Soul of the Fire (Terry Goodkind)
2
I was very excited about Soul of the Fire. I thought for sure it would be the most epic book in the entire series, by loaded with symbolism and hidden meaning, be impossible to put down, introduce many new and interesting characters, etc. Boy, was I ever wrong! This is worse than Blood of the Fold. While Book 3 was mostly a good book weighed down by too much Sisters of the Light, this book has an honest to heaven TERRIBLE plotline.
Soul of the Fire is the first book not to recycle a plot from the previous books. Richard and Kahlan stay together through almost the entire book, and an entirely original plotline set in Anderith is introduced. Unfortunately, following the lives of the idiots in Anderith is almost as boring as reading about Verna, and none of the characters there are remotely likable. Fitch has little character development, is dumb as a brick, uninteresting, and his story ends apruptly. Several of the same problems are present, in lesser amounts, in the story of Beata. This storylines are not fully developed sideplots, but massive loads of filler. Goodkind would have been much better off keeping his story out of Anderith and focusing on the Chimes instead. In fact, I think "The Chimes of Death" would have made a much better title than "Soul of the Fire." I have little clue how he managed to pick the title for this book, which doesn't fit with it at all.
One thing that really pisses me off is that Richard's magic is never developed. By the end of Soul of the Fire, he doesn't know much more about his gift than he did at the beginning, despite all the opportunities for Goodkind to develop this facet of his character. What a waste. I've been screaming through this book, "Learn how to use magic, already!"
The only other thing in Soul of the Fire that came anywhere near to annoying me as much as that is that there is still no attempt to fix the maps. We keep seeing new and interesting locations, but Goodkind is too stupid to add them and flesh out his world. The only additions to the map I've seen since Wizard's First Rule were the general locations of a few of the kingdoms marked, and I feel that Goodkind added even those with extreme reluctance.
However, the biggest problem with Soul of the Fire is that it isn't exciting. Wizard's First Rule was exciting. Stone of Tears was exciting. Blood of the Fold and Temple of the Winds were less exciting. This book was a drag. What killed it for me, more than anything else, is that I no longer care so much for the characters. In Wizard's First Rule, it was a delight just reading about them exchange dialogue over a campfire. In Wizard's First Rule, they had individual goals and objectives in the world that made them seem believable. However, in this book, they have quite simply lost that and become plot devices so the author can fill up more books, publish them, and sell them for a little extra cash. And that is something that I, as a reader, cannot stomach. How depressing.
As was the problem with Temple of the Winds, the problem is solved way, way too abruptly. The main character gets an idea, tries it, and suddenly all is well. Almost no progress is made in the overall story, the one against the Imperial Order.(Which is being dragged out waaaaaaaaay too long.) In fact, I think it's a step back in progress, since Richard becomes reluctant to continue the war afterwards.
In conclusion, Soul of the Fire is humiliatingly bad, worse than Blood of the Fold. Most of it was just filler, and rather boring. This book does not have my recommendation, and probably could be skipped with little or no problems in the rest of the story.
