Confessor

Sword of Truth #11

by Terry Goodkind

Descending into darkness, about to be overwhelmed by evil, those people still free are powerless to stop the coming dawn of a savage new world, while Richard faces the guilt of knowing that he must let it happen. Alone, he must bear the weight of a sin he dare not confess to the one person he loves…and has lost.
 
Join Richard and Kahlan in the concluding novel of one of the most remarkable and memorable journeys ever written. It started with one rule, and will end with the rule of all rules, the rule unwritten, the rule unspoken since the dawn of history.

When next the sun rises, the world will be forever changed.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Magic, Epic

757 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Terry Lee Goodkind was an American writer. He was known for the epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth as well as the contemporary suspense novel The Law of Nines (2009), which has ties to his fantasy series. The Sword of Truth series sold 25 million copies worldwide and was translated into more than 20 languages. Additionally, it was adapted into a television series called Legend of the Seeker, which premiered on November 1, 2008, and ran for two seasons, ending in May 2010.
Goodkind was a proponent of Ayn Rand's philosophical approach of Objectivism, and made references to Rand's ideas and novels in his works.

Reviews

[Deianaera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear Mr. Goodkind:

Thank you for putting this series out of its misery. Your desire to expound on black and white morality was okay for a while, got old in Pillars of Creation, and probably earned you death threats after Naked Empire. So, by comparison, the fact that entire pages of dialogue in every scene were dedicated to the same insulting diatribe that we've been subjected to for way too many books shows restraint on your part. One sign that you spent far too much time envisioning yourself as a moral philosopher and not enough as, you know, a writer, was the way you crammed eleven books worth of answers into two hundred pages. And, for answering those questions and leaving very little left undone, you get two stars. I'm happy, I know how it ends. The fact that the end of this series - which started off so promisingly and got so sidetracked by your holier-than-thou stapled on moral statement - was ended in such a hackneyed, deux-ex-machina riddled fashion just means I won't be picking up anything else you write.

No love,

me

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 1 out of 5]

At last! We've tied it up! (unless you want to go get the prequel Debt of Bones, I didn't)(Well and unless more books are released later and stumble out into the world like the results of Victor Frankenstein opening up an assembly line). We made it, Kahlan is saved (again) and Mr. Goodkind gets to pontificate seemingly endlessly about his views, beliefs, and the weaknesses and foolishness of anyone who disagrees with him. More of the book is dedicated to his dogma than the story.

But, I survived, with the help of library audio copies.

I liked the first few books in this series. When I picked up the first one back around '94 I hadn't read an epic fantasy I liked for a while and was glad to find it. there was a bit of humor and action. We got the "heroic" love story...the young hero hidden away by the old wizard and reared in secret by a foster parent...a magic sword (haven't I read those story elements elsewhere? Oh well). Anyway....

As the books progressed they began to, fade. First we hit a sort of formula. Richard loves Kahlan, Richard looses Kahlan, Richard and Kahlan will (for some insurmountable magic reason) never be able to be together again, "amazingly" Richard surmounts the insurmountable problem. You can only do this so many times thus the story began to branch out a bit.

Over time more and more however Mr. Goodkind gave more and more book space to his own ideas and beliefs. More and more his diatribes became a bit, vitriolic. Do you disagree with Mr. Goodkind's view of life and reality? Well, apparently you're an idiot, possibly a malevolent idiot.

The story here really takes a backseat to the lectures and by the time we get to the end, the climax, the answer to it all Mr. Goodkind is well wound up.

So, if you agree and so forth, why enjoy.

Why did I finish the series? I was trapped. I got started with my son and some friends. They were still plowing through them, so with the help of the library I finished, got closure and can now call my life my own again. Well it will be as soon as Brandon Sanderson ties up the Wheel of Time saga...I got trapped in that series to. (Since I wrote this that series to has been tied up...Free at last!) Another one that started out well and sucked me in!

As you read this if you can stay with the story as Mr. Goodkind ties the threads together (and you almost need a program for that as all the players from the other ten books get called into the action) you'll at least get an end to the story. Richard and Kahlan are back/still in love, Richard saves the day, repairs the world... of course spouting deep philosophical, political and semi-spiritual insights all the way/all the time as he does. He exiles the surviving "bad people" to a world where the people are ignorant of his (the is Richard's) wisdom and there is no magic. He also sends Chainfire to the new world to be sure there IS and will be NO magic. (You may find this "new/other world" sounds suspiciously familiar.) And so ending with yet another diatribe Mr. Goodkind closes with the Wizard's Keep as home for Zedd and the Sisters of light...and with Kahlan and Richard happy.

If this/these books are for you, enjoy. I can't really recommend them much past the first two or three.

[Leila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a lot to say about this book. I began reading Terry Goodkind's 'Sword of Truth' epic fantasy a long time ago with the first in the series. I loved it and continued to buy each following one he wrote with great enthusiasm. I read to book six and then moved on to other fantasy books. I was given this one from a friend as I was told it is the last in the series. I found it a disappointing end to a set of books which for me began so well.. Perhaps there are just too many in the series to maintain the same level of interest. The book is almost 700 pages too. I persevered but to be honest I'm glad I am finished.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

So if there was ever any doubt in my mind that Goodkind was using this series as a thin veneer for preaching his personal philosophies on morality and faith vs reason it was instantly expelled on reading this book. I stuck with this series the whole way through and the last few books in particular made me feel betrayed. This series could have been so much more in the hands of an author that could get over his own ideals long enough to write an actual plot there towards the end. Even the ending of the book and the series just seemed like another way to have his characters beat the same freaking ideas into the heads of his readers... again.

It's one thing for an author to slip his beliefs and ideas into the moral fiber of his characters and introduce it as an element in a story. That's fine, but when entire books in a series are basically dedicated to the characters rambling on and on and on about that moral structure which has been well defined repeatedly it rips you out of the world you're supposed to be experiencing and leaves you wanting to stick your head in a blender. It's not even that I disagree with his philosophies, I actually kind of agree in some ways, I'm just tired of freaking hearing it. I'm so disgusted after the ending of this book that all of the good scenes have faded away and all I can think of now is "Hello God. Please send Jordan back from the dead. I'll trade you Goodkind for him. P.S. I would like to apologize to all of the trees killed to manufacture the last few books in The Sword of Truth series. Thanks."

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished the Sword of Truth series!

So was it good? Was it more of the same? Was it kinda heavy-handed with the philosophy? Yes! To all of the above!

No, honestly, it was rather interesting, even with all the super-bloody-football games and the neverending chatterbox about life-affirming actions, trips to the underworld, tons of research and magical theory, and a war, another war, a siege, and a ginormous army getting ready to consume the last remnants of the logical and the reasonable.

In other words, it's an epic fantasy with an agenda. And you know what? I still don't mind the agenda. Ayn Rand lives on. :) And despite all the long-winded stuff, there was so much action, tension, reveals, and massive successes and failures to fill a book twice as large. And this was a large book. :)

I'm happy I finished. I don't care what anyone else says. :)

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It feels weird to have finally finished the original Sword of Truth series. It took me three attempts over the years but I'm delighted I've finally concluded the series and think that on the whole I've had a decent time reading it. It had its flaws but despite them it was still an engaging read most of the time. I think this final SoT instalment was a decent one that ended the series on a high note!

