Sword Of Truth

I will confess to liking WFR and the three successive volumes when I first read them back in college. At the time, however, I hadn't gotten ahold of much good stuff in the way of fantasy, I was starving for *anything* in the genre, and my tastes hadn't matured yet. The interesting bits - the amusement of the Wizard's Rules, a few interesting magical ideas, some good quotes - kept me going through four books, but they really shouldn't have.

There is so much wrong with this book, which continues in the rest of the series, that I can't list it all. We can start with the author's plagiarism of Robert Jordan - look, a bunch of female magic-users who are a political force in their own right, with their own tower/city on an island in the middle of a river, who at one point coerce the main male character into coming with them so that they can teach him something about his magic (despite male and female magics being different). Sound familiar? Given, this doesn't show up in Sword of Truth until after WFR, but the fact that it's there should be a warning to readers considering starting the series.

Then there are the formulaic plots - each book basically consists of the main characters discovering some threat to their country, finding / being found by prophecy somewhere along the way that generally heralds disaster, and then figuring out a way to work around the prophecy. There are plenty of nasty critters and bizarre villians, but none of them stand out; the supporting characters often come across as juvenile. The author also likes to inflict pain on his characters - this makes him feel like an unschooled writer who is aiming for horror but doesn't quite make it.

Getting into more detail would require me to go back and do a re-read, and I value my time much more than that. Readers, you have been warned. This might be tasty reading to younger audiences, much like David Eddings's works or the Shannara books, but it is most definately rated R.