SEPTEMBER 2011 - AudioFile
Fans of the Sword of Truth series found it hard to believe Goodkind was leaving some of their favorite characters behind. Starting with Goodkind's new book is a bit like making friends with people who have all enjoyed many adventures together. Knowing their history is less critical than in earlier books. Sam Tsoutsouvas is a no-nonsense narrator who wastes no time diving into the new undertakings of Richard and Kahlan. Tsoutsouvas’s style is sometimes pensive, and references to past history are generally presented as asides. He proceeds with intensity and focus as the characters unravel the mystery of prophecies that are being delivered by a machine that was lost for millennia. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
A mysterious device appears that seems to possibility of telling the future. At first, its predictions seem merely novel and harmless. Nevertheless, Zeddicus believes the Omen Machine must be destroyed, an edict quickly forgotten when the mechanical oracle lays down a cataclysmic future that will tear apart the lives of Richard and Kahlan. A Sword of Truth you will never forget.
From the Publisher
Praise for Terry Goodkind
“Mr. Goodkind’s compelling prose weaves a magic spell over readers.”
—RT Book Reviews on Faith of the Fallen
SEPTEMBER 2011 - AudioFile
Fans of the Sword of Truth series found it hard to believe Goodkind was leaving some of their favorite characters behind. Starting with Goodkind's new book is a bit like making friends with people who have all enjoyed many adventures together. Knowing their history is less critical than in earlier books. Sam Tsoutsouvas is a no-nonsense narrator who wastes no time diving into the new undertakings of Richard and Kahlan. Tsoutsouvas’s style is sometimes pensive, and references to past history are generally presented as asides. He proceeds with intensity and focus as the characters unravel the mystery of prophecies that are being delivered by a machine that was lost for millennia. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
This new entry in Goodkind's longstanding Sword of Truth series directly follows the events of the previous volume, Confessor (2007). Following the dreadful and debilitating war against the Imperial Order for control of D'Hara--though there are no bodies, no wounded or any damage; the main consequence seems to have been that the leading characters lost half their brain cells--Richard, Lord Rahl and his wife Kahlan, the Mother Confessor (she neither hears nor makes any confessions), settle down at the People's Palace to enjoy, so they hope, a period of peace and prosperity. However, everybody from the realm's assembled dignitaries to the lowliest peasant is suddenly obsessed with prophesy. Though the prophesies all come true, they seem fairly trivial, like "the roof will fall in," until scholars reveal that the exact same prophecies occur in an ancient tome. Then, during a terrible storm, a glass roof does fall in, causing the floor beneath to collapse and revealing the huge, ancient magic-powered machine of the title. The machine commences to churn out the same prophesies. Various unpleasant things happen, convincing the dignitaries that they should be ruled by the prophesies rather than Richard. And, despite the intractable idiocy of the protagonists, some enemies are revealed: the Hedge Maid, whose magic is proof against Richard's irresistible sword, and Hannis Arc, a naked, tattooed super-wizard with a grudge against the Rahls. Such is the general bewilderment that even favorite figures like the old wizard Zedd are given little to do except stand around frowning in puzzlement and stoically ignoring the obvious. There's general agreement that the series has gone downhill since book 6 or 7. This is book 13, dismally slapdash and often just plain dumb.