Yesterday I finished the first volume of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series and am excited to report I really enjoyed it. Wizard's First Rule is not a new release, it's been around since 1994 according to the copyright, but I picked it up on recommendation and am glad I did. The story is high fantasy in that the fate of the world hangs in the balance as the main characters try to defeat the great evil and save everyone from slavery or worse. The characters are well developed and believable and so is the plot, well for fantasy. The book is long at over 800 pages and the first in a multi-volume series that I believe is still ongoing. I have seen the book various times and probably passed it by because of the size. I generally prefer my pleasure reading to be full of action and to move along swiftly and I have sometimes found that thick books move slowly. Wizard's First Rule is full of suspense and action and things move along as fast as I could wish for.
I won't give spoilers by talking about plot, but I will say I easy got involved with the characters and there are several tense scenes in the book that were quite emotional. Mr. Goodkind knows well how to tap into the reader's emotions as well as our sense of morality. Some of the evil deeds are a bit shocking, at least to me, but there is no doubt who is evil and bad here. I often gravitate to less morally distinct stories, ones where the boundaries between good and evil may be blurred and the heroes seem a bit rascally, but this book really made me think a bit about the nature of good and evil. I enjoyed that.
The reason I like to write about books on this blog is that I really believe reading is such a good way to stretch our imagination, adding images to our mental storehouse that we can then draw upon while refereeing or playing the game. Wizard's First Rule is 800+ pages of good ideas that can inspire us as gamers as well as entertain us as readers.
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