The SoT series was an early favourite of my teen years and likely one of the fantasy series that helped me fall in love with the genre as a whole. I never did finish SoT back in the day as life got more hectic and I lost track of the series while waiting for the last batch of books to get written and published. I always meant to finish the series though and had an aborted attempt to do so around 2007 or 2008 that ended poorly. I ditched the series after the second or third book as it was not holding my interest and was definitely not living up to the hype of my teen memories. I think that looking back I blame Brilliance Audio for my failed second attempt at SoT. I'd just made the switch to audio and SoT is one of the most abysmally treated series in that medium. The series gets lumbered with multiple different narrators which kills consistency of character interpretation and to make matters worse every single narrator chosen by Brilliance Audio absolutely sucked. It was a disgrace! My second experience with the series was so negative that I was convinced I was done with the series for good. What convinced me to give SoT a third and final go was reading Law of Nines a few years back. I'm not suggesting it was anything special but it was readable and fairly entertaining so that convinced me I should give my old fave a final shot! I'm glad I did as over the course of the last 12 months I've really enjoyed making my way through the whole SoT series. The flaws have been more apparent to me now than they were when I was a teen but, for the most part, they did not hurt my ability to enjoy the series! I rate this as a pretty solid 90s style epic fantasy series. A pity the truly epic in size fantasy series seems to have gone out of fashion a bit as I did love these giant fantasy series.

This final SoT instalment was a fun one. The penultimate volume of the series, Phantom, was one of the series weaker instalments but this final book avoided (or limited) most of the things that I did not enjoy while reading Phantom and that meant we got a lot more of the stuff that makes SoT a fun read and a lot less of the stuff that annoys me! It had a few repetitive story arcs (pretty much every main character got abducted at one point in this final book in true SoT fashion lol) but avoided the worst of the flaws that killed Phantom a bit. This had a lot less of Richard's preaching and our heroes were mostly fitting against the villains in smaller scale battles so it was easier to root for them since they were not doing anything particularly awful. It is SoT though so some of Goodkind's nonsensical prattling made it into the story. It was the cause of some eye-rolling moments for sure but I honestly believe that we got less of it in this one than we did in the last bunch of SoT books. The stuff we did get mostly came at the end and did not last overly long by SoT standards.

Richard and Kahlan got most of the focus of the story as one might expect but I felt like the rest of the characters got a decent amount of screen time as well. Nicci was probably the pick of the bunch as she got plenty of POV time. I've quite enjoyed her story arc over the course of the series. Outside of that Goodkind did a decent job of including most of the other characters we have met over the course of the story so everyone got a conclusion of some sort. Even the evil Princess Violet popped up again! I was happy with the way the story wrapped things up for most of the characters.

This final book did have a few flaws. The first 75%-80% was good but the last part of the book definitely felt a little rushed. The various final conflicts were also a little anticlimactic. Not that one should expect any different as this was a trait that was true about all the SoT books right from the start. Goodkind is great with the set-up and has the ability to tell and engaging tale but he never quite nails the big finale scenes. They always feel very rushed and a tad anticlimactic given all the build up. It is not the outcome of the wrap-up that is at fault, as that is usually quite satisfying, but more the manner of how the big final battles themselves play out. I liked how this story wrapped up the SoT series and thought the end happenings were fairly satisfying but will admit that the final battle against Jagang and the stuff with the Boxes of Orden felt like they just sort of fizzled out rather than being anything that was truly exciting and epic. I cannot complain too much though as I feel like the post-final battle conclusion we did get was a good one and I'm happy with the way the series as a whole has ended. I've had a lot of authors botch the endings to their series over the years so I'm glad this series went out in a satisfying fashion!

All in all I was happy with this final SoT story! I might pick up the sequel series at some point if I can rustle up the enthusiasm to suffer through a return to the Brilliance Audio version of the audio's but I'll take a break for a bit for sure.

Rating: 4.5 stars.

Audio Note: I've went with the N.L.B versions of the SoT series for this whole reread and Nick Sullivan has been fantastic with them from start to finish. He really breathed life into the story and was fantastic with the character voices. A truly great performance.

The commercial version of Confessor was narrated by Sam Tsoutsouvas. I did not even bother to give this one a go despite the fact that I do actually own it. Sam Tsoutsouvas is a monotonous bore and his lifeless performances of the story makes it all seem like such a chore to listen to. Brilliance Audio should be ashamed of themselves for their consistently shitty treatment of the SoT audio productions.

[J.M. Brister · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Review of Confessor by Terry Goodkind

Rating: Five stars

Edition: Hardcover

Genre: Fantasy

Wow! I don't believe it's all over! I finished this book in two days and lost a little sleep finishing it up last night, but it was well worth it. I'm a huge fan of Terry Goodkind and the Sword of Truth series. I've really enjoyed following Richard and Kahlan throughout the series.

For the most part, everything tied together with the first book, although some parts could have been edited out. My husband didn't like most of the middle with Richard and the game. But I told him he's silly because I liked it. It was like in Final Fantasy X when you stop the whole game just to play some Blitzball...doesn't really move the plot, but it's just so darned cool. And the ending was nice. Yay! Richard and Kahlan are so cute. My husband can tell you, I get distressed when they are apart, which means I was distressed for the last two or so years. I had to go back to some of the earlier books to not flip out.

Oh, and Gratch was back in the story, which made me smile. I actually stopped reading and jumped up and down. Okay, you can tell I'm a Goodkind geek.

[Ly · Rating 1 out of 5]

The culmination of years of mediocrity and bland repetition. TOR Fantasy has sunk to a low level indeed, in agreeing to bank on the latter half of this dismal series. I don't know what happened to Terry Goodkind over the years, but whatever afflictions lay at the heart of his deteriorating talent as a storyteller and wordsmith, I will never again pick up another book he writes. For the record... Wizard's First Rule was Brilliant - I'll never dispute that. But I am glad that this snake-oil roadshow has finally ground down to its anti-climactic end.

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, this was actually a pretty good conclusion to the interminable Jagang plot arc. It brought back some familiar faces I love and spent more time doing interesting plot things than soapboxing. A few too many sports scenes aside (did Goodkind discover rugby or something?) this was relatively enjoyable and a satisfying end to things.

[Ru Viljoen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard: Don't you see!!?? Reverse inversion of the psuedo-chainfire , while simultaneously transposing elementary quasi-tokens. Yes!!!!

Cara: So its like, We give em money for omelettes?

Richard : Yes cara, hah hah hah you silly mordsith, you seem to understand the principles involved, but your way of putting it really makes me chuckle.There is more to it, but no time, gotta trot.To the silph mobile!!!

also

Richard Travels to the underworld-------Trip was success

Richard: By skipping the description of events I have got way more time to chat to you guys about this philosophy of which I heard.

Goodkind keeps those plot twists coming, has you on your toes and it was a quite um spellbinding.

It is humorous how he sets up a parallel world which could easily be the origin of our earth, while also getting in a quick one-two on christianity.

At least I got closure, and it is good to see an author devote a bit of time to events after the final battle. Makes one feel more satisfied with the end of an 11 book saga.

Torn between 2 or 3 stars, the book was bad but I enjoyed it...

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing happened for 70% of this book and then everything happened at once. I'm still not sure how I feel about this ending even though I finished it back in October, but it feels good to be done! I started reading the Sword of Truth in the summer of 2009, and have now finished it in fall 2020. That is a long-ass time.

I'm sad to say for the corner of the internet that has looked forward to my reviews of these books, I will not be continuing on with this series (the only books I might possibly be tempted by are the Nicci books, and that would be a loooooong way down the road). Also, this review might be a bit of disappointment compared to past Sword of Truth reviews. Not only did I finish Confessor months ago so my memory is fuzzy of details, even though I didn't really like this book, I didn't really find anything particularly outrageous or objectionable in it either, not more than I'm used to or was expecting to find from Goodkind, anyway. I think I'm just numb to him and his shtick at this point.

