Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" Part 3

Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" (Amazon)

Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" (Goodreads)

*Spoiler*

I have finished the final quarter of this book, and I am happy to say that it was the most entertaining part of the novel. The good news is that it wraps up in a way that makes me want to read the sequel, "The Third Kingdom."

In the last quarter of this book, we learn a few things. We learn that the machine seems to be controlled by someone, most likely Hannis Arc. It attempts to help Richard by telling him things outside of the "prophecy" that it is being forced to say. At the end of the book, we also discover that what the machine told Richard actually saved both his and Kahlan's life.

The final quarter of this book is mostly Richard's pursuit of Kahlan. We learn during this pursuit that the hounds are not real, just something that a person sees when influenced by the Hedge Maid. After Kahlan's mad fever dash to Kharga Trace, Richard finally catches up to her as the Hedge Maid is preparing to do some unspeakable things to her, most likely aiming to turn her into some sort of wraith or undead being. On a positive note for Kahlan, at least she is able to free Henrik. Richard manages to destroy the Hedge Maid by cutting open her mouth, severing the leather cord. He is able to save his and Kahlan's life by plugging both of their ears with cloth, but they are both still affected by the sound of the Hedge Maid's death and knocked unconscious.

Upon his escape from Kharga Trace, Henrik is able to locate Zedd, Nicci, Cara, Benjamin and the others and let them know where both Richard and Kahlan are. Ultimately, the final quarter of this book was the best quarter and is leaving me excited for the sequel,"The Third Kingdom." Look for the reviews for that book soon as I start to read it next.

Overall, I give this book a 4/5 with the ending being entertaining enough to make it worth the read, especially considering the availability of a sequel.

Thanks for reading.

Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" Part 2

Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" (Amazon)

Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" (Goodreads)

09/05/2013

I am now just over 75% through the book. I have been reading very slowly for two reasons. First, I was playing catch up with the anime "Attack on Titan." If you haven't done so already, be sure to read my latest episode review here. The second reason I've been reading so slow is because this book has very slow pacing. I will get into that more below.

*Spoiler*

The good news is that once you reach the middle of the book, the main villain is finally revealed. This greatly helps the story start to come together. It finally has meat on it. I don't know how much longer I could have survived hearing the word "prophecy" without a physical being behind it. However, just because Hannis Arc is introduced, don't think for a second that you're going to escape the word "prophecy" from now on. Oh no, it will continue throughout the rest of the book, I'm sure. It may very well carry through the rest of the series. It almost makes you wonder if Goodkind had a bad run-in with a fortune teller or something before he decided to start this series.

But as a side, at least the villain is revealed, and he appears to be very deadly. His description is rather terrifying when seen from Henrik's point of view. The tattoos are rather disorienting, and I'm sure they serve as Hannis' source of power in some way, especially the backwards nine which of course is a reference to Goodkind's earlier book "The Law of Nines" (which is on sale over on Amazon, if you haven't picked it up yet.) Hannis also has the ability to kill the wraiths that the Hedge Maid controls, so he has a multitude of abilities.

We also see Kahlan's increased illness, especially after whatever the Hedge Maid has done to her. How that will play out will greatly affect Richard's decisions in the future, I have no doubt.

Finally, we also see a great deal of court gossip amongst the rulers, all of which are obsessed with prophecy. To me, it just feels that they've lost faith in Richard far too fast to make this book believable. He beat Jagang and the entire old world empire, and now they think he belongs to the Keeper of the Underworld after like 3 days in his palace? It seems a stretch.

All in all, the third quarter of this book has been much better than the first half. I still believe it is worth picking up especially since it is over on Amazon for a bargain price. I know Goodkind's writing enough to know that the story will have to improve soon. I've heard great things about the sequel,"The Third Kingdom." So I'm looking forward to reading that next.

Come back soon for my review/reaction to the conclusion of the novel.

Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" Part 1

Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" (Amazon)

Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" (Goodreads)

08/29/2013

Hello, and welcome to my first post for this new blog. In this blog, I will be discussing science fiction and fantasy books and short stories that I'm currently reading. I hope that you enjoy it.

At the moment, I am reading Terry Goodkind's "The Omen Machine" (Link Above). You can look at this novel in two ways, either as book number twelve in the "Sword of Truth" saga, or as book number one in the "Richard and Kahlan" series. I am about halfway through the book, and I'm inclined to go with the latter. So far, the writing seems drastically different than the "Sword of Truth" novels. The characters seem shallow, and the story feels rushed. 

However, with that being said, it is not an entirely terrible read up to this point. Also, Goodkind is one of my favorite authors, so I'm not willing to give up on his work at this point. I will definitely finish this book as well as "The Third Kingdom" after that. I think that he has earned my loyalty to see where he will take the characters in this world, since I enjoyed the first eleven books so much.

Here is to hoping that the story picks up from here. Come back soon to read my take on the second half of the novel.