Sword of Truth – A Fantasy Series I Love

Inspired by Wyrd And Wonder, I decided to host Fantasy May on book-nook, my little Discord space. Watching people gush about their favorite Fantasy books, whether standalone or series, has not only increased my TBR by many folds but also made me reminisce about the time when I could just read without thinking about writing reviews or meet deadlines. Sword of Truth is the series I think of because it was gift from my partner for our first Christmas, and I spent the first half of 2016 not only reading the series but also overtaking Clinton. Yes, I have read them all and he still has two to go.

Thankfully, that did not stop us from talking about the series – what we loved about it, and why we want to stay in that world forever. To guide us, I used my reading experience criteria: world building, cast, immersion and plot. Note that there are spoilers in this gushing but don’t worry. By the time you actually read the books, you would have forgotten them. Below is an image of all the book covers from Terry Goodkind’s site and a short blurb of the first book.

BOOK 01 – Wizard’s First Rule came out on August 15th, 1994 and that is where this journey begins.

When a mysterious woman, hunted by assassins, appears in Richard’s forest sanctuary, it starts a cascade of events he could never have imagined. From the first moment, he knows he must help her despite the monumental forces conspiring to come between them.

Content Notes for the series: violence, gore, sexual assault.

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Kahlan is the mysterious woman who has come in search of the First Wizard. She meets Richard a wood guide who has the power to hold the world in balance like no one else. Actually, he doesn’t know that either for a while, but he is The Seeker of the Truth, carrying the Sword of Truth and a War Wizard, born with both kinds of magic. With Richard, Kahlan will face many dangers, nightmares and wars that will define the world that they create together.

On why we want to go back

I asked Clinton, “Why do we want to go back there to D’Hara and Midlands and the Wizard’s Keep?”

It’s because of the characters. I mentioned this in my Rereading a series post with Ariel – Sword of Truth is a series with low character agency, plot driven by external events, and an unpredictability around the speed of the plot itself. This means the plot moves fast and always feels urgent. There is suspense. There is drama. There is unpredictability.

You would think after like 6 books, what new twist will come to the story? Believe me, I love them all, whether it is a temple that houses ancient magic wizards of old did not want anyone to find, or someone completely erased from everyone’s memory, or a witch born, to bring a nightmare to the world, characters who have no magic whatsoever… The roles and cast are abundant, the evil only manifests in newer forms, while we learn fascinating things about the past.

Oh, the Magic

Are you expecting a complicated magic system? Don’t worry, it’s not complicated. It’s just intricate and complex. Richard, like I mentioned above, is a wood guide. He did not grow up a wizard. His grandfather, the First Wizard, left the Wizard’s Keep where wizards were brought up around the time he was born. Richard did not have access to the knowledge of the Keep and a good chunk of the series involves Richard using his researching skills in libraries, trying to understand the magic at work.

I love how interwoven magic is at times in this world. My favorite example is the Peoples Palace of D’Hara. The ruling seat of Lord Rahl, the palace is built on an intricate spell form. This form gets its power from its structure as well as the devotions practiced by the people of the palace when they worship Lord Rahl.

Magic is additive and subtractive and rarely are people born with both sides of the magic. Richard being a War Wizard has both. He can heal people. He has the power of prophecy (which is not straightforward whatsoever).

So, is Richard the protagonist? And is the whole story about him saving the world?

Well, no, I would not say that. I love Richard but part of the reason I love him is because of the other characters in the book. Richard is immensely powerful, but his power is quite intuitive. Being untrained, he often has no clue how it works. It just works. He is super smart though, so he makes up for it.

The series as a whole has more female characters than any I can think of. Kahlan, the Mother Confessor, has the power to touch someone and make them hers. They are overwhelmed with an infatuation and need to please her and will kill themselves if she asks them to. (See any problem here with respect to a love story?) She is the only one left of her kind, the last Confessor who can continue the line of Confessors. She might wear a long white dress, but she is a fighter, a diplomat, a leader. She understands and reads Richard in a way no one else can. She is one of the strongest female protagonists I have met in Fiction.

Other amazing characters – Nikki is a sorceress who is originally an enemy to Richard, but he succeeds in winning her friendship. The Mord Sith are women warriors, who wear red or white leather depending on whether there is a threat or not and protect the Lord Rahl with their lives.

Clinton and I joke that as powerful as the characters are, the only time we feel Richard is ever safe is when Nikki and Zedd, his grandfather, are in the room with him. Which was maybe once?

The New World

The New World where Sword of Truth is set is rich in its culture and people. Kahlan meets Richard in Hartland, and they travel all the way to D’Hara in book one. Not just culture, this world has history, legends, myths, and much more. Richard discovers not only old spell forms but talks to wizards who lived long, long ago, tries not to repeat their mistakes, and uses their inventions to travel across the land. I noticed the books are sometimes categorized as Science Fiction Fantasy, and I can see that with some of the artifacts mentioned.

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Before I started reviewing, I used to be an unapologetic reader. The books I loved, I loved. The ones I didn’t like, I didn’t think twice about. Maybe it is a combination of being on Twitter where people often have polar views or being a reviewer that I find myself often thinking about aspects of books that might not resonate with someone.

Sword of Truth is a long series. On Goodreads alone, what started at over 200,000 rating for Wizard’s First Rule is down to about 6,000 for Warheart, the last book of the series. So only 3% of the people who started the series have finished it so far. I know people who gave up the series midway through. Others who didn’t even try because that was too many. It isn’t a perfect series with no flaws. For me, Sword of Truth offers a connection to Clinton that no other book ever will. I asked him for his favorite book for our first Christmas, and this is the one I got.

I will not ask you to take a chance on Sword of Truth, but I will ask you to tell me the name of a book or series that is an important part of your connection with someone else.

And if you do decide to read Sword of Truth, let me know, and I will join you. It’s been almost 4 years, about time I reread it.

Banner Photo by Thomas Kinto on Unsplash
Sword of Truth World Map from Fandom
Image of Temple of the Winds from HipWallpaper

Many thanks to Layton for editing this before I published it. I need an editor’s set of eyes on my writing sometimes. 🙂