Phantom (Sword of Truth) [マスマーケット]

Hear me out; everyone seems to be writing glowing reviews for this book and I am not going to be one of them. Read on though, at least try and appreciate a different viewpoint.

I have been a fan of Terry Goodkind from the start. I consider myself well read in this genre of fantasy and have bought each book the day it came out with great anticipation. The last few books have been, to say the least, mostly disappointing and have failed to capture the magic of the first few books. I kept my peace after reading them, hoping and expecting that he would come out with a book to redeem himself and set the storyline on course again. And so I eagerly awaited Phantom; Chainfire was good, not great, but good and I had hoped that Phantom would get to it again.

Not so. I have a number of issues with the book, so here they are.

First Minor Issue - Everyone is painstakingly, ravishingly beautiful. Got it Terry, no more needs to be said. If I read one more time how beautiful and heartbreakingly gorgeous (but deadly at the same time) that Nicci is, I will scream. Or put down the book and be very upset.

First Major Issue - Life is sacred. Got it. No really, I get IT! I am tired of the pedantic drivel that spouts out of Richard (and now other characters) at will. I thought Faith of the Fallen was a monumental piece of work, that was the truly last excellent, innovative and thought provoking book Goodkind wrote. In trying to continue to tirelessly hammer home his quasi-religious ideological "life is worth living" theology, the book really starts to lose drive. Every time Richard pauses for breath and talks to someone, I know that somewhere in the next few pages he is going to start preaching about how sacred life is and how people have the choice of living life free, blah blah blah. I can appreciate a theological tone to a fantasy novel, used correctly it can certainly be a vehicle for adding depth to literature. TG is driving it so hard though in this last few books, that it comes out as tired and fanatical - like something I would see on TV at 1:00 in the morning begging me to see the light of Jesus.

Second Major Issue - I have a guilty secret; I still enjoy when they discover new things about magic. But on top of that guilty secret is that TG is a very self serving writer and has destroyed his own credibility in the world he has created. I am tired (again) of having monumental odds placed before characters and they somehow find an obscure magical reference, are able to save the world (or the situation) and life moves on. This is not realistic. Magic in itself is not realistic! But the way in which magic is implemented and used should be realistic. Magic is not (and should not) be a catch all that can solve all problems, is the crutch in a time of need, etc. TG uses magic here as a crutch for moving the plot; he had some good plot twists in this book but whenever he seems to dig himself a hole and can't get out - Whala! A new form of magic, a new spell, a new way of looking at a thousand year old problem and Richard has his solution.

I would go on, but I won't. Overal (if you haven't read it yet) the book moved the plot forward towards a final batter/confrontation with Jagang and the end of the world (read Tarmon Gaiden), the characters rush around (it appears) aimlessly, but some grand finale is being planned. A ton of new magic is discovered, and hidden depths of the first Wizard Barracas are explored.

Interestingly enough I enjoyed the book. I was up late last night finishing it and couldn't put it down. Some of the old excitement has once again entered back into TG's work. But I felt I would be remiss if I didn't point out the glaring issues in his work. If people want to congratulate him on the best book ever written, have a ball. I hope you have an open mind when reading this, at the end of the day I am a Sword of Truth fan and have all of his books in hard cover and will continue to buy them when they come out. I think TG has some great energy and I am awaiting the last book to come out - but this does NOT excuse poor writing.

Terry Goodkind's latest novel in The Sword of Truth series is quite a bit shorter than the previous installments. Weighing in at a mere 587 pages it wouldn't even counter-balance a single gallon of milk. On the up-side, this means that he has given us roughly the same amount of plot as his other books (not counting Wizard's First Rule) by merely cutting back on his infamous 10-page-at-a-time interspersions of philosophical meanderings. Actually, if you want to skip the philosophical bits entirely, they were all lumped together between pages 114 and 215. The rest of this book is all action, and very exciting.

Let's see... Without spoiling the plot, here's the basics you'll want to know about. Scenes with Jagang remain as graphic and unpleasant as ever. Rachel makes a return appearance after too long an absence, and remember wicked little Princess Violet from Wizard's First Rule? She's back, badder than ever, and has a new tongue in her mouth.

