Subject: Review: Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind

From: Warren Dunn <[email-masked]>
Date: 08 Nov 1999 14:29:38 -0500

Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind
	Review Copyright 1999 by Warren Dunn

  Just about every fantasy book I've read has a different kind of magic,
but the roots are all the same. They all have different types of creatures
that are either made of magic, use it, or both.  Wizard's First Rule is no
different.

  In this case, the world is divided into three parts, kept separate by
"boundaries," part of the Underworld brought into the real world to make
sure nobody can cross.  In Westland, there is no magic, and people fear
magic. In the Midlands, magic is everywhere, and very few things are as
they seem.  In D'Hara, it appears that strange and powerful creatures were
born.

  The world is complex, and it requires almost every page of this book to
introduce us to much of it.  And there's a whole lot of this world that is
hinted at, which we don't get to see in this book.

  The book starts off a little slow, where the author describes things
down to the smallest detail.  It's annoying while reading it, but it
helped make the characters and the world more real later on.

  Richard is a forest trail guide, who rescues a beautiful woman (Kahlan)
from an assassination.  She tells him that she came through the boundary
from the midlands, something that he thought was impossible.  Richard
immediately takes her to his best friend Zed, who we are not surprised to
learn is the wizard Kahlan is looking for.  In yet another moment that is
not a surprise, except to the characters, Richard is named Seeker, a
dangerous and powerful position.

  It seems that the son of a man Zed killed a generation ago is destroying
the boundaries and want to control the world.  It is prophesized that a
Seeker can defeat him.  But the magic Sword of Truth that a Seeker carries
leaves its bearer in pain, and so he is quite vulnerable.  This isn't the
first book that shows how magic bears a terrible price on the soul, but it
is the most blatant about it.

  From there, Richard must take Kahlan and Zed across the boundary, to the
Midlands, where they must find a way to defeat their enemy, Darken Rahl.
Through that journey, we meet the Mud People, a witch, a sorceress, a
pompous Queen and her bratty daughter, the Princess's playmate, Rachel,
who gets beaten all the time, and several magical creatures, most evil,
some good, including a red dragon, who is both.

  If anything, the journey goes too easy.  The length of time it takes to
tell the story gets us into the characters heads through their
experiences, but their path never deviates significantly from their
desired route.  Sure, they have setbacks, but once an obstacle is
overcome, they continue on as before.

  Most of the setbacks are not all that suspenseful.  I wouldn't have been
surprised if one main character had died, and I fully expected her to, but
I really had no doubt that they would find what they were seeking first.

%A Terry Goodkind
%T Wizard's First Rule
%S Sword of Truth
%V Book 1
%I Tor Fantasy
%C New York
%D 1994
%G ISBN 0-812-54805-1
%P 820 pp.
%O Paperback, US$6.99

SPOILERS BELOW


  The suspense, and my doubts, came at the very end.  I honestly didn't
know what the characters were doing, or if they had gone crazy.  I thought
it plausible that Darken Rahl would gain mastery of the world, and that
Richard would spend the next couple of books undoing it.  But, in the end,
it was as easy as his journey through the midlands, but with a very nice
twist right at the last moment.

  One thing that came off very well was Kahlan's weakness for Richard.
She knows she can't fall for him, because her magic would destroy him, but
at every turn, she falls more and more in love with him. This culminates
in a very erotic passage in the Mud People Spirit House, where they almost
give in, which would ruin their chances of defeating Rahl.  I felt the
resolution of their love was a bit of a cheat, but it is a plausible one,
and one that I can live with.

  At one point in the book, it seemed as if the end was so near, and I
wondered what was going to happen in the two hundred pages that followed.
Suddenly, a whole new plot emerges, where Richard is tortured and his
spirit broken, sort of.  The whole thing really comes out of nowhere, and
its purpose is barely justified by the events that follow it.  The torture
scenes were a little slow, but I did enjoy the part where the Princess
gets a beating.  But it makes my blood boil to see the dialog she was
given.  Even in fantasy, I hate to hear children talk that way.

  All in all, this was a very enjoyable book. The writing style was
simple, and made me think it was written by a slightly immature writer at
times, but the intense moments outweighed that.  The final few pages set
up for the sequel, but I'll wait for a while before starting the next one.
The length of the book ensures that the few characters that existed will
stay with me.  Despite the slow moments throughout, and the simplicity of
completing the journey, Richard's exploration of himself and Kahlan were
very well written, and completely enjoyed.

[email-masked]