Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I really liked Goodkind’s early Sword of Truth books, but then they became just... bad. When you end up rooting for the villains because the protagonists are such insufferable Mary Sues, it’s time to move onto a better writer. This novel is way, way worse than the bad SoT books. First, the characters are, to a one, cliches. Part of it is because the book is a political statement, in that Goodkind apparently had a checklist of every idiotic stereotype conservatives have about liberals, and he was determined to work every one of them into the story. But mostly it’s just because he’s carrying on what he did in SoT: the good men are noble, honest, handsome, big and strong; the good women are incredibly hot, have a magical power, and get raped and tortured a lot. Bad men fall into three categories: dumb, incompetent thugs; evil, competent thugs; and amoral, intelligent masterminds who are doomed to failure because they -unlike the reader -can’t see how dumb their plan is. The second reason why it’s bad is the writing. I’m not a writer. Goodkind is a fabulously successful writer. So maybe my judgement carries no weight. That said, to me the writing was dull and embarrassingly on the nose. There’s not more that needs to be said about it. Finally, just as an aside, what is it with conservative writers making their male heroes Jack R-something? Jack Ryan. Jack Reacher. And here, Jack Raines. Anyhoo... Bad book, don’t buy.