Blood of the Fold (Sword of Truth) [マスマーケット]

I must say that I find Goodkind unique. I do feel that the story could use less violence because some of it is gratuitous. But I find his characters very real and touching. They are very easy to empathize with. I found myself actually crying with the characters.

Many fantasy authors I have read are fun to read but I have no trouble putting down most of their books (with the exception of Tolkien and Brooks) when I have to. Goodkind, on the other hand, keeps enough mystery in his series to keep you hooked. It's got lots of action and even romance, albeit a troubled one.

I see many of you complaining because the characters are flawed--some of them are really flawed.I really like this because if we're honest with ourselves, we don't always go around pure as the driven snow. Everyone has a really bad side to them even if they do have to dig deep to find it.

Goodkind has presented characters who are struggling to do what's right against powerful odds. Yes the Confessors are a strange group to belong with the good guys. But I don't think Goodkind is trying to present the 'good guys' as being perfect. He's saying, 'OK, here's somebody willing to compromise. Let's get a wedge in there and maybe we can change the whole system.' Kahlan is that wedge. Yes she is the Mother Confessor but she is very burdened by this and would like to change the way a lot of things are done. If some of you would read a litte more carefully you would realize that she doesn't like the way the Confessors have ! been operating. Another example of change is the way Richard is trying to influence those chicks with the torturing rods. He has also made quite an impact on the Sisters of Light. They are the scariest 'good guys' I've ever seen!

Goodkind's world is not always pretty. In fact, it's often downright ugly and scary. This makes it seem all the more real and fascinating. Perfection is boring.

Goodkind has created an entertaining series that is sure to win more and more fans. His characters are real and most are dynamic not static. He keeps the revelations coming on top of more mysteries. He presents a world, though superficially different than ours, that is actually quite close to home. But his protagonists are characters who can and do rise above adversity. They are not perfect and make their share of mistakes, but you love them for it. Why, because Goodkind has created characters we would like to be.

Thank you, Mr. Goodkind, for your series.

That said, this book was not up to the quality of the first two installments of the Sword of Truth series. First, the action sequences were too short and not well connected to the rest of the plot. But more importantly, by having his main characters spread all through his Old and New Worlds, not knowing what each of the others were doing, lead to a disconnected plot. There were simply too many unknowns, which despite the 600+ page length, were never meshed into a coherent story.

Finally, Goodkind spent far to much of the book first setting up the penultimate battle between good and evil--actually two battles--and then spent too much time setting up what were obvious tantalizers to the next installment in the series.

On the positive side, we did learn all about Gars and Mirswiths--making them seem like thinking, sentient beings rather than just creatures of magic programmed to be good or evil.

All in all, a good read--but definitely don't start the series here. Must read one and two first, or this book will be a waste.