Soul of the Fire - Sword of Truth Book 5 by Terry Goodkind

Soul of the Fire, Book 5 in the epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind, starts where the Book 4, The Temple of the Winds, finishes.

Richard and Kahlan have enjoyed their first night of wedded bliss! But the greatest of Wizards' Laws intervenes, you know the one, 'if anything can go wrong it will'. And this series, and I suppose just about every book or piece of 'edge of the seat' fiction ever written, is based on Wizard Murphy's law. But I digress, so back to Soul of the Fire.

The book starts with an early observation by Richard Rahl, the Seeker, that all is not as it should be - in the shape of a chicken behaving oddly, for a chicken. Naturally nobody believes him. There are more odd happenings and it eventually transpires that the 'Chimes' are somehow involved.

These mysterious 'Chimes' possess a magical power that can steal souls and Richard discovers that the chimes were created by a wizard long dead as a magical weapon in a long ago magical war. The problem is - the Chimes are destroying magic, which is their purpose.

The book then moves away from Richard, Kahlan and Zedd to another city in the Midlands. It expands thehmythical world in areas not centred on Richard and Kahlan, but that have importance to Jagang and the eventual conclusion of the story. It also shows that the land does not exist in a vacuum centred around the Seeker and the Mother Confessor - there is a world out there - and it eventually interacts with our heroes.

We are taken to a new place in the Midlands, 'Anderith' an ancient city with a convoluted history, the home of the Anders and the Hakens. The book goes in to this history to lay the foundations of the Ander/Haken history in order for us as readers to understand the reasoning behind things. And shows how 'doublethink' can be used to distort history and create a false understanding of what the 'real truth' is.

Goodkind spends much time introducing many new characters who play small parts out in the story, not least of course is that of a Haken who steals the Sword of Truth, depriving Richard of it for most of the book.

The book gives us a sort of social history / snapshot of the Ander/Haken society and this novel largely focuses on this. Soul of the Fire is also fraught with political intrigue. The intrigue is actually pretty well-thought-out and well-done and good to read, at least for me.

Anderith turns out to hold a key to the question of the Chimes, and Richard has to go there to get the answers. It also plays a part in Emperor Jagang's plans to get his army into the Midlands.

Kahlan also ends up in Anderith and is severely injured by a gang of thugs, at the behest of the ruling Ander politicos.

This book gives us the the Wizard's Fifth Rule, revealed in Soul of the Fire, as:

Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.
Basically it's 'actions speak louder than words'.

The next book, Faith of the Fallen, continues with the story and is reviewed here.

UK readers can buy the Sword of Truth books here.