Chainfire

Sword of Truth #9

by Terry Goodkind

With Wizard's First Rule and seven subsequent masterpieces, Terry Goodkind has thrilled readers worldwide with the unique sweep of his storytelling. Now Goodkind returns with a new novel of Richard and Kahlan, the beginning of a sequence of three novels that will bring their epic story to its culmination.

After being gravely injured in battle, Richard awakes to discover Kahlan missing. To his disbelief, no one remembers the woman he is frantically trying to find. Worse, no one believes that she really exists, or that he was ever married. Alone as never before, he must find the woman he loves more than life itself....if she is even still alive. If she was ever even real.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Magic, Adventure

748 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

About the author

Terry Lee Goodkind was an American writer. He was known for the epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth as well as the contemporary suspense novel The Law of Nines (2009), which has ties to his fantasy series. The Sword of Truth series sold 25 million copies worldwide and was translated into more than 20 languages. Additionally, it was adapted into a television series called Legend of the Seeker, which premiered on November 1, 2008, and ran for two seasons, ending in May 2010.
Goodkind was a proponent of Ayn Rand's philosophical approach of Objectivism, and made references to Rand's ideas and novels in his works.

Reviews

[Doc Opp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodkind sure knows how to spin a good yarn... if only he would stick to his storytelling and leave out the naive and idiotic philosophical ramblings. At some point around book five somebody alerted him to the notion of Objectivism, and he's converted his series to be a mechanism for bad objectivist propaganda. Only... it doesn't work, because of the way he set up his first few books, so he's constantly contradicting himself. And his explanations for why things are like that are half-baked at best. It's incredibly annoying to say the least.

Nonetheless, the philosophy tends to come in clumps, and if you skim those chapters, you can get back to the story which is well told. I wouldn't say on the whole that its worth it - unless you've been reading the series for a while and want to know what happens to the characters. Even then, I only buy books from these series when i find them at used book stores for half off, and only read them when I'm desperate for procrastination material.

[Eric Allen · Rating 1 out of 5]

TL;DR - The last 100 pages of this book are very good. The problem is that the 650 pages before them are soul-crushingly terrible, full of a ridiculous amount of recapping previous books, Goodkind telling us things we already know, endless technobabble about prophecy that might as well be giberish, and an absolutely insane amout of repetition in the dialog. The ending does not redeem the rest of the book up to it. The vast majority of the action scenes that take place in this book are told to us after the fact by characters recounting what happened, rather than allowing us to experience them ourselves. Goodkind has a real problem with telling instead of showing here. It's like he's forgotten how to write action, or a compelling story, and substitutes recaps of his better work, and cheap descriptions of action scenes after the fact. It's a very lazy and mind-numbing book that I cannot recomend to anyone.


So, I figured I'm not reading anything at the moment, might as well knock out another Sword of Truth review. I have only read this book once before. I was so disgusted with Naked Empire when it first came out that I pretty much just stopped paying attention to Terry Goodkind and the Sword of Truth. Several years passed and I was surprised to find that Confessor was about to be realeased and that I had missed Chainfire and Phantom. I figured that since it was the last book of the series, I'd reread the entire series from the beginning, and finish off with the three that I hadn't read before. I remember liking this book when I first read it, but, looking back now, I think that my enjoyment of it was only in comparison with my utter hatred and loathing of Naked Empire, which I read for a second time immediately before picking it up. Reading through it now... yeah, not so great.

I'm going to do what I did with the last two Goodkind books and just post my notes, rather than waste even more of my time on this book.

12% done:

All right, I am a little over 80 pages in, and, well, there's a few things. First of all, What does Goodkind have against just telling us what the cause of the drama is outright? He has this annoying habit of dancing around the exact cause of drama, and just trying to build drama around the reader not knowing things that everyone in the scene clearly knows. It makes the drama feel forced with you withhold information like that. And Drama that feels forced does NOT feel dramatic.

Next, show, don't tell. There is nothing shown in this book so far. It is ALL told. We are told about the fight at the beginning where Richard was wounded. We are told about how Richard was healed. We are told about the blood beast and how dangerous it might be. We are told that Nicci inadvertently fed it some of Richard's blood. We are told that she removed the arrow with subtractive magic. We are told in excruciating detail how prophecy works (more on that later). We are told, in even MORE excruciating detail, how Richard's magic works. The one time we're actually shown something, in the remnants of Richard's men torn up by the blood beast, we've also got Nicci giving a running commentary on it, so we're shown what happened, BUT WE ARE ALSO TOLD. The sheer ineptitude that Goodkind is showing with this is staggering. Let me give you an example of what I mean.

All right, Nicci sits there and thinks, at great length, about how Richard's magic works on need, and how he is unable to consciously control it. This takes up about 7 pages. It's absolutely mind numbing, and I can't see a casual reader even bothering reading through it completely, instead skimming through to the end. First of all, WE ALREADY FREAKING KNOW!!! This is book 9. No one is going to pick up book 9 of a series without reading at least a few of the eight that came before it. This explanation is unnecessary, and redundant. Second, we are TOLD all of these things that we already know, rather than being SHOWN these things in practice. It makes it feel rather boring and long-winded, and like we're being lectured by the author. Think of this, instead. Richard and pals are soaking wet and freezing cold from the rain. Have him get the idea that, hey, maybe I can use magic to get a fire going to warm and dry us faster with magic. He tries to use magic to start a fire. He fumbles around, not really sure what he's doing, strains, trying to force it, and then gives up. He sighs, then grabs a flint and steel to do it the old fashioned way. This SHOWS us several things. First, it SHOWS us that Richard CAN sometimes use magic. It SHOWS us that he can't always get it to work. It SHOWS us that he's working on being able to figure it out. It SHOWS us that he doesn't know how it works, and that he can't force it. His sigh SHOWS us that he is frustrated with it, and his reaching for the flint SHOWS us that he has more trust in doing things the way everyone else does then than through magic, and that he sees the time spent trying as a waste, which then infers that he feels that magic in general is a waste. This little scene would be short and sweet, probably less than half a page, and it would impress upon us exactly what Richard's troubles with magic are without saying a single word about them, allowing us, as the readers, to imply all of these things from what we are shown. Which would you rather read? A seven page lecture on Richard's abilities and aptitude with magic, or a simple scene that shows you all of these things in a brief, but adequate manner without saying a single word beyond what was shown as explanation?

Next, I feel like a broken record bringing this up time and time again, but the freaking recaps man. Again. I have read the eight books that came before this one. I do not need 30 of the first 80 pages of this book devoted to telling me what happened in them. It's boring. I know already. I don't need to be reminded of every single event in the characters' lives before this point. And it's all told to us in a wall of text that is just a boring chore to read. Why? What a waste of time and effort to write that all out, and what a waste of time and effort to read it. And pretty much the other side of the recap coin is the repetition. Good god, man. You don't need to have people say the exact same things back and forth for seventeen years to get the point across. Generally, a reader only needs to be told something once. A conversation where the exact same things are brought up and explained away nine times is generally going to be skipped, or skimmed through by most readers, because no one fucking cares. No one wants to read that. You're wasting everyone's time with it. When you give an explanation of Cicadas in one chapter, for instance, you do not need to have another character in another location give the exact same explanation about Cicadas in the very next chapter. This is ridiculous. There is so much unnecessary dialog in this book that basically just repeats the exact same things over, and over, and over again. Who is this for, exactly? People too stupid to comprehend what you're talking about? Guess what, people like that are probably not going to be reading the book in the first place, dumbass.

Okay, what I feel is the worst aspect of this series BY FAR, is the technobabble explanations of prophecy. Goodkind goes on into excruciating detail for pages upon pages technobabbling about how prophecy works. And it's basically all giberish. It means nothing to anyone. It's wasted space in the story, where Goodkind tries to make people look smart by saying a lot of big, made up words in a meaningful way, as if it's important and shit, and he's not actually telling us anything of value in it. What could have been a very tense scene of Nathan frantically flipping through prophecy books, finding all of the blank sections and then finally coming to the realization that prophecy is being erased from existence was completely ruined by Nathan explaining that he did that after the fact, and then he and Anne having a long and boring conversation technobabbling about prophecy. You see what I mean about telling instead of showing? We are TOLD that Nathan flipped through these books, with a growing sense of unease and dread, instead of actually having him do it so taht we could see it ourselves, and feel the tension and building dread ourselves. This is an extremely lazy and incompetent way of telling a story. None of the action or emotion is shown to us as it's happening. It's told to us in a dry, boring way after the fact.

So, the whole Richard being the only one to remember Kahlan thing. Good god. What a shit show that is. Look, okay, I get what Goodkind is going for here. Richard is the only one that remembers her and he's constantly trying to prove that she exists to others. The problem is that it is drawn out to such ridiculous, tedious, and repetative length that it actually becomes a sort of parody of itself, rather than being the central point of tension and drama in the story. By the time I got 80 pages in, I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm bored to death, because that's all Richard talks about. He's not really DOING anything. All he's doing is having roundabout conversations with people that all are basically the exact same thing repeated to the point that it's like watching a dog chase its own tail. This is not the way to build tension and drama around a mystery. Again. SHOW, DON'T TELL. We are TOLD all of this. None of it is ever SHOWN to us. It's boring and tedious to read, because it just keeps repeating over, and over, and over again, without ever making any progress either way. Richard never comes close to convincing the others, and the others never come close to convincing him. What is the point of continuing to repeat it if no headway is ever made either way? A chess game ends at a stalemate for a reason. So should this. If you can't make any progress in it either way, quit bringing it up at length until you CAN make progress with it.

Gawd, I just filled up half of the Goodreads character allotment for reviews with my notes of the first 80 pages of 750 page book... Fuck.

