Confessor Book Review
The conclusion to the original Sword of Truth series comes together with the last chapter in the Chainfire arc of the series. Confessor takes the entire story and ties it into a rather surprisingly well done conclusion.
I will not hide my malcontent for the series. Anyone that has been following my reviews throughout the Sword of Truth series will not be surprised that this series as a whole has tested my patience. I am not a fan of Terry Goodkind. I had never read any of his other materials before going into this. That being said. The last arc of the series was much better quality then most all of the series before it.
Aside from Wizards First Rule, and Stone of Tears in the series, everything was just a surprising let down and a slog. The Chainfire arc seems to still have the issues that plague the series, but there was several redeeming qualities to it.
That brings us to the conclusion of the series Confessor. This book takes the boxes of Orden and the continued issue of chainfire and ties it all in a neat bow. It brings back characters that we have gotten to know throughout the series.
Confessor was much more interesting simply due to the amount of characters being followed. The interactions with the Emperor were present which was hard to ask for in the rest of the series.
The series takes a surprising twist with it being very sports oriented with the Jala game being what Richard is forced to play after being captured. The winner of the tournament will get to play the Emperors team. So its because of this that Richard works to win the tournament with his team and take on the Emperors team as well as get in front of the Emperor himself to try and take him out.
He finds that Khalan is captured and so is Nicci by Jegang. This is where Khalan begins to wonder why he is so familiar as the Chainfire spell continues to break down.
Khalan surprisingly did not have a whole lot of story to this book, and honestly for the arc as a whole. She was sort of just a plot device that even was needed for the boxes of Orden. So that was a little of a letdown as a whole.
Nicci’s character falls into despair with her capture and the essential torture and itemization of herself by Jegang. Fortunately, she gets the last say with the Emperor which was pretty cool. Nicci’s character is one that I had come to enjoy more than many of the other characters in the series.
I mentioned before that the series brought back any characters. One of them was actually the dragon egg from the beginning of the series that now helps Richard to call them even.
Some may say that the end of the trilogy and the utilization of the boxes of Oden was lazy writing by Terry Goodkind. I have to disagree. I found it good to know the rules of the boxes and see how the players are forced to play it out on the other side by being the ones tied to the boxes. It also helps that Terry has a second time around with this so it’s executed in a different way.
Most all characters get a happy ending to the series. The endings are fine but not fantastic. It’s a perfect end to a not very fantastic series.
So with the end of this book was the series worth the read, and yes I will also answer the question to the series after Sword of Truth.
Was the series worth reading. No There are a lot of books here and a lot of monologue. There are good parts to the series, but I cannot justify the duration of the entire series when the quality and my overall enjoyment just could not live up to what was needed. This series was a marathon. There are many others out there that are worth the read.
Am I going to read the Richard and Kahlan series? No. It’s time to put this series to rest. I have heard from others that they are not fans of the Richard and Kahlan series and it leaves a lot to be desired. So with that in mind and having now gone through 11 books in this series I just don’t have the care to put myself through it.
So to sum all of this up, Sword of Truth started ok, was horrible in the middle and decent at the end. There are some out there that may enjoy the series, but I am not one of them. There are other fish to fry if you re looking for a fantasy series to start and the time investment for this series is just not worth it to me.
Thank you everyone that has stuck with us all the way through this series and the reviews. If you want to see where this book ranks in the original series, you can find our Ranking the Sword of Truth series article here!
So what did you think of the last book in the series? Comment below and let us know.