Reaves and Cards for Monday so far?
Aye, aye, Cap'n...I'm in!
As for the Terry Goodkind subject...I am a WoT fan...I'm enamored with Jordan's books...but I also like Goodkind's series...having said that, how Goodkind got away with that I'll never know...the only explanation I can think of is that Jordan had such an amazing impact on the genre that his work is in the process of creating a new, modern formula for writing the fantasy epic (much like Tolkien developed tons of writers to follow...), and now we'll see many, many writers follow his example...only time will tell...but as a fan of WoT, I just can't see how someone can read that series and not sub-consciously take SOMETHING from it...of course, Goodkind took EVERYTHING from it...that's different...
Regarding Goodkind himself...the guy is a moron. I'm sorry, but he's philosophically an idiot...and his writing ability DID get better as the series went along, but go back and read Wizard's First Rule again...that was one crappy piece of literature...and Pillars of Creation...the one where Goodkind completely abandons Richard and Kahlan for some completely non-interesting characters for the entire damn book...what the hell was he thinking?
? And, to cap it all off...Goodkind is arrogant and full of himself to a fault...ugh...makes me cringe to read some of his personal stuff...things like his opinion that "You are either born a writer...or you are not..." - basically, he believes you are a writer at birth, or you just aren't a writer...you can learn to write "better"...but you'll never "learn to be a writer"...
Having said ALL of that...I do love Richard and Kahlan's characters...and i enjoyed reading the series...but I'm not proud of it...