70% done:

Okay, so, pacing. Every story has a tempo. It moves to a certain rhythym. There are fast parts, and slow parts, tense parts and light hearted parts, and they all ebb and flow in a certain way. This is what is referred to as the pacing of the story by many people. Generally, when you have multiple storylines going on within the larger story, you tend to keep the pacing uniform across all of the storylines. Action scenes will happen in generally the same part of the story. Quiet moments of reflection will generally happen in the same part of the story. Scenes with the same tempo are generally grouped together to keep the flow of the pacing consistent across all storylines in the larger story. This is because when you cut from the middle of a tense action scene straight into a scene with two women talking about books, it kind of comes out of nowhere, and it makes your brain stumble a bit. You may not consciously notice the complete reversal in the pacing, but your brain did, and it starts to wonder why we were all excited and now we're bored, and why that change happened so abruptly. Yes, this exact scene transition happens in this book.

You want to know why you didn't like the Canto Bight scenes in Star Wars: The Last Jedi? PACING!!! That's probably the biggest reason why those scenes fail to engage, because they're very poorly paced, and very poorly interwoven with the rest of the story.

Look, messing with pacing and the reader's expectations makes for some very good and unpredictable plot developments. But when it's not done right, it really, really hurts the stroy. An author will usually use abrupt pacing changes to either draw your attention to something, making it stand out, or to give you a sense of discord, which is often used in horror stories to make you feel uncomfortable, but you don't really know why. A really good example of messing with pacing to enhance a plot twist would be in The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. There is a part near the end of the book, right before the climax where Weeks weaves two scenes with very contrasting tones and tempos together. On one side you have a fanatic ranting to his armies about the evils of the system, and it's cut in with a solemn religious ceremony. But at the same time, these two different scenes are also about the same thing. The pacing of these two events is completely opposite. It leaves you a little off balance, so that when the plot twist hits, it hits extremely hard. Yeah, Goodkind isn't doing anything fancy like that. He just doesn't seem to understand the entire concept of pacing, and so the pacing in this book is just attrocious.

And, so, the Blood Beast. Okay, so the whole randomness to its attacks really feels kind of like Goodkind is ripping off ideas from better writers here. Yes, two authors can independently come up with similar ideas, but this really feels too derivitive of other works in Fantasy and Sci-fi to be anything other than Goodkind blatantly borrowing ideas from other sources. Most notably I'd bring up the bubbles of evil from Wheel of Time. And we're back to the similarities between the two series argument again, and well, meh. Another thing that I don't like about the Blood Beast is that it never really does anything that's really all that threatening. Richard very easily deals with its attacks in this book. And there really are no lasting consequences to them. Sure a bunch of his men were torn up by it, but we never met these people, so their loss doesn't really impact us. Cara survives none the worse for wear. Richard takes dozens of wounds when it attacks with acidic spiderwebs. Goodkind describes the searing pain, and says that Richard has blood pouring down his arms and legs from the wounds that the web leaves. But the second he's free, Goodkind forgets all about the wounds. They're never mentioned again. Richard goes on like he was never hurt to begin with. When you have your character get hurt, there have to be consequences. There has to be something at stake. If he is hurt, he has to continue dealing with the wounds. They don't get to magically disappear as soon as the tension is resolved. Especially when you have very firmly established that Richard can't generally use his magic to heal himself.

So, there's a scene in this book where a spy grabs a little girl and holds a knife to her throat. Richard puts his hand on his sword, and then Goodkind goes into this... I don't even know what to call it, where he just describes what Richard plans to do and why for about 9 pages. He overdescribes Richard's intent to the point that instead of building the tension up behind the moment that he actually strikes, that it, again, becomes something of a parody of itself. It goes far beyond tense into boring, and then far beyond boring to the point that it's actually funny how long Goodkind draws it out. And so a scene that's meant to be an explosive moment of action from our hero is an over-analyzed, excruciatingly over-described mockery of what it was supposed to be. I mean, was there even an editor working on this book? Was he too afraid of Goodkind to speak up and do his damn job? Did none of his superiors look over his shoulder and say, wait, what the fuck man, what are you even doing? Why aren't you marking the shit out of this and sending it back to be fixed?

And speaking of editors. Take the 40 page long conversation between Richard and Shota. Please. Take that entire conversation away from me. Seriously. Look, I know I keep harping on the repetition in these books. And in a way, I'm doing the same thing Goodkind does by repeating it so much, but it really has to be said, yet again here. This conversation is 40 pages long, I counted them. There is about 1 page worth of relevant conversation in it. One. Page. I don't know why the Chainfire Trilogy, is even a trilogy. If you cut out all of the repetative dialog, all of the explanations of things that are given multiple times, and all of the recaps of previous books, the story of these three books, would probably have fit into a single volume quite easily, and with room to spare. just sayin'. That is how much this book repeats itself. Those are the ridiculous lengths to which the author goes to pad this thing with unnecessary dialog.

And speaking of dialog. This is not how people talk to each other. This is not how people act, or react, or think. These are not people. These are not characters. These are not conversations, or character interactions. I don't know what they are, but the fact that Goodkind seems to believe that this is how people act and speak only solidifies my suspicion that he is from a planet other than Earth, and has never actually met a real human being before.

Nicci is still as badass as ever, though. I actually liked her battle scene, though the fact that it cuts away right in the middle of it to Verna and a Mord Sith talking about books of prophecy does kind of kill the mood. And just the way that it's written is so amatuerish and, frankly, incompetent that I wonder why I ever thought Goodkind was a decent author to begin with. Although, even though I love Nicci, and she is, by far, my favorite character of this series... The Bechdel Test took one look at this book and quietly leapt to its death off an overpass.

100% done.

Okay, so, Nicci, last time we saw her, she was in the middle of a desperate battle, fighting off multiple wizards, while the people of Altur Rang deal with the Imperial Order army sent to sack their city. Yeah, we don't go back for the rest of that battle. Instead, Nicci sits around the Wizard's Keep waiting for Richard to arrive there and briefly thinks about what happened through the rest of the battle. Okay, so, again, this is ALL telling and NO showing. We are TOLD that these events happened by the character. We are not SHOWN these events as they happen. Which would you rather read? I, for one, would rather have had the battle scene, than a brief and inadequate second hand account of it. Why even bother including a battle at all if all you are going to do is show us the first little bit of it, and then tell us about the rest in a way that really doesn't do the events any justice at all? I mean, Nicci freaking ripped a wizard's still beating heart out of his chest with her bare hands! How awesome would that have been to experience as an action scene in the book, rather than a lazy, oh yeah, and this happened while we were focusing on other characters? This is the author flat out, and blatantly telling us that he was too lazy to write out the rest of the battle, but it would have been really awesome if he had.

Now, I'm going to say something rather unexpected. The end of this book is actually quite good. The last 100 pages are so, are pretty excellent. The climax is good, the events leading up to it are good. It's not a big actiony scene, but a handful of scenes vindicating Richard in his belief that Kahlan exists, and solving the mystery of what happened to her. There's not much in the way of repetition here, and no recapping, and Goodkind just lets the scenes play out. When he actually does that, he's actually a pretty decent writer. The problem is that he rarely does that. And no matter how good the last 100 pages were, the 650 before them were mind-numbing and infuriating. The climax does not redeem the rest of the book. You could literally cut out around 70% of this entire book, and you would still have all of the relevant scenes to the plot in there. A good 70% of this book is mindless repetition, and Goodkind repeatedly telling us things that we already know.

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Well that was a HUGE improvement over the last book! Chainfire is a return to everything I love about the early books in the Sword of Truth series. Richard is being peak Richard - determined to prove that Kahlan exists after she's kidnapped and her memory wiped from everyone else's mind. It occasionally gets a little soapboxy but nothing excessive. This gives me hope for the last two books in the series.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the last book in my Sword of Truth reread adventure. No, I'm not quitting SoT, it is just that this is the very last book in the series I read the first time around! I recall feeling like Chainfire was a book that got the series back on track after the lacklustre two previous instalments. The good news is that remains the same during this reread. I might have enjoyed both Pillars of Creation and Naked Empire a lot more the second time around but I still think that Chainfire is a better book than both those and more on par with the earlier books in the series in terms of quality.

The story was good. It started with Richard waking up after being healed by Nicci. He had been struck with an arrow in a skirmish with Imperial Order troops and would have died if not for Nicci saving his life. As it was he was unconscious for a few days as he healed. Richard's real issues began when he woke up and discovered Kahlan was gone. The situation went from bad to worse quickly as it soon became apparent that no one else was even looking for Kahlan because they could not even remember she existed. Never one to listen to anyone else Richard set out to save her from her latest apparent abduction. This went down poorly with the others who feared he was losing his mind!

The story was more fun than it sounds. With Kahlan out of the way Nicci and Cara both got more of a chance to shine as Richard's main companions for this instalment of the series. The fact that neither remembered Kahlan existed also lead to some fun moments. Fun for us readers but not so fun for Richard himself as their, and everyone else's, constant doubts of his sanity drove him crazy and even began to leave him wondering if they might not be right that Kahlan was just a delusion after all! Outside of the hunt for Kahlan we got a few updates on the other happenings. With Jagang making his move against D'Hara, Verna and the others had to get the D'Haran forces into position to oppose them. It was fun to catch up with Verna and a few other familiar faces in the war camp. Ann and Nathan were on the trail of a problem with the books of prophecy. Their story ended up being enjoyable enough. Zedd was trying to get things back in order at the Wizard's keep. It was fun to learn a bit more about the place and to meet a few more familiar faces that popped up to help him.

All the story arcs were pretty fun. I felt the start of the story was a bit slow with a bit too much emphasis put on recapping past events (though I'm sure I'd have been glad of that if I'd not just binged a whole bunch of SoT books right before picking up this one) but once the story got going it was pretty decent and engaging. The best thing about this instalment of the series was the fact that so much familiar faces from the previous books made an appearance in this one. We got all the regulars but we also got a few appearances from characters that have not popped up in a while like Berdine (yay!), Rikka, Chase and Rachel, Shota, and a few of the D'Haran officers we are familiar with. We even got a few old villains make a reappearance! Best of all we got Nicci as a POV character which is always fun.

Another thing worth noting was that this was a low-key SoT instalment for disturbing happenings. Richard and the others were not up to anything particularly horrific in this story which always makes it easier to root for them.

All in all I felt like this was return to form for the SoT series and an enjoyable read.

Rating: 4.5 stars.

