A few comments on Terry Goodkind and The Omen Machine

[BWFoster78]

I'm a loyal reader.

If I like your work, I'll buy everything that you publish. If your series is good, I'll read a crappy prequel. I'll even read a nothing little story in which not much happens to a vampire I know is fated to die.

I'll stay with you when whole novels cover only a scant day, and you spend way too much space on minor characters. I'll continue to follow the exploits of your hero when you go on and on about his political virtue compared to his foes.

I'm a loyal reader to a point.

I've always hated John Grisham's endings, but I kept reading his books. That is, until one day when the ending was so bad that I took the paperback and threw it across the room when I finished. No more Grisham for me.

I picked up The Omen Machine to read on a recent vacation. To say I had low expectations would be an understatement. I read the reviews that almost universally panned it. Still, I couldn't resist reading the latest entry in The Sword of Truth series.

The Omen Machine is one of the worst books I have ever read. The only benefit anyone could possibly derive from it is to see for themselves why authors are advised to show instead of tell and why one of the cardinal rules of writing is not to tell the reader the same thing over and over again.

I didn't throw the book across the room because it was on my Nook, but the sentiment is the same.

No more Goodkind for me.

 

[Steerpike]

I'm glad to hear it (not that it is bad, but just to have the knowledge). The first Sword of Truth book was one of the worst books I've ever read (well, the first half was), and I didn't finish it before throwing it out the window. I've always wondered if I should give the series another chance. Now I have my answer

 

[Devor]

I only read Stone of Tears, which is book 2, and I really hated it. The narration was poor, and the protagonists were so overpowered that the whole story was about keeping them away from the real conflict. And then it was resolved with a resolution that was just disappointing, fast, and kind of fake. And there were a slew of other issues, such as a wizard who did nothing but get drunk and throw fireballs, even though other wizards were shown to be powerful - or the baddie in the opening chapter, who was immune to magic, which to me, is usually a cop out for dealing with overpowered characters.

 

[BWFoster78]

I liked Wizard's First Rule (the first book in the series) quite a lot, actually. However, I wasn't quite as discerning the last time I read it as I am now. I wonder what I would think if I tried to reread it?

 

[Steerpike]

You might still like it. Goodkind has a lot of fans and I know people who enjoyed that book a great deal (in fact it was originally recommended to me by a friend). I know what you mean though, sometimes things we loved at one point in our life don't seem to hold up when revisited.