Sign in with Facebook
Choko's Reviews > Soul of the Fire
Soul of the Fire (Sword of Truth, #5)
by
by
*** 2.34 ***
I get dark themes, I get writing to portray the innate weaknesses of humanity, which often lead to doing bad things to others, and I can understand making a parallel between a Fantasy World and our own. But this is the second book of the series where I feel the author isn't just making a point. He is hammering us with a bludgeon and doing it by purposely making his characters experience horrible things at the hands of their fellow human beings, becoming victims, and in turn victimizing others, perpetuating a circle of abuse for the sake of abuse and power, which becomes so emotionally battering, that the reader, or at least I, falls into a depressive state of helpless hopelessness... Everyone ends up evil or uncaring, no matter how they started the journey. We shouldn't feel sorry for the abused, stripped of power and manipulated, because they will end up doing horrible things on others, so just let them hurt and eliminate each other. The country wants to vote on whether they should join you or not? Well, they listened to the "wrong" people and chose wrong, so let them go to hell, you are washing your hands... Nevermind that most of them really don't know any better, so are easily misled, but are still just regular folks... Let us not even get to how racial guilt will lead to enslavement of the "good" majority by the previously wronged minority... There is so much badly veiled propaganda, it's not even funny...
So why am I even giving it the rating I am? Because I am invested and keep hoping that the so called Protagonist is going to figure things out and live up to the good dude book #1 promised us to be! I still want to know what happens with The Sisters of Dark and Light. I want to know what will happen if the two MC's have a kid! Yeah, also, I am extremely OCD and once I have committed to a series I HAVE to finish it... I will most likely drag my feet, but I will do it eventually... 😶😑😑
I get dark themes, I get writing to portray the innate weaknesses of humanity, which often lead to doing bad things to others, and I can understand making a parallel between a Fantasy World and our own. But this is the second book of the series where I feel the author isn't just making a point. He is hammering us with a bludgeon and doing it by purposely making his characters experience horrible things at the hands of their fellow human beings, becoming victims, and in turn victimizing others, perpetuating a circle of abuse for the sake of abuse and power, which becomes so emotionally battering, that the reader, or at least I, falls into a depressive state of helpless hopelessness... Everyone ends up evil or uncaring, no matter how they started the journey. We shouldn't feel sorry for the abused, stripped of power and manipulated, because they will end up doing horrible things on others, so just let them hurt and eliminate each other. The country wants to vote on whether they should join you or not? Well, they listened to the "wrong" people and chose wrong, so let them go to hell, you are washing your hands... Nevermind that most of them really don't know any better, so are easily misled, but are still just regular folks... Let us not even get to how racial guilt will lead to enslavement of the "good" majority by the previously wronged minority... There is so much badly veiled propaganda, it's not even funny...
So why am I even giving it the rating I am? Because I am invested and keep hoping that the so called Protagonist is going to figure things out and live up to the good dude book #1 promised us to be! I still want to know what happens with The Sisters of Dark and Light. I want to know what will happen if the two MC's have a kid! Yeah, also, I am extremely OCD and once I have committed to a series I HAVE to finish it... I will most likely drag my feet, but I will do it eventually... 😶😑😑
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Soul of the Fire.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
January 20, 2018
– Shelved as:
to-read
(ebook Edition)
January 20, 2018
– Shelved
(ebook Edition)
March 25, 2024
–
Started Reading
March 25, 2024
– Shelved as:
fantasy
March 25, 2024
– Shelved
March 27, 2024
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-12 of 12 (12 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Chad
(last edited Mar 27, 2024 10:39PM)
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
Mar 27, 2024 10:36PM
If you're not liking this, just stop. It only gets bleaker and bleaker as it goes on and there are 17 books, plus a bunch of offshoots. I started this series back in the 90's and finally gave up on it about 10 years ago. It took Goodkind's death to get him to stop writing them.
reply
|
flag
Chad, could you please try to explain to me, what was his point??? Why was he writing all of this? The first book had so much promise and it has been getting progressively preachy and less and less considering of regular human emotions. He seems to bask in the failings of humanity to a point where it feels fetishistic like... Really, there is this spiraling into bleakness and darkness just for its own sake. I don't think it's sending any other message. Am I missing something???
I don't know. I have a feeling he had some out there political or religious beliefs. As it goes on, the bad guys get worse and worse. A whole endless army full of mass rape and murder just for the sake of it. There's a whole lot of other books out there to enjoy if you aren't digging these.
Yeah each of these books just got worse with each successive entry. Bleak for bleakness sake and the preaching just got more and more heavy-handed. I really really enjoyed the first book so I was very loathe to stop the series but eventually I dropped it as I felt there was so little good worth rooting for anymore in the books.
First, thank you guys so much for answering! I really appreciate it, because I got so heavily disturbed yesterday while reading it, I am honestly baffled! Second, I am very disheartened by your comments. As Tym said, I loved the first book, so I had this optimism that maybe we will come back to some of that pure Fantasy... I really didn't see this almost self-aggrandizing sense of righteousness the author decided to hammer us readers with... And it's really transferring onto his main characters. And the use of the rapes as a weapon against us, the readers, is just emotionally exhausting...
Choko wrote: "First, thank you guys so much for answering! I really appreciate it, because I got so heavily disturbed yesterday while reading it, I am honestly baffled! Second, I am very disheartened by your com..."Yeah I hate it because after I read the first book I recommended the series to a number of people and now I regret every one of those recommendations.
I completely understand! I started it because I loved the TV adaptation, but the tone of the books is so different! I will not be recommending it to anyone, that's for sure...
Goodkind started to develop his own religious/philosophical beliefs as he was writing the books, and they increasingly bled into the books as time passed. It was really disappointing, too, because it could have been an amazing series otherwise.
Oh yeah, once he gets into the evils of communism it gets beyond ridiculous. It's just depravity after depravity.
Chad wrote: "Oh yeah, once he gets into the evils of communism it gets beyond ridiculous. It's just depravity after depravity."Yeah the series ground my soul down with every chapter read once it got to that point and boy he uses his characters and stories and a bludgeon to his readers. So much potential, so much squandered.
David, your comment is making me want to look for some of Goodkind's interviews...
Chad and Tym... Goodness gracious! This sounds awful, but after reading this book it doesn't surprise me... As you guys said, the series had a ton of potential, and he just crushed it into the ground... ☹️