(Part of me also has to admit that I feel much worse about ragging on Goodkind's writing now that he's just recently died. I started the book pretty soon after he died, actually, and that also may have affected my reading of it.)

The things that have always bugged me about Goodkind's writing also bugged me here, so you can go back to previous reviews if you want elaboration on that. I don't want to bother with it right now. Mostly, this book was meh and unmemorable in terms of plot and story structure, and it deus ex machina-ed and cliched-up the ending as much as possible. I had to go to Wikipedia to refresh my memory before I wrote this review and then I rolled my eyes all over again about how it all turned out. It was all pretty empty, in the end. I would honestly have preferred an ending where Richard goes full Ayn Rand to what happens here, which is that he creates a new world to banish all the followers of the Order to so he doesn't have to deal with them and so that Goodkind doesn't have to deal with resolving the conflict between the two ideologies in any other way than "Richard is 100% right and shouldn't have to deal with this shit". They take out Emperor Jagang in the most anti-climactic way possible. Nothing is learned by any of our main characters, no changes or evolutions in their characters are made. They are exactly the same as when this whole thing started.

Of course Kahlan and Richard, tragically separated, are reunited again. Goodkind pairs up several characters romantically that we have no stake in just because he probably thinks that's what's supposed to happen at the end of stories (Adie and Friedrich, really?) The only reason I cared about Cara and Benjamin is because I like both of them from the TV show. The books have done almost nothing to make me care about them as a couple. It was just all very predictable and pointless. I mean, seriously, what was the point of this series? What was it all about? I don't even know and I read all eleven books!

(I'm fully aware the books that follow this basically fall into all the same patterns as the original series, and undo all the work done by this ending.)

At its height, for me, this series was something so batshit and out there it was entertaining, and there was something basically appealing about it. But these last few books have really just kind of let the series go out with more of a whimper than a bang, despite the promise I found in Chainfire, which was the best book in the series following Faith of the Fallen. None of that promise was really built upon or realized.

I wish had quippier or more damning things to say about this book and series, and in the end I'm not unhappy I read it. But I don't think it's really going to stand the test of time, unlike it's contemporary, Wheel of Time. In the last ten years, fantasy has really boomed in terms of creativity and output, and you can find much better fantasy books and series to spend your time with than this one.

[Eric Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

TL;DR All in all, from about the 60% mark in the book all the way to like the 98% mark of the book, it's actually kind of excellent. There is a lot of good action, some very powerful character moments. It's generally well paced and written, with real dramatic tension. But the first 60% of the book is a terrible drudgery of repetition, recaps, and just general boring shit no one cares about going on. The last 2% is a rage inducing diatribe on Goodkind's simplistic and childish vision of black and white morality, and then it sweeps all the world's problems under the rug, by way of one of the most insulting and lazy uses of Deus ex Machina in literary history, so the good guys don't actually have to confront and deal with them. I can reccomend it to anyone who has made it this far and wants to see how it ends. It is vastly better than the several books that came before it, but it also has many of the same problems. If you can put up with the first half to get to the last half, you'll probably enjoy it.

Looking back at the Sword of Truth series as a whole, now that I'm done rereading it, I would say that Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, and Blood of the Fold are great books, but not without their flaws, and they are definitely not for everyone. Temple of the Winds and Soul of the fire are bad, but they are kind of in the laughably bad category. If you're someone who likes stuff that's so bad it's entertaining to laugh at it, you'll probably enjoy them. Faith of the Fallen, in my opinion is excellent, and the best book in the series. Pillars of Creation, Naked Empire, Chainfire, and Phantom are a terrible drudgery to get through. They are badly written, do not understand even basic human behavior or emotion, repeat themselves into oblivion, tell rather than showing, and recap previous volumes in the series to a ridiculous degree. The first half of Confessor is garbage, but the last half is actually very good, except for the very, very end. Everything after Confessor is a boring chore to read, and no one should ever even attempt to do so, in my opinion. In short though some of the series is worth reading, the majority of it is not.

There are spoilers past this point.

So I cracked this book open, and only three paragraphs in, I rolled my eyes and sighed. Yeah. It's gonna be like that. Just the sheer pompous arrogance of the writing alone was worth a sigh and an eye roll. I can tell up front that this is going to be another 600 pages of nothing but Terry Goodkind stroking his own dick. 3 chapters in, and, well, ridiculous repetition in the dialog, and just so many unnecessary recaps of previous books. As the thought of writing out a real review in my old format for this book fills me with dread and disgust, I will do what I did with the several previous books in this series. Post my notes while reading.
30% done:

Okay. So, Richard playing sports at the beginning of this book. There's a reason that a lot of people dislike the holodeck episodes of Star Trek, the SJW stuff in The Last Jedi, and the Quidditch in Harry Potter. When you get right down to it, we are watching Star Trek to see Star Trek characters doing Star Trek things. We're not watching Star Trek to see Star Trek Characters acting out Sherlock Holmes, westerns, Jane Austin, 1920s detective stories, etc. That's why few people enjoy those episodes. It's the same for the SJW stuff in Star Wars. We don't watch Star Wars to be lectured on social equality. We watch it to see Star Wars people doing Star Wars things. And the less said about Quidditch in Harry Potter the better. Needless to say, we do not read Harry Potter for sports, and neither do we read The Sword of Truth for sports either. Do you kind of see the point I'm getting at here? You've got a world on the brink of destruction. The last bastion of safety for freedom is under siege by an enormous and threatening army, Richard has lost his powers, the Boxes of Orden are in play, and he has one year to find the way, Kahlan's fate is hanging in the balance as well. And what do we do for the first third of this book? Why, we watch Richard play sports, of course. Because why wouldn't we? This is kind of not why we're reading The Sword of Truth. Just sayin'. It is hideously dull, and so out of place. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the games described to us are eye-rollingly melodramatic.

Meanwhile, Zedd and Nicci have spent the entire first third of the book monologuing at each other about magic. Which is also not exactly entertaining either. Notice I do not say talking to each other. Neither of these characters is talking to anyone. They're just recordings set to repeat the same three or four lines off into infinity. They're not talking to one another. They're talking at one another, because neither of them hears a single word the other says. Neither of them listens. Neither of them reacts to conversation like a real human being would. They just keep bringing up the same points, over, and over, and over in big circular monologues that do about as much good as a dog chasing its own tail. Neither of them seem to be nearing any sort of point, as of yet. They're stuck in a repeated dialog loop about the Magic of Orden with no end in sight. Can none of these characters just, for once, spit out what they want to say in a single sentence without every other character in the room asking them to repeat that another 73 times just to make sure they got it? Cara did have one or two pretty good lines in there. She almost seemed like she was an outside observer, as I am, and having none of the repetition either.

Ha! There. I found a new way to say that this book is insanely repetitious. Because, honestly, I feel like I'm doing the exact same thing Goodkind is in bringing it up so often. But I can't not bring it up, (yes, I know that's a double negative. Sometimes bad grammar is a good way of adding emphasis, so long as it isn't used constantly... says the man who hasn't bothered to spell check or read back any of this to find all of the grammar and punctuation mistakes... =P) because it so permeates every single chapter of this book, that it's impossible to talk about what's wrong with it, without bringing up how much it constantly repeats itself. It is so pervasive that literally every single page of this book so far has fallen victim to it. It's a problem on such a deep and fundamental level of the way this book is written that it is constantly popping up, wherever you look. Honestly, I don't know how an editor would have fixed this. The entire book would ahve to be rewritten from the ground up. This is why editors are normally involved in the early stages of the writing process, to weed shit like this out before the book progresses to a point where it's impossible to fix. Someone either wasn't paying attention early on, or didn't care enough to even attempt the epic struggle of getting past Goodkind's ego to try and talk him into doing things a better way.

