The Sword of Truth

My favorite fantasy novel has always been Faith of the Fallen, the sixth novel in Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series. I stumbled on the series in high school on the recommendation of a guy who I idolized as a teen and who had some very similar life experiences as I had. This series really shaped my teen years, speaking to me on a both a philosophical level (the series is based on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism - a line of thinking that I was very receptive to at the time), a personal level (the plight of several of the characters very closely mimicked problems in my own life - both real and incorrectly perceived through the veil of youthful naivety), and on a literary level (anyone looking for standard epic high fantasy need look no further than this series).

I didn't get much of a chance to truly expand out to other fantasy series because of my home environment, which was highly hostile to anything of a secular nature. It wasn't until living on my own that I discovered other authors and was able to discuss fantasy novels with people who didn't immediately react with condemnation. Much to my dismay, I discovered that Goodkind has a horde of not only critics, but people who outright hate his work and find his writing to be childishly cliché at best, and outright plagiarism at worst.

For a long time I was one of those people who would defend Goodkind tooth and nail, citing his willingness to take his series on a darker bent than other authors, his ability to keep a series interesting after thousands of pages, and the skillful way he blended his personal philosophical beliefs into a rousing fantasy adventure without being overly preachy or condescending. Even when the series took a sharp turn away from fantasy with a purpose and directly into straight up preaching, I continued to carry Goodkind's torch, believing there was some grand reason for this change and that eventually it would all be tied together into a satisfying conclusion.

I was very, very wrong.

The final book in the Sword of Truth series was a massive disappointment on nearly every level, and almost commits the sin of being so terrible it invalidates the glory that preceded it. Goodkind went with the most cliché, easy, predictable, unoriginal ending that he could possibly think of. There was even a point earlier in the series where I thought to myself (***Spoiler here, skip ahead if you haven't finished the series yet ***) "Wow, the Order is very clearly supposed to be a metaphor for modern Christianity, so it's a good thing Goodkind is a competent enough author to not be so heavy handed as to have this whole fantasy world be the precursor for our modern Earth, and the Order the precursor for actual Christianity." Guess what happened in the last three pages of the final book? This whole fantasy world is transformed into modern Earth, and the members of the Order go on to found Christianity. Come on! This was the most obvious turn of events, why did it have to actually happen? I mean, showcasing parallels between the two groups is all well and good to make a point, but making the two groups actually the same is taking it too far.

Oh, and the way in which Good finally triumphs over Evil? Not even worth repeating or bothering to explain why it wasn't any good. A child could have come up with a better ending.

I still hold that Faith of the Fallen is one of the best fantasy novels ever for its ability to emotionally impact the reader, and I recommend that anyone looking for new fantasy give the Sword of Truth a shot - just quit reading after Faith of the Fallen and make up your ending, because whatever you come up with in your head will be better than how it actually ends.