January 10, 2009 Archives

I finished reading the eleventh, and final, book in the Sword of Truth series last night.

One of the complaints that my friends and I have levelled at the series is the amount of repetition that you were subjected to in previous books. How many times does a reader need to be reminded that Richard is a Woodland guide from Heartland, that Kahlan is the Mother Confessor, that Nicci used to be the Slave Queen / Death's Mistress? It wouldn't be so bad, and perhaps even understandable, if we were reminded once per book. It would give newcomers to the series the opportunity to know who was who without reading the earlier books; although why anybody would want to jump into a series of books mid-way through. The problem has always been the fact that Goodkind seems to think his readers have a ten minute attention span and need constant reminding of who is who.

With all that being said, Confessor doesn't suffer from the continued repetition and the story moves along at a very nice pace. I started reading the book on Wednesday evening with 10 chapters. I read a further 10 on Thursday evening. I read a further 5 on Friday afternoon and intended to read another 10-15 on Friday night. However, I got thoroughly engrossed and ended up reading the final 40 or so chapters all in one go. As one of my friends has since pointed out the ending has a wee bit of a surprise in store; enough of a surprise that a lot of reviews that I have since read have lambasted Mr Goodkind for the ending. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the book, and the surprise twist was in some ways rather appropriate.

I'm a bit disappointed that the story of Richard, Kahlan and their friends has now ended and will be looking for another series to sink my teeth into. In the meantime, I will enjoy The Legend Of The Seeker TV series and will read a couple of standalone books that I have not previously got around to reading.