The Law of Nines

This is my first and, I can confidently say, last Terry Goodkind book. This wasn't a novel so much as a script for a mediocre summer fantasy action film.

Cue the long-winded, expository monologues posing as dialogue. Cue the never-before-utilized, expert-level weapons proficiency based on training by a conveniently-murdered father figure with a special forces background. Cue the harrowing escape from a towering inferno, during which our protagonist saves innocent lives while risking his own. Cue the jamming 1980s fight prep scene with a trainer, a small gym, and Pat Benatar. Cue the rapid motion final fight sequence that leaves all enemies vanquished, the mystery solved, and promises enduring love.

OK, so I'm lying about the gym and Pat show more Benatar. She would have merited an addition star, and now I actually feel bad associating her with this stinking flop of a book. show less

This book is being billed as a thriller, and starts out as a present-day story, but the fantasy element is hinted at in the early chapters, and eventually it ties into Goodkind's popular fantasy Sword of Truth series.

I liked the first six books or so of Goodkind's series. At first I found the characters and the world-building great. But while some authors (Bujold, Pierce) simply get better with successive books, others (Tom Clancy, Mercedes Lackey, LKHamilton) get bloated, self-indulgent, get tired blood. In Goodkind's case his at first appealing hero became the worst Marty Stu I have read in professional fiction, and his world-building, narrative and dialogue got more and more bogged down by Ayn Rand polemic. (He makes no bones about show more being a devotee if you look on his website.)

I'm not going to sneer. Ayn Rand was an early influence, and if these days I don't swear by her by chapter and verse, neither am I someone to think she didn't have some valuable ideas to offer. But especially because I went through my fangirl days, I can see the Randian influence in this book--and it's not to the good.

The tie into his fantasy series could have been a chance at a fresh start, but by the third chapter of this book we're right into the heavy-handed Randian polemic on aesthetics--that no abstract art has any value. Mind you, it's not even a view I don't have sympathy with, but the way it is presented through the artist hero and the gallery owner--well, real people don't talk like this. Real enthusiasts of modern art don't talk like the straw man Goodkind creates. And that's a lot of the problem with Goodkind's characters in this book: cardboard. I couldn't make myself read beyond the first ten chapters of the book (although I flipped though some of the rest). Also, Sword of Truth kept me as long as it did because the characters created and developed in the first books: Richard, Kahlan, Zed, Cara among others were characters I liked.

Alex and Jax of The Law of Nines though couldn't hold me. They seemed watered down version of Richard and Kahlan, and very, very square-jawed romance aisle versions at that. Alex started annoying me just about from the first when he complains about his girlfriend Bethany texting him all the time. He doesn't like her. He doesn't look at the text messages, but apparently he can't get up the nerve to simply say, "Look, I'm just not that into you." (And man, I just met a blonde Hottie and you're so yesterday).

It's a shame. Goodkind is capable of much better, as the first several books in his series proved. show less

While I generally enjoyed the Sword of Truth series (though less so as time went on), there were two major problems with The Law of Nines for me:

1. The jacket cover and author dedication make repeated reference to this being a "new direction" or "new road," but it simply isn't. Yes, it's set in modern-day America, and yes it has guns and cars and things, but fundamentally the book is a continuation of the Sword of Truth series. The first time I saw the name Rahl and Orden, I thought, can't this guy come up with any new names? Then I realized what was happening -- that this book was a many-centuries-later followup and I was somewhat disappointed. Why advertise this as a new kind of effort when it's not?

2. I realize that an author's show more philosophy/morals/ethics are probably going to influence their writing in one way or another. Many authors are aware of this and take pains to limit this influence or to conciously weave it into the story in a subtle way, to the betterment of the story as a whole. Lately, Goodkind takes great pains to hammer his readers over the head with Randian objectivism spewing from the mouths of all of the good guys.

As a thriller, the book is amateurish, and could have used a heavier-handed editor. All in all, glad I got it from the library and didn't have to pay $27.95 for it. Probably the last Goodkind book I'll pick up. show less

I have not read any of Terry Goodkind's work in several years. Wizards First Rule found a place in my heart, and I still recommend it to others, but I fell away from Goodkind because I'm not really an epic series person. Along book six or seven, I tend to forget what happened in book three. I recently saw The Law of Nines and it caught my eye. It looked bold and shiny, like a modern thriller. There was no heroic painting on the cover. This is a Goodkind? And then there was the jacket copy. (queue deep-throated, movie-preview voice) "Now, in an electrifying new direction, he brings all his skills to bear on the most exciting and stunningly original thriller of the year". Well, I thought, now I don't have to worry about the other (ten!) show more books in The Sword of Truth series, I'll just check out this new thing. That's the problem with reading a "bestselling" author - they are firmly enmeshed in the spin machine. I have finally learned my lesson. Copy writers exaggerate. I won't say lie. Lie is harsh. But somebody misled me.

It's not that I hated it. It's that I hated being duped into reading 500 pages that I thought would be "stunningly original" only to find that it's not. So I'm going to warn you. If you don't want to be warned, stop reading. Now.

OK. There's a man, who lives in Orden, named Alex Rahl. One day he saves a mysterious long-haired woman because bad men are trying to kill her. Then his grandfather reveals something about his destiny. Does it sound familiar to you, Goodkind-fan? Any bells ringing in your head? Well, that's just the tip of the iceberg. This book is a related work to The Sword of Truth series. I don't know why they didn't just market it as such. And despite not being "stunning" or "original", I still polished it off in three days. So, there is something readable about it. But I don't think I'll be reading any further Goodkinds unless my trusty, dependable LT friends tell me it really is new stuff. show less

I picked this one up on a whim because I had a few dollars left on a gift card and I had never read any Terry Goodkind, although I had heard quite a bit about his books. After reading the blurb on the back, I was intrigued enough to add it to my stack of selections and make my purchases, it then got set aside and I forgot about it for a while.

Imagine how thrilled I was when I ran across this book on the shelf one day, started to read it and could not put it down. I don't know how I never read any of Mr. Goodkinds books before this one, but I was immediately hooked. His characters were great and the story moved along beautifully full of action, suspense and mystery.

I liked that in this particular novel, Mr. Goodkind mixed the world that show more we all live in with peril and mystery moving in and out of it from the fantasy world. I found that mix to be quite refreshing and even though it was a bit predictable at points, the rest of the story and the characters just made me want to continue reading even when I had figured certain things out along the way.

All in all, a great (mostly) blind purchase that now will cost me many more dollars and enjoyable hours catching up on the rest of the series. I look forward to getting started on Wizard's First Rule soon! show less

This is one of those books that infuriates me: the writing isn't great, the plot's full of holes, and yet it's so compelling once you let yourself get drawn into it that I read it in a single night. (I feel the same way about Stephanie Meyers.)

I loved the fact that Terry combined the world of magic with the modern world. As well, I am eager to see this become a series in its own right, as he has cleverly opened the door to carry on as such.
The characters are lovable, and leaving me to want to know what happens next. Will Alex go to Jax world or will she comeback...I am hoping Terry will continue this with Alex moving on to the next realm.