Product Description
Book Four of The Sword of Truth, the series first begun in Wizard’s First Rule, returns listeners to the world of Richard Cypher, a simple woods guide who never dreamed he would be named the Seeker of Truth and become caught up in magic, war, and dangers so extraordinary that the fate of his entire world would hang on his actions and decisions.
The dangerous, fanatical Imperial Order, under the leadership of the power-mad Emperor Jagang and his multitude of demonic underlings, unleashes a deadly plague. To find a cure Richard Cypher and his beloved Kahlan Amnell must seek out the legendary Temple of the Winds, a fortress of evil sealed away for three thousand years. But the path of the Seeker of Truth is never an easy one – even if he can reach the Temple at all, there is no guarantee he’ll ever return.
Book Fiend @ 7:45 pm
While I am an avid fan of Terry Goodkind and I await each book with some anticipation, I must admit that this book was a little…windy (forgive the pun, please). The beginning was a little slow, and was it just me or did anyone figure who the sicko was w/in the first 5 lines of the first murder scene? The evidence was placed in this person’s belongings too soon and the excuse they made was a little pathetic. Couldn’t the evidence have shown up later in the book, just to sort of throw the reader off, and delay the eye-rolls?
Anyway, there were also sappy love scenes that sort of made me want to put the book down. I understand Goodkind may have been trying to evoke some sympathy for Richard and Kahlan’s frustrating (and overly drawn out) wait to complete and consummate their love, but the stolen-kiss scenes sort of dripped with sap. Also, Richard’s dealings with Kahlan and with the lords and delegates from different countries were a little drawn out and preachy. His long philisophical explanations, and Goodkind’s seeming need to continuously refer us to Richard’s “raking raptor gaze” and Kahlan’s “sparkling green eyes” and tight, white, regal Confessor’s dress, get repetitive and you end up skipping large chunks of the dialogue. The stubbornness of the main characters will at times frustrate you, and after all the waiting and yearning and restraint the main duo has endured, how could the writer snatch away the sanctity of their first union by turning it into such a horrid experience? It was so terrible, it worked. That part just killed me…
But after all this passes, the book begins to pick up and roll with the formula that made Goodkind’s first book such a riveting story. He did a good job at evoking irritation and murderous inclinations towards a new character, Nadine. There are parts that draw out giggles and appreciation for the humorous and angry sides of Richard’s loving personality and seemingly deep well of patience with stupid or insipid characters. And again, I must stress that, for the typical female, Nadine will boil your blood. The scenes involving the sick children and some of the characters close to Richard dying, were just enough to make me misty-eyed (I am a sucker for well-described death scenes).
It also made you appreciate the love, devotion, and trust in the developing relationship between the Mord-Sith (mostly Cara and Berdine) and Richard. The overall story is good and you’re able to forgive some of the flaws in this book. Richard is still one of the best characters developed in any science fiction I ever read. Goodkind makes him a handsome, strong, sensible, likeable, and intelligent hero, but at the same time he allows Richard to make mistakes, admit to them, and learn from his mistakes, without making apologies and enemies. In other words, a man that will never exist in real life.
Asystole @ 10:05 pm
I enjoyed the first three books in the series. However, I’ve read about 500 pages into the 4th injenction and I must say it has some good points, but not nearly enough to fill out the amount I have read so far. He’s beginning to be very redundant; not just about reiterating events from pasts books, but even the ideas fairly indigenous to this book are just about beat to death! I don’t think I care to even finish the whole thing, its just too boring and lacking overall.
With this, like Robert Jordan’s voluminous series, I think you can put only so much into such a hugely continuous story centered around the same characters, and not have it peter out eventually.
... @ 10:10 pm
I was forewarned that although the first few novels in the “Sword of Truth” series are pretty entertaining, that the series gets stale fast, and becomes almost unreadable the further in you get. After just finishing “Temple of the Winds”, I have to wonder if this is where that slide begins. The story itself isn’t BAD, per se… it’s rather formulaic, with a magical plague and the hero needing to stop it. He’s got a pretty good war brewing with the Old World Imperial Order, and an interesting foe in the Dreamwalker Jagang. Where this story really fell flat for me was in the constant bickering, the incessant apologies, the melodramatic dialogue, and the rather ridiculous (and repeated from book 1, and book 2, and book 3) “plot twists” that fate, and every other character keeps throwing in to try and keep Richard and Kahlan apart. Really, when it came down to the requirements for Richard to enter the temple, the story became pretty ridiculous.
Those significant complaints aside, the story still moved along pretty quickly and had a good deal of action. For that reason I do give it 3 stars, but the dialogue and melodrama really started to get to me around the halfway mark of the novel. I have yet to read book 5, so I’m not sure where he picks up from this point, but I definitely thought that this was a step down from “Blood of the Fold”, and I hope that Mr. Goodkind loses the “everybody’s trying to keep Richard and Kahlan apart” plotlines in his future work.
jasonreid@pobox.com @ 11:13 pm
A lot of people prefer to get into arguments when talking about Terry Goodkind’s work. But the simple fact is that if you want to read Robert Jordan, you should go read it, and the same applies to Tolkien. I read Goodkind because I like Goodkind, and any complaints I have aren’t because I also read other works. As to Temple of the Winds, this is perhaps the weakest book in the series so far. I’ve always thought the biggest problem with these books is that it looks as if he set out to write a stand alone novel, only to have it become so popular that he was asked to do sequels by the publisher. The proof of this in my mind is that nowhere in Wizard’s First Rule is there and mention that it’s Book 1 of the Sword of Truth series. But, conversely, Wizard’s First Rule and Stone of Tears sat very well together. Blood of the Fold was thinner, but here in Temple of the Winds, the first real knots start to come undone. Significant characters pop into this book out of the main characters pasts, having never even been alluded to before, and as is Goodkinds most irritating wont, these turn into red herring plot lines that endup being closed again before the end of the book. Meanwhile, little or no progress seems to be happening with the furthurance of the supposed current main plot point having to do with Lord Richard Rahl’s battle for supremecy over the Dream Walker Jagang. Without the hype and without the comparisons to others, this was the least satisfying of the series. I WOULD recommend it to anyone who asked, and will continue reading the books myself, as I’m a big fan, but I can’t see myself re-reading this book over and over again, as I do with the previous three in the series.
Anonymous @ 12:46 am
If you liked the first three in this series, don’t think for a moment you will like this one. If you didn’t like the first three, this one you will hate. Basically, having written three books, the author decided to take a break in this one and write sheer and utter nonsense. The first 100 pages is a complete joke, inane conversation abound, written as if by a high school child. Worst of all, it’s unbelievable BORING. It’s as if he’s paid by the word and he just sat down and started rambling. Page after page of childish, boring conversation between the characters. It’s UNREADABLE. I cannot believe the editors let this be published as is, shame on them.