If you're going to buy this one, I figure that the least you can do is purchase it through these links and help raise funds for Breast Cancer research.Interestingly enough, I was not sent an ARC or other such proofs of Terry Goodkind's Confessor (Canada, USA, Europe). A real shocker, I know!:P
The package must have gotten lost in the mail. . . A pity, as I was so looking forward to reading about the triumph of the human spirit. . .
30 commentaires:
Have you even read Goodkind? Ever? Don't mistake my intentions here, I'm no fan of the author. And anyone who's read an interview with the idiot knows he's just that... and idiot.
But in the almost 3 years I've been visiting your blog I've not once seen you review one of Goodkind's books. So, have you even read him before? Do you actually have an educated opinion when it comes to his work?
Or do you just rag on him because your friends on various other blogs and messageboards do and it's thus considered the "in-thing"?
Ugh. That was me.
I'd not intended to post anonymously.
Although I'll agree the latest books have been somewhat weak, the series began well. I am looking forward to the conclusion if for no other reason than completeness.
From what I gather, it was Pat who started most of the Tairy-baiting (!) in the first place.
The Lemmings of Discord, etc, on the A Song of Ice and Fire MB, are, I think, adhering to what Pat started, so, unless he's trying to be the "in-thing" with himself...
The Original Lemming of Discord...
I can't, and don't want to, comment on whether Pat's read the books or not, though I expect he's read some -- and not gone as far as some of the sillier of us (e.g. me!) and read them all...
Like Anon#2, I'm doing it for completeness ... and for humour.
Like you said, though, you don't have to have read his books to know he's an idiot, and Pat's mocking comment on "the nobility of the human spirit" is something Terry is ridiculed for saying in his interviews, etc.
I may pick up a copy of Confessor once I've finished watching this paint dry, and if I do, I'll happily buy through Pat's link, rather than my own; it's a good cause.
~Chris
The Book Swede
I've actually read the first six, and couldn't read the seventh. So yes, I'm familiar with Goodkind's style and story.
I kept buying them, though, for I wanted to have the whole set. But I promised myself that I wouldn't read them until the series was done with. Which it will soon be...
Shit... I guess that means I'll now have to read them at some point!;-)
As for the whole Goodkind-bashing thing, I was never a very active member on the westeros thread. But somehow, Mystart pegged the "Lemming of Discord" label on me. Truth to tell, I kind of like it, so what the heck!?!:P
Pat mentioned previously that the first few books (I believe it was three) were strong, but then it just repeated Goodkind's philosophy without having much of a story.
I personally enjoy a little smirk at the Goodkind bashing... I couldn't even get through the first one.
When an author likw goodkind uses big words you all dont have to hate because you cant understand it
:)
* smirk *
Darn, was hoping there would be a competition... firewood is expensive
Ron: The first one was okay, with STONE OF TEARS being the best thing Goodkind ever wrote, in my opinion. Starting with BLOOD OF THE FOLD, it all went downhill from there...
Jonathan: My PHANTOM giveaway from last year wasn't exactly greeted with unbridled enthusiasm from readers of the Hotlist! Voyager Books would likely be interested, but I'm not going to request prize copies for a contest. If TG's publicist offers me some, then we'll see if I will go along with it...
I've actually read the first six, and couldn't read the seventh. So yes, I'm familiar with Goodkind's style and story.
Cheers for the swift reply, Pat. Once again, my intent was never to defend the author, nor attack your integrity. I merely support a better understanding of the reviewer whose opinion I so trust, for had you NOT read the books I'd have maybe had to think twice in the future about those you recommend avoiding.
Again, no hard feelings, Pat.
I think it's bad form for Patrick Rothfuss to bash other fantasy writers like this...
Haha, you'll never get rid of the Pat = Patrick Rothfuss rumour.
When I first discovered this blog I read on Pat's profile that he explicitly excluded TG from his favorite authors. So I did a little research, finding that he quit reading after Faith of the Fallen just like me.
Believe it or not, that actually increased my trust in Pat's opinion, because he was not afraid to say "I don't like it, and here's why".
Personally I think TG has no one to blame but himself, he took his series where it was never supposed to go. I won't be reading it but if you're inclined to let us know what happens after Faith of the Fallen I'd certainly be interested.
