World Famous Comics: The Sword of Truth Box Set, Books 4-6: Temple of the Winds; Soul of the Fire; Faith of the Fallen
The Sword of Truth Box Set, Books 4-6: Temple of the Winds; Soul of the Fire; Faith of the Fallen
By: Terry Goodkind Publisher: Tor Books Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Format: Box set Label: Tor Books Number of Items: 3 Number of Pages: 2405 Publication Date: September 16, 2002 Release Date: August 29, 2002
This Mass Market Boxed Set, is the Second Boxed Set of The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind:
The Box Set includes: Temple of the Winds, 0-812-55148-6 Soul of the Fire, 0-812-55149-4 Faith of the Fallen, 0-812-57639-X
Book 4: Temple of the Winds On the red moon will come the firestorm...
Wielding the Sword of Truth, Richard Rahl has battled death itself and come to the defense of the D'Haran people. But now the power-mad Emperor Jagang confronts Richard with a swift and inexorable foe: a mystical plague cutting a deadly swath across the land and slaying thousands of innocent victims.
To quench the inferno, he must seek remedy in the wind...
To fight it Richard and his beloved Kahlan Amnell will risk everything to uncover the source of the terrible plague-the magic sealed away for three millennia in the Temple of the Winds.
Lightning will find him on that path...
But when prophecy throws the shadow of betrayal across their mission and threatens to destroy them, Richard must accept the Truth and find a way to pay the price the winds demand...or he and his world will perish.
Book 5: Soul of the Fire Sequel to the New York Times bestselling Temple of the Winds
Richard Rahl has traveled far from his roots as a simple woods guide. Emperor of the D'Haran Empire, war wizard, the Seeker of Truth--none of these roles mean as much to him as his newest: husband to his beloved Kahlan Amnell, Mother Confessor of the Midlands.
But their wedding day is the key that unlocks a spell sealed away long ago in a faraway country. Now a deadly power pours forth that threatens to turn the world into a lifeless waste.
dSeparated from the Sword of Truth and stripped of their magic, Richard and Kahlan must journey across the Midlands to discover a dark secret from the past and a trap that could tear them apart forever. For their fate has become inextricably entwined with that of the Midlands--and there's no place so dangerous as a world without magic...
Book 6: Faith of the Fallen Sequel to the New York Times bestselling Soul of the Fire
Terry Goodkind author of the enormously popular Sword of Truth novels, has forged perhaps his best novel yet, pitting Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell against threats to the freedom of the world that will take them to opposite ends of the world to defeat the forces of chaos and anarchy.
Emperor Jagang is rising once again in the Old World and Richard must face him, on his own turf. Richard heads into the Old World with Cara, the Mord-Sith, while his beloved Kahlan remains behind. Unwilling to heed an ancient prophecy, Kahlan raises an army and goes into battle against forces threatening armed insurrection in the Midlands.
Separated and fighting for their lives, Richard and Kahlan will be tested to the utmost.
Pandora's Box There's no end of trouble in Terry Goodkind's world; and it's certainly a world of its own. Terry has a lot of ideas, and he knows how to fill the pages, but he seems angry. -Stephen Prins, author of: Strife of the Lorin
Avoid this series Read this book, but then do yourself a favor and stop and save yourself from a hard fall. The ending, 'Confessor', most awful ending I ever read in my life! And worse, bad writing!!! And worse because many of his books in this series were so awesome. I really loved most of his books.But...I just read finished the last book last night.I got it from the library. I'm thanking God I didn't buy it.When I got it from the library, I noticed the spine was all broken and torn. I was intending to fix it...but now I realize it must have been because the last reader threw it against the wall. I was tempted to as well, but didn't. It was as monotonous and amateurish. Where the heck was his editor?? I should have listened and not read the book and just made up my own ending.
The one thing I think I hated the most was the way he ended it the whole boring slog.... It was COMPLETELY obnoxious.
His theme in most of the books was to protesting religious zealotry. Those in the Order where following some misguided notion that they were killing in the name of the creator and lived under very communistic conditions.
As I read Confessor the preaching and reminding got so irritating I ended up simply skipping pages and pages of 'reminders'.
Through out the series there seemed to be an acknowledged basic natural(and good) desire to connect with the Creator and the spiritual connection in all of us. And that there was indeed an afterlife and he seemed to be pointing out that those killing in the name of the Creator are wrong.
Also, Goodkind spends many chapters explaining the 'theology' of his fantasy world....how magic works and is connected with the underworld etc etc..But then he completely trashes it AND connects his fantasy world to our real world!!! The whole effect was disconcerting and took away from the 'fairy tale ending'...because you know in this ending the Creator is dead, or consigned to some corner and told not to bother anyone ever again.
In the end Richard destroys the entire afterlife for those banished to the non magic world, where he conveniently alludes to those formally of the Order are now the 'building churches'!!! What?) Not mosques, not temples, not circles...but CHURCHES! (and not just any Churches, but CATHOLIC churches because they use medals and 'talismans'. What?)
Excuse me? Is Terry Goodkind really this ignorant, or is he just another patsy for the secular order that is encroaching with the culture of death? I think both.
