In this, the fifth volume in the Sword of Truth series, the Chimes are loose in the world and intent on destroying all its magic. This spurs our heroes, Richard Rahl and his wife Kahlan Amnell, to embark on a quest into the middle of a civil war that will further splinter an embattled land.I deliberately used the shortest synopsis I could find, as this is a book in a series, and any more info would give the game away to someone reading one of the earlier books.
Let me start by saying I'm not big on fantasy. In fact, before the Sword of Truth series, I was unable to finish a fantasy novel, and that is not for lack of trying. Spurred on by several good friends who wholeheartedly embrace the genre, I tried again and again to find the soul of a fantasy novel, only to give up half way each time. I got to page 100 on the Grandfather of them all, The Lord Of The Rings, and it was like hitting a brick wall - I just could not turn that page and continue. Enter Terry Goodkind.
While Terry Goodkind's books are classed by his public as fantasy, he does not consider himself a classical fantasy author. As he said in an interview: "I believe that fantasy for fantasy's sake is not valid. Fantasy is only valid if it's used to illustrate importance to human beings." And I believe this is why I have finally found a fantasy series I enjoy. It has real people dealing with real things, in a world that has the same real problems as we do today. It has romance, mystery and political intrigue. The big difference is that some of these people have magic.
Goodkind is a brilliant author. His characters and involved plots leap off the page at you; his writing is so lifelike you feel you are journeying with your heroes. There are not many books that have captivated me like these ones. Having said that, his characters are only human (well, most of them), and as with any humans, you feel frustrated and annoyed by their human failings at times. This, however, is his drawcard - you can identify with them.
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