Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Reading Terry Goodkind's massive final book is kind of like being a witness to a horrible car crash. It's gruesome and disturbing...but you just can't look away because you want to see how it all ends. Not to mention, if you've gotten this far, you've already thrown 10 books worth of time away so you feel compelled to finish it. There are only two reasons why a book is this bad. 1: Terry Goodkind has gone off the deep end and has lost all his talent as an author. This is unlikely considering how great his first four books were and how even in this horrible mess of diaper wipe there are still hints of his former greatness. (Namely the fact that he manages to incorporate familiar elements and old characters from his past books into the story.) 2. Drunk with power from his millions of dollars worth of sales and the unfounded encouragement from his rabid cult-like fans who are just as deluded as he is, Mr. Goodkind has interpreted all of that as worthy encouragement to go on hitting his audience over the head with his fanatical two-dimensional dogma. The latter is the most likely of the two conclusions. Mr. Goodkind, egged on by his perception of public love and acceptance, has it in his head that he is the bearer of truth-much like his Christ-like protagonist. Nevermind the fact that all his views are ridiculously one-sided, idealistic, and canned, almost to the point of being childish. Nevermind the fact that the world of this book is completely black and white. Or the fact that everything hinges on the fact that Richard, the main character, always manages to miraculously sway even the most toxic and vile murderers, pedophiles, and rapists to see his point of view. Let's for the sake of generosity set all these appalling issues aside. This still does not change the fact that this is just a poorly written piece of literature. While all his blinded followers who rate this book five stars will try to sway you with the importance of the 'message', let's all look at this rationally. Does a good book include HUNDREDS of pages (i'm not exaggerating) of repetitive preaching and monologue? You could honestly skip ahead ten pages at a time and not miss anything. And it wouldn't be so bad if the speeches weren't always on the SAME DAMN THINGS. Goodkind is either breaking down some obscure piece of magical theory down as if he were writing a scientific journal. OR it is one of the characters blabbering on about how life is beautiful, how your life is your own, how you choose how you live OK WE FREAKING GOT IT THE FIRST 10 BOOKS! Does a good book include flat one-sided characters that were cut out of cardboard? If you're an old fan of the series, you can predict what these characters will say even before they open their mouth. It's always about how they love Richard, and how the Order is evil, how life is beautiful, blah blah. The true crime of all this is that Mr. Goodkind tries to do too much with his work. Instead of trying to write a good fantasy book, which is what got him so famous, he tries to bash his audience over the head with over-bloated and purely derivative philosophy. (If any of you have seen his hilarious interviews he staunchly believes that what he is writing isn't fantasy, it's a message of truth.) There's a million other things I could list but I don't want to relive the horror. All I can say is thank God it's over. This was a series that started with promise and ended with a whimper. And I pity the poor sods who stick up for Goodkind. This book is utter garbage, and anyone with taste in literature can see that. Now excuse me while I drink half a bottle of whiskey and then shoot myself in the face with my hand gun. I just wasted about twelve hours of my life and I'll never get it back. I just hope that while I'm roasting in hell I'll one day see Mr. Goodkind down there with me for his betrayal of his fans and actually trying to pass this crap off as legitimate writing.