Audio Note: I've been listening to the N.L.B. versions of the SoT series for my latest reread. Nick Sullivan does an awesome job with them. He is great with the voices and really brings the story to life with his performance.

The commercial version of the audio is narrated by Jim Bond. It sucks. The scary thing is Bond is actually one of the best of the commercial narrators chosen by Brilliance Audio. He is just such a monotone bore that he sucks the life out of the story.

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

The nature of the monster with no nature ... fantastic!

Lord Richard Rahl is the sole survivor of a battle in which a troop of soldiers is brutally massacred by an unknown and, indeed, unseen enemy capable of enormous ferocity. When Richard recovers from his near fatal wounds with the help of sorceress Nicci's use of the all but forbidden subtractive magic, he discovers that he is the only living soul who remembers his beloved wife Kahlan, the Mother Confessor. All of Richard's friends and compatriots - Cara, his Mord-Sith bodyguard, Nicci the sorceress and former Mistress of Death, Verna and Ann, joint prelates of the Sisters of the Light, Nathan the prophet, the witch woman Shiota, even wizard Zedd, Richard's beloved grandfather - are convinced that Richard has lost his reason.

Worse yet, because Richard feels he must devote what remains of his life and energy to finding his beloved wife and rescuing her from whatever fate has trapped her beyond the world's ken, he has also reached the decision to not lead his weakened D'Haran troops in a final battle against the almost limitless hordes of the advancing Emperor Jagang. He has also traded his Sword of Truth to the witch woman Shiota for one critical scrap of knowledge ... the word "Chainfire" , which he will discover in his travels is the name of a long deeply hidden spell capable of literally unraveling existence itself. Without Richard's leadership and the Sword of Truth, prophesy dictates that the free world is doomed to fall to Jagang and the Keeper of Death.

The ninth book in the now aging SWORD OF TRUTH series, CHAINFIRE is the first novel of a trilogy within the series based on Kahlan's disappearance from the world. First time readers of Goodkind's work should be warned that this novel would be almost indecipherable if read before a significant number of the previous eight novels.

While the plot outline is a good one, many reviewers have commented that the book is repetitive and lengthy to the point of tedium. For me, I would agree with the label "repetitive" but found the extended discussions on the philosophical notion of existence and the attempts at logical debate regarding the meaning of existence interesting and thought-provoking as opposed to tedious. The nature of the monster that Goodkind created to wipe out Richard's soldiers in the opening scene and to dog his footsteps throughout the balance of the novel was extraordinarily innovative. I don't think it would be exaggerating to suggest that such a beast is unique in the entire pantheon of beings created by authors since the very inception of fantasy as a genre.

Oh, I'll admit a little more action would have been a nice touch and a welcome change from time to time but it certainly didn't dampen my enthusiasm for the series and I'll definitely be looking for the tenth book, the second instalment in this sub-trilogy, PHANTOM.

Recommended for committed Goodkind fantasy fans.

Paul Weiss

[Andreah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm tired of following Richard and Kahlan around whenever they get separated. So old, Mr. Goodkind. What angers me even more is your statement about advice in becoming an author: "Ultimately, though, here is my sincere conviction: I believe that real writers are born writers. I do not believe that the intellectual aspects which are critical to good writing can be taught. You either are a writer, or you are not. Writers are, for the most part, self-made. If you are born a writer, and you possess the will, you will do what you need to in order to write. There is no secret, no magic key that will get anyone published. I wish you the best in your adventure of writing." -Terry Goodkind, courtesy of his official website. Frankly Mr. Goodkind, the first five books of this series were great fantasy, but now I am tired of chasing Richard and Kahlan. I am tired of you putting Richard in a hard place and then something magical happens to get him out of it. Moreover, writing isn't all about getting published, and I disagree with your statement of born writers. I was taught in an American Literature course that Hemingway worked tirelessly to perfect his "tip of the iceberg" style. I was hoping to get great advice about writing from your site, but no. I'm not a born writer, but I have the imagination and will to keep writing. I refuse to read any more of your novels for your advice and monotonous books.

[Eva · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you took away all the redundant sentences (I'm not talking about Richard's mannerisms that we've gotten used to, I mean the same sentence reworded on the same page), all the random arguing that does little but provide a vehicle for the same philosophy we've heard in the past 8 books...this book would probably be about 450 pages instead of 7whatever. I say random because not only have *we* heard it all before, but certaintly so have the characters and instead of saying, "But X, we've been over this, instead of rehashing it for another 2 hours, let's get some much needed sleep/make a plan/cover some more ground since apparently we can't ride and talk/eat/tell people they must live their own lives but we'll be disappointed in them if they live it certain ways. Ugh. These books would be perfect without Richard and with an editor.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much to my surprise, this was actually pretty okay! Aside from the painful writing style, of course.

After the past two books in the series have been not great (#7 was almost pointless in terms of the long-term arc, and #8 was one of the dullest things I've ever forced myself to finish), I wasn't really expecting much from this book. Prior books in the series, even if I didn't really like them, were always at least entertaining (and oftentimes over the top). That hasn't really been the case since #6 (Faith of the Fallen). Goodkind's perverse literary fixations (remember the bag of nipples? I will never get over it) seemed to have been replaced with a fixation on creating straw men for his characters to knock over. Aside from the presence of such poorly articulated philosophical arguments being annoying in and of themselves, reading them as a key part of a narrative is not interesting! What IS interesting is conflict that arises organically from your characters' emotions. And that is something that this book actually does pretty well.

Chainfire is the first of what is essentially a sub-trilogy to close out the Sword of Truth series. The book begins with Richard waking up from a near-fatal injury only to find his wife, Kahlan, is missing, but nobody remembers she even exists except him. Nicci and Cara both think his imaginary wife is an extension of a dream he must have had when he was feverish for two days, recovering from his injury. They both think he's delusional, and their beliefs are only strengthened every time someone who knows Richard hears him talk about Kahlan, and none of them remember her either. It's obvious to Richard that something much bigger must be going on, and that the magic used to make something so large and complex happen is probably going to have disastrous consequences elsewhere.

The main arc for him is dealing with the emotional fallout. Not surprisingly, it's not fun to be the only person who believes something, and something so fundamental as the closest relationship in his life, and not only that, but even his closest friends repeatedly deny his version of reality, and double down by trying to convince him that something is wrong with *him*. He tries to use logic and rational thought to convince Nicci and Cara, among others, but it doesn't work. They have an answer for everything he throws at them, and their minds seem to have created false memories to replace what was erased. No one even seems to notice or be bothered when obvious holes in their memory don't have exact answers. It is extremely frustrating for Richard, and it almost breaks him. No one believes him, and so he has almost nowhere to turn for answers.

There are also subplots involving Jagang trying to re-conquer Altur'Rang as a lesson, so that the rest of the Old World won't get any ideas and rise up as well. And there's something wrong with prophecy. Vast chunks of it are now blank, and no one has any memory of what those blank spaces used to contain (hmmmmmm). On top of all that, a beast created and sent by Jagang is now hunting Richard, and the collateral damage it causes is huge.

My main complaint with this book is the same complaint I've had with Goodkind's writing since I first finished book one. He is just not a good writer. I mean on a sentence level. He does not trust his readers at all, instead overexplaining every new concept introduced. And his dialogue, ugh, no one talks like that! Every conversation between every character involves endless repetition, and characters talking down to each other constantly as if their friends are infant babies instead of grown adults. "Now, Verna, don't you see . . ." Etc. Sometimes characters literally say the exact same thing three times in a row with only slight variations. If I had edited this book, it would have been at least 2/3 of its current length, that's how much unnecessary nonsense Goodkind peppers throughout. Also, a good chunk of this book has Richard essentially recapping most of the events of the series up until now, so that's more useless space taken up. Brief references to those events would have been more than sufficient.

But, the series is back on track now, actually dealing with the events of the main storyline, whereas it's tabled that almost entirely for the last few books, which were basically spinning plates as far as Jagang was concerned. I'm sure a lot of my relief at reading this has a lot to do with the book actually having a plot! And forward movement! But I also did like the relationships between Cara and Richard and Nicci and Richard, especially Nicci. I like Nicci a lot, and it makes me wonder what a more talented author could have done with that character. Cara and Nicci are extremely frustrating when they are harping on to Richard about his delusions, but the rest of the time both of them have really sweet, supportive dynamics with him, and he regards them much the same. (It helps that Richard the cruel Dicktator doesn't really make an appearance here in this installment.) Nicci in particular has a really nice moment with Richard when he's at his lowest, and despite not believing him, she really supports him emotionally and is instrumental in his character growth.

Aside from what a relief it will be to finally finish this series after ten years, I'm kind of looking forward now to seeing how it ends. (Well, that's a lie. I was spoiled ten years ago for the ending, but I don't know how it will play out in context! And my memories of the spoiling are very vague.)

[Igor Ljubuncic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly, this was an okay book, after several really bad volumes.

Namely, books 5-8 were a complete waste of text, but Chainfire has some of the magical fun of the early works. Of course, it's still mighty perverted, naive and cliche, but the fact I read this book a good few years after I started with the series (and got old, wise and impatient in the process) and still managed to read it and even enjoy it some - means Chainfire is probably a very reasonable swath of pages. P.S. I did try to read Stone of Tears in my mid-20s again (after reading it as a teen), and it was just not ... readable. It was ponderous and YA. But Chainfire was decent.

Anyway ...

The book opens up with Richard getting seriously injured, and then after he's healed (by Nicci), he realizes that Kahlan is gone, and that no one actually remembers her. This is a nice mystery, and it sets the tone for the entire book. Has he gone insane? Did he suffer a trauma and recalls a fantasy woman that does not exist? Everyone is convinced he's lost it.

The disappearance of Kahlan also allows the book to "reinterpret" events the wrong way - sort of like Twilight zone, and then you yank someone out of existence, and there's a whole bunch of paradoxes, and it's only one man who notices the difference.

From here on, Richard goes on a quest. We are re-aquainted with Shota, Richard loses his precious (sword), Zedd is back, Nathan is back, and a few new magical objects and concepts are introduced. It's done well, and the action is fast enough. Richard's fascistic speeches are relatively short, because he's confused and desperate and has no time for manifestos. This is actually the first time we have Richard somewhat humbled; even when he was young and learning magic he was still a deeply narcissistic borderline psycho. This time, there's an almost human depth to him.

