Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth, Book 6) (Sword of Truth, 6) - Hardcover

Goodkind, Terry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312867867 ISBN 13: 9780312867867

Publisher: Tor Books, 2000

Synopsis

Terry Goodkind author of the enormously popular Sword of Truth novels, has forged perhaps his best novel yet in Faith of the Fallen, pitting Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell against threats to the freedom of the world that will take them to opposite ends of the world to defeat the forces of chaos and anarchy.

Emperor Jagang is rising once again in the Old World and Richard must face him, on his own turf. Richard heads into the Old World with Cara, the Mord-Sith, while his beloved Kahlan remains behind. Unwilling to heed an ancient prophecy, Kahlan raises an army and goes into battle against forces threatening armed insurrection in the Midlands.

Separated and fighting for their lives, Richard and Kahlan will be tested to the utmost.

About this title

About the Author

Terry Goodkind (1948-2020) is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His books include the multi-volume epic fantasy Sword of Truth series -- beginning with Wizard’s First Rule, the basis for the television show Legend of the Seeker -- and related series Richard and Kahlan and The Nicci Chronicles.

Goodkind was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where he also attended art school. Alongside a career in wildlife art, he was also a cabinetmaker and a violin maker, and did restoration work on rare and exotic artifacts from around the world. In the 1990s he relocated to Nevada, where, when not writing novels, he was a racing-car enthusiast.

Reviews

Sequel to Soul of the Fire in Goodkind's popular Sword of Truth series, this extended barrage of sword-swinging fantasy pits the New World's Seeker of Truth, Richard Rahl, and his wife, Mother Confessor Kahlen Amnell, against the lethal totalitarian forces of the Imperial Order under Jangang "the Just" and his gorgeous masochistic minion Nicci, aka Death's Mistress, a dreaded Sister of the Dark. After Richard helps a desperately wounded Kahlen heal in a mountain hideaway guarded by their ill-tempered blonde bombshell bodyguard, Cara, Nicci ensorcels Kahlen and forces Richard to abandon her for inhuman bondage in the Order-dominated Old World. Kahlen defies Richard's prophecy that arms alone will never defeat the Order. She takes command of the D'Haran army, hopelessly outnumbered against Jagang's black-magicked hordes who are invading the New World. Untangling all this gives Goodkind an ample canvas for enough disemboweling, spit roasting and miscellaneous mutilating of men, women and children to out-Sade the infamous marquis. His fansAand they are legionAwill revel in vicarious berserker battle scenes and agonize deliciously as Richard, reduced to slavery by Nicci, toils to establish a bastion of capitalism in the cold gray heart of the Stalinesque Old World. All the ponderous sound and fury of Goodkind's attack on socialist-style do-gooders who are destroying the world, however, founders in a welter of improbable coincidences, heavy-handed humor and a disconcerting dependence on misusing the verb "smirk." For sheer volume of its Technicolor bloodbaths and its bathetic propagandistic bombast, this installment of Goodkind's fantasy saga makes an indelible impact; anyone who yearns for Goodkind is going to be in high clover. $250,000 ad/promo. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the sixth Sword of Truth yarn, Richard has nursed Kahlan back to health after her ordeal in Soul of the Fire (1999) and taught her to be a highly skilled swordswoman. He is resolved, however, to withdraw from the battle to keep the Imperial Order out of the Midlands--that is, until he is kidnapped by the Dark Sister Nicci, the emperor's mistress. With a particularly vicious spell, in which any harm that befalls her also befalls Kahlan, Nicci binds Richard to her. Kahlan organizes a formidable army of resistance, anyway, and Richard makes a life for himself and Nicci under the Imperial Order, a regime that combines the vices of right-wing evangelicals and Stalinist communism, unalloyed by any of either's few virtues. Skilled at wood carving, Richard creates a statue that catalyzes spiritual transformation in the emperor's subjects, replacing their despair with hope and their feeling of worthlessness with confidence. Consequently, they rise up en masse, while Kahlan holds the imperial army in the field. Nicci changes sides, leading to a conclusion that would wrap the saga up, except that the emperor is still alive. A plot summary doesn't do justice to Goodkind's well-constructed book, in which he develops marginally plausible plot elements into a credible story and says something serious about the abuse of guilt and selflessness to motivate social behavior. Goodkind is moving up in the ranks of the followers of Tolkien, Eddings, and Jordan. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312867867
• ISBN 13: 9780312867867
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 539