This is not one of my favorite plots. Part of the problem is probably less the book itself but the longevity of the series. I like trilogies. I can be patient with a 5 book series. This one is getting a bit long. I want my characters to finally get to the end of the story and be at peace. But these poor people keep getting more and more madness thrown at them. Reverse amnesia where not only does everyone but Richard forget his wife but she is erased from their existence means we spend the entire book trying to figure out how he's going to convince everyone he isn't completely crazy. Creature of chaos that can't be stopped shows up whenever he tries to use magic. This whole book is a mess. The end of the book gives us hope for the future so hopefully Goodkind will be able to dig them out of this hole he's dug.

E finalmente il cerchio si chiude. Non nel senso della storia, per quello c’è il volume finale (che non ho), ma per la qualità.
Avevamo cominciato con due buonissimi libri per poi scivolare verso l’apatia totale con i successivi libri fino a raggiungere profondità imbarazzanti. Ma i segni di vita del volume ottavo sono confluiti in un buon penultimo libro, per fortuna, il che mi fa ben sperare per la fine della saga.

L’idea che mi sono fatto è che Goodkind avesse una ben precisa idea sulla trama (l’inizio con il primo volume italiano, poi il secondo volume che mischiava le carte in tavola, la fine che aveva ben chiara in mente. E in mezzo si sarebbero dovuti verificare certi avvenimenti per dare un senso al tutto), ma dopo aver gestito bene l’inizio (e, immagino, la fine) si è perso nel centro. Dibattuto tra la sua esigenza di passare da certi punti chiave (Il tempio dei Venti, che portava ai Rintocchi e a tutte le conseguenze; Nicci), la necessità di mostrare l’evoluzione dei personaggi e -immagino- dettami editoriali, si è perso totalmente nella parte centrale riempiendola di filler inutili. Un libro, massimo due sarebbero bastati a raccontare gli eventi. Forse non a mostrare chiaramente l’evoluzione dei personaggi, ma lì stava all’autore mostrare di che pasta era fatto. Non c’è riuscito, e abbiamo avuto in regalo sei libri inutili, chi più chi meno.

Dicevo però che finalmente si torna alla storia.
Ci si torna lentamente, ma ci si torna. Siamo nuovamente nella trama principale, quella vera.
Jagang, le sorelle guidate da Ulicia, le scatole dell’Orden. Tutti convergono verso il finale, ricomparendo quando da molto tempo non li sentivamo più nominare.

Il libro inizia con la scomparsa di Khalan, si può dire. Una scomparsa resa assurda dal fatto che nessuno a parte Richard ricorda la moglie, per tutti gli altri è come se non fosse mai esistita.
Così il Cercatore comincia a cercare -per l’appunto- il modo di salvarla da ciò che le può essere successo. Decide allora di chiedere aiuto a Shota, inseguito dall’arma definitiva di Jagang: una bestia del sangue, una creatura immortale evocata per dare la caccia a Richard.

I buoni cominciano a riunirsi al Mastio del Mago: Richard per trovare informazioni su Khalan, Cara e Nicci per stargli vicino e cercare di farlo rinsavire, Nathan e Ann spaventati per le profezie che annunciano l’arrivo dello scontro finale. Tutti, Zedd compreso, terrorizzati dalla scomparsa dai libri di moltissime profezie riguardanti Richard.

Intanto Jagang muove contro il D’Hara, Ulicia ha fatto la sua mossa per tornare nelle grazie del Guardiano, la Bestia compare di tanto in tanto a seminare distruzione sulla scia di Richard.
Richard baratta la Spada con informazioni su Khalan, e si mette alla ricerca del Grande Nulla e della Catena di Fuoco.

I pezzi sono ormai quasi tutti sulla scacchiera, lo scontro finale è imminente.
Richard combatte per la vita e la magia, le Sorelle per far prevalere il Guardiano, Jagang per la soppressione della magia. inalmente le cose sono tornate a farsi interessanti, malgrado la solita rottura dei riassunti dilazionati in tre qurti del libro. Ora sono curioso di vedere come finisce la saga (che più che “La spada della verità” si sarebbe dovuta chiamare “Il cercatore di verità” o “Le scatole dell’Orden”…).

