"Kahlan stood quietly in the shadows, watching, as evil knockedsoftly on the door."With that ominous line, Terry Goodkind plunges us into PHANTOM, thetenth entry in his Sword of Truth series (not including thenovella DEBT OF BONES). Picking up where CHAINFIRE left off, LordRichard Rahl is still searching for his missing wife, KahlanAmnell. The Chainfire event unleashed by the Sisters of the Darkerased all memory of Kahlan's existence from everyone in the world,including herself. But Richard remembers her and has fought to getothers to believe that he is not crazy, that he is not chasing aphantom. To find answers, Richard gave up the Sword of Truth to thewitch woman, Shota, in exchange for information.Those around him have begun to believe his story about Kahlan, butthat hasn't helped him get any closer to finding her. What he islearning is that the memory loss of his friends may be worse thanpreviously believed. The Chainfire event may have set in motion acorruptive spell that is beginning to erase more than just Kahlanfrom the memories of those around him. More distressing is thatShota gave the Sword of Truth to Samuel, a servant of hers who hassince become corrupted by another witch woman --- quite possiblythe feared witch, Six, from the Old World.In the meantime, Kahlan moves as a slave with three of the Sistersof the Dark, not knowing who she is or what her purpose might be.Most people do not even see her; she is so far removed from memory.There is a man who sees her and remembers her, and for thistransgression he and his family are murdered by the Sisters. Kahlanis then punished for trying to protect the daughter. The Sistersare searching for Tovi, the fourth Sister, who has vanished alongwith the box of Orden that was in her possession.The Sisters and Kahlan come across the army of Jagang. They areleaving a brutal mark of murder and heinous torture in their wakeas they march toward the keep where Richard waits, and continues todesperately seek information on where Kahlan can be found. He knowsshe must regain her memory soon or she will be the tool by whichall of the world is undone. At the same time, however, Kahlanbegins to learn that the closer she gets to finding out her past,the more perilous things will become for her.Goodkind, as usual, delivers a high-quality story. The world inwhich his people live is vibrant and wondrous to behold. Thecharacters continue to act with the utmost heroism, especiallyRichard, though in this book the side characters seem nothing morethan accessories as Goodkind furthers the Richard/Kahlan plotline.Not that this is a bad thing, for Goodkind has always been verystrong in his portrayal of the romance of the two main characters,and it is fitting that he continue to focus on them. Both havebecome more important now than they ever have.If there is one complaint to be lodged against Goodkind, it's inhis propensity to repeat himself a multitude of times in any givensituation. In announcing that a friend of Richard's was foundgravely injured, Shota mentions that she found him and that he wasgravely injured a couple of times within two pages, and thecharacters repeat each other's words back multiple times. Thisoccurs throughout the book. Were these moments of repetitionreduced, the flow of the book would seem much smoother and no doubtshorten its 587-page length. It's a small complaint when youconsider the magnitude and the passion with which Goodkind writesand delivers this epic tale.There is but one chapter left to tell in this tale, and then theSword of Truth series will be complete. PHANTOM, being thesecond part of the Chainfire Trilogy that concludes theseries, certainly has the feel of a middle book. There is a majorsurprise, however, that will leave readers groaning and wailing forthe release of the final book. Goodkind will continue to write inthis world and with these characters, and for that his fans shouldbe pleased. As a writer, his epic has been much better executedthan others of the genre, and PHANTOM continues to show that hisplace amongst the tops in the field is deserved.As a side note, Tor Books has issued a release announcing that SamRaimi, the director of the Spider-Man films, has secured the rightsto bring the Sword of Truth series to the screen, andproduction is expected to begin on the mini-series of WIZARD'SFIRST RULE within the next year. All the more reason to beginexploring this series if you have not done so already.
Goodkind imitates one of his characters, Jagang the Just, as he tortures this story and rapes his plot to the point where he stretches this one hundred page novella into a 673 page brick.Almost nothing happens in this book. Mostly the characters talk. And talk. And talk. They tell each other things they've already told other characters. We've all heard of "Show, don't tell." Someone needs to tell Goodkind to "Tell, don't show." I don't need all this plot recounting. I don't need the same conversation to take place between different sets of characters in each book. At one point, they spend, no exaggeration, 133 pages on one single conversation! Seriously! Go count! 133 pages on just how evil the Commun--er, the libera--I mean, the Empire is.I'm not the first to point out that every single novel in this series centers on Richard struggling to avoid losing his freedom and Kahlan struggling to avoid being sexually assaulted. In this novel, where Kahlan is invisible to most people, she is sexually assaulted or threatened by virtually every man who sees her! And the thirty pages of buildup to Jagang almost raping her should be wonderful reading to all the social misfits reading this series who can't get a woman into bed with them willingly. As usual with Goodkind, his lovingly detailed portrayal of the depravity of his villain is so over-the-top as to be comical--when I'm not wondering why Goodkind loves to focus on rape so much.As for the quality of the writing itself, the most annoying thing here is Goodkind's use of anachronisms. The characters use a great deal of twentieth century slang that pops me out of Goodkind's world every time. This reads like a draft at times, not like polished copy.The first chapter does a fairly good job of setting up suspense. The last one does a good job of setting up the next novel as the culmination of all this mess. In between, Goodkind could use a good editor, to cut out his anachronisms, shorten the interminable conversations, and slash out all the frustrated teenager wet dream fodder. Then he'd have a pretty tight novella.
What do You think about Phantom (2006)?
There seems to be a lot of mixed reviews when it comes to this book. I'm glad I adore this story too much to let a bunch of people sway me from reading it.While there were plenty of times I thought the conversations were drawn out unnecessarily long, I don't see that as a deal breaker. As far as repeating facts from other books in the series: I enjoyed it. I can't speak for other readers, but for me, the reading of this series has been drawn out over 3-4 years. The books are intimidatingly large and take me about a week to power through (even with me sitting on the edge of my seat and desperately flipping pages). Therefore I take time off between the books to catch up on some other series. I like the reminders. They keep me from scratching my head.While this is not my favorite book in the series I would highly recommend it to anyone who's wondering if they should continue on with the books or not. There definitely were moments that had me on the edge of my seat, flipping through the pages as quickly as I could, and it MORE than made up for the long, drawn out conversations.Nice job once again, Mr. Goodkind.
—Renee Cioffi
SUMMARY: 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.
—Duncan Mandel
While this suffers a bit from "middle in a trilogy" syndrome, where you're starting in the middle of something, and know that you won't get a full resolution at the end, it does stay interesting, and the story moves forward at a better rate than in previous books. As a long time reader of the series (and not always a fan, necessarily) I enjoyed the references to characters which had been left by the wayside long ago, who I thought were forgotten. But this book doesn't rely merely on nostalgia, it introduces some new characters, and fits them into the changing paradigms that pop up as everyone interacts. This book isn't all great though, It's longer than it needs to be, and while I appreciate the call backs to older characters and locations, it sometimes felt like the author was really bending the story to get these older things to fit. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but in all, it was a really good installment in the series.
—Robyn
