Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

 Wizard’s First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1) 

Wizard’s First Rule is the first Terry Goodkind book in the Sword of Truth series which is also the basis for the ABC television series Legend of the Seeker. This is a review of this remarkable book.

This isn’t your typical epic fantasy book. Yes, it has all of the normal trappings you would expect such as an epic sized quest, plenty of conflict, and of course a dragon or two. This book has all those things but it has significantly more. In Wizard’s First Rule Goodkind shows us more than just an epic adventure story where our hero attempts to save the world from ruin. Our hero is named Richard Cipher and we adventure with him on a journey to becoming a seeker.  A seeker’s role is to find the truth in things and a seeker’s sword has the word “Truth” engraved on it. And it is in this journey to find truth that Goodkind takes this story from just a story to a real exploration of truth and the nature of good and evil.  There are many conversations and situations that explore the bipolarity of good versus evil and the grey area that lies between the two. Doesn’t it make sense that even the evilest of men believes that what he is doing is righteous? Yes it does and Goodkind takes a good hard look at this. He raises questions in your mind about the whole nature of truth and the real commitment it takes to find the real truth.  This is an intelligently written book that gives you more than just a story. It gives you lots of food for thought.

We live in throwaway times. Everything is instantaneous and disposable and I think there is something lost in that.

I am not going to launch into any kind of soliloquy about that but there are two points I really want to make in this post.  There are two distinct types of long view and this thought stems from a guy in California who has been building his own medieval castle brick-by-brick on weekends and vacations for the past twenty years.

And this is a good example of the first example of long view: It is very difficult for us in this world to take a “long view” look at our lives and the things we do. This problem is very evident when it comes to those of us who are involved in the web where everything is instantaenous and last hours news is a distant memory.

I think it is quite remarkable that this man set out to build himself, by himself, a medieval castle and he has kept after it for twenty years. Kudos to him for taking the long view.

And the beautiful thing about his project is that it is perfectly wrapped in an example of the second long view - the long view that is really long and extends past you; and this is where Medieval Castles come in.  Castles, Cathedrals and buildings like that were built in a time where they took the long view of things - they built in stone and with the intention of making sure they endured. Why don’t we do this kind of thing anymore? Wheres the long view?

Anyhoo, I have a couple of interesting links for you:

A few years back I visited a medieval castle that was built around the 7th century. It is still in perfect condition and I have an essay about it and some pictures here: Inside a Medieval Castle circa the 7th Century

Also: Here is an article about the gentleman who is building his own medieval castle: Brick by Brick, a Weekend Warrior Builds a Medieval Retirement Home

A Quick What’s coming next on this blog: I have a whole bunch of stuff coming including my review of the phenomenal Terry Goodkind book: Wizards First Rule; It’s the book that the new ABC series: Legend of the Seeker is based upon.

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I have been on a quest to read or re-read a lot of great epic fantasy books. (I have been posting the reviews either her or to my Fantasy Guide website.) Well, at the moment I am re-reading the first book in Terry Goodkinds sword of Truth series Wizard’s First Rule and I have been thoroughly enjoying it.  It’s been many years since I first read it and a lot of the story is again new and fresh to me.

Anyhoo, I am getting into the meat of the story and last night I read a couple more chapters. Funny thing about it is that this morning I open my mailbox to find a couple more promotional pictures from the upcoming Legend of the Seeker show which is based on the Sword of Truth series.

The great thing about one of these pictures is that it looks to me like it depicts a scene that I had passed through last night. It really was kind of cool.  You read a novel and you build all these pictures in your head and voila a picture appears in your mailbox. The universe bends to deliver what you want

I don’t really know if the picture is really of the scene I had just read in the book or not but it looks an awful lot like it. Which tantalizingly leads me to believe the TV show will get a lot of its story and inspiration from the book which would be great because the book is simply fantastic. This is one of the best Epic Fantasy books out there and it kicks off a phenomenal series of books.

One More Little Clue: You can see in the picture that Richard has something hanging around his neck. This thing is very important in the book and it’s good to see him wearing it in the show - it’s another clue that the spirit of the book is maintained in the show.

Okie, heres the picture: It depicts Richard Cypher, Kahlan Amnell, and Chase heading toward what is referred to as “The boundary”. And you can tell by the look on their faces that they are seeing something…. Well, I can only speculate that this is the scene depicted in the picture

The show airs with a 2 hour opening episode on November 1, on ABC and I am really looking forward to it. We don’t get this kind of stuff on one of the big three networks very often. The official Legend of the Seeker Website

ps. Tonight I am going to read a book about winning the lottery. Let’s see what turns up in my mailbox tomorrow!! Lol

Picture Copyright © ABC Studios

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