And while Zedd and Nicci are monologuing at one another, with the occasional amusing input from Cara just to brake (yes, I know I used brake instead of break. That was intentional.) up the insanity inducing monotony, Kahlan spends a great deal of time thinking about how she would really like trip that guy who she doesn't know (Richard) into her bed, because he's just so hot. Okay, I'm not going to say that there aren't women that shallow in the world. There are a lot more men that shallow, but that's another story. But come on, man. This is Kahlan. She's NOT that shallow. It's like Goodkind is trying to have it both ways. He wants Kahlan to have had her memory completely erased. And he wants her to be in love with Richard. Sorry, pal. You can have one or the other. You don't get both. And so, she does come off as pretty shallow here. If you eat your cake, it's not still sitting there on the table for you to have.

Basically, what the point of all this ranting boils down to, is that you can pretty much just remove the first 30% of this book and be all the better off for it.

60% done:

So, the conversation between Anne and Nicci... There is so much wrong with this single conversation that I don't even know where to start. I guess I'll go with character continuity. Anne is not Anne. Goodkind hand-waved this away two books ago by saying that since her memories of Kahlan are gone, so, too, is some of her character development. That could have been a very good way of illustrating what the world is like without Kahlan in it. BUT--and this is a VERY big but--you still have to remain consistant with the character she was BEFORE that particular piece of character development happened. This Anne IN NO WAY resembles the Anne from Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, and Temple of the Winds. She lacks the personality, the intelligence, and the general feel that this is, in fact, the same character.

Next, here's the thing about this entire conversation, we've already done this exact same conversation with Nicci and Cara back in Chainfire. The exact same ideas are expressed. The exact same conclusions are come to. And what makes this time even worse than being the exact same conversation happening again is that this is AFTER everyone has come to believe that Kahlan actually exists. This is a completely superfluous conversation that serves no purpose to story or character. It's just a rerun from a previous season to fill time in the schedule.

Next, Goodkind went into PAINFUL detail letting us know, earlier in the book, that since the Magic of Orden was created as a counter for Chainfire, and Nicci invoked that magic, she can now remember Kahlan. She can't remember details, or events surrounding Kahlan, but she can remember that she existed. This conversation, which takes place AFTER that event, conveniently forgets that fact. Nicci acts, thinks, and speaks as though she still cannot remember Kahlan, and still doubts that she even exists. You can't go into excruciating detail to tell me that she remembers, only to have her act, a few chapters later, that she believes LESS that Kahlan exists than she did at the start of the book!

Next, Anne was always against the boy wizards at the Palace of the Prophets indulging themselves with women. She says she always hated the practice, but too many of the other sisters believed it worked for her to abolish it. And here she is, upholding that idea as though she has firmly believed in it her entire life.

And finally, good god, would someone PLEASE tell Terry Goodkind that tension in dialog does not come from that dialog repeating 8000 times? PLEASE?!?!?

Jagang's treatment of Nicci seems a little out of character from the man we've seen in previous books. Yes, he is a brute that will beat and rape her. But the way he loses his temper over even the smallest things. Jagang has been portrayed as cold and calculating up to this point. A man with a temper that can still see reason and rein his emotions in easily. A man who does things for reasons, and doesn't let his emotions rule over him to the exclusion of good sense. Here he's just a rage fueled maniac that rants and screams, and can never think of any other way to solve problems or win arguments than ranting and screaming. This is not the same character that we've seen in previous books, and we've been shown no relevant character development for him to suggest that he's started unraveling and losing control.

80% done:

Okay, so, more sports. Whoopie. Don't care. Goodkind seems to be under the impression that this is entertaining, interesting, and engaging. It is not. Oh no, Richard's, uh, friend is a real strong word. Richard's acquaintance dies? But why! He was so........ there. To be honest, this guy was not a character. He was a loose collection of male stereotypes wrapped around a pile of expository dialog. And Goodkind expects me to give a crap when he dies? Nope. Sure don't. Damn, he was only two weeks from retirement, too. Why did he have to wear a red shirt that day and make those plans to go home and get married? Hasn't he seen ANY '80s action movies or '60s sci-fi TV series about a talking slab of ham in a uniform that was the source of an actual term used to describe a certain type of bad acting?

And now for something completely different. The next sequence in the story is genuinely great. It's a sequence of several action scenes with a few mystery solving and dialog scenes to break them up. It's well written, extremely well paced, and it all blends together into a very entertaining hundred pages or so. There are stakes to the action, characters we know and love die, other characters are captured and taken away, the action is well described, exciting and tense. There are several "FUCK YEAH!!!" moments. There is little to no repetition. It is a genuinely entertaining sequence of events spanning the beginning of the riot, to the Blood Beast attack. Why wasn't the rest of the book written like this? If Goodkind could craft such an enjoyable escape, why didn't he craft an enjoyable rest of the book?

So, Rachel's escape with the Box of Orden was, basically, completely pointless. Six steals it back with ease, and Rachel ends up back exactly where she was to begin with. What was the point? Oh, so Goodkind could put the Box of Orden into play for Richard? Seems a very thin excuse for wasting so much time on the storyline. He's shown no qualms in bending or breaking rules he's made about the way things work in his story before. Why didn't he just do it here, and have Nicci put the boxes into play fro Richard without needing one in her possession? It would have saved us Rachel getting from point A to point B, then point B back to point A. In other words, it was a lot of wasted space in the story for nothing of value.

And then Richard sits around and thinks about how his magic works. In excruciating detail. Remembering times it worked and times it didn't. And how he has no idea how to make it work most of the time. Which is then ruined by him immediately going and doing a bunch of magic from books he nad Nicci are studying. Uhuh. Setting aside the fact that we already freaking know how his magic works. We've had it repeated to us enough times that we damn well better. Stating that Richard doesn't know how to use magic, and then immediately showing him to be very comeptent in its use is pretty jarring and inconsistent.

The repetition and recaps rear their ugly heads here too. I've complained about these things so much, I think y'all get it by now. Just be aware that it's still happening, and it's still terrible.

100% done:

Okay, so, the last 40% or so of this book is actually pretty good. We go from that escape sequence after the riot Richard and jagang start into Richard trying to figure out how to win, and doing all of his prep work for opening a Box of Orden. Richard traveling to teh Underworld to retrieve all of the lost memories, getting attacked by the beast, and popping out back with the Mud People, then rushing off to Tammarang to get the book, find Kahlan, liberate a dragon, and fly back to the People's palace. And then, he completely owns Jagang and the Sisters of the Dark by outsmarting them like he did in the first book. I really liked that. Richard rarely wins on his own intellegence and abilities. He normally wins via Deus ex Machina, which is very unsatisfying. All of that is pretty good. There are a few patches where the writing grinds to a halt so that it can needlessly repeat itself, but the recaps of previous books in this section are actually relevant to the plot, so they get a pass. It's well paced. It has real dramatic tension. There is real emotion. Honestly, it's like night and day between this and the first half of the book. It actually feels as though it was written by a different person.

