Wizard's First Rule

Last spring, I was channel surfing one Sunday night, when I happened upon a show on WGN called Legend of the Seeker. It was everything the Geek Girl in me loves. Wizards - magic - a commoner rising from his humble beginnings to become a great hero/warrior - and (most of all) an impossible love affair. Admittedly, the show is a little lame. It's a guilty pleasure of mine.

Upon a little research, I found out that this show is actually based on a series of books called The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Of course, I just had to read them. Wizard's First Rule is the first in the series (if you don't count Debt of Bones, a prequel).

Wizard's First Rule is the story of Richard Cypher, a simple woodsman, and his quest to defeat the evil Darken Rahl. Assisting Richard in his mission is Kahlan Amnell, the Mother Confessor, and Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander, a Wizard of the First Order. Throw in some magic, a dragon, a spunky little girl, some Mud People, and a race of dominatrixes and you've got a story worth telling.

I haven't been this excited about a book since reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I'm a sucker for a forbidden romance, and the mix of adventure, magic, and fantasy is like a dream come true for me. There are 11 books so far in this series, and I've just begun the second, Stone of Tears. I have high hopes that this series will come to be one of my favorites.

I'm a fan of both the television series and the book, but if I had to choose, I'd say read the book before watching the show. The show has been dumbed down so much that a lot of the excitement and passion has been lost. There are terrible things that happen in the book - so bad that just reading them left me in a right foul mood for a couple of days. But these things were either left out completely or only hinted at in the series.

All in all, I'm really excited to complete this series of books and see what's in store for Richard and Kahlan, and of course, Zedd. This is what I love most about reading. I read a lot of books and most of them are no more than okay. But every once in a while, you come across a gem. And Wizard's First Rule is a real diamond.