Phantom: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 2 (Sword of Truth, Book 10)

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
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Product Description

On the day she awoke remembering nothing but her name, Kahlan Amnell became the most dangerous woman alive. For everyone else, that was the day that the world began to end.

As her husband, Richard, desperately searches for his beloved, whom only he remembers, he knows that if she doesn't soon discover who she really is, she will unwittingly become the instrument that will unleash annihilation. But Kahlan learns that if she ever were to unlock the truth of her lost identity, then evil itself would finally possess her, body and soul.

If she is to survive in a murky world of deception and betrayal, where life is not only cheap but fleeting, Kahlan must find out why she is such a central figure in the war-torn world swirling around her. What she uncovers are secrets darker than she could ever have imagined.

Customer Reviews: Read 236 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

Read for an Alternate Opinion July 21, 2006
432 out of 485 found this review helpful

Hear me out; everyone seems to be writing glowing reviews for this book and I am not going to be one of them. Read on though, at least try and appreciate a different viewpoint.

I have been a fan of Terry Goodkind from the start. I consider myself well read in this genre of fantasy and have bought each book the day it came out with great anticipation. The last few books have been, to say the least, mostly disappointing and have failed to capture the magic of the first few books. I kept my peace after reading them, hoping and expecting that he would come out with a book to redeem himself and set the storyline on course again. And so I eagerly awaited Phantom; Chainfire was good, not great, but good and I had hoped that Phantom would get to it again.

Not so. I have a number of issues with the book, so here they are.

First Minor Issue - Everyone is painstakingly, ravishingly beautiful. Got it Terry, no more needs to be said. If I read one more time how beautiful and heartbreakingly gorgeous (but deadly at the same time) that Nicci is, I will scream. Or put down the book and be very upset.

First Major Issue - Life is sacred. Got it. No really, I get IT! I am tired of the pedantic drivel that spouts out of Richard (and now other characters) at will. I thought Faith of the Fallen was a monumental piece of work, that was the truly last excellent, innovative and thought provoking book Goodkind wrote. In trying to continue to tirelessly hammer home his quasi-religious ideological "life is worth living" theology, the book really starts to lose drive. Every time Richard pauses for breath and talks to someone, I know that somewhere in the next few pages he is going to start preaching about how sacred life is and how people have the choice of living life free, blah blah blah. I can appreciate a theological tone to a fantasy novel, used correctly it can certainly be a vehicle for adding depth to literature. TG is driving it so hard though in this last few books, that it comes out as tired and fanatical - like something I would see on TV at 1:00 in the morning begging me to see the light of Jesus.

Second Major Issue - I have a guilty secret; I still enjoy when they discover new things about magic. But on top of that guilty secret is that TG is a very self serving writer and has destroyed his own credibility in the world he has created. I am tired (again) of having monumental odds placed before characters and they somehow find an obscure magical reference, are able to save the world (or the situation) and life moves on. This is not realistic. Magic in itself is not realistic! But the way in which magic is implemented and used should be realistic. Magic is not (and should not) be a catch all that can solve all problems, is the crutch in a time of need, etc. TG uses magic here as a crutch for moving the plot; he had some good plot twists in this book but whenever he seems to dig himself a hole and can't get out - Whala! A new form of magic, a new spell, a new way of looking at a thousand year old problem and Richard has his solution.

I would go on, but I won't. Overal (if you haven't read it yet) the book moved the plot forward towards a final batter/confrontation with Jagang and the end of the world (read Tarmon Gaiden), the characters rush around (it appears) aimlessly, but some grand finale is being planned. A ton of new magic is discovered, and hidden depths of the first Wizard Barracas are explored.

Interestingly enough I enjoyed the book. I was up late last night finishing it and couldn't put it down. Some of the old excitement has once again entered back into TG's work. But I felt I would be remiss if I didn't point out the glaring issues in his work. If people want to congratulate him on the best book ever written, have a ball. I hope you have an open mind when reading this, at the end of the day I am a Sword of Truth fan and have all of his books in hard cover and will continue to buy them when they come out. I think TG has some great energy and I am awaiting the last book to come out - but this does NOT excuse poor writing.

