Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth Series #5) [NOOK Book]

Outstanding and Extremely smart, The Sword of Truth Series Keeps just Getting Better.

Goodkind's "Soul of the Fire" is brilliant, and extremely smart. Goodkind takes the series in a new direction, just as in "First Wizard's Rule" new characters are introduced, and questions arise. Who knows what the next installations would look like, but whatever it is. It will be good. " Soul of the Fire" is thick and rich in content, I love the way the author portraits the political environment in anderith, and how he sets the mystery behind the chimes. "the chicken that is not a chicken", The return of Richard's First wife, and what's really behind the Dominie Dirtch. In Goodkind's "Temple of the Winds" Richard Rahl was faced against a dread plague loosed by Jagang "The Dream Walker" only by reaching the Temple of the Winds, he was able to save Thousands of people from the Midlands. However; in the pursuit of saving Richard's life, Kahlan invoked the name of the chimes, an ancient weapon used by wizards to extinguish magic. In the fifth installment of the Sword Of Truth, Goodkind takes readers back into the magical lands of the Mud people, The Wilds, and an unvisited land known as Anderith, the home of the Dominie Dirtch "Soul of the Fire" is the quest of Richard to find a way to extinguish the chimes back the underworld. In a race to save the world, as the chimes vanish magic, and kill every soul in their way. How will the Seeker of Truth will save the world? Without his magic or the sword of truth. A dangerous journey surrounded by Mud People, The bata kan, Anders and Hakens, Sisters of the dark, and those thieves of the soul, Wind, air and fire known as the "Chimes". At this point in the series, there are many questions unanswered from this book. The author gets more in deep into the world that surrounds Richard and Kahlan, and the long mystifying conflict between those who want to abolish magic. Goodkind is great in developing Dalton's character in the story. The contrast between Dalton's greed character and a certain glimpse of nobility is exceptional. "Soul of the Fire" is just plain Brilliant. The author introducing new characters and taking a new direction with some of the previous ones. The imperial order, The sisters of the Dark, The prophets. Goodkind's selection and developing of characters is magnificent.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Repetative

I really enjoyed the first 3 of these books, the fourth 'Temple of the Winds' was starting to push it though. I just started reading Soul of the Fire and I can't get over how often Goodkind finds it necessary to repeat unnecessary things. All through this series we hear over and over the meanings of things such as the Confessor's power or why Mord Sith carry Agiel's. I read 3 chapters through Soul of the Fire and I got to read explanations about Mord Sith and their Agiel's twice... After 3 chapters... Not to mention how ever many times they were repeated in the first 4 books. Give me a break, how many times must these things be explained? If I went through and highlighted all the repetitive junk in this book I'm betting I'd have 2/3 of the book I started with. It's almost as if he's running out of interesting material to write about so to make his book look as big and great as the others he just numbs us with what we already know about the series. Now I understand that it is sometimes a good thing to repeat things especially if a reader has put down the series for a while, but it is too much when you find yourself skipping every 3rd paragraph because you already know the value of what is being stated.

2 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Good series

I continue reading the series because it seems like khalan and richard cannot stay out of trouble.

I enjoyed reading what happens after "happily ever after".

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great escapism and touching story filled with adventure

Many believe that if your on the side of right that everyone will believe you and fight with you for those reasons. Richard soon finds out how wrong that is and that people would rather believe a lie than the truth, wizards first rule. Great story of the struggle Richard and kahlan go thought to try and save a land which wont stand with him while at the same time Richard has to deal with the Chimes loose in the world and magic failing..

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Hard to finish

I dreaded the pages about the Anderith in the beginning of the book. Every page I turned was still about the Anderith. Where were Richard, Kahlan, Cara and Zedd??? I almost shut the book and moved on to read something completely different. That's how sluggish the reading felt. This book took such a dramatic turn from his usual writing style and story line. It almost felt like someone else has written it. I loved the detailed description of the Anderith political circle, the schemes, the plots. Very well written, but I think, if the books have been written in this style all along, I would not have felt sluggish and dreaded. But the pace of all other books were rapid, spellbinding, fresh and surprising, this particular book just fell short of my expectations. I was particular appalled at Kahlan for being such as thickhead in more than 1 occasion -- the chicken-is-not-the-chicken, the chimes being released and others. She performed so well in the Stone of the Tears as the magnificent heroine. But she then started to slip in The Temple of the Winds as a moonstruck teenager who lost her senses of what's important, and just went down hill in this book. Ouch!!! Every book in the series is beginning to feel like it were spun out from the same formula. But the story is still interesting and gripping enough to keep me reading and Zedd is just too cute to miss out. I do intend to read every book. Will they ever defy Shota's warning of not having any children? Hmmm...

