Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I think that sometimes a book sells well because it came along at the right place at the right time with the right cover art. That must be the case with Wizard's First Rule, because nothing inside justifies it's apparently immense popularity. I'm not saying it was trash, just that anyone who has read more than 5 or so fantasy novels will keep having deja vu, and that more experienced readers will feel patronized by the overly-simplified style. As other reviewers have pointed out before me, the writing is undersophisticated. I would guess the appropriate reading level to be 13 years old, which is actually inappropriate if you assume that the average scifi/fantasy reader is probably quite a bit older than that. If the awkward sentences were supposed to be from the point of view of a kid, then perhaps I could understand, but the hero is a full-grown adult. Even more than the bad dialog and prose, the author seems to have hit every cliche in the genre. The love interest established in the first chapter, starting on a quest to stop an evil lord with a ragtag band that somehow includes a wizard, the enchanted sword, the sorceress they meet along the way who speaks in riddles. A villian named Darken Rahl (Star Wars, anyone?) I could go on, but if this sounds familiar so far, you've had enough to get the picture. Yes, Goodkind has a few smatterings of original ideas, but they're not enough to pull the book off. I only made myself finish it because based on this series' success, I kept hoping that it would get better, and because I have a rule that if it's worth starting, it's worth finishing...but now I'm not so sure. Bottom line: if you're new to fantasy, and/or under 13, this book will be just your speed.