4 out of 5 stars

The 10th Book in the Sword of Truth Series, or is it the second in the Chainfire trilogy? July 18, 2006
133 out of 155 found this review helpful

Terry Goodkind's latest novel in The Sword of Truth series is quite a bit shorter than the previous installments. Weighing in at a mere 587 pages it wouldn't even counter-balance a single gallon of milk. On the up-side, this means that he has given us roughly the same amount of plot as his other books (not counting Wizard's First Rule) by merely cutting back on his infamous 10-page-at-a-time interspersions of philosophical meanderings. Actually, if you want to skip the philosophical bits entirely, they were all lumped together between pages 114 and 215. The rest of this book is all action, and very exciting.

Let's see... Without spoiling the plot, here's the basics you'll want to know about. Scenes with Jagang remain as graphic and unpleasant as ever. Rachel makes a return appearance after too long an absence, and remember wicked little Princess Violet from Wizard's First Rule? She's back, badder than ever, and has a new tongue in her mouth.

Very enjoyable book, but I think the last sentence might have been the most exciting: "BE SURE TO LOOK FOR THE NEXT AND CONCLUDING BOOK IN THE SWORD OF TRUTH SERIES." I know - an 11-book series seems like a strange number to conclude on, but I need closure, so I won't complain.

To those readers not familiar with this series, I recommend going in order starting with Wizard's First Rule. However, Goodkind does insert enough backstory throughout Chainfire to make it possible to understand what's going on if you start with just the first book in this concluding trilogy. (*note* I had originally written that you could start with just this book, but on thinking about it, that would probably be a bit too confusing. The amount of backstory in this book was much less than Chainfire, and served mostly to help me remember the details I had forgotten since I last read a Sword of Truth book 1 year ago.)

In brief, the series goes as follows:

Wizard's First Rule (first and best in the series)
Stone of Tears
Blood of The Fold (plot of the overall series is introduced)
Temple of The Winds
Soul of the Fire
Faith of the Fallen (Best book other than Wizard's First Rule)
The Pillars of Creation (recommend skipping)
Naked Empire
Chainfire (first book in the concluding trilogy)
Phantom
Final Book (name not yet known)

1 out of 5 stars

Phantom Menacing July 29, 2006
24 out of 30 found this review helpful

I picked up Wizard's First Rule when it was first published and found it to be an enjoyable fantasy novel. I have stuck with the series far longer than I should have, but by now I have too much time invested in it to stop. The story as it was has now devolved into little more than a political manifesto, a propaganda piece extolling a vile philosophy. If Faith of the Fallen had been the worst offender for characters endlessly prattling on about their love of life and liberty that would have been fine, if boring. But it has altered course in a significant way. Where once the only absurdities in these books were (to name a few) a wise-cracking dragon, a heroic talking wolf, and a chuckling chicken that is evil manifest, Mr. Goodkind has sunk to new depths. His main characters - Richard and Kahlan - are held up as paragons of virtue, and great champions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But one sees as the story progresses that they repeatedly betray such virtues and participate enthusiastically in the very atrocities that they so boldly (and endlessly) claim to be fighting against.
What Mr. Goodkind has done in his latest installment of the Sword of Truth series is a new low. Facing insurmountable odds, our hero Richard decides that the only path to victory lies in visiting the same atrocities upon the enemy citizenry, as have been committed upon Richard's own people. Whereas some might say the plotline (such as it is) in Phantom is particularly relevant to current world events, the fact is that what the heroes in this story are engaging in on behalf of all that is good, is exactly what would be universally condemned here in real life.
The prose in Phantom is long-winded enough to destroy the New Orleans levees all over again. Goodkind has one character spend twenty pages in a row describing what she saw in the camp of the Imperial Order, and another character follows immediately with a ten page explanation of how they got that way. If the characters in these books spoke like normal people do then it would be the size of a pamphlet one could read while waiting for a bus. The action that one could previously depend on is almost non-existent in Phantom, as the characters do very little other than talk each other (and the reader) to death. The twenty page description of life with the Order could have been done much easier, for example: "Jebra spoke of the horrors she had seen in the camp during the months she had labored there. The squalor, the endless rapes of screaming women, the torture and brutality. Richard's mind reeled at what he was hearing." I make no claim to be a great writer, but I don't need twenty pages to explain that the "bad guys" are evil. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident. Mr. Goodkind has fallen into the bad habit of treating his audience like dimwitted children who must have an idea repeatedly pounded into their heads for them to grasp it. I found myself on several occasions wishing I had simply skipped an entire chapter, if only because the entire time I was reading it I kept muttering to myself "yes, I know life is good. Yes, I know the Order is evil. Get on with it." Mr. Goodkind's prose acts as a bulldozer, piling tons of rubble on top of you, distracting you from realizing that almost nothing is happening to move the plot along.
Soon this series will come to an end, and that is for the best since anything worthwhile in the story came to an end for me long ago. All I look forward to in the final installment is to see whether Richard finally realizes that he has become something no better than the evil he claims to fight against, and falls on his magic sword. Or if he will be found at the end of the story with his shiny Sword of Truth held high while standing upon a mountain of the corpses of his innocent victims.