The book does not wrap the story - this volume and the next two form a sort of trilogy within the wider series. This also allows for a more elaborate plot. I won't mention any spoilers around Kahlan, though.

This could easily have been the fifth book in the series.

In fact, if you are contemplating reading SoT, go for 1-4 and then skip here. You won't miss anything major.

A little song, if you will:

I'm just an average wizard, with an average sword
I cast spells from nine to five; hey hell, I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone in my Wizard's Keep
But why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, and

I always feel like Kahlan's watching me
And I don't know where she is,
Woh, I always feel like Kahlan's watching me
Tell me is it just a dream?

When I come home at night
I bolt the door real tight
Sisters of the Dark I'm trying to avoid
Well, can Jagang see me
Or am I just paranoid?

When I'm in the Palace
I'm afraid to cast my spell
'Cause I might open my eyes
And find Kahlan standing there
People say I'm crazy
Just a little touched
But maybe spells remind me of
Jagang too much
That's why

I always feel like Kahlan's watching me
And I have no prophecy,
Woh, I always feel like Kahlan's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me?

Igor

[Ryan Hixson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chainfire by Terry Goodkind is a epic fantasy. Chainfire is book 9 in the Sword of Truth book series. The story is huge but this didn't feel like i have read 9 books which is a compliment. This book is the start of the conclusion you can feel the story coming to an end and setting up an epic final battle. This book is the part on of a trilogy to wrap up the war with the Dreamwalker Jagang and originally finish up the series but Goodkind added additional books after. The pacing for this book is a little bit slow at the beginning, but steadily increases the pace after a pretty epic battle, and leads to a good paced finale. This book does end in a bit of a cliffhanger, the characters have just found out what happened and of a new danger that wasn't even on their radar. They were watching the main enemy but forgot deals made with old enemies. Chainfire serves as a summary of events as old enemies come back and an old weapon that was thought safe is being used. Their is a South Park episode that makes fun of Star Wars The Force Awakens with member berries since their was so many call backs to the old Star Wars movies, well this is what this book did. This series to its credit has not done this before, I've brought up in past book reviews for this series saying that a recap was needed or would be helpful. Chainfire did it as part of the story and I will say 60% fit and 40% was a stretch. The plot involves Richard's wife Kahlan missing but with no other character remembering she existed. So Richard remembers all of Kahlan's relationship to the characters he's trying to prove she existed as well as his own relationship. The plot is a little TV episodic waking up with someone missing and no one but you remembers, The CW alone has 20 episodes like that. But the reason and the magic behind it are explained really well and make sense with what the enemies are plotting. Chainfire was published on December 1 2005 by Tor Fantasy.

The Plot Summary of Wizard's First Rule (book 1): Richard Cypher is a wood guide that that has recently lost his father to a brutal murder with no suspects. His father and him had a code where one would leave an item in a jar my the door, the item is a rare vine that should not grow in his land. Richard is on a mission to find the vine and it takes him on the outskirts of the boundary of Westland. While investigating he finds a beautiful woman, Kahlan being chased by four big men. Richard knowing the trails can get to the woman first. He gets to the woman first and ends up defending her and defeating the men. they become fast friends as the woman in mystified by Richard and the way he treats her, it is revealed she is from the other side of the boundary, the Midlands, the boundary is protected by miles of border wall of the underworld, and not used to the kindness from men. Richard takes her to an old healer/ cloud reader friend, Zedd. Quickly Richard finds out that his old friend is not what he seems but a powerful wizard, one of the last of his kind. Kahlan is very important to the cause and Richard is special and anointed the Seeker of Truth, which comes with a powerful weapon the Sword of Truth that is a powerful magical item that focuses emotion into the blade. Richard finds out the true nature of the world that there is a Threat in Darken Rahl that involves tearing down the boundaries and ruling the world. It is up to Kahlan, Zedd and Richard to stop him.

The Plot Summary of Stone of Tears (book 2): The Plot: Two days after Richard defeated Darken Rahl. A creature from the underworld has escaped and it wants to mark Richard so he can open the underworld for the Keeper. Zedd deals with these creatures first and must find Richard and seek side in closing the veil to the underworld. Richard and Kahlan are returning a boy back to the mud people when a creature from the underworld comes for them. They defeat the creature but Richard gets migraines that make it feel like his head will explode they keep getting worse and worse. He meets 3 Sisters of Light that day they can help him but they must collar him and own him to teach him to control his new magic. He refuses and the sister creates suicide right then and there, saying that was chance one you will have two more chances to get help of you do note, you will die.

The Plot Summary for Blood of the Fold (book 3): A funeral is held at the Palace of the Prophets for the Prelate and the Prophet. They were burned by Sisters of the Dark who have infiltrated the Sisters of the Light. Sister Verna who is the a good Sister of the Light and a friend to Richard Rahl the Seeker of Truth, is set up to be the new Prelate she doesn't know if this is for real or a trick of the Sisters of the Dark, the prophesies foretold that the false Prelate will destroy the Palace of the Prophets. She believes this to be free when she unravels a conspiracy that makes the prophesy come to pass. Richard having just came from seeing Kahlan and confirming she is alive when the world thinks she is dead. Richard waits at the Mother Confesser's temple and fights the Mriswith a deadly snake like creatures that he saw and killed in the old world but has never seen one in this world. The Mriswith have now started to plague the land, they are being lead by something Richard must find out. Richard has started to embrace the Rahl part of his name he believes that the only way to unite the Midlands is be the supreme ruler, with all of Midland under his rule. He tries for peace by strong arming The Blood the Fold leader, the very same man who thinks he murdered Kahlan, but the Mriswith help him as their ruler wants him to live, and has a purpose for him. The ruler is known as the Dreamwalker and quickly takes over the Sister of the Dark and the Blood of the Fold, he wants Richard defeated and the Palace of the Prophets to be his especially the slow aging spell attached to it. Richard and Verna must fight the Dreamwalker on to different fronts.

The Plot Summary for Temple of the Winds (book 4): Richard and Kahlan are finally reunited and talking wedding. They get three very special visitors One is a man claiming to be Richard's brother an illegitimate son of Richard's father Darken Rahl. The second visitor is Nadine a girl from Richard's village who was sent by the witch woman Shota to marry Richard. The final visitor is an assassin who's job it is to kill Richard. Through interrogation of the assassin they find that he was not alone, and with a sister of the dark that work for the Dreamwalker. The Sister has started a plague which starts a prophesy for Richard if he does nothing millions will die, if he wants to fight Kahlan will betray him . and Ricard will be no more. When the first victim of the plague dies his spirt takes over his body and talks about the winds This leads them to find out of a spiritual place called the Temple of the Winds that could hold the key to the cure and stop the plague. The price to enter the Temple of the Winds might be too high?

The Plot Summary for Soul of the Fire (book 5): Richard and Kahlan are finally married by the Mud People and has reunited with Zedd. The wedding bliss does not last long as Richard feels something not right...with a chicken. This isn't the only thing two of the Mud People children has died by mysterious circumstances, and everyone with magic has started to lose it. Zedd ask Richard and Kahlan about the Chimes, the beings from the underworld that saved the world from the dark magical plague, the Chimes manifest in water, air, and fire . Zedd freaked out that Kahlan said them out loud, but in his research the Chimes can only stay in this world if called by the third wife, Kahlan is Richard's second since he was married to Nadine in the last book and did not last. Zedd with prelate Ann knows that somehow the Chimes are here but he knows Ricard will be safe in the Wizards Keep, so he makes up a creature the Lurk and fakes an illness so Richard and Kahlan will race off to the Keep while Zedd can defeat it. On Richard's way to the keep he runs into Du Chaillu a slave girl he was chained to and saved, she comes to Richard pregnant and calls him her husband, with her rules they are married. The Chimes are in this world.

The Plot Summary of Faith of the Fallen (book 6): After the aftermath of the last book with Kahlan getting brutally injured and can not use magic to heal her, Richard takes her to his old town when he was Richard Cypher a woods guide and not the Seeker of Truth. When he arrives the town doesn't want him, that lies of The Order have spread and he is ruining their better life. Richard who just came from a town that rejected him for The Order has but him in an odd place where he doesn't want to fight anymore or yet, because people don't know what freedom is. Nicci a Sister of the Dark and one of Dreamwalker's ,the leader of The Order, disciples, is on the fringe since for some reason the dreamwalker can't always enter her mind. She defies him killing a leader in his army as an example. Nicci is called on by the Dreamwalker while she investigates how Ann a Sister of the Light and her old Prelate have escaped and the Dreamwalker can't enter their minds. She finds out it is Richard is the key, when the dreamwalker can't enter her mind she was thinking of Richard. She finds Richard and place a spell on Kahlan that if any harm comes to her it comes to Kahlan as well. She convinces Richard to come with her to live in the heart of The Order to convince him of it's gifts she goes back to where she grew up. Kahlan and Cara take their anger out on the army of the Order who's invading the Midlands.

Plot Summary of The Pillars of Creation (book 7): Jennsen has been sheltered her whole life, kept away from secrets of her mother. Jennsen is a Rahl half Sister to Richard Rahl. But Jensen is so sheltered she did not know that Richard is good and killed their father Darken Rahl to save people and the land. She meets the chief strategist of Richard's new new enemy the Dreamwalker, and he tells all about The brutal Richard Rahl as he saves her from soldiers that were hunting Rahl family members. Since they pose a threat and have an immunity to magic. Jennsen is convinced she must kill Richard to free from her threat. She and Richard find out that Jennsen is not the only sibling and their are dire consequences if Richard is killed that will effect all lands.