Folks like yourself, and the good people at Westeros, have saved me from drowning in a sea of deus ex machina, crappy writing and a plot hat is twisted beyond all recognition whenever Goodkind writes himself into a corner. Cheers Pat!
Don't feed the Yeard! Try the Goodkind threads on Westeros first!
i find that all his books were terrific. The first book was good and as i read more of the series it grew more intense, but what i liked about it is that it showed the growing of character and how they adapted to their enviroment.
The only one that kinda dropped my spirits was the blood of the fold, but the rest were great.
i find it a great read, plus he has a whole basis on the theory of magic, and how it affects other things. Now that is impressive.
when do you think the final book is out??
and whats it called?
heh, Not everyone likes styles of books. but Terry Goodkind is one hell of a writer. if you cant make it from 1-10 without getting confused..well sucks to be you.. ive read each of the series more than 10 times and im still not sick of it. I love these books.
aka
Strike_Force-Z@hotmail.com
His books are awesome, he writes well and the story is huge. You my friend are the idiot, the correct gramar there would have been AN idiot not AND idiot!! LOL. Very excited by the prospect of these books conclusion can't wait to read Confessor. Also advice, if you would like something else to read I advise Robert Jordan wheel of time, if possible his books are bigger and better than Goodkind's. Thank you Terry!
Haha, i love how people hate Goodkind.
Completely ridiculous really, since he's simply one of the best storytellers in the world right now. Sure, a few of his books seemed to loose the magic [if you'll excuse the pun] of the first 3 or 4, but things are seriously back on track with the Chainfire trilogy.
The second half of Phantom COMPLETELY restored all faith in Goodkind's ability to craft an intricate and perfectly complex world, and the fact that he can revisit what we thought we knew and understood from the first, and best, of the SoT series and turn it all on it's head is simply proof oh his ability to do what almost no other contemporary writers are capable of...which is to write an original and thought-provoking series with a grounding in actual reasoned understanding of life.
Seriously, if you are prepared to quit on what is a defining highlight of 21st century literature then more fool you.
(And yes, i do also read 'proper' literature such as Dante, Murakami, Dawkins, Dickens, Austin etc. And yes, i do still rate Goodkind's work)
I have read 3 of terry goodkinds books and am up to temple of the winds. I think his books are amazing so far and i would really like to know if it is worth continuing if it truly does go downhill from here? i would prefer it if a terry goodkind fan wrote back instead of a critic i dont wanna hear a whole bunch of useless insults.
oh and confessor is the name of the 11th book it was supposed to be released this november but i dont really know much more than that.
You don't need to be fashionable to find Goodkind unbearably dull - you just need be able to read at an adult level. I enjoyed 'Wizard's First Rule' and 'Stone of Tears', but the rest of the series has been little more than a soapbox from which Goodkind rants his personal life philosophy at the expense of character and plot. 'Confessor' is the perfect example of his self-serving, repetitive and flaky writing. The book stinks but was published anyway because of a slavish community of fans. The irony is that if they believed in Goodkind’s philosophy on wisdom and individuality, they would realise that he's s**t.
Forgive me, for I have sinned...
It wasn't until I got to the end of "Confessor" that I realized what trash this series has become. It started out well, and that sucked me in. When Richard could do no wrong, I let it go. When he started mocking the "Sisters" and their "Creator", I dismissed it. Even when TG used The Order to symbolize his view of Christianity, I tried to deny it. But I'm now in the last few chapters of "Richard the Great, reinvents the world", and I just can't take it!
I get it Terry! You don't like religion! We're all wrong and you are oh so right! We Christians are a bunch of skinheaded rapists with snake tatoos! We should be slaughtered for our faith and our inability to see your wisedom! You see REASON! Enough already!
I want the time I spent reading 11 volumes of crap back! Does that sound REASONable?!!
-The Converted
if you don't like terry's philosophy, don't read the books. why would you be mad at someone else when YOU took the time out to read something you didn't agree with? opinions are like assholes. everybody's got one. get over it. besides, it's a metaphor and as such is open to interpretation.
