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| Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy, Part 3 (Sword Of Truth, Book 11) | 
 enlarge | Author: Terry Goodkind
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  236 reviews
Sales Rank: 6881
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 608
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.8
ISBN: 0765315238
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765315236
ASIN: 0765315238
Publication Date: November 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Descending into darkness, about to be overwhelmed by evil, those people still free are powerless to stop the coming dawn of a savage new world, while Richard faces the guilt of knowing that he must let it happen. Alone, he must bear the weight of a sin he dare not confess to the one person he loves…and has lost.
Join Richard and Kahlan in the concluding novel of one of the most remarkable and memorable journeys ever written. It started with one rule, and will end with the rule of all rules, the rule unwritten, the rule unspoken since the dawn of history.
When next the sun rises, the world will be forever changed.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 231 more reviews...
 I jump for joy as the series finally ends! November 26, 2007
213 out of 283 found this review helpful
I was a huge fan of Goodkind through the first four books, then I began to dread a new book by him. It seemed that with each new book his writing became worse and worse. Knowing that this was the last book in the series I became hopeful that he would pull a rabbit out of a hat and finally write the way he did in the beginning and allow the reader to become invested in the plot again. It was this very hope that I allowed myself to feed off of that let me down and brought me back to the realization that Goodkind has fallen off his rocker.
Goodkind's writing style can be summed up easily. First, he takes a monotone style of writing about characters and their dialogue and doesn't inject anything into the characters. You could be reading a line from Jagang, from Richard, Zedd, Six, Khalan, Rachel or any character and without the reference to the storyline you wouldn't be able to tell who was talking! There is no character development that distinguishes one from another. And his attempt at characterizations are childish. Take, for example, an interaction between Richard and a bunch of rough and tumble tough guys who are captives or soldiers. Richard is trying to explain why they need their faces painted and one of the men pipes up "Do me next, will you, Ruben?" then another says "Then me" and Richard says "One at a time". These supposed tough guys are acting like 3 year olds with their mother, and this is Goodkind's attempt at characterization?
Then Goodkind needs filler, so he writes and writes about nothing. A typical conversation is actually a 2.5 page monologue without a break or a stop at all. They just keep talking. Or sometimes he will try to explain something over and over again in different ways. You know, to make you understand. That way if you understand you will know, just as sure as you were born. Right, and if I explain it to you four different ways back to back to back then maybe you might understand? Oh, and then the other person will start a monologue and the previous person will patiently stand aside. Or here is the most annoying. Goodkind explains how terrified Rachel is of Six and then Six asks a question and scared, timid Rachel pipes up and delivers a monologue explaining all the details of how she knew how to paint. Yeah, great job Goodkind, she is really afraid.
Finally, it is the philosophic tirades and monologues that ultimately kill this book. These monologues go on for pages and you could honestly skip ahead three pages and you wouldn't have missed a single thing. Or this was the best. In the end Richard gives a 5 page monologue without a single break. The whole thing is him talking. Ridiculous. Where did Goodkind think that that is good writing? When did he think that a whole book should be one big long explanation after another?
One redeeming value of the book was that we did see a hint of the old Goodkind after the last Ja'La match and I was finally able to read through it all without wincing at the horrid writing.
Finally, the most redeeming value of the book is that it is finally over and Goodkind can quietly live his life on the millions he is probably making in quiet seclusion, hopefully never writing another book. I for one will never read another Goodkind book now that the series that I had already invested so much time into and therefore had to finish is over.
.5 stars.
 the end is nigh December 1, 2007
148 out of 180 found this review helpful
Lets take a look back at the series so far:
1 Wizard's First Rule - great book, Richard meets Kahlan and defeats Darken Rahl.
2 Stone of Tears - even better, Richard captured by sisters of light, Kahlan leads a ragtag army to victory.
3. Blood of the Fold - good book, enter new villain Jagang, Gars vs. Mirswith.
4. Temple of the Winds - ok book, evil brother, cool plague, Kahlan uses chimes to save Richard. Why did he not know the consequences of this while in the Temple?