Plot Summary of Naked Empire (book 8): Richard having come to terms with his sister half Sister Jennsen who is resistant to all magic, comes to know a family secret that Jennsen is not the only one that his ancestors would banish the non magic off spring to it own land. The land was protected from the boundary but Kahlan brought all boundaries to save Richard almost 2 years ago. The Dream Walker knows the power of the non magic and can use them to populate an army of non magic and the non magic can enter restricted area that old deadly magical artifacts. Richard runs into one of the banished that escaped. he tries to persuade Richard to help but fails. Richard moves on feeling the effects of the gift and something else, The man shows back up and alerts him he poisoned him so that he can help liberate his people the complex poison needs three vials of the antidote who are now under enemy control he must fight an army to live.

Plot Summary of Chainfire (book 9) Richard is badly injured by an arrow very close to the heart. Nikki uses unproven subtractive magic to remove his blood and the arrow. This magic has created a blood beast, that is a creature from the underworld that wants Ricard's magic blood. The beast can come in multiple forms and their is no known way to stop it. The beast is not the only thing that happened because of the accident. When he wakes up from the healing his wife Kahlan is gone and no one but Richard can remember her. All traces of her are missing not just physical but any references to her in book of prophecy are now blank. Richard goes to extreme links to prove to others he is not crazy and that his wife is real and alive. Richard so desperate for answers goes to Shota, the which, who said if she ever saw him again she would kill him on site. In these desperate times will require desperate measures. while Richard is chasing ghost Jagang is setting up for the final battle with all the prophecies saying all hope is lost with out Richard as the leader.

What I Liked: The explanation of the magic was very well done and made a lot of sense once all was revealed. Nikki's battle scenes were so freaking awesome it reminded me a lot of Kahlan's battle scenes in Blood of the Fold. The scenes were epic and I felt I could visualize everything clearly. There's a reason Nikki was once called Death's Mistress and it is shown in this book. The shota scenes are always great and this was no exception. She has slowly been becoming my favorite recurring character, I want her to show up more. Chase and Rachael has more scenes in this book talk about favorite recurring characters all in one book. The ending was great and am really excited for the next books since the stakes are raised. I liked the old enemies and old weapons coming back. I loved the Cara, Nikki, and Richard dynamic. I liked Cara's defense of Richard, I may think you're crazy but will still protect you from others. I thought the Blood Beast was a pretty terrifying creation and will be interesting how it effects the series going forward.

What I Disliked: The opening scenes were really slow paced and felt like a tv episode troupe, it was reminding me of the series low point the demented chicken, but it did not last too long as it showed the wider world impact on Kahlan being gone. The memories were 60% effective but the 40% that weren't were really redundant and overkill. This book could have lost 50 pages in memories and would have been a 5 star book.

Rating and Recommendation: Chainfire is book 9 in the Sword of Truth series and has been one heck of a ride. The series overall sits at a 4 out of 5 stars average. So far out of the 8 previous books I have six 4 stars and two 3 stars. I like that I can feel the series setting up for an epic battle and so far where this book left off I'm super excited about reading the next one. The series has had some hits and misses but it is pretty solid and I recommend it. Chainfire by Terry Goodkind I rate 4 out of 5 stars. Here's my ranking of the books in the Sword of Truth series so far... after reading 8 books. 1) Stone of Tears, 2) Temple of the Winds, 3) Naked Empire, 4) Faith of the Fallen, 5) Wizards First Rule, 6) Chainfire, 7)Blood of the Fold, 8) Pillars of Creation, and 9) Soul of Fire.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chainfire is the ninth book in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series and the first book in the Chainfire Trilogy. At first, I was confused about why a book would be considered a part of two series but after reading it I completely understand.

The Sword of Truth series follows Richard as he learns about his family history, his destiny, and his role as the Seeker of Truth while fighting epic battles along the way. He is joined in his adventures by Kahlan, who is the Mother Confessor, his grandfather Zedd, various Mord-Sith, and Sisters of both Light and Dark. The initial books detail the battle against Darken Rahl as he attempts to extend his cruel rule. However, there is an even larger threat to the people coming from the Old World. As the new leader of D'Hara, Richard must find a way to defeat the Imperial Order. Each book in The Sword of Truth series reveals another obstacle that must be overcome as a part of the overall battle for the people's freedom.

Chainfire begins with Richard fighting for his life after being wounded in a battle he doesn't even remember. When he wakes from unconsciousness, he discovers that Kahlan, his wife, is missing. However, the worst part is that his companions do not remember that she even exists. They insist that he does not have a wife and that all the Confessors were killed in the initial battle with Darken Rahl. Richard insists that Kahlan is real and that he must rescue her from who or whatever wounded him and captured her. Cara and Nicci begin to fear for Richard's sanity and wonder if the injuries he sustained have altered his memories. As I read the book, I felt Richard's frustration as he tried to convince his friends that Kahlan was real and that he was not crazy. The book essentially follows his search for the truth even though all evidence seems to be against him. While he is searching for Kahlan, the D'Haran forces are facing overwhelming odds against the Imperial Order in the larger battle.

Chainfire is part of two series because it does continue the overall storyline of The Sword of Truth Series. However, there is one main difference between this book and the previous eight. In all of the other books in this series, the conflict for that book is resolved by the end even though the overarching battle against the Imperial Order continues to thread through each one. In Chainfire, there is very little resolution by the end of the book. Richard does find evidence that convinces his companions that Kahlan is real and discovers how she could have been erased from everyone's memories. He also learns what needs to be done in order to counteract the magic that caused the Chainfire event. However, he is unable to act on that knowledge immediately and has not found Kahlan by the end of the book. I will have to read the second book, Phantom, and the third book, Confessor, to see how the rest of the story goes. Confessor is also the final book in The Sword of Truth series.

The Sword of Truth series has become more political and philosophical as it has grown. In Chainfire, the explanation of the magic is complicated and rather confusing. Goodkind did an excellent job at portraying Richard's frustration at being unable to convince anyone of Kahlan's existence, his worry over her disappearance, and his self-doubt as he found no evidence to support his memories. As the reader, knowing of Kahlan's existence from earlier books, I was felt Richard's confusion and frustration along with him.

Overall, I greatly enjoy this series and am looking forward to reading the final two books. The CW currently has a show called Legend of the Seeker which is based on the first book in The Sword of Truth Series, Wizard's First Rule. My husband and I attempted to watch the initial episode but we found ourselves very frustrated with the substantial changes that had been made in the initial storyline and the relationships between the characters. If you are a fan of the books, I would not recommend the show.

[Emily Diehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll never get tired of this story.

Chainfire reveals the most powerful spells the wizards and sorceress’s are able to complete.

While the prophecy of Richard lives on, those around him are insistent he stay and lead the D'Hara's into battle.

However, While the battle continues for Life, Richard has lost his will to go any further.

His reason for life is lost, somewhere.

His grandfather, guards and friends try to convince him he's dillusional.

In his search for his life, he encounters a deadly enemy bred to kill him. A new 'beast' which has shown no weaknesses.

Richard goes against those who love him, to seek his own love.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what so many people complain about? I was riveted, and had to force myself to put the book down so I could eat, sleep, and do other important thing pertaining to life. I was completely wrapped up in the story and wanted to scream, along with Richard, and all the other characters who refused to believe Kahlan is real. For the first in the final three books, I thought it was a great set-up book. I'm looking forward to continuing and dive into Phantom.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I admit that, in the beginning of this one, I was frustrated and slightly annoyed, the book definitely picked up and moved at a fast pace, which I appreciated.

I've stopped reading the synopsis on the back of any Goodkind novel, just because I don't want to know what's about to take place. And that's where I was at the start of this. I remember not being able to put the book down, and I remember fretting to myself, "I don't get it! What's happening?"

But that was a good thing. The initial frustration I had over the disappearance of Kahlan (seriously, the last page of Naked Empire had Richard, Kahlan and Cara moseying off into the sunset, and the first few pages of this book open on her missing? That was just plain rude!) actually helped make Richard's dilemma more interesting for me.

I'm not saying that this story didn't hold a few sigh-inducing moments. Richard's certainty that he'd be able to convince someone that he wasn't delusional and his pie-eyed optimism that everything would work out just dandy bordered on annoying.

Also, the ease with which he figured it all out at the end was shockingly abrupt and questionable. He spent about 400 pages puzzling over Shota's words, and then in one instant - BAM - he figured it all out, down to the last nefarious plot detail?

I admit, I had to go back a few pages to re-read the lead-up to Richard's epiphany. I still didn't see it - what led him to his unshakable certainty that what he was saying was, in fact, the truth. Where did that certainty come from? What did he base it all on? Was it his gift guiding him, was it conjecture, or was it that he was remembering something that had, until that moment, been a buried memory?

The end of the book was a surprise, as well. I thought for sure that everything was going to get tidied up before the last page, but here I was mistaken. Nothing was balanced out, except for one of the small battles that Richard had been fighting with Nicci, Cara, Zedd, Ann and Nathan.

The fact that there is so much of the plotline left unanswered and unaddressed makes me so much more eager to start on book ten.

So, here I go...

[Corfy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wonderful and action-pached, I recommend this book why is well-edition.

[Bettie Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I am going to address the topic of Mr. Goodkind himself--- he is full of himself. It's plain and simple. He seems to be both creative and pensive and has mapped out a wonderful world in the Sword of Truth series. If you are on Chainfire then you know he is long winded and repetitive, but also wildly imaginative &&& honestly I would take a book that is over developed over an underdeveloped story any day. If you have gotten this far then you know his style and when he is going to rehash old events that you may have full recollection of---speed read through it... or skip it entirely. I like to think of Goodkind as a bard of sorts... not to take away from his astounding creativity. The way I get around getting too fussy over his soap box political moments is the fact that I love the story. I love the characters, and I love the world they are in. So to me he is just the person telling the story, and just as if a person were standing next to me telling a story, I ignore the lulls or places where they drift from the interesting point or add in their two cents. BUT that is just me and I do understand for some people they can not compartmentalize their love for the story and their hate for Goodkind's personal interjection and repetition.

NOW- for the story.
Really I would have given it a 3.5 if I could based on the development of the book as a whole. It is a very long upward climb to get to the point of the book then it stays at a relatively stagnant point where the same issues are rehashed over and over while the main character basically chases his tail unable to find a solution to a central problem. With the odd battle against some ominous beast thrown in here and there to shake things up... before a rather speedy descend as the problems are solved seemingly w/in a few paragraphs.