I happen to love the sword of truth series. TG tells a good story and the philosophy behind the books make the reading worth while. I suppose everyone can't sit down and read them but i can't get enough of TG. i guess it's different when you agree with the philosophy and take it to heart. I live by the philosophy terry has illustrated through his characters. his books arent simply a story. They are about nobility, truth, and the love of everything good and riteous... the love of life itself.
I would recommend these books to anyone who sees life as a gift and love as a treasure. Though i may warn you these books tend to foil concepts. meaning as much as TG's books illustrate the concepts of life, love, nobility, truth, etc., they equally illustrate the other side of the spectrum (evil, selfishness, deciet, murder, hatred, greed, ill-reasoning, etc.). It can be pretty graphic so if it displeases you to think of such things, don't read the books.
Rules of thumb:
1. Richard is always right, regardless the topic.
2. Richard is only wrong when he proves to himself that he's wrong.
3. Good guys have "I AM A GOOD GUY" over them and bad guys have "I AM A BAD GUY" over them. Some good guys are sort of douchebags like Mord-Siths but no badguy can be honorable. EVER
4. Richard defeats bad guy
5. Richard saves everyone
The problem with this series is only really lies with the fact that you know while you are reading it that all will be well, that Richard and Kahlan will kill Jagang and save everyone. That's terrible. It's horrible since you know that regardless of any amount of problems they get in, they'll be fine and all will be well. You can argue "Oh no, that's the nobility of man, and how they can accomplish any task". If you believe this your concept of the nobility of man is unrealistic and idealized. For example, a better ending of the series would have been Richard having a final battle and losing to Jagang (they can personally kill Jagang, I don't care as long as they lose The Grand Battle let's say) and it's Victor and people from the old world along with their troops who throw The Order down, and it's them inspired by Richard, who win the day in the end. But I guess the problem with this is that people are afraid of main characters dying, which is simply pathetic.
Another major problem with these books is that it forces the reader to be passive rather than active. What do I mean? No i don't want riddles or things to be confusing to make the reader "think", but
I want the reader to see who they should side based on the philosophies the characters chose. For example, no reader in their right mind will side with Jagang. Even if that reader is extremely Marxis, they won't side with the Order for the simple fact that they are all Rapist Pigs and are terribly evil. This is a terrible description of Communism. Had they had characters that were noble and on the Order side, now that would have been incredible. How is that possible? Let's take Sebastian from Pillars of Creation and not made him a prick and there we go. Now you are forced to decide for yourself who is evil and who isn't instead of Goodkind spelling it out for you.
I could go on and on about how bad this series got, but I'd rather not lol. I must say this series is thought provoking in the sense that it makes you think how bad a series can become and what not to do if you want to keep your integrity and be an author.
Ps: If your basis in stating that Terry Goodkind is a great author since he sold a lot of books, than that must mean that Twilight is incredible since it sold more and is much more popular.
Alright people i finished the series and I was "shit this book was wayy to preachy" so i looked to see if anyone else on the internet thought the same thing. Not only did i find that, I found an interview with the him addressing the issue. It's pretty jokes
Question: What, if anything do you have to say to the people that voice the opinion that you're latest four books haven't been as good as the previous four and call them "too preachy"?
Answer: Don't be fooled. The assertion made by these detractors is a note wrapped around a brick thrown through the window. These people are not fans. There are hundreds if not thousands of fantasy books that fulfill their professed taste in books. Why would they continue to read books they claim are bad? Because they hate that my novels exists. Values arouse hatred in these people. Their goal is not to enjoy life, but to destroy that which is good -much like a school child who does not wish to study for a test and instead beats up a classmate who does well. These people hate what is good because it is good. Their lives are limited to loathing and indifference. It isn't that they want to read a good book, what they want is to make sure that you do not. Ignore them.
LOL apparently i hate life since i think his book is preachy.
"There's actually very little to read today because more and more books center around characters who are either unremarkable, pathetic or reprehensible. I don't like authors who choose to tell stories about these kinds of people. I like stories about individuals who can show the nobility of mankind."
oh how great, so the best kind of heroes are the ones without faults. Also the idea that one could become the other is obviously retarded since heroes are born, not made.
also another question with best possible answer is
Orem Utah: What do you think distinguishes your books from all of the other fantasy books out there, and why should readers choose to read your series?
