Customer Reviews
Hanging on every last word! 
2008-09-10
So of course all the other books in The Sword of Truth series I read in break-neck speed, I was excited and couldn't wait to read what was next, but not this one. I held on to every word, couldn't bare to turn the page because I knew it was drawing me closer to the last. I let myself absorb and enjoy every bit of it not wanting to miss a thing, I was completely satisfied with the way good ol' Goodkind chose to end this adventure. It came to a nice slow end, exactly what I was hoping would happen, did. The only thing that saddens me is that indeed it did end. I encourage anyone who is interested to read them all so you can end up here with The Confessor.
Brittney
"Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self." 2008-08-29
After reading a bunch of the posted reviews for this book, I can't help but think that all these people missed the point of the series. I don't know how you can make it to book 11 and still think that Goodkind is writing an epic tale of magic. The series has been about reason, and the people who choose to use it or turn from it, from the very beginning. Did Richard triumph over Darken Rahl using superior magic and force in Book 1? No, he used logic and his ability to reason. Magic and fantasy are the tools that Terry has used to preach his message, not the point.
If you take offense to many of the things goodkind has to say, I can't help but wonder why. If you have a disagreement with one of his views, and you have a rational understanding of the disagreement, then you'll be confident enough in your own view to not care. If you don't know why you disagree or your disagreement is based on wishes and whims...well, to quote Zedd, "People who for whatever reason don't want to see the truth can be acutely hostile to it and shrill in their denunciation of it."
That said, I found Confessor to be one of the more action packed novels of the series. I never felt it dragging like Pillars of Creation or Naked Empire. I was thoroughly entertained throughout, and I really enjoyed the Ja'La tournament. I thought the book was a fitting end to a fantastic series.
For any of you who enjoyed the concepts and idea's presented in this book, I would reccomend reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I think you'll find that the latter half of this series is severely influenced by her writings. Richard's monologue at the end of this book (the one lots of people are complaining about) is basically a condensed version of John galt's speech towards the end of Atlas Shrugged.
What a Waste 
2008-08-24
Let me just say that anyone who gave this (or the last few books in the series) anything higher than 2 stars is crazy. The series started out very good, but throughout the course of his writing Mr. Goodkind apparently forgot he was writing a fantasy series. Many of the coolest characters and extras, like Gratch the Gar and Scarlet the dragon are completely forgotten until brief cameos in Confessor. Goodkind repeats himself so much in these final books that I actually felt my intelligence insulted. He would literally have paragraphs that were the same sentence paraphrased 4 different ways. The imperial order is by far the most uninspired, unbelievable, simplistic enemy I have ever heard of. Not to mention the seemingly racist undertones of the evil dark-skinned brutes from the "Old World" attacking the nice white folks of the "New World". Anything worth reading in the series has long since been left in the dust. However, if you are like me you have to finish a series once started, just make sure to get it from the library.
Irony...berates those of whom he has become 
2008-08-20
Overall I gave this 2 start because it was one of the least worth while Terry Goodkind books of the series (Including Temple of the Winds).
The phrase Spencer uses for Terry comes to mind, 'preachy'. He has used his success of a great story and made it his personal soap box. The final 'trilogy' of the entire SOT series could have been contained in 2 books that neither of which could have been as long as each of the last 3 were. He must have had a contract so he needed to fill it with his preaching. There were some old flashes of 'good ol Goodkind' but for the most part he just blah-ed forever about life and how 'any' organization that has a defined set of beliefs is just for 'people who do not want to think'. Huh, I wonder if he pays his taxes 'without thinking', I wonder if he obeys traffic laws, if he does he is as 'unthinking' as any of the people he is criticizing that have Faith as a value and belong to a religion 'with pre-packaged beliefs that make it so I do not have to think, just follow".
Too bad, he took something great and turned it into something less worth while than I could have hoped, and believe me my hopes decreased with each of the last 3 volumes of the series. Oh, and not to spoil the story Richard finds a 'magic bean' that makes everything better. Retarded ending to an overwhelming enemy that has been looming for 6-7 books now.
Spoiler:
Richard says, "I found a magic bean" the Daharans cheer and the Imperial order is instantaneously transported to a different planet. Yeah!!!!! (Oh sorry that last cheer was the people who were reading the books cheering that it was FINALLY over, it is not in the book.) Funny how after dragging it on for so long the whole of the order is dispatched in less than 1/3 of a page of the last book. Disappointing!
Irony...berates those of whom he has become
You'll never guess the ending 
2008-08-13
This was such an awesome series; so many good stories and insights into society. The ending was completely unexpected yet fit so well. It leaves you wanting to say "eh heh." To fully grasp the story though you need to read all the books.
Check out the new show based on the series http://www.sword-of-truth.com/tv/legend-of-the-seeker
Thank God This Series is Over!! 2008-07-28
Descending into darkness, about to be overwhelmed by evil, those people still free are powerless to stop the coming dawn of a savage new world, while Richard faces the guilt of knowing that he must let it happen. Alone, he must bear the weight of a sin he dare not confess to the one person he loves…and has lost.
Join Richard and Kahlan in the concluding novel of one of the most remarkable and memorable journeys ever written. It started with one rule and will end with the rule of all rules, the rule unwritten, the rule unspoken since the dawn of history.
When next the sun rises, the world will be forever changed.
