Wizard's First Rule Review

So I'm a little behind, monday's supposed to be sports, but honestly not that much interesting went on this weekend. I'm not big on college basketball, especially when it isn't March, and well, I'm not from LA so I don't think it's a huge deal that the Celtics gave the Lakers a woopin'. All star games/pro bowls are fun, but not worth talking about, though Zdeno Chara's 105.9mph clapper is pretty impressive.

So, today will take what Wednesday's theme was supposed to be, entertainment. I will give a review of a book that probably every fantasy fan but me has already read, but, got to get around to it sometime, right?

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind impressed me in many ways, but was by no means a perfect book. He can get you hooked and turning the pages, though sometimes his writing is a little sloppy. I will admit, at the same time I was reading this, I have been reading Francine Prose's "Who to Read Like a Writer," so maybe I have been more critical of this book than I would have been, though some things are hard not to notice.

I will begin with the characters and story. It does not depart much from Lord of the Rings tropes, but manages to stand out in its own right. Essentially a strong headed intelligent kid who does not want to be bothered gets roped into all these entangled plots he wants no part of and goes on an adventure. He is accompanied  by a beautiful woman he can't have, a crazy old wizard who is always hungry and a hulking veteran soldier. Essentially all the characters are pretty stock, but each has a little twist on them to make them just interesting enough.

The story itself is also very stock, but just like the characters, Goodkind throws some real interesting twists in there to keep you interested. He seems to focus a lot on the themes of truth and perception and truth versus perception, which at sometimes seems really awkward, but at others is very interesting. There are some cool instances about seeing through have truths and such, though I feel like some of the sections are awkwardly worked around a point Goodkind wants to make. Some will like this aspect more than others.

Now, the writing style is the last thing I'd like to talk about. It is an 820 page book, so there are a lot of words in there and maybe I'm being harsh, but the writing quality is really inconsistent. The opening paragraph is done masterfully. It starts small and oozes its way out, slowly moving back to show you the full picture. Most of his first sentences for chapters are very attention grabbing. There are other sections, however, that are written awkwardly or just drag. There is a lot of unnecessary description (a common problem in fantasy writing) and sometimes he will add a sentence or detail that not only does not add to the story or scene, but is completely random. There is literally a scene where the main character is focused real hard on doing something and there is this random sentence, "A chicken stood watching." Now, we could debate all day the significance and symbolism of a chicken standing their watching and how long Goodkind took to make the decision to put that sentence there. I don't think he put any time, he just wanted to describe the scene, and the detail just seems extraneous. This is not the only example, but it is the one I remember most.

I will say this the book is an enjoyable read and he is very deft with his plot lines. Everything is accounted for, even though its very complicated, and tied together neatly at the end. I don't want to spoil any more, but I will just say he does an excellent job of keeping the plot focused. By the end it is very hard to set the book down because of the way he's set everything up and all the little seeds he plants along the way start to take fruit.

Any way, that is my review for today. Tomorrow I'll be back with some game stuff.