Terry Goodkind: There are several things. First of all, I don't write fantasy. I write stories that have important human themes. They have elements of romance, history, adventure, mystery and philosophy. Most fantasy is one-dimensional. It's either about magic or a world-building. I don't do either.
And in most fantasy magic is a mystical element. In my books fantasy is a metaphysical reality that behaves according to its own laws of identity.
Because most fantasy is about world-building and magic, a lot of it is plotless and has no story. My primary interest is in telling stories that are fun to read and make people think. That puts my books in a genre all their own.
So I guess readers who are interested in story rather than world-building and details of magic would have a good time reading my books.
Hmmm so using dragons, magic, fictional land, sorceresses with books called "Wizard's First Rule" is not fantasy. No it's own genre of "Goodkind Awesomeness". Huge distinction between them.
"People are stupid. They will believe any lie, either because they want to believe it's true, or because they're afraid it's true. Look around in this day and age, at the things people believe in. Look at these people who believe if they fly jet airliners into tall buildings, they'll get 72 virgins in another life. That's pretty stupid. And it's not just a couple of guys who believe this - it's millions of people who believe this!"
Holy Shit! Millions! wow you're either a racist douch bag that stereotypes a large group of muslim people for believing what fairly small group of people believe or we're all fucked since there are MILLIONS of terrorists that are planing to suicide bomb us with planes. Also it get's better
"Look at the war with Iraq. You basically had most of the world siding with a man who put human beings into shredding machines just to watch them scream to death. And they're saying it's wrong to stop him. This is that moral relativism I was talking about earlier, in which no culture, no country is any worse than any other, or any better than any other, and therefore we have no right to pass judgments. The United States is the only country on earth, in the history of mankind, that was founded on the principle that an individual has the right to live his own life. There's no other country that says a human being has a right to his own life. To this day, in any other country around the world, you are not allowed to say things against the state, because the state is considered above individual lives."
That's true most European Nations (Italy, Germany, France, England, Spain, Portugal) and Canada kill anyone who insults the government. You see our democracy works in a manner with a fixed ballot. You either choose option A or option B. If you choose option be you get shot basically right on the spot (sometimes they shoot you before hand for good measure) or option A is a tyrant who will kill you if you ever do anything to protest against him.
"One of the mistakes fantasy writers make is that they think if they throw some magic in, people will be astounded. If the color red, for example, existed only as a result of magic, what difference would that make? If your wall is painted red because you got the red from magic instead of red ochre, it wouldn't make any difference in your life. People throw things like that in, and what's the point? I never allow my characters to use magic to solve their problems. Some of their peripheral problems are solved through their magical abilities, but it's couched in terms of overcoming those problems in a thinking way. The major conflicts in the books are always solved through human intellect, through thinking out the problem and coming up with a solution. It's never "I'll just wave my magic wand over the bad guys and have them all fall down dead!"
Except in EVERY SINGLE one of his books that happens where jsut does wave his hand and unleashes a supernatural power that this world hasn't seen in 3 thousand years and is only King, ruler of an empire because of his gift and uses his abilities to kill a thousand guys in one go fairly often in the series. But those don't count.
i didnt even bother to finish reading all of the garbage comments on here. while a few of the comments were of good intent the majority of them were absurd. Goodkind writes about people's love of life and family and the values that are universally important to all of us. and hating on them because you can't mentally rise up to understand the higher moral values in life makes you no better than anyone. it in fact, makes you worse than anyone. and besides, who are any of you to bash on someone who has put in countless hours for devoted fans. and actually been successful at it.
I realize these reviews are quite dated, and quite honestly pathetic. How can I possibly take a review seriously when it is written by a person who Is completely without. Like TGs books, or not, there is no way anyone with any intellectual capacity would describe him as an idiot. I've read countless interviews with him on an array of topics and he proves each time to be quite brilliant and intuitive. I have no problem with someone not liking a book, but only a completely ignorant fool sits and writes a book review in which the only message is spewing venom about the author and judging his intelligence. That gives you no credibility as a reader, and simply makes you look like a judgemental, angry fool.
TG has new material out that is excellent. The First a confessor released last summer was fantastic and his new release The Third Kingdom will satisfy the concerns of those who felt the Richard and Kahlsn relationship was predictable.
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