I do have to say that how Richard defeats the Blood Beast is really kind of lazy. The Blood Beast, in general, I think was just pretty lazy in its implementation from the beginning. It never seems like its a real threat, just a mild annoyance. It's almost like Goodkind had a great idea for a monster, and then couldn't figure out how to make it work with the story he wanted to tell, and so it just shows up in slow patches to move the story on to the next stage. It's almost like he felt like he couldn't be bothered to include the Beast in a more integral role to the plot, and set it on the back burner, then dispatched it with a an almost contemptuous ease. It was just a very lazy monster, used in a very lazy way, and defeated in an equally lazy way.

So, Jensen is here, because reasons, I guess. She doesn't really belong in this story, frankly, and including her in it, just because, seems a little distracting. Goodkind does nothing with her until the very, very end, and I'll get into that BS in a moment. She's been a completely superfluous character ever since her story ended, and she should have been left out of the rest of the series, in my opinion, because she adds nothing of value to the story in any way.

All right, now we get to the ending. I have always felt that Jagang's end was very fitting. The problem with it is that Goodkind pats himself on the back far too much during and afterward. Oh, he goes into excruciating detail on how amazing he is for having thought of it, and he rubs our faces in it until they're raw. He couldn't just have it happen, and then say nothing, which would have made it that much more powerful and memorable. No, he has to go on and describe what a genius he is for giving Jagang such a fitting end at great length. It really feels far too much like Goodkind taking a victory lap, and giving everyone in the stands the finger as he jogs by.

And then Richard opens the Box of Orden. I felt that this was actually very clever, having the key be the Sword of Truth, rather than any of the books. It kind of bookends the series, beginning with Richard recieving the Sword of Truth, and ending with him realizing what the sword's true purpose has always been, and using it for that purpose in the end.

And then the bullshit happens.

I have long called this ending one of the biggest cop outs in literary history. And it really is. Richard uses the power of Deus Ex Machina to take all of the people in the entire world that do not agree with him, and sends them to a completely different world, cut off from everything, including the afterlife. A protagonist is supposed to win by either utterly destroying the antagonist, in this case a set of beliefs, or convert the antagonist to his side. Richard does neither. He sweeps the problem under the rug and pretends it's gone forever, and starts singing "The Sun will come out Tomorrow". It's lazy. It's unsatisfying. And Goodkind takes this opportunity to preach like he's never preached before. I'm afraid that the simple fact that the world is not black and white utterly destroys all credibility this ending might have had. But Goodkind just doesn't seem to understand or care.



Continued in first comment.

[Paul Weiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where were those editors when they were so badly needed?

It's difficult to say whether CHAINFIRE is the opening book in a trilogy or the ninth book in the now aging SWORD OF TRUTH series. (By some readers' reviews, "aging" is a rather kind characterization ... many have called it tedious and repetitive). In any event, to briefly summarize, Lord Richard Rahl is the sole survivor of a battle in which a troop of soldiers is brutally massacred by an unknown and, indeed, unseen enemy capable of enormous ferocity. When Richard recovers from his near fatal wounds with the help of sorceress Nicci's use of the all but forbidden subtractive magic, he discovers that he is the only living soul who remembers his beloved wife Kahlan, the Mother Confessor. All of Richard's friends and compatriots - Cara, his Mord-Sith bodyguard, Nicci the sorceress and former Mistress of Death, Verna and Ann, joint prelates of the Sisters of the Light, Nathan the prophet, the witch woman Shiota, even wizard Zedd, Richard's beloved grandfather - are convinced that Richard has lost his reason.

Worse yet, because Richard feels he must devote what remains of his life and energy to finding his beloved wife and rescuing her from whatever fate has trapped her beyond the world's ken, he has also reached the decision to not lead his weakened D'Haran troops in a final battle against the almost limitless hordes of the advancing Emperor Jagang. He has also traded his Sword of Truth to the witch woman Shiota for one critical scrap of knowledge ... the word "Chainfire", which he will discover in his travels is the name of a long deeply hidden spell capable of literally unraveling existence itself. Without Richard's leadership and the Sword of Truth, prophesy dictates that the free world is doomed to fall to Jagang and the Keeper of Death.

PHANTOM, the rather bloated and sadly repetitive second instalment of this putative trilogy is based on Richard's relentless search for his beloved Kahlan, whose very existence has been erased from the history and memory of his world. Kahlan is now in the hands of Jagang, the evil emperor (who along with a very small handful of people throughout the breadth of Goodkind's SWORD OF TRUTH universe is still able to see her). Richard who has also lost his command of the magical gift has fallen into the hands of the D'Haran Commander Karg. Everyone in sight is trying to locate the powerful Boxes of Orden, the only known magical counterspell to the Chainfire spell which, it is now known, is flawed and is slowly destroying all magic in the world.

CONFESSOR, the eleventh novel (yes, you read that correctly), at long, long last winds the series up and, to Goodkind's credit, effectively ties up all the loose ends. I don't think it will constitute a spoiler or an overwhelming surprise if potential readers know up front that it's a happily-ever-after-all's-well-that-ends-well conclusion. The slow destruction of magic by the chimes and the blood taint of the pristinely ungifted is resolved. Richard and Kahlan are re-united and the Emperor Jagang is defeated in a suitable climax. Richard, of course, has recovered his Sword of Truth. The Sisters of the Dark and the Sisters of the Light receive their just rewards. Zedd happily retires to the role of an aging wizard. Cara, indulges her realization that love is possible and so on.

I'm not sorry that I read the series nor am I sorry that it took almost a decade of waiting and reading effort to finish it. But it's a sure bet that the series would have been much more effective in half the length and with some serious editing.

As I closed the book on the final page of this monstrous series, I realized with a smile that I still enjoyed it. I haven't seen any other reviewer mention it but I also thought that Goodkind had done a pretty darn good job of creating a fantasy version of the explanation for the European medieval world being forced to suffer through the bleak, anguished period we now call the "Dark Ages". You NEVER know ... it could be the truth!

Paul Weiss

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The journey has ended. The quest is over. The last page has been turned. Yes, that's right, 161 days and 8,432 pages later, I have completed Richard and Kahlan's legacy. Back in January, I wrote a book review for Wizard's First Rule and, now that the series is over, I thought it only fitting to write a review for the final installment: Confessor.

Sword of Truth Series: Confessor

Confessor is the end of a three-part finale (Chainfire, Phantom, Confessor), which is a mini story amid the gigantic series. In Chainfire, Richard wakes up from an injury with Kahlan gone and her existence erased from everyone's memory. Since then, Richard has been racing to get Kahlan back, reverse the spell, AND save the world. As the finale unfolds, Kahlan (without her memory), Richard (without his magic), and Nicci are all captured by Jagang in different parts of the enemy camp and Jagang with the Sisters of the Dark have the Boxes of Orden. Here, the characters' individual strength and nobility shine even amidst unimaginable defeat. The plot line provided the author a unique opportunity to show Richard and Kahlan falling in love all over again, without ever having the luxury of a proper conversation. It explored what it means for Kahlan to be an individual apart from her upbringing, memories, duties, or past. The reader reaffirms that her intelligence, reason, convictions and abilities are her own and that our faith in her and in her love for Richard is justified. Exploring this side of Kahlan was the perfect move. While it was always easy to love Kahlan, because we see her through Richard's eyes, these final installments gave us a glimpse of how truly remarkable she is. When getting to know her in Wizard's First Rule, Kahlan was constantly bound by duty, prophesy, and her responsibility as a Confessor. It becomes very difficult to separate what she is doing because of her own convictions and what she is doing for the sake of the quest (think of the moment she was giving Richard away to marry another at the Mud People's village). Also, she always had her title and authority to back her up. Now, she is stripped of everything, not responsible for anyone but herself, and yet she manages to successfully fight for the innocent (Jillian) and triumph over evil (even in just small ways). Most remarkably, the series came back to Kahlan as the central figure (I have said this from day one but feel free to argue this point, my sister adamantly disagrees). It seems fitting that, while is was she that came searching for Richard in Book 1, Richard needs to find her in the end in order to save the world.

