Phantom
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Recommended By
Mike Panian and Jax.
Book Details
Written by Terry Goodkind.
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($29.95)
Editorial Review (from Amazon.com)
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.Pulsing with intensity, rich with long-awaited revelation, Phantom is the book that hundreds of thousands of Terry Goodkind readers have been waiting for.User Reviews (2) Login or create an account to write a review.
Jax thinks this book is Good.
A nice buildup to the final book of the Sword of Truth series...
WriterDan thinks this book is Terrible.
Okay, so I just finished reading this book and I have to say that this has been one of my most frustrating reads to date. Terry Goodkind has this HUGE following, but after reading this book, I can't seem to find very many redeeming qualities in his writing that justify that following. I have to admit that the first book in this series "Wizard's First Rule" was really good. By about the fourth book, I was about to string myself up as a result of all the "Wizard's 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc Rules" that he puts into the story, and the horrible endings to all of his books. Very little in the series after about the 4th book was worth reading. Goodkind is trying to push his philosophy on life down his reader's throats and it becomes more and more obvious as the series progresses. I have to admit that up until this point though, I had thought that he was a decent writer. This book just about killed me. His writing was terrible. There is repetition and contradiction galore spread wantonly throughout the book. I don't recall reading a single chapter where I didn't find some glaring example of this fact. There is NO character development in the entire book. His main character, Richard, comes up with the answer to complicated puzzles that have stumped the wisest of minds for the past millenia and then a minute later doesn't understand the simplest of questions. In this book, it looks like Goodkind has actually listened to the advice that his readers are giving (that Richard is spouting too much philosophy for a back woods forest guide), but instead of reducing Richard's babbling, he has spread it to other characters too. So, now it's even worse. The reader has to slog not only through all of the tedious repetition about how "evil" the Order is, and how "noble" life is from Richard, but now has to take it from most of the other main characters too. I think though, that the most annoying part of this book was his ludicrous over use of the word "Phantom". It seemed like he wrote the book and then purposefully went back through the text and substituted the word "Phantom" in nearly every place that it could feasibly be inserted. Augh! Unfortunately, with as much time as I've already invested in this series, I'm going to have to read the last book. If it wasn't for that fact, I would have put this book down after about 50 pages. I'm sure that I'll hate the last one too, but at this point I'd hate it more to not know what happens. Even though I know that the ending is going to be just like every other ending that Goodkind has written in this series (Richard digs himself a hole so deep that he has no way out, and then his gift takes over his body and pulls him out -- victorious once again!) I'll just have to get it from the library though. I'm never going to buy another book from this guy for as long as I live. If anyone hasn't read the famous interview that he gave where he said that he doesn't care a lick for the fantasy genre and sees it only as a vehicle for getting his philosophy on life into the minds of readers, you should. It was pretty eye opening to me. Apart from my thoughts of his opinions though, this book was just about worthless. Again, you can judge for yourself if you like, but I'd suggest you steer clear.