Confessor: Review of Terry Goodkind Novel

When I first began this series, I couldn't put it down -- literally. I stayed up some nights 'til dawn reading its pages. The first six books of the Sword of Truth were inventive, well-written, and intelligent. Then the seventh book, the Pillars of Creation, was published appearing as if had been thrown together just weeks from a deadline. It was so bad, in fact, that it didn't even seem to be by the same author. Okay, everyone can have a bad book amidst a series. But what happened after that, I ask rhetorically? Did the author have some kind of radically life-changing, perspective-altering experience? I don't know but I do know that the writing changed and, from then on, the series became steadily worse.

First, Goodkind -- or I should say, the character Richard -- got on a pro-war soap box, pounding the message home at every opportunity. The magical plots were still interesting, however, so I endured the preaching for a few more books, in spite of how tired I grew of the incessant, unnecessarily drawn-out dialogues justifying armed conflict. Unfortunately, it went down hill even more with the Chainfire series. In this trilogy-within-a-series, not only the dialogues -- but the scenes and narration itself -- become so redundant with abhorrent violence and the continuous monotony of the characters explaining over and over, ad infinitum, the right of individuals to create their own lives and accomplish their own goals, that it just became absolutely boring. Now, if you're a zealous war supporter, or if you don't pick things up too quickly, you may enjoy this trilogy more than I did. But if you're the kind that doesn't need to get hit over the head with a point, the latter part of this series can get pretty annoying.

Okay, that's the negative part. But -- wait a minute -- I gave Confessor four stars. Yeah, you heard me: I gave it four stars! So what's up with that?

I thought the author did a good job in Confessor of tying together, in the end, all the various elements that had made up the life and times of the characters and nations throughout the Sword of Truth series. Secondly, the breadth of the historical scope in the series is wide and consistent. Up to the very end, the author is drawing on the history of his fictional world, and the deeds of the long-dead, to add depth and context to the story. Goodkind gets high marks for the complexity of both his individual plot lines and the connection of them throughout the series, and this book was no exception.

What I really liked about this book, along with others in the series, was the cleverness of Richard Rahl. The scenes involving the JaLa game, and the manner in which Richard was able to manipulate the entire crowd, was simply brilliant. I also like the ending but I won't spoil that for you here. Suffice it to say that I thought Confessor was a fitting ending for the series, one in which Goodkind redeemed himself for what he has put his faithful readers through these last few years.

If you've read the preceding two books in the Chainfire trilogy, I would definitely recommend reading Confessor, finishing the series. This book is better than Phantom and I think is worth the trouble. For those who have hung in that long, I would give this book 3.5 to 4.0 stars, relative to the series. If you haven't read the Sword of Truth series yet, DO! It's really great! But I'd stop after book six and move onto something else. I've provided more recommendations to excellent books below.