The eleven book series comes full circle in Confessor, paralleling the story from Wizard's First Rule and resolving all the conflicts we have encountered until now. It is truly a remarkable accomplishment considering that Richard was able to solve all the problems--the Imperial Order, the prestinely ungifted, the taint of the chimes, the sisters of the dark, and Kahlan's lost memory--all in one swoop. That is not to say that this resolution was too quick or underdeveloped. On the contrary, Goodkind has been setting us up for this finale since day one. Reflecting most on the first book of the series, the reader learns that the plot for Wizard's First Rule was a miniature mock up of the events concluding the series. The plot came down to the Boxes of Orden and the Sword of Truth, but now that Richard and the readers have matured, the plot is revealed anew.

Ultimately, it is the growth that Richard and the readers have developed along the way that makes this finale epic and appropriate. Since Wizard's First Rule, the series has evolved exponentially, and what was once a simple struggle against a tyrant became a battle between worldviews and a complex lesson in magic. The final moments reveal that the story was always about the Boxes of Orden, a struggle that was introduced in Book 1 but was never fully resolved. In fact, it was this struggle that was falsely resolved but ended up spawning the rift in the veil, awakening Richard's powers, and eventually unraveling the entire world. It is appropriate that the battle come back to this moment because over the course of 11 books, Richard has taught us the value of life. The lessons learned created a rock-solid philosophy valuing life and the Boxes --the magic of life-- are the key to preserving that life and resolving the conflict. The final cherry on top was Sword of Truth being the key to the Boxes of Orden. Until Nicci discovers that Richard memorized a false copy of the Book of Counted Shadows in Phantom, the reader went 9 books thinking this was the key to opening the Boxes. But giving even more meaning to the series title, the Sword was the true key to the Boxes. A weapon of death was the key to the magic of life, emphasizing that life and death are always in balance.

[Kyndall · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will say this, I think Terry Goodkind is the mother of all deus ex machina's.Pretty much all of his books end up with some kind of magical or coincidental savior. That being said, I have most of these books in hardcover.The first three or so were golden, and then it went a down hill from there (although I did also love Faith of the Fallen).

It's just, where to begin?

The whole Chainfire book was awful. This book was also awful. Instead of feeling sad for either Richard or Kahlan you are just annoyed that everyone else so stupid. They've been fighting this huge Empire for books and books now, and you're expecting Richard to come up with some extremely clever way to beat them and then it all just comes down to this statue and he sends them off to a different world. It just felt like such a cop out, I was angry about it for months. I should have realized there was a reason these last three books were always on the shelves at used bookstores.

I will probably never re-read this entire series. I will always stop at book 3, and then skip to Faith of the Fallen.

[Nik · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series degraded quickly. What started out as a raw and realistic twist on standard high-fantasy fare, became instead a series of violent rape fantasies, unnecessary violence, and philosopipolitical pablum.

Why was I reading it, you might ask? Well, I put some time into the first five or so books, so when I saw the last one was on the way, I figured I'd catch up for a little summer reading.

I've had better ideas.

This book gets an extra star because it ended the series. Way to go!

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm glad this series is finally done. The first five books were truly great works of fantasy, but midway through the series, a transformation happened. Goodkind abandoned any subtlety he once had, abandoned any willingness to let the reader think about the lessons to be gained from his stories, and instead bashed the reader over the head with a stream of Ayn Rand objectivist diatribe. Continuously. I resolved to stick this series out, based on how good the first half was and based on a desire to see it end (in contrast to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, a series of similar length that I had abandoned before picking up Goodkind's books). Plus, there were times when his later books approached the grand storytelling of the later ones.

Goodkind's total rejection of all competing ideologies is among the most narrowminded writing I've seen. And, I don't think he even succeeds in making the case for objectivism, as it is only in the context of a world-threatening evil empire, devoid of any redeeming qualities, that his point can be made. Even the Communists (philosophically, they seem a partial inspiration for this foe) were not that bad.

[megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was truly an amazing book. Terry Goodkind's imagination is amazing, and his ability to write and create is astounding. I really liked how old characters came back - Gratch, Gregory, Ulic, and Egan. I've stuck with Rihard and Kahlan since the beginning of their journey - and now it's the end. Goodkind's books have so much depth; if you really sit down and look at everything, break everything down, you realize that these things happening in Richard's world are similiar to the things happening in our world. This series has helped me so much in life; it taught me how to live, and gave me the motivation to live my own life. It made me understand the true meaning of freedom. This book was a great ending to a great journey; and I have to admit I teared up more than once while reading this book!

[Joe Upshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

The entire Sword of Truth series was perhaps the best continuing story I have ever read. Goodkind manages, like few others, to create an entire realm replete with multi-dimensional, imperfect characters decribed using language that is both precise and concise and yet dripping with immediacy of meaning.

That said, I know that I seek a peculiar mix in a book so, for others, your mileage may vary. I want adventure and fantasy but, ideally, I want these to serve as vehicles to deliver an underlying philosophical system. Terry Goodkind has done this.

As the stories in the series continue, you see an objectivist philosophy reminiscent of that originally made popular in the novels of Ayn Rand. However, Goodkind transcends this earlier philosophy by solving many of its problems. Goodkind does place the value of one's own life at the center of his moral framework (as its highest cause) but, he goes beyond this to create a moral system that allows one to sacrifice, even one's very life, for principles beyond those of direct self-interest. It allows for true, interdependent love (and even for children ;-).

These characters will be missed and I will never be the same after having read them.

[Ocean Maisey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a good ending to the series.
Richard continues to stick to his believes and values. Even when faced with extreme measures.
Kahlan is such a strong woman and I admire her a lot.
Nicci killing Jagang was the perfect way to end him. And the way Richard banishes the Imperial Order to a whole other world was unique.
Also Cara and Benjamin's wedding was beautiful and made me cry. I loved to see the Mord-Sith blossoming under Richard's rule.

[Manda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goodkind's prose is profesorial, condecending, and distractingly repetitive. the plot is abserdly convienat. i skiped over any time the characters speak of the motivations for actions or decisions to limit the pain this book caused me.

in the end, richard allows jajang to open the all powerful boxes of orden. richard know that the power will not work because jajang is acting out of hate. richard uses the boxes out of JUSTICE!!!! JUSTICE is good, so he is not destroyed. creates a parallel world for all the people who believe the tenants of the order; who put do not suficiantly value life and freedom of choice and responsibility of one's own actions. he also denys all these people an afterlife. he literally distroyes the souls of an intire nation.

the people who are born without any magic whatsoever decide to live in the new, soulless world too. Richard has taught them the vaule of life, and for some reason this mean that they do not want to corrupt richard's magic world with their spreading lack of magic.

the chainfire spell ensured noone remembers where they came from and the chimes distroyes all traces of magic.



hey! wait a sec!!! is Goodkind trying to describe how he sees reality? what whit! what insight!!!

once the order's people settle in, they won't hund down the non-magic people, they won't blame this minority for every concevable problem. that is not how nature works.




Previous comments:
please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over, please be over

update: i lost the f'n book and now must wait for the library to give me a copy. This series hates me and the feeling is mutual. why do i do this to myself?

