Terry Goodkind
Wizard's First Rule (1994)
Author: Terry Goodkind
Genre: Fantasy (Sword & Sorcery)
Plot Summary:
This story begins in Westland, the only part of the fantasy world that contains no magic. Westland is separated from the Midlands by a magically created boundary; there is another of these boundaries between the Midlands and D'Hara. While looking for clues to his father's murder, woods guide Richard Cypher helps a woman named Kahlan escape from some very dangerous men. She reveals that she is looking for a wizard who is rumored to have escaped into Westland before the boundaries were created. Richard takes her to Zedd, his mentor and most trusted friend. Zedd reveals himself to be the wizard Kahlan is looking for. Zedd reveals himself to be the wizard Kahlan is looking for. On the other side of the boundary, the evil wizard Darken Rahl has put the three boxes of Orden into play, meaning that if he finds all three boxes and opens the correct one, he will rule the world. If not, he dies, perhaps the whole world with him. At this point he has two of the boxes. Kahlan wants Zedd's help in finding and hiding the third box. Zedd names Richard the Seeker of Truth, and gives him the legendary Sword of Truth. It is a very powerful weapon, but it cannot kill Darken Rahl. The three have to find another way to defeat him. Richard asks his friend Chase, a boundary warden, to lead them through the boundary to the Midlands. Zedd and Chase are injured, and Richard and Kahlan leave them with Adie, a healer, while they journey through the boundary. Meanwhile, Kahlan is keeping a secret: she is a Confessor, meaning that anyone she touches with her power will become absolutely devoted to her, but otherwise an empty shell of a human being. Once through the boundary, Richard and Kahlan seek help finding the third box of Orden from the Mud People, a race of humans who live in the southern part of the Midlands. The two win over the Mud People, and the elders help them commune with the ancestors' spirits, who tell them who knows where the third box is: a witch woman named Shota. Richard and Kahlan go to see Shota, who, after much threatening and conniving, tells them that Queen Milena in the city of Tamarang has the box, but won't for much longer. The two meet up again with Zedd and a talking wolf named Brophy, and go to Tamarang in time to find that Darken Rahl is there, and the box of Orden has already disappeared. The four try to escape from Tamarang, but Richard is captured by a Mord-Sith, a woman trained in the art of torture. SPOILER: After being broken by Denna, Richard is brought to Darken Rahl, who tells Richard that he has all three boxes. He persuades Richard to help him open the right box, and Richard, under great duress, agrees. Rahl lets Richard go, but warns him to be back in three days. Richard kills Denna and enlists the help of Scarlet, Rahl's red dragon, to find his friends. Scarlet agrees, on the terms that Richard help her rescue her egg from Darken Rahl. They find Zedd and Kahlan, but Rahl has placed a wizard's web on him that makes his friends see him as Darken Rahl, and Rahl's followers to see him as himself. (Apparently, dragons are immune to the spell.) Zedd attacks Richard, and Richard has no choice but to leave with Scarlet. Demmin Nass, Darken Rahl's second-in-command, comes to Zedd and Kahlan and tells them that Richard is dead. Kahlan goes mad, invoking the Con Dar, a blood rage unique to Confessors, and kills Nass. She and Zedd go to Darken Rahl's castle, where she confronts Richard, whom she thinks is Rahl, and touches him with her power. Richard, already being devoted to her, is unaffected by the touch, and tricks Rahl into opening the wrong box, killing him. It is then revealed that Richard is Rahl's son by Zedd's deceased daughter.
Geographical Setting: Fictional setting: Westland, The Midlands, and D'Hara
Time Period: Not indicated
Series: First of the Sword of Truth series
Appeal Characteristics:
Goodkind takes the traditional fantasy-quest story and adds his own unique flavor to it. He creates a rich, engrossing world with characters who must work together while keeping secrets from each other. The book moves slowly at first as Goodkind fleshes out his fantasy world, then the plot and characters drive each other to a breathtaking climax. This is a world where even goodness can be dangerous, and an accidental touch can bring a person under a spell. While Westland has no native magic, the Midlands and D'Hara are high-magic regions, and this magic can take many different forms.
Read-alikes: Stone of Tears is the second in Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. In this sequel, Richard must learn to become a wizard in order to save the world from falling under the control of the Keeper of the Underworld. Robert Jordan has spent a great deal of time building a rich, complex world in his series, The Wheel of Time. Start with The Eye of the World, in which a young man named Rand al'Thor discovers that he is much more than a simple farmer. He and his friends set out on a long journey to defeat the Forsaken who have broken free of their prison. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin is the first in the series A Song of Ice and Fire. In this first book a brutal winter is coming that will last for decades, as several noble houses plot, scheme, and kill their way to a newly vacant throne. Rhapsody: Child of Blood is the first in the Rhapsody trilogy. Rhapsody is a young woman on the run from a too-persistent suitor. On her way she meets two strangers who sweep her away into a journey to the Great Tree, which has the power to influence time and space. Legends: Stories by the Masters of Modern Fantasy is a collection of eleven novellas from modern fantasy's biggest names. Goodkind, Martin, and Jordan have contributed, as well as eight other excellent fantasy authors. Those who are new to the genre will get a taste of fantasy's best, while more experienced fantasy readers will enjoy seeing their favorite epic-writing authors distil their talents into self-contained short novels.
Red Flags: Attempted rape, graphic violence, torture, implied sex. One bad guy has what Kahlan calls "a very sick interest" in children, but we don't see him act on it.
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