"Wizard's Rules" are on TV

[ymarkov]

Terry Goodkind has written 11 "Sword of Truth" fantasy novels, and I've read them all. My reaction is mixed.

We'll see what the TV implementation is like.

My daughter (15) has checked out the first book. By page 500 she has chucked it out. Literally - chucked it out of her bedroom ("I don't want it in my room!" It was the torture chapters that did it.) I'm very glad.

Comments

[onionsoupmix.livejournal.com]

my kid is into fantasy and has read most of the teenage stuff out there, we are always looking for more for her. Is the torture really that bad? How bad is it? Why did you read 11 novels, if it is so horrible?

[ymarkov.livejournal.com]

Depends on how sensitive you are. The setting is comparable to late medieval; those were rough times, and Goodkind depicts it pretty realistically. I was OK with it.

Why did you read 11 novels, if it is so horrible?
Well, it's not all about torture (although there's that, plus plenty of rapine and other mayhem that accompanies large invading armies led by evil wizards). I said my reaction was mixed. The series starts out strong, and the man has interesting ideas and decent writing quality, so did really want to find out how it all would end. However, I was put off by two things: 1) near infallibility of the hero (he can do almost no wrong, and women and beasts just keep falling in love with him in droves), and 2) ideological incongruency. As I said, the setting is late medieval, but by the middle of the series it becomes a vehicle for preaching of Objectivist ideals, and I just can't buy a medieval society being involved with such industrial notions.

[aphar.livejournal.com]

800 pages/novel is far too long.
90,000 pages for the series is a good reason to subject the author to the tortures he describes.