Update: found audio book. please be over

Update: f'n finally done... i fear i may have read this book before, but i cannot be sure. the repetitive nature of the writing paired with the predictability of the plot means i could simply be antisipating plot point not remembering them. I only wanted to finish the book to discover what hapens to the characters i remember reading about as a kid.

as expected, richard is preachy. ever so preachy. in the past, when i have read philosophy text book i always found the passages hard to follow. The utterly high mindedness combines with the lecture like pacing and condesention. this causes my mind to go blank. the texts, once i coud decifer them usually revealed interesting ideas, or concepts that i had not considered.

[Sam C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okies well I'll say that I liked the book it was enjoyable. But I didn't think it was great really. It started off VERY SLOWLY, with the first two hundred pages or whatever being all these magic theories and whatnot being explained o us in very simple terms, meaning one theory or whatever took them like 20 pages to explain and i will say that I didn't appreciate being viewed as a retard who didn't' get it from the first page or so! But that's just me!

And as I said the beginning was slow, it didn't grip me at all and I kinda had to force myself to keep going even though my mind was wandering so badly. It was just a little disappointing seeing as how the rest of his books generally suck you in from the very beginning.

But that aside, the book really picked up and got more actiony and gripping about halfway through and I was flipping pages like you wouldn't believe! Usually I'm not really caught off-guard by thins that happen in books, a few of the twists he chose to make really did take me by surprise so that was pleasant!

So despite my whining about the beginning, I really did like the book and thought that it was a good conclusion to the series, it may not have been as good as some of the other books in it (like the first or sixth) but it did manage to draw the story to a close in a believable and interesting way. I honestly didn't really see that ending coming, I had no idea how he was going to solve the whole giant problem but he pulled it off nicely if a little quickly! It was also cute, if not predictable, how he brought all other characters from the beginning of the series into the ending to tie it all up.

So yes, as a whole the book was not disappointing as an ending to the series. I still think it lacked a bit of oomph to make it a great book but it was a good read! =)

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say that I wasn't as impressed with this book. Maybe my expectations were too high. I feel that it became too preachy and didn't really focus as much on the characters as the others did. After all, we've read 10 books BECAUSE of these characters. I understand the message that he is trying to send but I think that it all wrapped up a bit too neatly for my warped tastes. I will miss these characters though.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give up. I find myself liking the characters less and less, and like Jordan he seems incapable of finding the conclusion to this quest.

[Darkphoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this series accidentally and started it almost on a whim and, more than once, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to finish the series. Well, I finally did and while the series is far from perfect, it is a lot of fun with fascinating characters, a rich world and some very interesting themes.

Confessor is the final part of the Chainfire Trilogy and marks the end of the Sword of Truth series, so as with most finale books, I had certain expectations. More often than not, I am left feeling a little disappointed but Confessor was the perfect ending to the entire series. The previous books set up a number of problems for Richard to face: the Kahlan’s absence, the Chainfire spell, Jagang and the Imperial Order and the Sisters of the Dark working for the Keeper of the Underworld. Most of them seemed insurmountable especially with the odds stacked firmly against Richard. As things stand, there isn’t a lot going on that’s in Richard’s favour, he no longer has the Sword of Truth or access to his Gift, to make maters worse, he is in the clutches of the Order. At the same time, the Order has marched right up to the doorstep of the People’s Palace and the D’Haran forces attacking the Old World are being attacked by a sorceress working for Jagang. Did I mention that Jagang had captured both Nicci and Kahlan? So by all indications, the world was doomed and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the Order crushed the New World forces and established their own rule with their twisted beliefs.

And yet, even in the face of impending doom, the characters still fought and they still had hope. They decided that this was their life and if they were going to die, then they would die fighting. As with ALL of the books in the series, the pace of the narrative was uneven largely due to the fact that Goodkind insisted on a complete and very detailed recap every time we came across a character from the past. I kid you not, all of the books would be considerably shorter if these recaps were cut out, they are redundant and serve no purpose except to drive the reader insane. I ended skipping them entirely and I think that’s partly why I started to enjoy the books again. Overlooking those parts, the overall pace of the whole of Confessor was frenetic making it close to impossible to put the book aside for even a little while.

The Sword of Truth series is violent and bloody. Throughout the series, there is always some war or battle going on and as with most real wars, the worst off are the women and there is a lot of violence aimed at women in the series.
There are plenty of scenes and situations that feature graphic and gruesome descriptions of the state of women and one only has to look at how often Kahlan and Nicci are physically abused to get a sense of the brutality, Goodkind doesn’t gloss over these parts and while the descriptions are definitely unpleasant (case in point the condition of Galea when the Imperial Order attacked the kingdom in Stone of Tears and once again when Galea is sacked again by the Order, especially the fate of Queen Cyrilla) they only drive home the seriousness of the situation. What makes this series different from most other series that I’ve read is Goodkind’s attitude towards mercy. This is something that struck me very early in the series. There are many instances throughout the series that highlight this attitude. Goodkind leaves no room for misinterpretation when it comes to this. For instance when Samuel tries to rape Kahlan, she manages to Confess him after which he pleads for mercy, her response to his plea is, “Mercy is a contingency plan devised by the guilty in the eventuality that they are caught.”
There are quotes like this throughout the series. And this is something that I was happy about. Goodkind did not beat around the bush where this was concerned. His characters acted according upon this ideal countless times throughout the series. And given just how brutal the Order was or Darken Rahl before them, it was not an attitude that I had any problem with.

The other thing that struck me was just how immersive his battle scenes were. I felt that I was right there in the thick of things with Richard and Kahlan. What I also liked that when we read Richard’s POV during those battles, his attitude remained no-nonsense. He was all about efficiency and killing his enemies as quickly as possible, it was not about theatrics or dramatic sword moves. Even the Dance of Death was just that, it was about being committed to the ‘cut’ and concentrating on that alone. The fight scenes were some of the best-written parts of the series.

Richard has come a long way from when he was a simple woods guide in Hartland. He is now the ruler of D’Hara as well as most of the New World. He was our eyes in this strange and magical world. He was the most relatable character in the series and he has certainly come a long way through the course of the series. In the beginning, he was almost always in denial when it came to either being the new Lord Ralh or with regard to his magical abilities, which quickly became tiresome. Thankfully, in the last few books, he came to fully accept his role as the Lord Rahl as well as the only War Wizard currently in existence. More than that however, it was his ability to inspire people was what made him a truly remarkable character. It wasn’t so much that he made grand speeches, but he made them question what they believed implicitly and inspired them by his own actions.

Kahlan is certainly my favourite character in the series. She was amazing and absolutely kick-ass. In the beginning, I was a little wary and disturbed especially with that whole ‘a Confessor can’t take a man she loves as her mate’. But thankfully, that wasn’t a problem with Richard and Kahlan. What I loved about Kahlan was her inner strength and her strength of character that even the Chainfire spell couldn’t erode. Even with all of her memories missing, she still possessed her inner strength and her will to live even in the face of all that brutality at the Sisters and then at the hands of Jagang. Even though she doesn’t remember who she is, she still manages to save Jillian and kill numerous Order soldiers with nothing except her own intelligence at her disposal. Even before that, she single-handedly led the much-smaller Galean forces against the Imperial Order and emerged victorious and when Richard was stuck in the Old World with Nicci, she galvanised the forces of the New World and let an attack against Jagang and again succeeded in causing the Order lose soldiers in the tens of thousands, Zedd’s thoughts on the subject, “Zedd thought that if war was madness, madness had just found its mistress.”
Not only was she a very powerful Confessor but she was also a formidable tactician and leader. What made me very happy with Goodkind was that he never diminished her character in favour of making Richard appear more powerful; he also added more dimensions to her personality as the series progressed. She was a very well rounded character who still seemed human and therefore very easy to relate to.