PERSONALLY-
I found the long drawn out confusion/frustration in the story worth it for the pay off at the end. You get all your answers in a nice little bow but you do not actually get to see the problem resolved. You are left instead w/ the main character about to go out and put his knowledge to work. Which since the next couple of books are already out shouldn't be too big of a deal to anyone already this far along in the series. There is actually sort of the task of the impending doom that is still out to get the main character that goes unmentioned in the very end---but I don't expect that Goodkind just dropped it.

SPOILERS****
The reason I stick around for Goodkind and defend his bullsh**
>>>>>>>>>The man knows the world he has created. Can I just gush for a second on how excited I was when I realized this was all leading back to the boxes of Orden????? UGH and the book of counted shadows? Where he first met Kahlan... only there is no Mother Confessor to anyone's recollection. OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH. I always thought is was a bad idea to leave the boxes just in a garden... even under heavy guard. OH, and saving Cara from the brink of death-the vulnerability of Nikki. Oh. I did have my moments of LOVE with this book. That being said. The Ominous netherworld beast from down under just peeved me more than anything. I like the images but I didn't feel like it was incorporated into enough of the story to become as relevant as the more important problem such as where the flip is the mother confessor. I was also mildly irritated that he took so long to give us even a hint as to what may have happened BUT all in all I loved the reveals at the end of the book and I already downloaded the next.

[Antonio Rosato · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chi ha letto le mie precedenti recensioni, saprà già che non sono mai riuscito ad appassionarmi a questa saga. E saprà anche che avevo minacciato che, prima o poi, ne avrei abbandonato la lettura se il ritmo della narrazione non fosse decollato. E così è stato con questo nono volume…
Ho preferito lasciar perdere quando non ero neanche giunto ad un quarto di libro: troppa poca azione (per non dire nulla) e personaggi sempre più piatti ed antipatici. Per me è davvero troppo… preferisco fermarmi qui e passare ad altro!
[https://lastanzadiantonio.blogspot.co...]

[Filip · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goodkinda mám rád a Meč pravdy je moje oblíbená série. Má to šmrnc klasické fantasy "meče a magie" a dýchá na mě řemeslný spisovatelský um práce se stavbou světa, magie a mytologie. Jenže i řemeslo občas omrzí a Ohnivá kaskáda je důkazem, že autor vytěžuje vytvořený svět a neví, kam by měl směřovat (respektive, všichni víme, kam příběh má směřovat, ale prozatím stagnuje). Tohle byl velký krok vedle a promrhaný čas. Na to, že má kniha kolem 500 stránek, mě neobohatila téměř v ničem – za pozornost stály poslední kapitoly a jedna dvě uprostřed. Devátý příběh Richarda (z velké části opravdu jenom Richarda, kterého jsem v tomhle díle nemohl vystát) nic moc nenabízí. Charaktery postav se zasekly, těch pár akčních scén jsou nucené a očekávané a příslib dobrodružství se objevuje až na konci. Veškeré problémy se vyřeší samy, stačí se správně zeptat a ve výsledku je to Richard, kdo má pravdu a z nevysvětlitelného důvodu má právo poučovat zkušenější. Jinak je to pořád "cestujeme sem a tam, abychom se mohli vrátit".

Mám na duši tři věci, se kterými jsem byl v křížku. První dva body se týkají dialogů a popisů. Goodkind je autor vlídný ke svým čtenářům, ale opakovat na tak velkém prostoru události z minulých knih, to bylo za trest. Cítil jsem jasné směřování na místa, která chce autor připomenout a jelikož se narace váže k pár postavám, bylo nutné na daná místa postavy dostat. A jelikož cesta po světě je dlouhá, postavy přemýšlejí. A vzpomínají na události neukotvené k místům. V polovině jsem už přeskakoval popisy a pročítal jenom dialogy.
Třetí bod je zápletka. Celý svět a proroctví zapomene na Kahlan a pět set stránek se Richard snaží přesvědčit postavy, že jeho nejdražší existuje. Všechny postavy. Pět set stránek. A jelikož čtenář ví, že Kahlan existuje (osm knih, dámy a pánové, se v příběhu objevuje a ovlivňuje dění), dostáváme se k novému způsobu čtenářské tortury. Fungovalo by to v seriálu nebo v druhé knize, kde ještě nejsme připraveni na takové klišé. Ne v devátém příběhu, tři knihy před koncem. Nemluvě o neustálém opakování umírání postav, které přežijí. Tohle mě už nebaví a mrzí mě, že se Goodkind zaprodal laciným (a k tomu nefungujícím) postupům.

[Darkphoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book if not for the frustration that had me wanting to tear my hair out. But for once it didn't so much have to do with Goodkind's writing as the characters themselves. Before I started Chainfire, I felt that maybe the books were getting a tad predictable. But this changed the entire the ball game.

At the start of Chainfire, we meet Richard who has been seriously injured. He is immediately taken to Nicci who sets out trying to heal him. But his injuries are so serious that she has to use Subtractive Magic to heal him. He lives through the ordeal only to discover something gravely disturbing, Kahlan is missing. And not only is she missing but nobody remembers her. Richard tries to convince Cara and Nicci about who Kahlan is but the harder he tries the more convinced they become that she's just a figment of his pain-addled mind. He tires of trying to convince them and instead sets out to find her. He meets Shota who gives him some clues in return for the Sword of Truth. He then turns to Zedd for his help only to find that Zedd too can't help him because he doesn't believe Richard. In other news, the Sword of Truth is now with Samuel (yes the same one who skulks around Shota)

Chainfire was probably one of the more linear books in the series with minimal POVs, we mostly stay with Richard and Nicci. There are a few others but they are fleeting. As far as progressing the plot, there isn't a lot that happens in this book. Its primary focus is Richard's quest for Kahlan. This was interesting because we saw all the ways in which Kahlan influenced the people around her and how they were somehow lesser for forgetting her. So that all the change she had affected on a personal level was undone. Chainfire also benefited from this more streamlined narrative because it gave the readers the chance to fully grasp the seriousness of the event in the broader scheme of things (the end of the world)

Interspersed with a lot of heartbreak and frustration, there was also some action, this time mostly centered around Nicci. We saw a glimpse of what she was capable of in Faith of the Fallen and in Chainfire we get a deeper sense of her awesome power. In the absence of Kahlan (the resident badass female character) it was refreshing to see another uber-powerful female character.

As far as characters go, Chainfire again limited the number of people involved. We concentrated on Richard, Cara, Nicci, Zedd, Nathan and Ann. This was a pleasant change. Richard was as dogged as ever. He was steadfast in his belief that Kahlan was indeed real and that there was something very seriously amiss with the world around him. This unflinching belief in the face of wide-spread denial of the very existence of the woman he loves is what makes him such a compelling character. Sure, there were moments of doubt and uncertainty, but he battled past those dark times.

Cara is always a joy to read and in Chainfire, there was a very subtle shift in their dynamic. Worry not, nothing romantic but a change nonetheless. I was most curious about Nicci, not that I was unsure of her bond to Richard (there could be no doubt about that) but about her as a character. She has certainly come a long way from her earlier beliefs and is a true ally to Richard. Even though she doesn't believe him, when he despairs of finding Kahlan, it is Nicci who forces him to see beyond what everyone around him wants him to see. She also warned him of his uncle, Nathan and Ann's idea of helping him while he was still in the Keep. She has become an indispensable part of the group.

As for the rest, they make up those that had me wanting to tear my hair out. Sure Nicci and Cara contributed to that as well, but these three, Nathan, Ann and Zedd(especially Ann) were the real culprits. Zedd is always a pleasure to come across and his interactions with Rikka were among the most entertaining in the entire book. But like the others in the book, he was happy to look at the simplest reason for the disappearing prophecies and not look beyond. Nathan and Ann also journey to the Keep after they discover the blank pages in the various books of prophecy to see if the ancient books at the Keep have escaped that fate. Nathan's character in Chainfire was a little subdued since his customary wit and charm were absent. Ann was infuriating as always. She is a such busybody. Kahlan had the right measure where Ann was concerned and didn't care for her meddling ways. With memories of Kahlan gone, the change she had affected was absent as well. Of all the characters, I find Ann most annoying. The Mord Sith are entertaining as always and it was nice to see more of Rikka and Berdine.

Kahlan was absent for most of the duration of the book and when we do meet her she is in a bad place. She too has no memory of who she really is and worse, she is in the clutches of the evil Sisters of the Dark. They need her to steal and open the Boxes of Orden and thus end the world of the living. Back when Richard used the Stone to Tears to close the rift to the Underworld, I thought that the problem of the Keeper had been handled a little too quickly and smoothly, clearly I was wrong. The Keeper is far from defeated and with what Sisters unleashed, the world is quite literally at the brink of destruction.

There is still that inner steel that was the core of Kahlan's strength and I hope that she can somehow recover more of that inner strength that made her the Mother Confessor and a force to be reckoned with (independent of Richard)

Chainfire was an entertaining read but it most importantly, it sets up Phantom and Confessor beautifully. It was a pleasant change of pace and plot in the series and I can't wait to see how it all concludes.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start, this installment of the Sword of Truth series is a much better novel than its previous cousin, Naked Empire. Whereas the previous book seems to hark on Richard being the almighty know-it-all, this book cuts him back down to size. He is not without his faults in this book, even though his drive for the truth is still quite apparent and will serve to ultimately prove that he knows-it-all. Still, at least it wasn't as pompous a condition as in Naked Empire.

The novel starts with Richard having been shot with an arrow. As he recovers, days later, he comes to realize that everyone but him has forgotten who Kahlan was and what she meant not only to Richard, but to their lives as well. She is also, conveniently, missing. The arrow gradually becomes a metaphor for Richard's faults as the book progresses. He must continue to serve the D'Haran empire while not getting caught up in a woman that never "existed". All of his mentors, the people he loves, are urging him back on the track to freedom from the Imperial Order while he suffers "delusions" of fancy that involve Kahlan. Because of the pressure, he becomes fallible and more human than he has been since the beginning of the series.

