Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Ok, so I finally got around to reading Confessor. I think the fact
that it's a month after it came out says a lot about where this
series has been going. Twelve years ago, when I first started
reading the Sword of Truth series I couldn't wait for each book to
come out. I'd spend the day closed off from the rest of the world,
immersed in the world of Richard and Kahlan.
The first four books were genius (Stone of Tears is one of my
favourite books of all time). Book six was pretty close. I have
re-read those books so much that I had to get new copies as pages
had started falling out of my old ones. Soul of the Fire was pretty
boring but still fit in with the story. I found The Pillars of
Creation and Naked Empire awful. Truly dreadful. Ayn
Rand-50-pages-of-pointless-mind numbing-soliloquy dreadful. PoC
might have had a point had Goodkind ever really used any of the
characters he introduced in it for something productive story-wise.
But he didn't and I advise anyone who is just starting the series
to skip both PoC and NE. The last three are better, but never
really lose the taint of PoC and NE.
Confessor itself was an ok book. It had its really strong points
but also had lots of flaws. The Ja'La games were fantastic. This is
where Goodkind shines. His description of action is second to none.
I could see the game, the riots in my head. It was like I was
there. The opening sequence in the Keep was great too. I really
enjoyed seeing cameos of some of the past characters. I really love
the Mud People.
Here's my big problem with the book. Goodkind has Richard prize
reason and common sense over almost everything else, yet Richard
(and his friends) never seem to use it. It's only as Jagang
approaches that Richard realizes that he might be recognized. Or
the fact Richard makes no attempted to get the War Wizard book
until he happens to be in the area. I had hoped that once Richard
got his gift back that he'd hop into the sliph and retrieve it
right away. After all, the book was meant to teach him of his
power…you'd think he want to learn to use the gift BEFORE he had to
face Jagang. Also, when they started talking about the making of
the confessors AFTER the boxes of Orden were made, I pretty much
figured out that the Book of Counted Shadows was irrelevant, yet it
took Richard so long to figure it out. I hate it when intelligent
characters are made stupid just to push the plot along.
The repetition that plagued the last four books is alive and well
in this book too. In just one chapter (or maybe two chapters) we
get to hear that Nicci now cares what happens to her life whereas
before, before she 'saw the light', she didn't, about six times.
Now she cares if she lives or dies. Ok, we get it. You don't need
to tell us six times. I'm not stupid! In fact there was a part I
found very ironic. When Rachel was talking to Six about how she
learned to draw (because Six had repeated it so many times for
Queen Violet), Six smirks and says 'Yes, she was stupid wasn't
she." It felt like Terry was calling me stupid because he had to
repeat his ideas so many times to me. Gah! I got it the first time
Terry. I could go on, but this review is already a little long.
The ending, in some ways was anticlimactic. Poof! Richard uses
magic to solve all of their problems, then feels the need to
explain in great detail the why and how for pages on end. I wasn't
disappointed, but I wasn't satisfied either. But I guess that's how
it's going to be.