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Awesome series!

I am listening to this series with my dad,mom, and brothers. So far I have listened to bits of the other books. But the series is amazing! I love it! It is a must read/listen.

A little slow

This one was a little slow paced. And god did the author repeat himself I get the idea of wanting to have people up to speed. Soul Fire is doing it for everything. But I love the fact that Terry Goodkind took the time to explain the political climate in Anders. A good read if you are not to busy, a little different from the pace of the first 4 ones but still good.

Soul of the fire

I thought this book was very good and the author used his imagination quite a lot.

Worthwhile

Not a bad read, but not as good as the previous 4 books. Still worth reading as part of a great series, however.

Good story - recommended if you have patience and don't mind redundancies

The writer keeps repeating himself; come on! Do you really need to repeat what happened in the last chapter/book every few pages! - the only thing that kept me going is its a great story, and skimming past the redundancies.

Very moving.....

I'd give it four and a half stars, but I can't. It's not the best SoT novel, but it's better than some. So Richard and Kahlan (one of the best couples in the world of fantasy) are finally married. Yippee! So they spend their first night as newlyweds and they spend some time in the hot springs near the Mud People's village, but their joy is short-lived once they learn the Chimes are loose. So much for a peaceful and undisturbed honeymoon, right? And there's still one problem: Emperor Jagang and his Imperial Order SOBs. To the west of the Wilds is Anderith and Richard and Kahlan want to be the first ones to win their loyalty, because they have a very useful weapon: the Dominnie Dirtch. But the Anders, who turn out to be extremely pompous, have their own agenda. We also find out something very wonderful about Kahlan, but she is robbed of that treasure towards the end and early into the next book. I've said too much already. Enjoy the book, I garauntee that you won't be able to put down until you've finished the 548th page.

Soul of the fire

Not as good as the previous books.

Highly recommended

A very good book!

Excellent - highly recommend!

Great story...could not put it down. Running out to B&N now to get #6. Strongly recommend if you have ready the first 4 books.

disappointed with ending

I have read every book thus far and this has been my least favorite in the series. The ending where Richard banishes the chimes was sudden and lacking compared to the other struggles Goodkind has portrayed. I am also frustrated with what happens to Kahlan at the end. Definitely still a good read and nothing to turn me away from the series.

Not as good as I hoped

The series takes a serious nose dive with this one, however I feel compelled to read book 6 in hopes of improvement. What really destroyed this book for me was that there were 200+ pages of development to characters that really went absolutely nowhere, and thus it felt pointless at the end of the story. Also the main plot line then became second fiddle to what felt like a side story and then, the plot line abruptly ends with a rushed feeling. The way Richard dealt with the main problem (I will avoid spoilers here) was seriously disappointing. The last chapters were awesome, it felt like Terry wanted to take the story in a new direction and didn't know how to do it, then had some good ideas but couldn't end the other plots. If he had written the rest of the book like he did the last few chapters it would have been amazing, rather than lackluster. Far from brilliant. Bottom line - if you read the other 4 and plan to read all 9 you have to get through this one. I'm hoping it was just a lull in creativity for Terry, and not the end to this series which I've thoroughly enjoyed so far.

Nails in the coffin.

This book finally solidified my opinion of this series, a disappointing result. The world of this story continues to degrade to a poorly transposed vision of the contemporary. The plot is fragmented and actually builds toward one outcome then suddenly takes off for another, less desirable ending. There are interesting elements that are not explored to any satisfaction; there are extraneous characters and subplots that are irrelevant to the story and the continuing plot. Any suspension of disbelief is blown out of the water by several plot holes.

I was really hoping the story would get better but the sense of adventure that was lost after the first book failed to resurface yet again.

The series keeps getting better

need i say more?

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book will make you want to read the whole series, even if you only read it to say that you have read it.

The characters and plot are amazing. The way Terry Goodkind writes, it takes you away to the place where the characters are, and that is what everyone wants when they read a book. Soul of the Fire is the perfect book if you have time to kill. One time, I was at home reading this book. Before I knew it, 3 hours had passed. It's difficult for a book to do that to me, since I swallow most books whole. Record time reading this book: A full week.