Everyone, but Richard, has changed in subtle ways because of Kahlan's disappearance. It's a good indication of just how much one person's influence can have on an individual and since Kahlan was such a well known person across the world Goodkind provides people have changed because of it. Most notably were those that knew her best, such as Zedd, Ann, Nicci, and Cara. Especially Cara. As an example, where once she was a protective Mord-Sith she seems to have shifted into the role of a more motherly Mord-Sith, if that can make any sense to those who haven't read the book yet. Hell, at one point she even plays matchmaker, albeit secretly.

Kahlan's disapperance also allows for a giant recap of the past books. Every time Richard confronts another main character that had some association with Kahlan, he goes off to describe events that happened because of her or in their presence. To a person who hasn't read the books in one fell sweep, this can be very useful. For those who haven't it's a bit distracting.

In short, the story isn't really about Jagang or the beast conjured by Jagang that is chasing Richard, bur rather a story of dedication to love and truth. How long can Richard hang onto a "delusion" that nobody else shares? How long can he deny the D'Haran empire the freedom it deserves while he chases phantoms? And how is he to prove that the person everyone has forgotten is truly real and, hopefully, alive somewhere? Instead he must confront everyone he holds dear to prove a point that never existed and to keep from being called certifiably insane.

[John Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chainfire (2005) 748 pages by Terry Goodkind.

The ninth book in the Sword of Truth series. In all of the books Goodkind switches which characters he follows. In some we get to follow the plotting of the evil, not just bad--evil, characters. In Chainfire we didn't have any of that until after Richard had figured out some of the essentials.

Chainfire is a mystery. No one except Richard remembers Kahlan. They all think that he is delusional. We know he's not, that it's everyone else that has forgotten Kahlan, but the book goes on and on, with Richard not getting any closer. Until the end when the mystery is solved but not resolved.

I'm on to Phantom, the tenth book.

Chainfire was the same writing style as the rest of the series, but the mystery was something we hadn't seen since the opening chapters of Wizard's First Rule. I'm going to rate this one a notch higher than the previous couple of books in the series.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming to the final 2 books of my re-read. Glad I decided to take up the challenge!

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This isn't even a book. There is nothing to talk about in terms of plot, because NOTHING. HAPPENED.

We start off with a cliched amnesia plot. Richard wakes up from a grievous injury only to discover Kahlan is missing and no one else thinks she even exists.

We then repeat the same exact fucking argument between Richard and these other characters for 800 pages. Literally every other chapter is them once again challenging him on his "delusion", then Richard responding by laying out the same "evidence". It is so insanely repetitive I was tempted to go back and compare to see if there are even a few straight up copy-pasted sentences, because I would be willing to bet money there were.

This is interesting only in that it's the inverse of my usual most-hated literary technique: deliberately withholding information from the audience. That happens, too, but here we're so bored because, as the reader, you know Kahlan existed, because there's no way you can ret-con 8 books worth of shit to insert this twist out of nowhere. So we spend the entire time simply frustrated that we're continuing to rehash the same passages over and over to continue establishing that no one else remembers her.

There is no ambiguity where you think for even a moment that Richard really is delusional. There is no possibility that he is wrong, and so there is no tension or mystery. You KNOW that some magic happened to accomplish this; as Richard himself eventually points out in interation 3 or 4 of this "debate", we've seen this exact thing happen as a plot device to save Kahlan from execution by implanting false memories in people with a "web".

The entire book is nothing but this. In the last literally 10 pages or so, they finally "resolve" this single point by having the other characters acknowledge that Richard is right. THAT'S IT! Nothing is actually resolved, nothing actually happens plot-wise, we just have Richard proving he is once again infallible. The only real net change to the status quo is that one sister of the dark dies off screen, Richard gave the sword to that creepy guy, and some armies slightly re-positioned.

The only real exception I categorize as such because it was inconsequential, and that was Nicci defeating that entire army with her boobs. I wish I was kidding, she uses her boobs as weapons to assassinate a wizard (and, it turns out, eventually a total of 3 wizards) and lure an army to its destruction. This has absolutely no consequence for the story as we entered this book thinking whatever that city was was free, and this status did not change, they just murdered an army. You could remove these 50 pages or so and just have Nicci go along with Richard and literally nothing about the story changes, and that is the very definition of a useless tangent.

This does have one impact, though: it negates any tension regarding the Order using gifted in combat. They're not really a concern if one of the "good guys" can just annihilate 3 of them at no cost. Again, this trend continues where past obstacles are now just throwaway lines. It's like playing Zelda and a boss you fought in the first dungeon is now just a common enemy in the later levels.

We have an early "foreshadowing" chapter setting up that graveyard place with that weird culture that only exists for one scene later to hand Richard a book. This is absolutely nothing but a contrivance to solve the "mystery" (that we knew the answer to in 5 pages and just didn't know the exact spell.....it's so obvious that the moment that witch tells Richard the word "Catchfire", you know that's the spell at fault).

I can't stress enough how inconsequential this book is. It feels like Goodkind thinks he's writing epic fantasy, and to do that everything needs to take a really long time. This "mystery" is not worth two books, and the only way to stretch this setup into its own full book was to be so pedantically repetitive and have absolutely nothing happen to advance the story. Again, the only thing accomplished that has any visible, wider consequence is that Richard has convinced 4 other people that he's not crazy and they found a book that spells out exactly what's going on for the next episode.

I guess the last thing of note in the plot is that the Boxes of Orden are "stolen" and "put in play" again. Can we take a moment to note just how fucking stupid that phrase is? How exactly are they "put in play"? Do you just think, "Yup, I'm ready to commit," and they activate in some way? They don't appear to have any actual function when this happens other than triggering a plant to grow, which serves as nothing but a lazy way for our main characters to be notified of the theft.

The terminology throughout is similarly goofy and lazy. I noted this last time with "Nicholas the Slide". You can go to the opposite extreme with overly-elaborate naming, which is a reason I have put down other series (I hate when they think it's cool and exciting to drop the reader right into the thick of the action on page 1 of book 1, and just drop names constantly so that the only motivation to keep going isn't that anything interesting is happening but just to make sense of this cacophony of noise you dont' yet understand), but this is just so laughably bad that such a momentous action is just, "The boxes have been put in play again," especially when this has no actual consequence until they do something with the boxes by choosing the right one of the three or some dumb shit.

I just don't get the point of "putting them in play" to activate a countdown or something and set a deadline for opening a box or something, when it seems like you can easily just say, "Nope, not in play, just transporting them for now," until you have everything you need? It's just so ambiguous and weird and is obviously an attempt at creating a ticking clock but not actually spelling out any stakes.

Let's get to some specific, ridiculous quotes.....

How could he forgive her for what she sincerely believed? How could he forgive himself for not being able to make her understand?

I....don't think Goodkind understands the verb "forgive". I think you meant, "How could he resent her for what she sincerely believed?" Obviously, if you acknowledge that it's not their fault and they're under some spell, forgiveness is rather easy, is it not?

Those who championed the lofty notions of the Order were indignantly blind to the endless misery and death they caused.

Here we go again with political screeds. Again, we have to rehash how filthy socialists and pacifists aren't just wrong, they're willfully ignorant to how their beliefs somehow kill people. You are, apparently, worse than a war criminal if you're a pacifist and don't want to use violence. It's the same crap I have had thrown back in my face by my asshole father my entire life, with the word "idealist" being used as an insult and a slur. Again, there is no actual argument happening, Goodkind just can't help setting up straw men to knock down by using Richard as a megaphone to shout through.

There hadn't been a great deal of time to prepare. They would get no more, though; time was up.

Again with the repetition of the same idea in back to back sentences, spelling out what something means in case you're too dumb.

I made a note also because these two sentences meant nothing. As is a theme, this is artificial tension. Absolutely nothing with this "hasty preparation" goes wrong. The lack of time had no effect and everything goes off without a hitch.....so why was this even mentioned? You say something like this then have the plan start to fall apart because a group wasn't in position or hadn't made enough stakes or something. You don't go, "OH NO I HOPE WE CAN MAKE IT WORK," and then, indeed, it just works. So incredibly lazy....

He was well aware that in dark conditions the center of the eyes' vision was not nearly as good as the peripheral vision. Being a guide and having spent a great deal of time outdoors at night, he had often used the technique of not looking directly at what it was that he needed to see, but instead gazing at least fifteen degrees away from it. At night, the peripheral vision worked better than direct vision.

You didn't believe me about the repetition? Here are three sentences, the first and last of which say literally the exact same thing, to the point of using "peripheral vision" in each. The sentence in the middle explains this concept for you as if you were a 6 year old in case you're too stupid to understand what's being said to you twice already.

Again, I think Goodkind thinks "good fantasy" has to have a lot of description and long passages of exposition, but has absolutely no idea how to fill his story with rich detail and instead just repeats these meaningless blurbs multiple times to turn a dumb fragment of an idea into a full paragraph. Gotta get that word count up, you can't publish a fantasy novel that's just a typical <300 page paperback!

"Well, if you fail me again, then, when I'm done breaking every bone in your body and making you suffer the agony of a thousand deaths, I'm then going to heal you enough so that I can sell you to those soldiers down there to be their barracks whore. That will be where you spend the rest of your life, being passed from one stranger to another with no one to care what happens to you."

Did you really think a Goodkind novel could pass us by without mentioning rape?

Once again, the evil must be defined solely through rape. It's not evil enough that they have raped her mind with this spell to make her and others forget who she is. it's not evil enough that she is enslaved. It's not evil enough that she is evidently routinely beaten to the point of bones being broken.

No, you can only truly punish people in this world, you can only truly be evil, if you rape them. Better if you have multiple other people rape that person for you!

I can't stress enough over the course of 9 reviews how reprehensible and lazy this is, and what it says about the author. Sex in this world can only be positive if it is literally two pure virgins fucking in a proxy for heaven (and, of note, they don't use the birth control provided for them, but their god provides and they do not conceive because this is acceptable sex).