5. Soul of the Fire - another mediocre book, wedding, Anderith, Fitch gets killed.
6. Faith of the Fallen - back to a good book, but Richard is getting a little preachy, Nicci captures Richard (kind of like he was captured in books 1 and 2), carving the statue.
7. Pillars of Creation - I don't know how to rate this one, I admire an author of a series like this to take a big chance and set a whole book around a new character (Richard's sister) but she doesn't play much of a role in the next two books, so what was the point?
8. Naked Empire- The worst of the bunch, we were introduced to the idea of the supremely ungifted and their threat to magic in book 7. This book just reiterates that and contains some of the worst preaching by Richard.
9. Chainfire - Kahlan missing, only Richard remembers her. The sisters of the dark have used an incredibly complex spell with huge side effects to do something that Zedd did simply in the 2nd book. Richard goes to Shota then to Zedd looking for answers but they cannot help him. Ok now you know what happens in the first 564 pages. I would recommend skipping those first 564 pages other than a few good scenes that are recycled from earlier books. Richard's meeting with Shota plays out very similarly to the one in Wizard's First Rule including an attack by the Golem-like Samuel. Nicci rides into the Imperial Order Army to take out their wizard just like Kahlan did in Stone of Tears.
10. Phantom - Rachel is back, Richard keeps looking for a way to save Kahlan and gets captured in the process in a familar way in a familiar place.
11. Confessor - To the end, Nicci becomes Richard's mouthpiece for sermons, Kahlan looks deadly but does not get anywhere until Richard saves her. Richard is of course a great Ja'La player. Zedd does not do much, Rachael is more effective. Richard gives us a decent fight toward the end, but he is conveniently separated from his sword and other powers. Neither Richard or Kahlan ever live up to their potential powers. Shota becomes a deus ex machina showing up just in time to save several people including Richard. Some extraneous cameos by popular characters and quick uneventful deaths for others. The end comes with a twist but not much of a climax. Loose threads, questions? What about the disasterous baby born of a war wizard and confessor? Did the boxes of Orden fix not only chainfire, but also the chimes? With the chimes destroying magic, why did we need the pristinely ungifted to threaten magic as well? Did we really need 11 books to tell this story?????
Looking back over the more than a decade I spent with this series, I think it was the repetitions that killed it. Repetitions in plot, repetitions in dialog, repetitions in themes. Don't get me wrong I mostly agreed with the themes. I liked the plot and dialog, Goodkind can write a great scene. There was just too much repetition of similar scenes, dialog and themes.
You could probably get by with skipping several of the medicore books in the series and still get a good coherent storyline. Here is my recomendation, read the series but skip #7, #8 and #10. Find a summary on wikipedia or something, I just saved you a bunch of grief and hours of your time better spent.
If you are looking for consistently great fantasy without all the hang-ups inherent in this series I would recommend the Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.
 Credit where credit is due November 20, 2007
61 out of 99 found this review helpful
This might very well be the best epic series wrap-up I've ever read. While critics of Goodkind will find all of the same faults from the previous six novels (see most of the other reviews), this novel still accomplishes the daunting task of concluding a series that thousands of fantasy readers have fallen in love with over the past thirteen years. In CONFESSOR, we finally get what we've been waiting for, the happily-ever-afer of a series that should have been finished years ago.
Goodkind does an excellent job of concluding all of the far-reaching and indeterminate storylines that he has introduced over the years. He also made a concerted effort to bring all of the multitudes of characters, both large and small (even Gratch), into this last story, helping long-time readers think back on all the adventure, trials, and glory that we've experienced before.
This book also contains some of the most memorable scenes of the entire series. The confrontation between Rachael and Queen Violet is extremely fulfilling. The entire sequence of Ja'La dh Jin games and Richard and Company's subsequent escape from Jagang's camp is some of the most fast-paced and exciting action Goodkind has produced. Jagang's abuse of Nicci and the strange look into his fouled-up psyche is both disturbing and powerful. In my opinion, this book comes a long way from the last few, from which I can't remember such strong scenes.
Some have commented on how 'unimaginative' this ending was, but I doubt many saw it coming. I'm trying not to include spoilers here, but lets just say that the outcome of this book appears to be pretty conclusive. It really doesn't leave much in doubt and does a satisfactory job of tying everything off nice and neat. I completely disagree with the reviewers who predict a future return to the story.
