2006-10-25
Temple of the Winds
Author: Terry Goodkind
Sword of Truth-4 struck me better than the last couple. Blood of the Fold was too much a continuation of Stone of Tears to be a great book: #3 felt like a dragged out sequel to a #2 that never ended properly. Temple of the Winds is its own story, and it's a good one. In fact, it's not overstating it to call it a great one. While nothing can quite recapture the magic of introducing the new universe the way Wizard's First Rule and to some extent Tears did, the plot of this story is as exciting as the first.
How gripping is the beginning? The first 160 or so pages are basically a single scene covering a few hours in the Confessor's Palace. The little director in me wanted to film that much in just three shots of 20+ minutes each. Section and chapter breaks show the passage of no more time than it took the characters to walk down a hall. Actually, sometimes conversations continue right through a chapter break, which makes this pedantic little reviewer kind of annoyed -- those breaks were used just to emphasize the last thing said. Try an exclamation point: they work when not overused. Still, the reader can't say he had to remember the first scene's events on faith, hoping their meaning would become clear. By page 160, a story is well underway.
On the other hand, the main plot doesn't get started until after page 300. If you read the back cover blurb and wondered when a certain thing would come up, you would have had to wait that long. I didn't and found the pacing just fine. Up until that point the story is largely with Richard or Kahlan, and most of the story follows them. There are three other pairs of people to follow around, and they definitely get less time. One of those pairs, in fact, seems to be featured only because they had to get from where they were at the end of the last book to where they were wanted at the end of this one. Worse yet, the only reason they had to arrive there at all was to foreshadow the next book! Considering one of them is a favorite of mine, I pray that book 5 lets him be around the main story just a little bit. (Book #10 has been published at this time, so I'm a little late.)
Aside from that ultimately pointless side story, it's pretty clear how the rest of the book fits together and there's nothing frustrating about it. Questions begging to be answered -- will Richard learn to use his gift? Will Richard and Kahlan ever be married? Does Goodkind have more violent, sexually deviant ideas in his head? -- were not ignored, while still leaving the world an exciting and perilous place. I highly recommend working through the Sword of Truth series as far as Temple of the Winds. (I can't recommend jumping into this world anywhere other than at the beginning, not to mention the fact that the first book is one of the genre's best ever.) At this rate the series could have some serious life left in it.
Sword of Truth-4 struck me better than the last couple. Blood of the Fold was too much a continuation of Stone of Tears to be a great book: #3 felt like a dragged out sequel to a #2 that never ended properly. Temple of the Winds is its own story, and it's a good one. In fact, it's not overstating it to call it a great one. While nothing can quite recapture the magic of introducing the new universe the way Wizard's First Rule and to some extent Tears did, the plot of this story is as exciting as the first.
How gripping is the beginning? The first 160 or so pages are basically a single scene covering a few hours in the Confessor's Palace. The little director in me wanted to film that much in just three shots of 20+ minutes each. Section and chapter breaks show the passage of no more time than it took the characters to walk down a hall. Actually, sometimes conversations continue right through a chapter break, which makes this pedantic little reviewer kind of annoyed -- those breaks were used just to emphasize the last thing said. Try an exclamation point: they work when not overused. Still, the reader can't say he had to remember the first scene's events on faith, hoping their meaning would become clear. By page 160, a story is well underway.
On the other hand, the main plot doesn't get started until after page 300. If you read the back cover blurb and wondered when a certain thing would come up, you would have had to wait that long. I didn't and found the pacing just fine. Up until that point the story is largely with Richard or Kahlan, and most of the story follows them. There are three other pairs of people to follow around, and they definitely get less time. One of those pairs, in fact, seems to be featured only because they had to get from where they were at the end of the last book to where they were wanted at the end of this one. Worse yet, the only reason they had to arrive there at all was to foreshadow the next book! Considering one of them is a favorite of mine, I pray that book 5 lets him be around the main story just a little bit. (Book #10 has been published at this time, so I'm a little late.)
Aside from that ultimately pointless side story, it's pretty clear how the rest of the book fits together and there's nothing frustrating about it. Questions begging to be answered -- will Richard learn to use his gift? Will Richard and Kahlan ever be married? Does Goodkind have more violent, sexually deviant ideas in his head? -- were not ignored, while still leaving the world an exciting and perilous place. I highly recommend working through the Sword of Truth series as far as Temple of the Winds. (I can't recommend jumping into this world anywhere other than at the beginning, not to mention the fact that the first book is one of the genre's best ever.) At this rate the series could have some serious life left in it.
