[.ca] Phantom (Cd) (Abr.) (ISBN 1596008776)

Oh Terence - More Filler than a Hillman Imp Restoration Job:
I've read each book in the Sword of Truth series and loved them all but this is by far the worst example of how Authors give in to pressure from the publishers to turn one story into two, simply by adding loads of filler. I feel almost ashamed for Terry as most of his books set a fast pace even when you take into consideration the regular plot refreshers for the forgetful (this is a large series of books after all). I have a theory that Terry probably wrote one final book which the publishers decided could easily be made into two books. 'Confessor' is due out November 07 and I reckon this the other half that I should have got instead of 'Phantoms' many wasted pages, peppered with waffle from the characters which could have been explained with a third of the dialog. Talk about labouring the point- jeez. The book does'nt really get going until evil old Jagang appears about two thirds of the way in. From that point on things get really interesting but it was a test of patience to get to that point. A word of advice Terence - Go back and Read 'Wizards first rule'. Make a note of the speed and intensity with which the story unfolds and use that as a yardstick for your next work, otherwise you'll eventually bore us to death with page after page of Richard Rahl hammering his point home as if we are all stupid. We get the point Terence, now move on. Enjoy you extra million.

Fails to surprise:
Goodkind's first few books we're quite impressive, his characters felt human, mortals. In the last few books, I feel I'm losing interest with these peons. I'm sick of Kahlan being constantly threatened just to be saved at the last second. She's all powerfull, everyone is afraid of the mother confessor, damnit, send 5 guy's to kill her, she might get one with her power but once she's drained, beat her to death. Not going to happen, thats obvious. The characters talk too much and fail to really evolve. Goodkind should learn from authors like Steven Erikson and George R.R. Martin, you get to love someone just so you find out they die a book later, it keeps you on the edge of your seat and you never know what will actually happen. I hoped this last issue would re-ignite my interest into the serie, but just like the 3 previous novels, its just the same old, with a slightly different plot. You want to know how this will end? Richard will slay all the bad guys and go hunting with kahlan the next day, just laffing and laffing like silly gooses they are, Carla will raise a family with lots and lots of children. By now, any other ending would satisfy me, hell, abduct them all by aliens, giraffes could take over the world, D-hara could invade the whole continent claiming weapons of mass destruction... anything My advice, if you're tired of the serie, don't waste your cash on this, it won't rekindle the flames. An epic storyline gone sour.

As frustrating as ever:
If you have gotten all the way to this book, then you are either a masochist (like me) or you consider Ayn Rand to be your personal saviour. Either way, no restatement of the main thrust of the series is needed here. Suffice it to say that this book continues the same frustrating themes. Here are a few: 1) Richard desperately missing Kahlan and randomly experiencing searing mental anguish over her absence. 2) Nicci being incredibly hot with very blue eyes and thinking she would just die if Richard ever looked at her with anything less than euphoria. 3) Lots of descriptions of violence and rape. 4) Richard and Shota routinely pulling solutions to complex problems out of thin air. 5) Richard being unable to use his magic 6) More rape 7) Tedious descriptions of things which do not need to be described. 8) Really feeble humour. The main problem with this series is that Goodkind does not consider it to be fantasy but rather some sort of inspirational tract meant to enlighten us drudges about freedom and the colossal beacon of blinding light that is the thought of Ayn Rand. This invariably creates problems. Goodkind is far more interested in proselytizing than in writing a good yarn. Thus, much of the dialogue is stilted and embarassingly awkward. At one point the seer Jebra shows up to tell Richard all about her experience as a captive of the Imperial Order (as he if he didn't know what they were like already). Despite having lived through grotesque horrors, her narrative (which goes on for pages) is absurdly dry and sounds like she's reading from a textbook or maybe from the diary of someone who had only polite interest in what was going on. The same goes for the bad guys. The Imperial Order soldiers, described as the most brutish and nasty people alive, don't even swear. Even when threatening rape and murder, their lines are dry as dust. They sound more like disaffected college students regurgitating what they learned at communist youth group meetings. I guess Jagang banned cussing out of concern for his men's morals. The other major problem is that since Richard is an Ayn Randian superhero, all the characters have to be dumbed down to make him look good. Ancient and powerful people like Zedd, Nathan and Ann are made out to be blithering idiots who never hesitate to fiercely oppose Richard the instant he ventures an opinion, despite the fact that he was always correct before. There are more egregious examples. In Phantom Richard FINALLY (duh) realizes what he has to do tactically to prevent his forces from being crushed by the vastly superior Imperial Order. He obligingly pops into army HQ to brief his officer corps only to find them distraught at the prospect of missing out on the chance to get annihilated in a set piece battle with the Order. He actually has to sit down and explain the logic of his plan to his supposedly battlehardened and professional commanders and even then some of them don't get it. Apparently D'Haran military training leaves a lot to be desired. The good parts - there are some - are pretty much the same too. When he can get off his high horse, Goodkind does deliver some decent buildup, a few interesting plot twists and a couple of exciting fight scenes. Goodkind has never been a graceful writer but he does know how to create tension and use violence effectively. Also as usual, the systematics behind magic and prophecy are described in rich detail and this is always fascinating. If you have gotten this far, you might as well slog through this, the penultimate book in the series. What with Goodkind's aforementioned talents, the conclusion in the next book promises to be worthwhile.

The horse is dead, but Goodkind is still flogging:
Terry Goodkind is not a terrible author, but his story lost its way books ago. The first three novels were wonderful and I have reread them each several times. Then he ran out of steam and floundered for a couple of books until he decided to teach us all about life and love. Now he is simply preaching his philosophy through his characters: Richard is the mouthpiece and the rest of the characters (regardless of their supposed age and wisdom) are the rabble who must be educated. It feels insulting to read through these meaningless discourses. As for the actual plot, it is mostly a rehash of elements from the previous books; some I enjoyed and some I did not. There is very little new material here to expand his world and inspire the imagination. I get the distinct impression that Goodkind simply wants to finish this off so that he can move on to his next project. At this point his intriguing characters are boring, his magic is unmagical, and his creative setting is empty and bland. I will only be reading the final book, Confessor, to bring a little closure to my 10 year relationship with this series. I believe it would have been better if Terry Goodkind had simply written the Chainfire trilogy as a single book.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, ...:
To start things off, I think Terry Goodkind is a talented writer (as evidenced by his earlier works). But this book is SO wordy. I am on page 174 and it feels like 80%+ is nothing but talking and no action. Man, is this boring!!! I have started to gloss over the discussions of the brutalities of the Order because it's the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and ... (I think you get the drift). Earlier, he had Richard talk about the "emblamatic" nature of a spell that Nikki was in. While it takes quite a bit of creativity to write with such conviction, Terry Goodkind just went too far with it. I will finish this book, though it is now becoming a chore rather than a pleasure. I always finish the novel I started (with one boring exception with a book by Ed Greenwood; I cannot remember the title). It is very possible that this may be the last Terry Goodkind book I will ever read, unless things significantly improve. But with the threat of a third book with Kahlan under the Chainfire spell, can I really do it? Before I picked this one, I had just finished (re-)reading the first 11 books of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. That storyline did not always move too quickly, but there were many engaging (sub-)plots.