by Elton Gahr

Created on: May 10, 2009

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is epic fantasy and one of the best. The main character Richard Cypher is a woodsman is chosen to become the Seeker of Truth and wielder of The Sword of Truth. It is this idea of a search for truth that is one of the most central aspects of the character of Richard Cypher.

In the first book of this series "Wizard's First Rule", Richard is living a normal life when he spots a young woman who is being attacked by four armed men. He knows little of the situation but steps in to help the woman. This is Kahlan Amnell a confessor who has been sent to find the Seeker of Truth to fight Darken Rahl who is collecting the boxes of Orden.

Together the two go to Zedd, Richard's mentor who turns out to be a wizard of the first order. He makes Richard the Seeker of Truth and together the three are able to stop Darken Rahl.

The second book "Stone of Tears" introduces the old world and the sisters of light and the imperial Order from the old world. This book deals primarily with the ramifications of mistakes and bad decisions that were made by characters.

"Blood of the Fold" Richard must face the Imperial Order who seek to rule all mankind. In order to do this he is forced to united the Midlands. One of the main goals of the Order is to eliminate any form of superiority as unfair. The most important of those is those with magic who they either control or kill.

The next four books form the story of the war between the Empire and the Midlands. The most notable departure in these books is in Pillars of Creation which is told without Richald Rahl as the protagonist.

The final three books in the Sword of Truth Series form their own trilogy with the return of the Boxes of Orden as a main plot device. This time though the Sisters of dark seek the three boxes of Orden not in order to rule the world but to destroy it. To do this they create a chainfire spell that erases Kahlan Amnell from the mind of the world, making her nearly invisible and forgotten by everyone.

Through an odd quirk of fate and a bit of luck Richard is able to remember Kahlan but while this allows him to work to save her it cause the rest of the world to question his sanity. So as he continues to fight the Empire he searches for Kahlan.

Overall the Sword of truth series begins excellently, lags in the middle and then comes to a satisfying conclusion. If you are a fan of epic fantasy and have not yet read the Sword of Truth series it is well worth the effort to get through the middle books to enjoy this series.

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