Confessor

This is the final book in the main arc of the Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. My personal rating is more a reflection of the series as a whole

This series was one of the first epic high fantasy series I had read and I fell in love with the series from the start of my 1st read through. I love the characters, the world building and the general ideas throughout this series of books. So much so that I named 2 of my kids after characters from this book series.

My reading tastes however have evolved over the years and I just finished my re-read of the series as a whole. Terry Goodkind has been known to be a somewhat of a controversial author in the fantasy community, something I did not know when I first read the series but on the re-read I have come to understand why that is.

It is no secret that Terry Goodkind was heavily inspired by Ayn Rand and libertarian ideals in the writing of this book series. These ideas of liberty self determination etc.. are repeating over and over and over and over and over again like a mantra to the point of becoming overly repetitive throughout the books from Wizards first rule to Confessor

The bad guys, Emperor Jagang and his imperial order we are reminded over and over again about how evil they are and how good and right Richard and his circle of freedom fighters are good. Good kind goes out of his way to paint the bad guys as so terribly and in a way that at times feels like he is beating you over the head with it, and then some and does the same thing in reverse with the good guys

This book series gets excessivley preachy at times with political philosophy and idealism which can get quite tiresome at times in the excess.

This gets tiring after a while to the point where we want scream OK WE GET IT ALREADY!

That being said the world building, the characters and the overall story and plot I still do really really love and enjoy. To be Honest I am torn, while I really struggle with the black and white objective good and bad guys and strong libertarian ideals to the point of political rheteoric I still can't help but love everything else about these books. The charcters, the world, the magic system so much good mixed with so much bad. 15 yrs ago I might have given near 5 star rating, but now with half good and half bad 2.5 stars for the series as a whole for me