2 out of 5 stars

The Downward Spiral Continues September 13, 2006
24 out of 27 found this review helpful

Since I've read the previous 9 books in this series, I felt obligated to read the 10th. Ever since "Faith of Fallen" (Book 6), I've felt this series has been on a downward slide. Phantom continues this slide. It has several glaring problems:

1. Goodkind's philosophy lacks depth and as a result, the long discussions on the value of life are tedious and repetitive: OK, we get it, the Order is bad. In this book, the first two hundred pages is mainly a monologue on how bad the Order is. Truly, no army or society could function under the system the Order has created. The Order is absurd. As best as I can tell, the Order is now a mixture of Sado-Communism-with Cult of Personality thrown in for good mix. And yes, we understand that life is sacred. All the characters now spout the same unending drivel about the sanctity of life. Yep, got that too. I get it -- I'm pretty sure I understood all this by the end of Faith of the Fallen but now 5 books later, I'm still beat over the head with it. The philosophy is pretty one-dimensional at the end of the day. Life is valuable vs. Life is not.

2. Goodkind is strangely fascinated with sadism, especially rape and child abuse: this book is rather sickening in its continual description and emphasis on the mistreatment of women and girls.

3. Goodkind has no concept of how actual armies work: We're supposed to believe that the Order's main armies is "millions" of men strong moving in one massive blob. Of course, it's supplied by an agrarian society and relies on horse drawn wagons to carry its supplies over hundreds of miles. Supplying an army that is larger than the combined size of the Union and Confederate armies of the Civil War (and pretty much any army, pre-WW2) with horse drawn carts and no true industry is downright ridiculous. This army would starve to death or, more likely, die in large numbers from massive dysentery or other diseases -- the Order which practices no hygiene whatsoever seems remarkably disease proof.

4. Monologue: One word says it all. Characters no longer talk to each other, they just preach or go on for endless pages in monologues. Even the extended discussions on the workings of magic border on the ridiculous. I miss the days of witty banter between Zedd and the other characters or real discussions between the characters.

5. Richard misses Kahlan: in case you don't know this, you will be told this every other page or so that mentions Richard. Heck, just walking around and breathing causes him to miss her. It's ridiculous after a while.

5. The plot feels increasingly contrived: VERY MINOR SPOILER, but a major character faces the threat of rape and avoids it through a plainly contrived plot device.

6. Philosophical inconsistency: MINOR SPOILER: In a remarkable twist, our main characters begin to embrace the concept of "total war" -- how that jives with the philosophy of "life is sacred", I have no idea. How the D'Harans and the other characters' increasingly blind cult-of-personality devotion to Richard jives with the philosophy of running your own life, I'm not sure either. Is he a benign Kim Jong 'IL? How they all willingly buy into the total war concept without blinking is beyond me too.

So if you've read 10 books, read this but save your money and wait for the paperback or check it out from the library. If you are wondering whether the series is worth reading, read the first 4 or 5 books and then just stop.

