The Scribbly Man by Terry Goodkind – a Review

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Description:
“They are the monsters under the bed when you are little, the shape just caught out of the corner of your eye when you thought you were alone, the shadow of something in a dark corner that surprises you and then isn’t there. They stop you dead with a knot of unexpected terror in the pit of your stomach. We have all seen fleeting glimpses of them. Never long enough to see them as I saw them, but it was them. I recognized it the instant I saw it.

“We’ve all seen flashes of them, the dark shadow just out of sight. They could briefly terrify us before but never hurt us because they came from so far distant. They were never able to fully materialize in our world so we saw only transient glimpses of them, the shape of them if the light was just right, if the shadows were deep enough . . . if you were afraid enough.

“I think that the star shift has brought us closer to their realm so that they now have the power to step into our world and hurt us.” — Kahlan Amnell.

Review:

The Scribbly Man by Terry Goodkind is the first book in his new Children of D’Hara series.   This is a novella that returns us to the world of Richard and Kahlan, not too long after the Sword of Truth series ended.  From Terry’s site, he states that he will be bringing out novellas in this series every 3 months.  Having read all of Goodkind’s Sword of Truth, I was anxious to spend time with Richard and Kahlan; the Mord-Sith, as well as finding out more of their children.

The Scribbly Man, starts with Richard and Kahlan meeting openly with those who have requests or complaints.   Then someone comes to threaten them to give up their world to a “Golden Goddess”, especially since at this time in their lives, they do not have children who would carry their name.

An angry Kahlan takes this man to a private room to question him and use her powers as Mother Confessor to get the truth out of him.  Richard also comes face to face with a female sorcerer, Shale, who tells him about strange and bloody happenings in her home of the snowbound North Waste.   Richard is then summoned  to help Kahlan, who started using her powers in the locked room, and all hell is breaking loose.   He runs to rescue her, and uses his own powerful ability to break into the room, and find Kahlan seriously injured.  It will be Shale, who is also a healer, who will work to save Kahlan.

What follows is an intense, fast paced story that will change everything in their world, and learn what is needed to stop this evil being, before they destroy everything and everyone.  When Kahlan becomes healthy, she and soon Shale will work on the man who eyes are being seen through by the Golden Goddess, and they learn more and more about this evil person or persons in another world.

To tell too much more would be spoilers, but this was an interesting exciting storyline, and enjoyable  when we watch Richard, Kahlan, the mord-sith bring back so many wonderful memories.   The Scribbly Man ends as we learn more about the evil out there, and the future books where I expect to meet The Children of D’Hara.   Welcome back to the world of Richard and Kahlan.

Reviewed by Barb