Faith of the Fallen - Sword of Truth Book 6 by Terry Goodkind

Faith of the Fallen, is the 6th book in the Sword of Truth fantasy series by Terry Goodkind. This book continues from book 5, Soul of the Fire, and it is a departure from the traditional as it concentrates on belief systems and ideology. In this book Goodkind observes in depth the indoctrination of the people of the Old World by Emperor Jagang and his Wizard elite.

Now Goodkind has an enthusiasm for telling the typical fantasy stories that comes across very clearly in his writing and the way he writes his characters makes them somehow feel alive

In this book Richard is not so much disllusioned with ruling his vast empire as coming to a realization that the army of the New World just does not have the manpower to take on the army of Emperor Jagang and he decides that the best approach for the interim is to do nothing and to take Kahlan into the wilds of his homeland to recover from her injuries sustained in the previous book, Soul of the Fire.

The first few chapters of the novel are interesting, with Richard, Kahlan and Cara living on their own in the woods away from the grandeur and splendour of the palace.

However while they are there, Nicci, one of the Sisters of the Dark, tracks them down and bonds Kahlan to herself, using an arcane type of magic spell. She threatens that if Richard does not go with her to the Old World she will kill Kahlan through this bond, which operates over any distance. She only wants Richard Rahl, not kahlan Amnell, the Mother Confessor.

She takes Richard deep into the territory of the imperial order seeking to bend his will toward hers and to make him see the error of his ways in fighting Jajang's righteous cause! And she has a second agenda; that the 'light' in his eyes will answer some obscure question she has, about the meaning of life and existence.

Kahlan is bitter toward losing Richard and takes up the cause of the D’haran empire in the battle against the Imperial order. She leads a small force of soldiers against a vastly superior army loyal to Jagang in the middle of winter, to devastating effect. Once that is done, she starts on the path to track Richard and Nicci.

There is no traditional villain in this book; instead, the villain is the political system.

the emergence of the total welfare state, and the gradual death of freedom.

There are shades of Orwell’s Animal Farm in this observation and Goodkind uses this book to illustrate the dangers of extremist ideology. OK in this case it is communism, but it could just have easily been extreme right wing.

For some, this depth of this story may seem unexciting, but I found it interesting. It is just another vehicle for the hero overcoming difficult situations, and if any of it seems unrealistic, well you are reading fiction, and fantasy fiction at that.

Goodkind wants the reader to see that services to others should come from our own hearts desire to do so, and not from some sort of ill-substantiated state obligation.

He tries to takes you into the human soul and teach you about the human spirit and why you should fight for it. It is idealism.

Richard Rahl is the heroic IDEAL of man. The man we all aspire to be, realistic or not.

I have heard it said that he is Howard Roark. To those unfamiliar, Howard Roark is the principal hero in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

Ultimately he triumphs over his ordeal in the Old world, and if you want to know the level and details of his triumph you should read the book, the hardback edition of which has only 539 pages.

This book gives the Wizards sixth rule; The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason. This is set out as the most important rule, and the simplest.

The next book in the series, The Pillars of Creation is reviewed here.

UK readers can buy the Sword of Truth books here.