5 out of 5 stars

A review for new and old readers. July 20, 2006
19 out of 25 found this review helpful

First of all, an overview of the series as a whole for new readers. I've always been a big fan of this series. Like many others out there, I'd probably say he's my favorite author. His writing seems to provoke strong reactions from people -- either adoration or contempt. This is doubtlessly because his story isn't just about the characters, the world, and the conflict; it's about philosophy, namely how life should be valued and treated. In a way, every good story out there dips into this subject, but Goodkind does so with a kind of single-mindedness that tends to either put people off or inspire them.

I can appreciate the way Goodkind defines, illustrates, and explains each side of the struggle. However, Goodkind's work isn't for everyone; even if you do agree with his philosophy, you could find his means of expression abrasive. His characters often go on long, repetitive explanations, rather than trusting the reader to intuit the point himself.

In any case, I recommend that if you consider yourself an intelligent and thoughtful person, you give this series a try. Worst case scenario, you lose patience or disagree with the philosophy, but giving the subject some serious thought will help you figure out what you believe in. The plot, characters, and setting aren't half bad either, although they can suffer from taking a back seat to the philosophy.

Now, for experienced readers. If you're like most I know, you really fell in love with the story at Faith of the Fallen, the novel that in my opinion was Goodkind's crowning achievement in illustrating a human's right to self-worth. It also sparks hope and belief that even those who seem lost can find the truth. A wonderful book, but many people are disappointed with the way the series has gone since then. However, it's important to understand that for the purpose Goodkind seems to have in mind, it was just one step toward the conclusion. You can't just stop seeking the truth because you've come across something you like. The journey isn't over yet, although what lies ahead may not be as pretty, inspiring, or easy to swallow. I don't blame you if you just got tired of all the monologues, though.

So we've reached the second to last novel, the middle of the concluding trilogy. And we can get down to the nitty-gritty reviewing of this book.

I wouldn't say there's a lot of action. For the first third of the book, the main group doesn't even go anywhere. There are a lot of discussions about the way magic works, and I admit I didn't really care enough about the details that I thought so much time should have been spent on them. It's magic -- I'm already suspending my disbelief, I don't need arguments and explanations. It's like Goodkind is trying to cover his, um, rear when in fact the people who would jump all over him would be the silly ones.

Additionally, it bothered me that at this point, Richard's closest friends and loved ones still express serious doubt and even scorn when he suggests something new that goes against their beliefs. I understand that any self-respecting person would question something that seems improbable to them, but I find it strange that at this point, even characters like Zedd still turn sarcastic in defense of their beliefs. In my opinion, the people closest to Richard would have more open minds by now, and if they didn't, I'd expect a lot more exasperation on Richard's part. I know it's a device to further expound on the philosophy, but it grates on you after awhile.

I did find the characters to be at least a little more believable overall in this book than the last one, because that problem was more pronounced in Chainfire. Our protagonists act a little more realistically, although sadly, some of them seem a bit pushed to the background. Interestingly, some characters get more attention. Nicci in particular is getting very developed as a character, understandable in the absence of Kahlan. I'm interested in what she will do next, and what will happen to her.

The story picks up as we perceive a new threat, and begin to understand the way our heroes' staggering problems are intertwined. The Order's invasion, the machinations of the Sisters of the Dark, the fading of magic, and more... They all start to become linked to one another in some grand scheme we can't quite see yet. And Richard's journey -- literally and philosophically -- isn't nearly as direct a path as it has been before. Things from the past, new discoveries, and sudden intuition are all mixed together for a story whose twists can be difficult to predict; maybe it's just jerking loose ends together for the final book, but some things are entirely unexpected. As the book comes to an abrupt stop, I'm left dangling with no idea really how it will all work out, but the sense that forces are inexorably coming together toward a fateful conclusion... with the story more than the philosophy, because the path the latter is taking is much harder to discern.

I'm looking forward to the final book in this series. I love the characters and the world, but I love more following their realizations and their fight for what they believe in. I recommend this series to all my friends. For some, it can be a life-changing experience, but at the very least this series makes you think. As long as you're patient, anyway.

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