Sex is only ever used as a weapon in this world. In the one case I've noticed where others have sex for pleasure and not rape, it is still done at the behest of someone else to accomplish a goal (Cara and that general who is such a non-character I can't remember his name). Cara herself is trying to position Nicci as a sexual pawn to fix Richard. The only punishment in this world that people fear, or use to instill fear, is rape.

Anyway, back to more terrible writing.....

"You'd best not stop for now." Sister Ulicia motioned Kahlan to her feet as she spoke to Sister Tovi. "Sisters Cecelia, Armina, and I will meet back up with you once we get to where we're going."

This is not how normal people speak. This is how empty husks of characters Goodkind creates talk to conceal information from the audience. A normal human being would say, "No, keep going, we will meet you in [destination he's obviously concealing]." You don't list names like this, you don't say "when we get to where we're going". It's just so clunky and awful.

But her purpose in using it was solely to save innocent lives. The Imperial Order used torture as a means of subjugation, and conquest, as a tool to strike fear into their enemies.

Ignoring the terrible use of commas here, I made a rare note on my Kindle: "Is this an episode of 24?"

Nicci is Jack Bauer now, using mental gymnastics to justify doing the exact same horrible shit the "evil" side is. It's ok, because my intentions are good! It's only evil if evil people use it!

This is another running theme I haven't touched on yet. We bring back the plot device from a while back where the remaining sisters of the dark use a loophole in "logic" (needs 16 more quotations) to both serve the Keeper and bond to Richard and serve him. That's again painfully tortured here to justify how it's possible to work to free the Keeper and destroy the world and still not be breaking their bond to Richard. It's utterly insane dialogue I wish I had highlighted for reference here.

But my point is that, just like with "putting the boxes in play", so much of the "plot" in these books hinges on matters of intent. Morality is entirely plastic, with actions like torture being evil or justified simply because of which side you're on. Massive plot points pivot entirely on convoluted "logic" that finds loopholes in the very flimsy rules laid down for magic in this world.

Again, instead of having two gray sides that both have good points, we have a black and white good versus evil, and we only start to get into shades of gray to justify the good side using reprehensible threats and actions. Hey, remember when Kahlan threatened to throw someone back into a rape pit?

WIth almost nothing to go on, he had basically figured it all out. And all along no one in the world would listen to him...no one in a world that was unraveling around them in an uncontrolled Chainfire event.

So here is the crux of this novel: Richard is the unfairly persecuted special snowflake who is so incredibly brave and pure of heart to cling to what everyone else is (rightly so, given what they know because a spell is literally preventing them from processing this shit in their brain to the point of people forgetting seeing Kahlan the moment she passes out of their vision) telling him is delusional.

Everyone else in this novel is actually acting perfectly rationally given the context. But it's entirely contrived to present Richard as the purest, most perfectly infallible human being that the rest of the world does not deserve.

Am I really supposed to feel angry with Zedd for wanting to help him as best he could see how given the circumstances? Am I really supposed to feel the same smug satisfaction as Richard literally throws down the McGuffin book as proof? It's not satisfying when he did almost nothing to actually win anyone over and was just handed this book by a town entirely contrived to this purpose. There was no earned victory here.

It seems to me to (again) be a stand-in for Goodkind, who I had to assume was being heavily criticized by now. These libertarian types love to play the martyr and glorify standing irrationally firm against even the most logical of rebuttals, because they are the one true snowflake and the last bastion of sanity against the encroaching tide of sheeple!

As I also noted when I marked this passage, this was also completely obvious less than 15% into the book, we just didn't have the McGuffin book at hand to fill in the exact details. There was no shocking twist, no satisfying resolution.


This, overall, was a pointless 756 pages of masturbatory filler that is only setting up the "actual" story in the next book where this "Catchfire" spell is undone, presumably. Goodkind is in severe need of both a therapist and an editor.

[Joshua McKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

some slow parts in the first few hundreded pages but overall a very fun read. The magic system is so awesome and intricate and am happy that things from second book finally come to light

Richard pisses me off somtimes but am use to it😅

[L Phillip Lucas · Rating 1 out of 5]

The following review is copied and pasted from my blog:

http://lukewarmmanifesto.blogspot.com...

Deplorable Ayn Rand fanatic Terry Goodkind's sole plot device of separating hyperbolically perfect lovers Richard and Kahlan recurs yet again in Chainfire, if in a slightly more interesting incarnation this time, with the erasure of Kahlan from everybody's memories but Richard's. This results in some characteristically tedious, repetitive, unrealistic, interminable, eyeroll-inducing exchanges between Richard and other characters as he tries to convince them of his inevitable correctness against their insistence that he is deluded. Oh and also something about an invincible beast that (of course) horifically mutilates people to get to Richard.

Goodkind has only my obsessive compulsion to finish what I start to thank for my continued consumption of his free market capitalist propaganda, and the fact that they have been turned into audiobooks. I don't think I'd get through them if I had to will my eyes to continue relaying the derivative, uninspired words on the page to my brain instead of just tuning out and doing something else as the poor voice actor drones on and on, trying to intone the author's awkward phrases with any sense of realism. There are also, of course, the obligatory clumsy, transparent, desperate, deluded attempts from the author to trick the reader into endorsing morally untenable positions that glorify selfishness and pose helping others as the greatest kind of evil, as well as other philosophies that support a purely self-interested free market capitalist, minimal-government, nonexistent welfare dystopia.

The book ends on a cliffhanger to propel you into the next book in the triology, and I have to admit despite my innumerable objections that I'm usually interested in what happens at the end of each book as events (finally) reach their climax. Anyway, I'm one book closer to catching up to Goodkind and hopefully not reading another book from him for many years to come (or ever again).

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kahlan is missing and Richard is the only one who remembers her. Eventually, he gets proof and an explanation of why everyone forgets her. Also, there's a magical beast who is attacking Richard.

Whew. That's a whole lot of pages to read in order to get that detailed summary. This could have been so much more interesting. What if Nicci was the only one who remembered Kahlan, and noticed how Richard's personality had changed because he had forgotten her? Or Cara? But no, as I've said before in previous reviews of this series, Richard is always right. Always. So Goodkind couldn't possibly try something outrageous by having Richard also be impacted by the Chainfire spell.

Something I found odd.. Even Kahlan can't remember herself. We're told in prior books that a Confessor's power is always right there, and that they are basically trained to prevent it from being used. That they're basically not preventing it when they do employ their power. So why isn't Kahlan just shooting off her Confessor power all the time? If she can't remember she's a Confessor, then she can't remember that she needs to hold back on releasing her power. It's stated that she's been beaten multiple times by the Sisters who captured her. Did they never once ever actually touch her? Because if they did, they should have immediately fallen to Kahlan's power. I know for certain that she's in contact with someone in the next book. Now, I suppose it's possible that the person she touches immediately forgets about her, and therefore the power doesn't really work because they don't have a target for the overwhelming love and devotion they feel, but the Sisters definitely remember her. So it should work on them.

Ugh. It's stuff like this that really frustrates me. Goodkind had an idea (make everyone forget Kahlan) and then blows the execution of it. Or stretches it out waaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than it needs to be.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was like a breath of fresh air after reading the previous eight books. Finally, something new! And the glimpse of the ending! Perhaps it's just because I've been reading the entire series back to back, but it seems that it's long and plodding in some parts, then bizarrely exciting in others.

The premise of the book, that a spell has caused memory of Kahlan disappear from everyone's minds except Richard's, is new for Goodkind. It derives from the damage to magic that has been done in previous books and continues that plot. For some reason, Goodkind finds it necessary to draw forward plot elements from the very first book in an attempt to tie it together. I can't decide if this is clever or just reaching.

I found Shota's attitude toward Richard annoying and undeserved. Of course, what do you expect? All in all, I wish that the main characters had been more supportive of Richard and believe in him--didn't he save the world eight times before?

I like fantasy books where magic evolves into a system of science. Goodkind's treatment of it is a little over the top--he sprinkles in more terminology than I'd like. The idea of magic destroying memory, however, and also the idea of contaminating magic, those are very exciting possibilities. They require Richard to use his wits and reason to develop a plan that does not rely on emotion, instinct, and gut-triggered magic (even though I know that at the climactic moment, it will).

If it weren't for the fact that you would lose all reference to previous events in the series, including the reason that Kahlan is so important, this trilogy would be worth reading alone.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dang guys. Just dang. The beginning of this book kind of blew my mind. Kind of like I was all "WHAT?!?!?! NOOO!" made me rethink the whole series and what had happened. Honestly, I had a hard time reading this, I kind of was dreading it. I don't know how to explain it...in Game of Thrones, bad things happen and I was shocked and sad sometimes for the characters, but it didn't make me want to stop reading or dread what was going to happen next. But in these books I feel like I care about Richard and Kahlan way more than those other characters. I'm tired of doom and bad things happening to them! haha I don't mind if bad things happen that they need to resolve, I just don't want those bad things to be between Richard and Kahlan! DUDES! Enough of that!
Anyway, by the end of this book, a lot had happened and I feel a lot better about where things are going, still nervous and dreading how things will be resolved but hey, can't stop now! ;)

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

After two volumes that kind of diverged from the main story a bit, this one gets back on track. However, I did not find the main premise of the storyline that convincing for most of the book. In then end it all came together, but for me the first 500 pages were kind of slow. Some elements were also similar to previous plot lines. There was a lot of repetition going over points that have been explained numerous times before. If people pick up this book it will not work very well as a stand alone so it would have been better to just assume that people had read the series so far. It also ends with little resolved. All leading up the the big finale in the last two books in the series, I hope.

Last 150 pages were great, but the first 500 knock this down to a 3 star read for me.

[Moglan Radu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never written a book review before. This book convinced me to do it. It's that awsome. It's vexing at times, it's frustrating as you would not believe but when the anticipation builds up to an iminent explosion then a plot twist happens and you're left staring whith a "holy shit" inner reaction as you connect the dots. I'm a avid book reader and yet still its a plesant surprise when I find a book so good that makes me loose sleep over it ( I've literally spent the last 6 hours reading continuosly because I wanted to finish the book before going to sleep).
It's 9:52 in the morning and It's time I went to bed , anyway I wish you a good read! :)