Confessor by Terry Goodkind

Readers rejoice, you finally get to put this series to a close. The Sword of Truth series has stretched over a collection of 11 books, some short, some long, some biblical. Throughout the entire series, Terry Goodkind has been more than happy to regale the reader with all his views on life, politics, religion, and anything else about which he feels strongly. As another reviewer mentions, Terry Goodkind has become very preachy. He has designed his main character, Richard Rahl, to be a moral and political powerhouse as well as a powerful and confident fighter. I imagine Richard Rahl to look something like Terry Goodkind, who you can see on the back of his books: a stony-faced strongman who could probably roundhouse Chuck Norris at least once or twice.

In Confessor, the series comes together, culminating in the not-so-epic final battle between Emporer Jagang, Richard Rahl, the Sisters of the Light, Sisters of the Dark, and the Mord Sith (women in red leather that love to cause pain). But we will get to the ending in a bit.

Most of the book is a play by play of Richard Rahl doing one of two things: trying to make eye contact with his wife Kahlan, and trying to win at Ja’La (a game like football but bloodier and more complex). His supporters run all over trying to find him, keep the People’s Palace safe, and unravel a Chainfire spell that has taken everyone’s memory of Richard’s wife away, including her own. As usual there are pages and pages of pseudo-scientific reasoning behind very plot-friendly spells and people saying “Dear spirits” as they solve a problem that no reader ever could have figured out on their own. Back in the early days of this series, the “Dear spirits” would usually come from the main character as he solved the book’s problem, making the world a great place once again until the next issue was released; however, all the tangled plot lines of the previous books now have to be cleaned up in a single book with Richard busy playing games, and therefore the other characters must be part of the problem solving team.

I will say that the imagery behind the Ja’la games was well done. I found myself cheering for Richard’s team kind of like I cheer for a historical movie: I know who’s going to win, and I know how they’ll win, but it’s exciting all the same.

Finally, the book ends. Everyone gets into the same room and Richard once again tricks the bad guy, just like in the first book. His ploy makes him something of a God, where he creates a world of Christians to carry on with their horrible and intolerant ways while he makes his world a magical paradise. Not terribly original, and somewhat quick in coming after an entire book that in no way leads up to this scenario, but still interesting in that “what if we all came from another world that is a magical paradise” sort of way.