I loved how devoted Richard and Kahlan are to each other they were. They fell in love in the very first book and since then there have been countless obstacles in their way, but their love never wavered. Part of the reason for that was their respect for each other. They both held deep respect for the other and that was what made them a force to be reckoned with. With the Chainfire Trilogy and Confessor specifically, we once again see them fall in love. Their love story has always been an integral part of the series and it was fitting that in the final book, we came back to their love story.

The other character that quickly became one of the most important characters and another one of my favourites was Nicci. She started as a Sister of the Dark (one whom even other Sisters were wary of) but she saw the error or her ways and decided to join Richard in his quest against Jagang and his Order. She was also in love with Richard but she never tried to seduce him or lead him away from Kahlan, in fact, she agreed to help him even when she wasn’t sure whether Kahlan was real or simply a figment of his imagination. It was also amazing that she was uber-powerful, one of the most powerful sorceresses in the world. She not only became a loyal ally but a trusted friend.

The other characters almost took a backseat towards the end. Sure we still saw plenty of Zedd, Cara (another favourite), Berdine, Nathan, Ann, Verna among others but they contributed little to the story. I feel that I must get this off my chest, but I hated Ann till the very end. That whole conversation she had with Nicci where she tried to convince her that she should take advantage of Richard’s loneliness was one of those moments where I truly hated the woman. She was being wilfully blind, seeing only what she wanted to see. She sought to control Richard first by manipulating events after he was born and now she was trying to do that again. Kahlan was right when she told Ann that it was her own meddling that created all their problems, high time someone told Ann to keep her nose where it belonged and to stop meddling in other people’s affairs.

Rachel and Shota had more important roles to play this time around. Rachel has also come a long way from when she was a frightened little girl in Tamarang. She has found a loving family with Chase and has become a strong and brave young woman. When she is again captured by Violet and Six, she uses her head to escape and also helps Richard regain his gift. Shota also plays an important part, she orchestrates the events so that they help Richard and eventually kills Six helping Richard, Kahlan, Zedd, Rikka and Tom escape and reach the People’s Palace in time.

The Sword of Truth series was fun and very entertaining and definitely worth a read. Goodkind raises some serious issues and handles them well and doesn’t shy away from them. He also doesn’t dumb things down for his readers. The series though somewhat slow paced at times is well worth the effort of sticking around to see things through. Confessor was a worthy end to a thoroughly engrossing and thrilling series. I plan to read the Richard and Kahlan series as well but I think I’ll wait for the final book to come out which is in November this year, so the wait won’t be too long.

[Monique Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could have skipped the last couple of books straight to this one.

[libvertif · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10

[Kara Babcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might as well just call this book, "And everyone lived happily ever after."

I acknowledge that I may have some sort of sadistic streak in me to want the author to kill off main characters, or at least have something bad happen. Whenever it looked like someone we cared about was going to die, I cheered (thank you for staying dead this time, Ann). The fact that Goodkind broke all the rules he established does not impress me. However, I suppose that was his goal from the start--the theme of the book, and the series itself.

Honestly, overall the series was not as bad as many made it out to be. When I started reading it, I read about the series. Most people focus on Goodkind's use of Objectivism. I agree that it's there, and in some places, it is very annoying. In some books it overwhelms the plot, but most of the books have a good story to them.

As a writer, Goodkind is not my cup of tea. His characters tend to give long speeches. Moreover, as I mentioned above, I am tired of everything working out happily ever after for the good guys. I did not form enough of an attachment to either Ann or Warren to really feel sorry for their deaths. If Kahlan had died, or if her memory hadn't been restored--that would have been respectable. And I'm not just mad because no one died. The ending itself was contrived to grant everyone happiness: Rachel somehow being of royal blood and therefore now the Queen of Tamarang? Adie just happening to fall for Friedlich? It felt a bit anticlimactic--sort of like the ending to Harry Potter (which I didn't actually read; I just read the spoilers and that was good enough).

This last trilogy was very interesting. I enjoyed the Chainfire spell and its integration into the use of the boxes of Orden. Even though it was a bit of a deus ex machina, Richard's use of the Sword of Truth to operate the boxes of Orden made sense.

Judged purely on the merits of its story (and not its themes, which as others say, are heavily entangled with Objectivism), The Sword of Truth series is not bad but could be much better. Many of the characters are very interesting: Richard is a compelling and admirable protagonist. But sometimes the plot seems to nudge them ever so slightly if they get off track; sometimes the story isn't paced right.

The entire series reminds me somewhat of The Wheel of Time, including its length. I could not get past the third book of The Wheel of Time--in the case of this series, I've read all eleven books because my coworker lent them to me sequentially. Had she not done that, I may have consigned The Sword of Truth to the same category in which resides The Wheel of Time.

If you have a summer to spare for these like I did, then give them a try. Do not clear your schedule, however.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you made it this far into the series, the last book of The Sword of Truth, then I give you my praise and my condolences. Mostly condolences. If you want to burn the entire series or sell them on ebay or skeet shoot with them I will not blame you. The series itself started off strong; it was initially a very pleasant read with a great set of characters and an interesting plot line. 11 books later and I'm convinced that the books could have just been a trilogy and life would be a shiny ray of sunshine on this day of completion for little ol' me.

If you're going to buy this book I can only assume that you've read the others and so if it means spending another 10 dollars to give you peace of mind, then go for it. Otherwise, live with yourself without knowing how it ends.

Kahlan is still a phantom, wandering around with only a few people able to see her, and Richard is torn between, I dunno, twelve different tasks that all need to be completed by the end of the book. In typical Goodkind fashion, everything is resolved by a stroke of luck, some quick thinking, and in the last couple dozen pages of the novel. Even so, the book drags on as if it were a living organism and has decided that it will doggedly continue no matter what the reader wishes. It's, in a word, a drag. I honestly had my fears that the story wasn't going to end in the last few pages, but thankfully it did.

I don't want to make this sound like it was like pulling teeth, but it was certainly like having lead boots. I gave two stars because at the very least it's still a story, it's still written fairly well, and it comes to a neat little conclusion at the end which ties up this long, drawn out series. I think one star might be out of the goodness of my heart, though.

The book itself is a far cry from the first and Goodkind's 'holier than thou', dogmatic, preachy attitude consists throughout the pages of the story, until the very last one actually. It attempts to be circular, but relies on old ideas for plot development that he had when he first started the series which completely ruins the tale and the excitement of the book. Literally, if you've read the first book you don't have to read this one. Therefore, to me, it's a waste of dead trees and time.

[matejcik neasi · Rating 1 out of 5]

yeah, so basically the first 200 pages are a very elaborate and very boring setup (pretty much every single goodguy is captured or at least harmed), which then melts down into a complete and utter chaos, every remaining bit of logic vaporizes, and at the end it's pretty much "and they lived happily ever after because i said so dammit".
there were some very nice moments and very good scenes, but sadly, the author decided not to elaborate on those (i'd sure like to read more about Jagang in his new role as Nicci's prisoner, but that's just me...) and instead concentrate on that objectivist crap.
in fact, i have no doubt that the whole Chainfire trilogy would fit into one short book if it didn't repeat some things over and over.

oh and that part where Richard suddenly "figures it all out" from reading an empty book? oh come on, you can't be serious.
i mean, these kind of revelations are often fun, but in this case there really was no underlying logic and no clues to support his conclusion.