Wizard's First Rule

[TwoSix]

I don't have terrible memories of Wizard's First Rule, but I did read it when I was...16? Nine years later, I don't appreciate it nearly as much, since I read several other books in the series, which just made the whole series look bad. I read up to book 6, which is Faith of the Fallen. The books just get worse and worse, so I'd skip them. Except for the bondage hour, of course. It's just required reading, like Pink Flamingos is required viewing for the true cinephile.

 

[Desdichado]

For what it's worth, I seem to have stalled out here. I was sick over the weekend, and spent what time I was awake devouring Skavenslayer by Bill King instead.

 

[Dragonblade]

Goodkind definitely copies Jordan. His characters are stilted caricatures. And I hate how he comes up with some plot device to nerf all the cool new abilities Richard learned in the previous book.

That being said, occasionally there is some coolness in the stories. For example, I thought the subplot with the Mriswith cloak was pretty cool. And Richard befriending the gar and having it payoff for him later was pretty cool. Generally, some of the plot twists and climactic scenes at the end of the books are kind of cool.

I also enjoyed the scene in Temple of the Winds when Richard's magical ability is fully unlocked and he creates a new Sword of Truth out of thin air just because he can!

Other than the stupid, blade turns white when you kill something you care about BS, the idea of the sword of truth is pretty cool as far as artifact level magic items go. The sword channels and magnifies the wielders anger and lets him pretty much cut through anything if he believes it wronged him. And the sword stores the fighting memories of all its previous wielders and the current wielder can draw upon those memories to help him in combat.

Is he a hack? Yes. But there are some nuggets of coolness if you can sift through the crap.

 

[takyris]

And the sword stores the fighting memories of all its previous wielders and the current wielder can draw upon those memories to help him in combat.

See, that was one of my main sticky points, at least in the first book, which is the one I read. He doesn't ever fight. The sword never gets described. It could be a saber. It could be a rapier. It could be a broadsword. It could be a Roman gladius for all we know. And then he never fights with it. He swings it a few times, and I think once he kills one of those ill-defined monsters that rub stuff on their tummies to lure flies or something, but there's never anything remotely approaching an interesting fight scene, much less a sword-on-sword fight scene. There's no fighting skill described at any point -- well, I'm sure he probably tells us that someone is the greatest warrior ever, but he never actually shows it.

Ah, well. I'm currently trying Sara Douglass. We'll see how that goes.

 

[Desdichado]

Ah, well. I'm currently trying Sara Douglass. We'll see how that goes.

I was about halfway through that book too. Then I got distracted, stepped away for a few weeks, and it came up due at the library.

Too bad; it was actually shaping up to be a decent story, as near as I could tell. I'll probably pick it up again and try later.

 

[Dark Jezter]

and he never actually describes the sword in any more detail than 'a sword', except that it glows red when he kills someone angrily and white when he kills someone lovingly, I mean, please, can you GET any more phallocentric than that,

And you miss the part where the sword gets to turn different colors depending on whether he's being phallocentrically violent or phallocentrically forgiving, which seems to be important.

If your penis is glowing red or white at any time, you should probably go see a doctor.

 

[Asmo]

Dark Jezter wrote:

"If your penis is glowing red or white at any time, you should probably go see a doctor."



My new sig? Tempting..

Anyhow, I really like Goodkinds writing and charachters. I would recomend it to anyone who asked me for an opinion of a good fantasybook, without a doubt.
Not as good as Robin Hobb, but it´s still a good read.

Asmo

 

[Maraxle]

The sword never gets described. It could be a saber. It could be a rapier. It could be a broadsword. It could be a Roman gladius for all we know.

Hmmm... Maybe that's by design. I like the fact that he doesn't spoil my view of how things look by describing them in excrutiating detail. I like that he leaves some things to the imagination, like what Richard or the sword look like. I also like that he doesn't describe every fight in a blow-by-blow account, like a certain Mr. Salvatore.

 

[takyris]

Maraxle: First, legitimate viewpoint. Second, I didn't like it, which I also consider a legitimate viewpoint. Third, an additional problem I had was that beyond the lack of description, we had the lack of actual fight scenes. It bothered me that nobody crossed swords in the entirety of WFR, and that the only real fight scene we had was poorly described -- my opinion, as opposed to "left to the imagination".

If the reader gets enough information to fill in the blanks himself, then it's a good fight scene.

If the reader feels frustrated, as though the writer is forcing the reader's eyes out of focus so that the reader is physically unable to see the fight scene, then it's a bad fight scene -- from that reader's perspective.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I liked the first book, but had no interest in reading any of the others. I say drop the book and run for something better.