Book Review: Phantom by Terry Goodkind

ISBN: 978 0 00 714563 2
Publisher: HarperVoyager an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
Copyright © Terry Goodkind 2006
587 Pages, Hardcover
Genre: Fantasy

Series: The Sword of Truth

Prequel - Debt of Bones
Book 1 - Wizard's First Rule
Book 2 - Stone of Tears
Book 3 - Blood of the Fold
Book 4 - Temple of the Winds
Book 5 - Soul of the Fire
Book 6 - Faith of the Fallen
Book 7 - The Pillars of Creation
Book 8 - Naked Empire
Book 9 - Chainfire
Book 10 - Phantom
Book 11 - Confessor

In the preceding book "Chainfire", Richard Rahl is the only person who remembers Kahlan existed. He spent the whole book trying to find proof to convince everyone that he wasn't insane and that something was dreadfully wrong.

Phantom carries on this story. Richard, after having proved that Kahlan is not a figment of his imagination, that she is his wife and also the Mother Confessor, to certain of his friends and family, now has to figure out a way of getting her back. At the same time he has to find a way of dealing with the evil Sisters of the Dark, stopping The Imperial Order from sweeping through the Midlands and destroying civilization, learning how to finally use his magical powers as the only War Wizard to have been born in living memory, and finding a way to replace everyone's lost memories.

I had been waiting for this book after having read all of the previous 9 plus the prequel novella and enjoying them, some more than others. When I began to read I was so disappointed, where was the humour, the fast paced adventure, the wonderful characters that I remembered. The book rambled on with long passages of political invective, magical formulas and spell forms, even algebra was mentioned at one point.

Characters came and went and I found myself wondering why on earth the author had bothered to bring them back if they were not going to be allowed, at the very least, to show their personalities. I can only imagine that the memories lost to the people of the Midlands and D'Hara had also been lost to Mr Goodkind himself.

Then at the end of the book the story still isn't finished. Now we have to look forward to another whole book to finish off the things that quite possibly could have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion in this one.

I was not impressed at all. Though I don't usually rate books this one I will. I give it 1 star. Very Poor.