Terry Goodkind, author of the enormously popular Sword of Truth novels, has forged perhaps his best yet, pitting Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell against threats to the freedom of the world. They both must struggle at opposite ends of the world against the relentless, monolithic forces of the Imperial Order.

A Sister of the Dark captures Richard and takes him deep into the Old World, to the very heart of the Order, while his beloved Kahlan remains behind. Free because of Richard’s sacrifice for her, but unwilling to abandon the cause of the Midlands, Kahlan violates not only prophecy but her last pledge to Richard, and raises an army against the advancing horde of the Imperial Order. Separated and fighting for their lives, Richard and Kahlan will be pushed to the limits of their endurance, and tested in their love for one another. Once again, the master storyteller weaves a riveting spell that will captivate even more fans for this incredible series.

Publishers Weekly

Sequel to Soul of the Fire in Goodkind’s popular Sword of Truth series, this extended barrage of sword-swinging fantasy pits the New World’s Seeker of Truth, Richard Rahl, and his wife, Mother Confessor Kahlen Amnell, against the lethal totalitarian forces of the Imperial Order under Jangang “the Just” and his gorgeous masochistic minion Nicci, aka Death’s Mistress, a dreaded Sister of the Dark. After Richard helps a desperately wounded Kahlen heal in a mountain hideaway guarded by their ill-tempered blonde bombshell bodyguard, Cara, Nicci ensorcels Kahlen and forces Richard to abandon her for inhuman bondage in the Order-dominated Old World. Kahlen defies Richard’s prophecy that arms alone will never defeat the Order. She takes command of the D’Haran army, hopelessly outnumbered against Jagang’s black-magicked hordes who are invading the New World. Untangling all this gives Goodkind an ample canvas for enough disemboweling, spit roasting and miscellaneous mutilating of men, women and children to out-Sade the infamous marquis. His fans–and they are legion–will revel in vicarious berserker battle scenes and agonize deliciously as Richard, reduced to slavery by Nicci, toils to establish a bastion of capitalism in the cold gray heart of the Stalinesque Old World. All the ponderous sound and fury of Goodkind’s attack on socialist-style do-gooders who are destroying the world, however, founders in a welter of improbable coincidences, heavy-handed humor and a disconcerting dependence on misusing the verb “smirk.” For sheer volume of its Technicolor bloodbaths and its bathetic propagandistic bombast, this installment of Goodkind’s fantasy saga makes an indelible impact; anyone who yearns for Goodkind is going to be in high clover. $250,000 ad/promo. (Aug.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publish Date : 2000-08T