Confessor is the final installment of the eleven-novel Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind. To recap: The Sword of Truth Series is an epic fantasy story revolving around Richard, who grew up without magic. Through a series of complicated events (in the first two books) he finds out that he is actually Richard Rahl, a descendant from a line of Lord Rahls who rule D’Hara, and the Seeker of Truth. Many lines of prophecy revolve around Richard and the “last battle” … which comes to a head in Confessor.
In the most recent books, the trilogy (Chainfire, Phantom, and Confessor) revolves around Richard’s love, Kahlan – the Mother Confessor and ruler of the Midlands. The Fellowship of Order (the “bad guys”) who want to banish magic forever (but hypocritically use magic to their ends and to gain power) have stolen Kahlan and erased her memory – as well as everyone else’s memories of her. Richard is torn between fighting against the Order and rescuing Kahlan, which turns out to be the same fight.
If you’re a fan of fantasy, but really enjoy a human element to it all (no talking trees and flying goats) this would be a great epic series for you. I’ve really enjoyed reading it and have learned a lot from the general lessons of humanity explored in it.
Now that they’re all finally out, you won’t have to wait between books. That was my main problem, I was all caught up by the time Chainfire was out (2005), but had to wait forever for Phantom (2006) and Confessor (2007). Luckily my boyfriend is an expert on these books – he loves them and has read them multiple times each – so anytime I had a question I asked him. It’s not overly complicated, but sometimes I got impatient. Terry Goodkind does a good job of “refreshing your memory” when there is an important point to be made with an event three books back.
The novels in the series are:
- Wizard’s First Rule (1994)
- Stone of Tears (1995)
- Blood of the Fold (1996)
- Temple of the Winds (1997)
- Soul of the Fire (1999)
- Faith of the Fallen (2000)
- The Pillars of Creation (2001)
- Naked Empire (2003)
- Chainfire (2005)
- Phantom (2006)
- Confessor (2007)
June 16, 2008 at 8:26 pm
And unlike Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series, the author actually lived long enough to complete it!
If I could actually sit and read an entire book (let alone a dozen) I’d pick them up. But unfortunately due to the internet and social media I can’t concentrate on reading anything on paper longer than a magazine :(