crea]

Goodkind's Sword of Truth series used to be one of my favourites, but he's going the way of Robert Jordan these days with drawing out the series.

The moralising is also a little on the juvenile side - Goodkind relies too heavily on exposition as the characters ponderously come to the sorts of moral conclusions it takes normal people 10 seconds to do (confront bullies, don't appease evil, etc).

It's hard to recommend as a series if you've never read it.

 

[Valko]

The maturity of his writing was my main worry Crea. Which incidently, is also my concern over Trudi Canavan.

 

[Aleksei]

I can recommend anything written by L E Modesitt, his Recluce series is a pretty good place to start. Though I enjoyed some of his other books, such as Flash and The Octagonal Raven, more.

 

[the_faery_queen]

everyone has said what i would have said about goodkind, so i won't
i agree about the liveship traders by hobb, i hated them.
you could try lynn flewelling's tamir triliogy. starts with bone dolls twin, better than her nightrunner. it's dark, it's not amazing, but it's entertaing and fairly unique concept. i enjoyed them and i like a fair few of the writers you do

 

[Valko]

everyone has said what i would have said about goodkind, so i won't
i agree about the liveship traders by hobb, i hated them.
you could try lynn flewelling's tamir triliogy. starts with bone dolls twin, better than her nightrunner. it's dark, it's not amazing, but it's entertaing and fairly unique concept. i enjoyed them and i like a fair few of the writers you do

Thank you, I'll look them up. Have you tried the Tawny man trilogy? I think I read somewhere that you have to read the Liveship traders in order to understand what's going on.

 

[jenna]

The short answer is goodkind could never compare to Gemmell, Martin et al. If you've read the greats, going backwards to the hacks isn't going to work out well for you!

 

[Valko]

I bought Gardens Of The Moon today and will start devouring it in the next couple of days when I've finished Shield Of Thunder
Lynn Flewelling's Tamir triliogy and L E Modesitt's Recluse series have been put on my christmas wish list.

Thank you all for your suggestions

 

[the_faery_queen]

i have read the tawny man. you don't need to neccessarily read the liveships to understand it. after all, fitz has no idea what happened in liveships, so things are explained for his benefit really! but it does help. which did irratate me, in honesty. as i HATE the liveships and hated feeling that i should read it just to understand the tawny man a bit better.

i hope you enjoy the tamir triliogy!

 

[nightsavior]

Good-kind is a good writer. Honestly sword of truth's Wizard's first rule is second of my all time favorites with Wild cards coming in first that was headed by George R R Martin and Melinda snod-grass.

However I'm finding I question Terry as a person. I read up on Objectivism which is his "big inspiration" and it sounded very backwards and selfish to me. It's weird because his characters do heroic wonderful things yet even his fans rant how it is objectivist and that Richard acts like a "hero" just to benefit himself by saving people that are of value to his cause. Anotherwords apparently Richard does charitable things but not for altruistic kind-hearted reasons. That destroyed the good vibe I had going from reading the first book in the series . Also if you ask an Objectivist how they feel about aiding others they'll say dryly "It is about helping yourself and expecting others to help themselves." I understand that to a degree as generosity can be taken for granted but they went on further to say it is unfair they have to pay small percentages to help the disabled or disadvantaged or for that matter do anything charitable. Such selfish views seem more like teenaged self gratifying angst then a good heart felt philosphy to live by.

It's weird because you have all his characters acting completly unselfish and self sacrificing and yet apparently the Objectivist outlook that fuels the series is in contradiction with how the heroes conduct themselves,or rather as sot fans put it "You have to look deeper even they are acting in accordance with what betters themselves not those around them." Yeah, I don't get it either folks. Guess I'm a simpleton. In addition I do not know why he percieve his books to be "removed" from fantasy or is offended they fit within that genre. I actually wrote him to ask how he feels about the mentally ill or physically handicapped and if Objectivism leaves room for just a bit of concern for one's fellow man. I don't expect an answer but would be flattered and honored if he gave one.

Point is perhaps Terry's fans are hurting his rep but some people even said he seems full of himself in his interviews. I never shook the man's hand or talked to him so I'm not chucking a rock at his head to judge him as a hedonistic ass-hole but I'm not in agreeance with Ayn Rand whom he styles as his mentor.

My suggestion? Read the books and get what YOU want out of them instead of what Terry wants you to get out of them. So long as his audience is paying money to get the sword of truth series why should he even care how others interpret his works?

 

[hedgeknight]

Loved Wizard's First Rule - loved it! And enjoyed the next two or three in the series, but yes, he has gone the way of Jordan and worse so in that he has taken to moralizing and preaching. I stopped reading him a few books ago.

-g-

 

[Coolhand]

I'm now taking bets as to how many posts it takes for MyStar to turn up here...anyone? Anyone?

 

[Urien]

I enjoyed the first few up to fighting the first bad guy. Then it seemed as if more money was required.. oh there's another bad guy, hot on the heels of the other.

In a way one can't blame the author, it is objectively a tremendous achievement to create such popular books.

I have one more frustration, the inability of Zed and Richard to get together, is irritatingly contrived.

I don't like the series now, but I'm in the minority judging by the sales. So what do we relative experts of SFF really know?

 

[Rane Longfox]

I'm now taking bets as to how many posts it takes for MyStar to turn up here...anyone? Anyone?

I think he just browses through random forums searching for Goodkind topics Mind you, theres not a whole lot of anti-goodkind going on at the moment...

Goodkind is a joke. The writing itself pretty poor, he lets his ideas get completely over-run by his personal agenda. The thread we had on him when Mystar turned up on malazanempire is nothing short of side-splitting

Beward the Evil Chicken!!

 

[the_faery_queen]

mystar?
i think the chicken was the best thing he came up with, to be honest. made me laugh so hard i cried
shame he was being serious . . .

 

[Werthead]

Not really wanting to get back into this, but this is pretty amusing:

 

[nightsavior]

I'm just slow to judge any author based on the actions of his fans. True some of Terry's direct quotes may seem arrogant but having never met him it is hard to say "Man Good-kind you sure are a prick!" I do know he has had some hard physical problems lately which could contribute to him feeling impatient or overwhelmed. The man is human afterall. Still he is in good health now.

I am just so surprised many of his Objectivist supporters look up to someone such as Richard or Kahlan yet they pride themselves on a very narrow "Help yourself and we only do non selfish things because we are selfish" mentality. If the books were written with fans of his being the characters it would be more like this.

Parody of unamed sword of truth novel...

Rapist: Yeah take it ..this will put you in your place wench!

woman in distress: Someone please help me before I'm deflowered!

Objectivist Richard: I would help you milady but I'm an Objectivist and since I do not know you and you cannot contribute to my cause it is not in my best interest to aid you. I'm so sorry really!

Rapist: Man what a jerk! I thought he'd at least try and stop me!

woman in distress: Yeah , these "Objectivist seeker fill ins" are plain off in the head!