Mourning 2008-07-27
Well, so it's over...
At this point, I just wish that Mr. Goodkind had never got his hands on any book by Ayn Rand. It is obvious he has been very affected by her philosophy. Through the last couple of volumes, I felt that he was force-feeding the reader objectivism, and quite determinedly. He was like a devout priest trying to convert a group of heathens or something. At the end, those characters who did not come to his way of thinking are condemned to thousands of years of hell. New generations of those evil people -who were basically innocent of the wrong-doings of their fathers- are banished to a meaningless existence for "a thousand years" and the our hero Richard has the temerity to call that justice.
The thing is, it felt like according to Goodkind, the problem is the concept of faith itself, not the particularly vile and evil type of drivel he dreamt up and told over and over again in excruciating detail through multiple characters -most of whom either got raped by men of the Order or committed unmentionable atrocities in their name and then repented, or both. That type of faith is truly evil, yes, but I don't know of any religious or political system that preaches those kinds of things; except, maybe National Socialism in Nazi Germany. In the end, as a person who believes in the afterlife and in the concept of working towards happiness in it, this part left me cold. But that is a matter of philosophies, so only peripheral to the enjoyment one can get out of the storytelling itself.
Unfortunately there are problems there to. The biggest of them being the frequent sermons carried out by all of the main cast of characters in the good side which take pages and pages and which just repeat the same things and ideas that have been told in the last five volumes by the same characters, in the same words and covering about the same number of pages. The last two books I got so fed up with them I started to jump ahead, something I generally never do because I am obsessive that way.
At the beginning though... The last five-six books do not diminish in my opinion the superb storytelling Goodkind delivered more or less consistently in the first four-five books. I just wish he had never taken his characters to the Old World (which raises so many red flags in my mind. Does he mean Europe and Asia and Africa by that? Is the New World America? With it's magic, and dragons and heart-breakingly beautiful woman who all fall in love with the same man? Yes, I am in Europe and I am bitter). I just wish I had not been hit over the head with the hammer of objectivism countless times. I just wanted to finish the story, and now I have.
Sorry for the rambling. It's just that I am mourning for what this series could have been...
insult to those who truly do fight for the right to life 2008-07-20
This was the most awful ending I ever read in my life!
And worse because many of his books in this series were so awesome.
I really loved most of his books.But...I just read finished the last book last night.I got it from the library. I'm thanking God I didn't buy it.When I got it from the library, I noticed the spine was all broken and torn. I was intending to fix it...but now I realize it must have been because the last reader threw it against the wall.
I was tempted to as well, but didn't.
It was as monotonous and amateurish. Where the heck was his editor??
I should have listened and not read the book and just made up my own ending.
The one thing I think I hated the most was the way he ended it the whole boring slog.... It was COMPLETELY obnoxious.
His theme in most of the books was to protesting religious zealotry. Those in the Order where following some misguided notion that they were killing in the name of the creator and lived under very communistic conditions.
As I read Confessor the preaching and reminding got so irritating I ended up simply skipping pages and pages of 'reminders'.
Through out the series there seemed to be an acknowledged basic natural(and good) desire to connect with the Creator and the spiritual connection in all of us. And that there was indeed an afterlife and he seemed to be pointing out that those killing in the name of the Creator are wrong.
Also, Goodkind spends many chapters explaining the 'theology' of his fantasy world....how magic works and is connected with the underworld etc etc..But then he completely trashes it AND connects his fantasy world to our real world!!! The whole effect was disconcerting and took away from the 'fairy tale ending'...because you know in this ending the Creator is dead, or consigned to some corner and told not to bother anyone ever again.
In the end Richard destroys the entire afterlife for those banished to the non magic world, where he conveniently alludes to those formally of the Order are now the 'building churches'!!! What?)
Not mosques, not temples, not circles...but CHURCHES! (and not just any Churches, but CATHOLIC churches because they use medals and 'talismans'. What?
Excuse me? Is Terry Goodkind really this ignorant, or is he just another patsy for the secular order that is encroaching with the culture of death?
Does anyone want a link to pictures of happy young muslims brandishing the hands of Christians they collected for allah???? Those of the Order where more like militant islam and the Saracens of history and militant communism and nazi's rolled up in one!! Knowing that as of this minute while I write this thousands of Christians are being executed for 'blasphemy' and oppressed with well documented sharia dhimmi laws in muslim countries or as in communist China's case, having children ripped from their wombs because they value life and would want to welcome a new child among them,...but it's against the godless of laws of china. Or what about the mass graves of Orthodox and catholic priests and nuns from Communist Russia and it's former satellites??
What an insult to those really truly have and are suffering on behalf of the values of life and liberty.
Ugh. I was completely irritated that I even read the series to begin with. I will not bother to watch the TV series.
My advice is save yourself aggravation and money and skip this series.
It's a garden path to nowhere.
M~
Am epic end 2008-07-13
Terry neatly wraps this book up, and from the beginning you can see this is the end, as all the knots are tied into nice packages. Overall, I give this a 4 of 5 stars because it wasn't up to par of almost all the previous books. It wasn't a book I couldn't put down till it was finished, but overall it's a clean ending.
Bad rip off 2008-07-10
If you are going to copy another authors' work at least try to improve on it. This terrible ripoff of the Wheel of Time actually makes that stretched an redundant series look like a great literary work. Just garbage, do not bother.
