Warheart by Terry Goodkind
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5…4…3.75..3.25..3??…bah.. Ratings are hard m’kay.
This is the capstone to a 22-year-old series. I started this series when I was 18. I’m 40 now. Yea… That’s weird.
I’ve grown metric tons in my thoughts, beliefs, reading, and everyday life in those years. So I am finding it difficult to pin what this book means to me both in terms of its lineage and prose today.
If I were to review this book with my eyes today I’d say it’s a book that was squelched out to sum up an overreaching problem where the author tells us everything, shows us little, and in the end the main is basically, ‘I knew it all along..’ There are some great moments, and you are directly told so much of the meaning behind things which is like bam-zow-zing-holysmokesbatman! But none of it is experienced. I find that weird. I find it weird that relationships are both there and missing; when a far-flung return from death (spoiler? but not really?) of the main happens and his wife, who is the definition of soulmate is there, he doesn’t seem to share any warmth with her until a reflection point near the end and at a direct point at the very very end. Weird.. just.. weird.
I don’t like that it feels more YA than an adult read. Maybe that’s the crux. Maybe I’ve moved on. Make this a modern grimdark take from the first war? Oooh..
These things I see with my adult eyes. I kind of want to re-read the series, but I am also afraid that a series, which in my mind has been the cornerstone to some of my development over the years. Wizards First Rule, the rules he lived by, to cut to the truth, to tame the anger and rage and focus these things to justice, to a higher purpose–I live a lot of that. However, what if I re-read it and I’m disappointed? Was this epitome of a series greater once and deteriorate? I don’t know.. I’m too shy to find out.
I’m mixed up, I’m jaded, I both love these characters, love the world that was built, the archetypes that were made, the adventures that were had but the nagging adult in me feels a certain hollowness to it all.
I meant to come here and write how much I enjoyed some elements of the book and looked wistfully to its past. Funny how the words coming out didn’t match my intentions. I did enjoy being back with Richard and everyone. I was proud to see the full cast and the solutions that were derived. I guess it couldn’t, however, escape the shadow of its ways. You’ll enjoy yourself in that you get a clean resolution and that always feels good.
I will miss the cast and all it entails. May the good spirits protect them all. 😉