Confessor

by Terry Goodkind

Reviewed by Coral

Things are not looking good for Richard. He's been cut off from his powers, remains a prisoner of the Order - not that they are aware that they are holding the Lord Rahl - and has just been informed by a spectral visitor that someone has put the boxes of Orden in play in his name.

Things are also not looking good for Kahlan. She still has no memory of who she is, most people still can't even see her and Jagang still holds her prisoner.

The final battle between good and evil is at hand. Can Richard and Kahlan free themselves from the Order in time to stop the boxes of Orden from being used to destroy everything and everyone they care about? And, if they can free themselves, is this even a fight they can win?

Considering it's the last book of the series (finally!) I have to say, not enough happened in this book. It took nearly 500 pages to get to anything remotely interesting, as the first part of the book is, seemingly, all about the Ja'La dh Jin tournament being held in the Order's camp. Reading about each formation, each attack and counterattack the teams make is not that interesting.

Even worse is that because of all the time spent on the tournament, the whole end of the war - the end of the series! - felt rushed. It was nice to find out (also finally!) what happened to Gratch and Scarlet, but I feel more time should have been spent working towards the book's ending.

Although it's not new, I did get annoyed at the lack of subtlety in the writing. The moral that we're supposed to take from the story isn't left open for personal interpretation; the moral that the author wants us to take from the story is constantly beaten over our heads.

Parts of this book were way too talky. Things that characters could have said in a couple of sentences went on for a couple of paragraphs instead.

The ending was unexpected and interesting, in a way. Although, in my own opinion, I think it was kind of taking the easy way out.

 Grade: D