This book is the beginning of the end for the sword of truth series. It picks up shortly after the events of the last book, with Richard waking up to find out that Kahlan is missing and that none of his companions remember her existence.

I really enjoyed this book, though not as much as some of the others in the series. My biggest problem with this volume is that a lot of time is spent with Richard trying to convince the people around him that Kahlan is real and needs to be saved or running around to different places to try to find information to support what he knows to be true. Goodkind sort of spends way too much time on this, as it is apparent to the reader that Kahlan is real, since we have read eight books up to this point with her in them. All the other characters constantly assuming Richard is wrong, dumb, injured, or crazy is unnecessary and just makes you dislike them, for the most part. Remember the "chicken that is not a chicken"? same deal.

Ignoring all that, it does accomplish its goal of introducing another danger to magic and life in general that Richard must find some way to overcome, namely the Chainfire spell that has affected Kahlan.

The best part of the book is the Beast that is set upon Richard by Jagang near the beginning of the book. Its tendency to attack in a random manner is a brilliant addition by Goodkind, since he has sort of established that Richard can solve any problem that has a logical solution. Since the Beast isn't really based in logic, it makes for a believable threat to Richard.

I thought Terri Goodkind totally sucked at first (generally just terrible writing) but then I thought he came into his own and improved as a writer (horrific torture sequences aside), but then he devolved into pretentious philosophy mumbo-jumbo and turned Richard into a mouthpiece for his tedious rants on all things philosophical, much of which was elaborate justifications for torturing suspected terrorists. Um, if you read between the lines a little. THEN Jess tells me about his lambasting journalists for labeling him a fantasy writer- because he writes LIT-ER-A-TUUR. And that he is just a generally crabby and useless human being. I tried to read the beginning of Chainfire with the same method I got through the last book or two of his- skipping through the pages of philosophical discussion to get to the plot points- and ended up snapping it shut. Bah.

Blah blah blah blahblablah blah. I tried to enjoy the last few Sword of Truth books but I must say the story did get old, I got tired of his political statements, and for gods sake could Richard and Kahlan please just stay together for a LITTLE WHILE???

On another note, I'm really digging the TV series even though it doesn't stay with a books at all. How white trashy of me. But seriously, have you seen TV Richard take his shirt off? I came for the story and stayed for the abs.

If you took away all the redundant sentences (I'm not talking about Richard's mannerisms that we've gotten used to, I mean the same sentence reworded on the same page), all the random arguing that does little but provide a vehicle for the same philosophy we've heard in the past 8 books...this book would probably be about 450 pages instead of 7whatever. I say random because not only have *we* heard it all before, but certaintly so have the characters and instead of saying, "But X, we've been over this, instead of rehashing it for another 2 hours, let's get some much needed sleep/make a plan/cover some more ground since apparently we can't ride and talk/eat/tell people they must live their own lives but we'll be disappointed in them if they live it certain ways. Ugh. These books would be perfect without Richard and with an editor.

The first 200 pages or so were just as bad as Naked Empire, but after that it really picked up. Still not what I would call a great book, but definitely getting back on track.

It was cool to see some older characters come back, but overall I wasn't super happy with the story. It feels like a stretch of reality somehow. I'm hoping that the parts that I don't like as much will improve in the next book.

The final trilogy starts out with a whimper and crumbles past that. While the actual Chainfire idea is quite a good one, Goodkind's writing and execution leave much to be desired.

I felt I had to give this book 5 stars. This, the 9th book of the Sword Of Truth series, held my interest captive for the entirety of the lengthly novel. I read the 1st- 8th books back in high school 9 years ago, then I pursued other interests until there were more stories to follow along with in Goodkind's universe. To reintroduce me to the series, I decided to read the Debt Of Bones novella. After enjoying that one thoroughly I decided to tackle the rest of the series. In my opinion Chainfire had everything I could have asked for. The main plot line of this novel that everyone except for Richard has forgotten Kahlan. I felt Goodkind answered many of the questions pertaining to this crisis while still leaving some mystery and intrigue for the next novel in the series, Phantom. Will definitely read again