An Interlude of Ice and Fire

I placed a hold on this book at my local library a couple weeks ago, but didn't think I would be getting it so soon.  I was twelfth in the queue, and past experience puts that at about a two-month wait.  I received my notice that the book could be picked up, so I put my tackling of A Feast Of Crows on hold, and dug into the loaner.

I had somewhat high hopes for The Omen Machine.  I previously enjoyed the Sword of Truth series that Terry Goodkind had published, even though the books got a bit preachy towards the end of the 12-book series.  Mr. Goodkind developed a bad habit of interlacing his personal belief system within the pages of a fictional storyline.  Long rants by the main characters would slow the story down at points, but overall, the series was an enjoyable one. 

Three years after the end of the Sword of Truth series, and two years after his release of a unrelated book, Mr. Goodkind revisits the world of D'Haran Empire.  This story is billed not as a continuation of the Sword of Truth series, but as a "Richard and Kahlan novel."  I assumed, from the description, that this would be a stand-alone story.  I was wrong.  The end of the book is a cliffhanger, and sets up the reader to get sucked into another book that the author is sure to publish in the near future. 

The one bright point from this book is that Mr. Goodkind doesn't have the protagonist deliver too many sermons to his people.  The down side of this lack of preaching is that apparently this is what kept the storyline moving in the previous novels.  The plot of this book revolves around a machine that produces prophecies.  If you have read any of the other books, you will already know that Richard hates prophecy.  This book is more of the same.  The only difference between this novel and the previous 12, is that between the writing of Confessor (the last entry in the Sword of Truth series) and The Omen Machine, Mr. Goodkind has forgotten how to write a good book.  It almost seems like his publisher told him their coffers were getting low, and he had better write something that will fill them up again.  Mr. Goodkind obliged, and the readers suffered. 

I think that this will be my last Goodkind novel.  I know it is harsh to say that after only one weak entry in his catalog, but there are so many other authors out there putting out excellent material.  I feel like I wasted a weeks worth of time on this, when I could have finished A Feast Of Crows and started on 11/22/63, by Stephen King. 

The good thing is, Mr. Goodkind can only improve from here.  Let's all hope he does.  

A Long Wait...

To my avid readers the person that stumbles here once in a while:  sorry that it has been so long since my last review.  I have been reading the first four volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, by Mr. George R. R. Martin.  I purchased the four-book set before my trip to Shanghai, and I am about half-way through the fourth book now.  I had thought about posting reviews of each book as I finished, but then decided to lump them all together into one post.  There is a fifth book out in the series, A Dance With Dragons, but I won't be reading that one for a while.  There are many other books on my to-read list that have been neglected while I journey through Mr. Martin's 3,400+ pages of material. 

Anyways, I hope you will come back and check out my review when I get it up.  Thanks for being patient!