Does anyone want a link to pictures of happy young jihadists brandishing the hands of Christians and other kaffirs they collected for allah???? Those of the Order where more like militant islam and the Saracens of history and militant communism and nazi's rolled up in one!! Knowing that as of this minute while I write this thousands of Christians are being executed for 'blasphemy' and oppressed with well documented sharia dhimmi laws in muslim countries or as in communist China's case, having children ripped from their wombs because they value life and would want to welcome a new child among them,...but it's against the godless of laws of china. Or what about the mass graves of Orthodox and catholic priests and nuns from Communist Russia and it's former satellites??
What an insult to those really truly have and are suffering on behalf of the values of life and liberty.
Ugh. I was completely irritated that I even read the series to begin with. I will not bother to watch the TV series.
My advice is save yourself aggravation and money and skip this series. It's a garden path to nowhere even if slavish anti-catholicism and Nietzschism doesn't bother you, the ending is so horrifically badly written, disjointing and boring after so many really good books, you come out of it feeling like you were slapped...hard.
M~
Good quality Books are paperback, but high quality. Couldn't ask for better - well, except hardback :)
Terry Goodkind is an excellent author This is a great series, hard to put down. Can't wait to get back to it. Buying them together like this makes it easier and cheaper to purchase this lengthy series.
Second set is even better than the first This set contains books 4-6 of Terry Goodkind's wonderful epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth: Temple of the Winds, Soul of the Fire, and Faith of the Fallen.
Temple of the Winds - 5 stars. This is the installment of the Sword of Truth series in which Terry Goodkind really comes into his own as a mature stylist and plotter. It is noticeably the best-written of the series up to this point, and the plot leads to a climax so brimming with conflict that it is physically uncomfortable to read. I found myself in the position of hardly being able to bear going on, but at the same time not being able to put the book down. In fact, I was quite angry at Mr. Goodkind the first time I finished the book, but a book that can have such a powerful impact and give you so much to think about is a rare thing.
The plot involves a Jack-the-Ripper-like serial killer, and a Black-Death-like plague set loose in the capital city of Aydindril. The latter storyline is more effectively written, but through Goodkind's brilliant contrivance both are combined to force Richard and Kahlan to face their most terrible situation yet.
Thematically, this is a book about love and sex, betrayal and forgiveness. Goodkind examines both romantic love and familial, fraternal love, using one case to explore when forgiveness is possible and appropriate, and the other to show when the requirements of justice preclude the extension of mercy.
In short, if you're looking for a good page-turner that can also make you think, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better book than this.
Soul of the Fire - 4 stars. In the guise of a fantasy novel (and a pretty good one), Mr. Goodkind gives us a work about the nature of democracy. He examines, among other things, how race and class issues, as well as lack of education and political spin by the media, so easily undermine the system. Ultimately, he shows how democracy, as unfettered majority rule, amounts to nothing more than mob rule and cannot work without a constitution guaranteeing individual rights.
The story is good, although the Chimes seemed a bit abstract to make a good villain to me on first reading. Several new characters are introduced, some of whom are excellent, such as Dalton and Teresa Campbell, Franca, and even Beatta; others, such as Fitch, can be a bit frustrating.
Also, the ending here is the darkest of the series up to this point, but it follows from the theme and sets up the excellent sixth book that follows, Faith of the Fallen. The critics who complain that Richard is "perfect" and never makes mistakes apparently didn't bother to finish reading this book. They're missing out. Don't make the same mistake.
Faith of the Fallen - 5 stars. By far the most ambitious Sword of Truth novel yet, Faith of the Fallen makes big promises...and delivers.
This is a novel about the indomitability of the human spirit that takes the reader on an astonishing philosophical journey along the way. Metaphysically, it addresses whether this world or some supernatural realm is the ultimate reality; epistemologically, whether faith or reason is the means to genuine knowledge; ethically, whether you should live for yourself or for others; and politically, whether people should be forced to live their lives a certain way or left free to do as they see fit. The book even turns ideas about esthetics into major plot points: should art celebrate the heroic in man, or depict him as essentially debased? And there is so much more.
Not only is this the most philosophical book in the series thus far, it also has the best new characters, such as Victor and Brother Narev (and the best new characterization of old characters, particularly Sister Nicci), and arguably the best story. It is also Goodkind's most well-written work--the climactic scene in which Victor declares his freedom and the revolution in Altur Rang begins easily could have come off as trite and silly in the hands of a lesser writer, but in Goodkind's capable care it is powerful and moving. Just try reading it aloud without getting choked up.
Many have noted, correctly, that this is the book in which Ayn Rand's influence on Goodkind really begins to show through. The fan of Rand's novels will notice echoes of all four of them in Faith of the Fallen. The student of her philosophy may also suspect that Goodkind draws his main theme from her essay "Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World." This is not simply a book about Communism, as many have thought, but more deeply about this idea of Rand's. Her essay talks about the "mystics of muscle" and the "mystics of the mind," or "Atilla and the Witch Doctor." These are represented in Goodkind's work by, respectively, Jagang and Brother Narev (the latter meets his just fate in this novel, but the former does not until the end of the series).
Of course, this is about where (give or take a book) those who hate Ayn Rand and the ideas she represents, as well as those who hate serious literature more generally, start to dislike the series. It's their loss.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
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