Finally, after 10 nights, we come to the final book of the Sword of Truth Arc. Yes, we still have two more nights, which will see a new series with Richard & Kahlan, and Terry Goodkind’s latest release….the prequel to Sword of Truth….The First Confessor.  But we are getting ahead of ourselves.  Tonight we move on to this fantastic finish of a fantastic series……CONFESSOR.  If you have not read this series, this review is filled with spoilers, so be warned and read at your own risk. 🙂

Confessor by Terry Goodkind

Finally after 10 books, I have finished Sword of Truth.  The series began with Wizards First Rule, which was wonderful and hooked you totally in.  The next few books continued the trend of excellent books.  Then came Soul of the Fire, which totally turned me off.  Of course, a lot of that, had to do with falling in love with the wonderful characters of SOT…Richard, Kahlan, Cara and Zedd, and hating the treatment and the separations of Richard & Kahlan.  I won’t go into detail, as you have seen my review on it.  Faith of the Fallen brought me totally back, and I loved that book.  Then we came to two more sub par books, (Pillars of Creation & the better Naked Empire). Once again I was told that the Chainfire trilogy would be great.  Now that I have read Confessor, I have to agree, it was a great book and a befitting ending.  Now after this opening..lol..  on to my thoughts of Confessor.

I must repeat ….I loved it, so much action, almost from the start.  Early on I was somewhat depressed that Kahlan still had no memory of her life and love of Richard.  She was still with the awful Jagang.  But her strength began to come back, as she studied and killed any guard she could, even if her memory didn’t.  It bothered me, as I saw the way the story was going, that for the third book in a row, we would not see much of Richard & Kahlan together, knowing that the boxes of Orden needed to be used to get Kahlan back. So that had to be near the end.  I still say now, that Goodkind could have changed it a bit, so not to have this three book separation of Richard & Kahlan.  But despite that, Confessor was great.

The action began when Nicci was captured by the Sisters, and when Ann was killed (that was a surprise).  I have said this in Phantom, and I will say it again. Nicci has been great.  In the beginning, when she was Death’s Mistress and a Sister of the Dark, I hated Nicci.  But all that changed when she found what she needed to find (after her mother, Brother Narev, the Sisters of the Light made her what she was)…Life…as described by Richard.  But it wasn’t until the Chainfire trilogy started that I started to really like Nicci.  I wasn’t crazy about that everyone close to Richard, tried to push Nicci to Richard.  The last being Ann, who was pretty vehement in trying to tell Nicci that she belonged to Richard, and Kahlan was a thing of the past.   But it was Nicci herself, who despite her love for Richard, knew that he loved Kahlan, and Kahlan was the right one for him.  She said it like it should be said…She loved Richard enough, to help him find the one he truly loved….the one who would bring joy back to him.   It was Nicci who was willing to give up her life to save Kahlan, so that Richard would happy.

There was so much that I enjoyed about Nicci. Her friendship with Cara was very well done, her strength in the face of adversity, but I loved the way she and Kahlan got along, the bond they developed, especially with Kahlan not knowing who she was. Nicci looked out for Kahlan (as Kahlan did her), in their bond to escape Jagang. As Kahlan said at the end, Nicci was good friend, not someone to hate. 

The last 1/2 of the book was sensational.  The ja la game ending in a war, Nicci and Kahlan trying to escape with Richard.  The ra-han necklace around their necks forcing them down, Richard almost killing Jagang with the arrow, Kahlan being taken by Samual, Adie to the rescue killing one of the sisters with Richard down, Benjamin coming to help, Cara knowing something was wrong and getting every one into the catacombs just in time.  Richard finding his gift in time to save Nicci.

Jagang’s ultimatum, Richard’s visit to the underworld, and his reappearance with the mud people was a surprise, Chase/Rachel waiting for him, Kahlan finally realizing Samuel was the enemy and Six would bring her back to Jagang.  But I knew early on with Rachel, that Shota was the one going to help them, and loved when Shota finally killed Six.  Gregory (the red dragon) flying them all back to the Palace.  Continued action, and Kahlan falling in love with Richard all over again was great. 

The end with Richard figuring it out, the sisters of the dark all getting themselves killed (imagine them thinking they don’t hate lol), Richard opening the boxes of Orden, creating two worlds, and the best part…Nicci putting the collar on Jagang….priceless, as well as his death. Cara’s wedding to Benjamin, with Nicci and her mord-sith sisters (in white) was fun, Richard & Kahlan finally together happy at last, and great to see all those that survived. This truly was a great ending for this sensational series.

However, that being said, I know fantasy has torture and rape.   I think there was a bit too much rape and torture of women, and having Kahlan watch what Jagang did to Nicci was way over the top.  But having Nicci be the one to kill him was great. 

Back to Confessor; I loved this book, and thought this was a fitting end to Sword of Truth.  I adored Richard & Kahlan, and at the end of this book I totally loved Nicci, and now she comes in behind Richard, Kahlan, Cara, Zedd, as my favorite characters in SOT.  Richard was lucky to have these three woman (Kahlan, Cara & Nicci) to help him fight this battle.  It’s been such a wonderful ride.  Loved Sword of Truth, loved so many characters that Goodkind did so well in creating, including Gratch, Scarlett, the mud people.  This was a wonderful fantastic series.

Reviewed by Barb