6/10 because of the incessant preaching and gratuitous wallowing in violence and filth, 8/10 for the fantasy story buried under all the crap. ( )

Never got around to reading ths.

With the world on the brink of total chaos and the people on the verge of savagery, Richard Rahl confronts his own guilt over the situation and struggles to deal with the loss of the one person he loves. HARD ( )

Finally finished the Sword of Truth series!

So was it good? Was it more of the same? Was it kinda heavy-handed with the philosophy? Yes! To all of the above!

No, honestly, it was rather interesting, even with all the super-bloody-football games and the neverending chatterbox about life-affirming actions, trips to the underworld, tons of research and magical theory, and a war, another war, a siege, and a ginormous army getting ready to consume the last remnants of the logical and the reasonable.

In other words, it's an epic fantasy with an agenda. And you know what? I still don't mind the agenda. Ayn Rand lives on. :) And despite all the long-winded stuff, there was so much action, tension, reveals, and massive successes and failures to fill a book twice as large. And this was a large book. :)

I'm happy I finished. I don't care what anyone else says. :)

( )

Overall, this was a satisfactory ending to what amounted to a 14,000 page endeavor by the author.

While the chapters detailing Richard's captivity could have been shortened, I suppose they were necessary to fill all of the details behind the Order's motivations and what was to come in the rest of the story.

Since this was the last book in the series, it was interesting to see how the author reincorporated characters from early on in the story like the Mud People and Gregory, Scarlet's son. (Richard knew him when he was just an egg "this big.")

It may sound trite, but everyone "got what they deserved" in the end -except possibly Warren and the Prelate.

We discover the true purpose behind the Sword of Truth and a world is created, reflective of our own society today, where people must live without magic and hope to only succeed by making the right decisions to accept and honor life above all else. ( )