I for one am satisfied with the saga of Richard and Kahlan, and look forward to Goodkind beginning something new.
At long last, it is finally over. December 20, 2007
41 out of 57 found this review helpful
Terry Goodkind, Confessor (Tor, 2007)
The best thing that can be said for Confessor, the eleventh and final volume in Terry Goodkind's long-running Sword of Truth series, is that Goodkind had so many loose ends to tie up, so much actual story to work with, that there's a residual effect that dampens, ever so slightly, the substandard-message-hokum he's been pumping out since around book seven. The second-best thing that can be said for it is "thank the good spirits he's finally laid this thing to rest."
It's a terrible thing when a series that started off with such promise and wonder degenerates into work where the message has totally overriden the story. Until now, the nadir of the series was book eight, where the narrative would completely stop for pages at a time while Richard and Jagang doled out useless homily. Now we get to the final volume, and guess what? It's time, since it's the final volume, for all the rest of the useless homily to come out, and believe me, there's a great deal of it to be found in these six hundred pages. Someone should have sicced a good editor on him, because this book could have easily been half the size it is. As well as all the message stuff (if you didn't think your characters' actions were imparting the message well enough, Mr. Goodkind, did you ever think of rewriting?), Goodkind's tendency to use the first hundred fifty pages of each Sword of Truth book to reiterate stuff we saw in previous books is back in full force here, except we get three hundred pages of it. Bags, Terry, d'you think we forgot?
Still, despite all that, and if you skim the unnecessary bits, the fact of the matter is that I, like so many others, have been following this story for well over a decade (if I recall correctly, Wizard's First Rule came out in something like 1994), and we're all going to get sucked into reading this one because we want to know how it all turns out. And, again if you ignore the unnecessary bits, it can't be argued that when he wants to be, and when he doesn't let the message run roughshod over the medium the way the Order does over any city that stands in its way, Terry Goodkind is a fantastic storyteller. Okay, he could use a bit of refinement in his fight scenes (as much as I enjoy a good spot of gore, do that many limbs really need to be sheared off? And, for that matter, do they all need sheared? Why can't a limb here or there be lopped?), but he does have a sense of pacing and dramatic tension, even if he does his best to undermine himself at every turn by tossing in the sermons. It's that which kept me going with this series long after it stopped being anywhere near as good as a number of others out there. If you've invested as much time in the Sword of Truth as the rest of us, you'll want to read this one to find out how it all ends, even if you fear, as I did, that it will all end up being a Lifetime Original Movie on an epic scale. Is it? You'll have to read it to find out. **
How do you say "Deus ex Machina" in High D'Haran? November 13, 2007
40 out of 59 found this review helpful
Confessor is a very narrow novel. As the concluding piece in the Sword of Truth, it's immensely satisfying and gratifying to experience the exciting finale. But throughout the book there's the impression that if one were to read a relatively detailed summary online somewhere, one wouldn't need to read the novel. Certainly you SHOULD, but the story arc here is essentially a narrow tunnel on its way to the conclusion, held together by a near-constant chain of Deus ex Machina, coincidences, and 'just-in-times.'
In typical Goodkind fashion all problems of distance are completely ignored. And by that I mean BANG FLASH the characters are on the other side of the map! This makes a very small, almost hollow, world for everyone to exist in. However, the author is not concerned with this, merely with getting everyone into positions for them make their next "Love life" speech and onto the next plot point.
As with previous books, the substantial presence of typographical errors is irritating in the extreme. There are countless occasions of 'through' instead of 'though,' 'angel' instead of 'angle' and in one instance a case of a repeated 'the.' Come on. Unacceptable.
Nonetheless, the novel is a fast-paced, exhilarating and very rewarding climax. No reason to pass it by if you've been following the books. As much as I truly love this series, I have to be objective about it. I think Goodkind's (Rand's) philosophy is admirable and any point of view grounded in reason and rationality gets two thumbs up from me; I just wish he had been a little more subtle about it in the Sword of Truth.
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