Very enjoyable book, but I think the last sentence might have been the most exciting: "BE SURE TO LOOK FOR THE NEXT AND CONCLUDING BOOK IN THE SWORD OF TRUTH SERIES." I know - an 11-book series seems like a strange number to conclude on, but I need closure, so I won't complain.

To those readers not familiar with this series, I recommend going in order starting with Wizard's First Rule. However, Goodkind does insert enough backstory throughout Chainfire to make it possible to understand what's going on if you start with just the first book in this concluding trilogy. (*note* I had originally written that you could start with just this book, but on thinking about it, that would probably be a bit too confusing. The amount of backstory in this book was much less than Chainfire, and served mostly to help me remember the details I had forgotten since I last read a Sword of Truth book 1 year ago.)

In brief, the series goes as follows:

Wizard's First Rule (first and best in the series)
Stone of Tears
Blood of The Fold (plot of the overall series is introduced)
Temple of The Winds
Soul of the Fire
Faith of the Fallen (Best book other than Wizard's First Rule)
The Pillars of Creation (recommend skipping)
Naked Empire
Chainfire (first book in the concluding trilogy)
Phantom
Final Book (name not yet known)

Since I've read the previous 9 books in this series, I felt obligated to read the 10th. Ever since "Faith of Fallen" (Book 6), I've felt this series has been on a downward slide. Phantom continues this slide. It has several glaring problems:

1. Goodkind's philosophy lacks depth and as a result, the long discussions on the value of life are tedious and repetitive: OK, we get it, the Order is bad. In this book, the first two hundred pages is mainly a monologue on how bad the Order is. Truly, no army or society could function under the system the Order has created. The Order is absurd. As best as I can tell, the Order is now a mixture of Sado-Communism-with Cult of Personality thrown in for good mix. And yes, we understand that life is sacred. All the characters now spout the same unending drivel about the sanctity of life. Yep, got that too. I get it -- I'm pretty sure I understood all this by the end of Faith of the Fallen but now 5 books later, I'm still beat over the head with it. The philosophy is pretty one-dimensional at the end of the day. Life is valuable vs. Life is not.

2. Goodkind is strangely fascinated with sadism, especially rape and child abuse: this book is rather sickening in its continual description and emphasis on the mistreatment of women and girls.

3. Goodkind has no concept of how actual armies work: We're supposed to believe that the Order's main armies is "millions" of men strong moving in one massive blob. Of course, it's supplied by an agrarian society and relies on horse drawn wagons to carry its supplies over hundreds of miles. Supplying an army that is larger than the combined size of the Union and Confederate armies of the Civil War (and pretty much any army, pre-WW2) with horse drawn carts and no true industry is downright ridiculous. This army would starve to death or, more likely, die in large numbers from massive dysentery or other diseases -- the Order which practices no hygiene whatsoever seems remarkably disease proof.

4. Monologue: One word says it all. Characters no longer talk to each other, they just preach or go on for endless pages in monologues. Even the extended discussions on the workings of magic border on the ridiculous. I miss the days of witty banter between Zedd and the other characters or real discussions between the characters.

5. Richard misses Kahlan: in case you don't know this, you will be told this every other page or so that mentions Richard. Heck, just walking around and breathing causes him to miss her. It's ridiculous after a while.

5. The plot feels increasingly contrived: VERY MINOR SPOILER, but a major character faces the threat of rape and avoids it through a plainly contrived plot device.

6. Philosophical inconsistency: MINOR SPOILER: In a remarkable twist, our main characters begin to embrace the concept of "total war" -- how that jives with the philosophy of "life is sacred", I have no idea. How the D'Harans and the other characters' increasingly blind cult-of-personality devotion to Richard jives with the philosophy of running your own life, I'm not sure either. Is he a benign Kim Jong 'IL? How they all willingly buy into the total war concept without blinking is beyond me too.

So if you've read 10 books, read this but save your money and wait for the paperback or check it out from the library. If you are wondering whether the series is worth reading, read the first 4 or 5 books and then just stop.