Richard and Kahlan barely survived their encounter with the
Hedge Maid. Before they can be healed, their party is
attacked by a cannibal horde. Only Richard and Kahlan are
known to have survived the attack. They're rescued by the
people of Stroyza and taken to their small village carved
high into a cliff face. Samantha, a young sorceress,
attempts to heal their wounds, but Death lurks inside.
Without a trained sorceress and a containment field to
safely remove the stain of Death left from their battle with
the Hedge Maid, Richard and Kahlan will die. Richard has no
choice but to journey into the Third Kingdom, home of the
Hedge Maid, the cannibal horde, and other unspeakable evils
if he wants to rescue his friends and save Kahlan. Can he
put an end to the evil that has been loosed upon the Dark
Lands and save those he loves before his time runs out?
THE THIRD KINGDOM by Terry Goodkind is the sequel to The
Omen Machine and it is the fifteenth Richard and
Kahlan
story. For fans of the series, THE THIRD KINGDOM continues
to follow the same formula that has made Terry Goodkind a
bestseller. He offers a diverse and tangled world of
political power struggles, relentless characters who will
stop at nothing to achieve their goals, action sequences
that push his characters past their limits of endurance, and
the struggle of good versus evil with good hanging on. This
is an extensive world and if you're new to the series it
will be hard to follow. With fifteen books, Mr. Goodkind
can't take the time to develop how relationships between all
characters began and how they've changed over the course of
this series. I do suggest beginning with the first book
Wizard's First Rule if you're interested in this series.
Wizard's First Rule was for me an amazing story because it
created such a unique world and set up Richard and Kahlan's
relationship. The challenges they had to overcome were
nearly impossible, but it was the internal struggle to
accept their own strength and their own limits that made
them empathetic. Fifteen books in, I find the same struggles
and self-doubt a bit tedious. I also feel as if the writing
standard has been lowered. The first eighty pages of THE
THIRD KINGDOM is a near perfect recounting from a young boy
of the events that left Richard and Kahlan alone and in
danger. While those events are crucial to the story and
Richard's decision to act, I question the use of this method
to show those events. For the young boy to give such perfect
detail of all aspects of the horrific cannibal attack which
took place on a dark night stretched my belief to the
breaking point. These actions would have been more effective
if written as action rather than a retelling of the action
when the reader knows the main characters are safe. I found
much of the story to be long discussions of events that took
place previously which does slow the immediacy of the action
down. The story does pick up nearly two-thirds of the way
through. Mr. Goodkind's world is vast and there is lots of
information that must be given for the story to make sense.
His history of this world spans thousands of years. This
deeply visualized history is one of the reasons that make
him a much loved author. It also tends to overwhelm the
current story at times and bring the action to a halt as
that history is explained to the reader.
THE THIRD KINGDOM by Terry Goodkind continues to expand the
world he first began with Wizard's First Rule. Over the
course of fifteen novels, this world truly feels like a vast
and complicated world with vying political systems. It's
intriguing, culturally diverse, and complex. It can also be
overwhelming if you've not read any of his previous novels.
There's much to recommend this series, but I would
definitely start with the first book so this world can be
appreciated and Richard's continuing evolution can be seen.
THE THIRD KINGDOM isn't my favorite Terry Goodkind novel,
but as always I'll keep reading Richard and Kahlan
stories
in the hopes that one day, they'll actually get their
happily ever after.
Terry Goodkind returns to the lives of Richard Rahl and
Kahlan Amnell—in The Third Kingdom, the direct sequel to his
#1 New York Times bestseller The Omen Machine.
Richard saw the point of a sword blade sticking out from
between the man’s shoulder blades. He spun back toward
Richard after throwing the woman out the opening, ready to
attack. It seemed impossible, but the man looked unaffected
by the blade that had impaled him through the chest.
It was then, in the weak light from the fire pit off to the
side, that Richard got his first good look at the killer.
Three knives were buried up to their brass cross-guards in
the man’s chest. Only the handles were showing. Richard saw,
too, the broken end of a sword blade jutting out from the
center of the man’s chest. The point of that same blade
stuck out from the man’s back.
Richard recognized the knife handles. All three were the
style carried by the men of the First File.
He looked from those blades that should have killed the big
man, up into his face.
That was when he realized the true horror of the situation,
and the reason for the unbearable stench of death.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy