LOfreakingL. There need to be more fantasy rape watches!

And really, if the book was that generic, than I'll just trust your judgement and pooh-pooh it ;)

We should do a Ferretbrain roundtable of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. (It'd have to be a roundtable, because no one person deserves to be lumbered with reading the entire series.) The "Fantasy Rape Watch" segment would be the longest part of the review.

Arthur's been talking about the Fantasy Rape Watch for a while but I hadn't realised just how weirdly illuminating it actually is. I think we should definitely make it a feature, despite the fact it's utterly tasteless and, consequently, kinda funny.

I was faintly annoyed, actually, by how easily the heroine shrugs of her traumatic rape experience. I mean, coming to terms with her past is a big part of the book but regardless she still leaps happily into bed with Valek, pausing for barely a moment to celebrate the fact that she can still do despite what happened to her. Because love heals everything, folks.

I think perhaps I've been too harsh on it - it does have genuinely fun stuff in there but the lack of world-coherence really really annoyed me. Which is ironic considering that's usually the sort of thing I moan about.

Love heals everything... including, apparently, the guy you supposedly love talking to you as if you're a moron throughout half the book, if the quotes you chose are anything to go by.

Well, I know I for one have dated such people =P

By the way, how many books is the Sword of Truth? And can we buy in bulk for the nearest charity shop?

It's 11 books long, 12 if you include the slim prequel novella. They frequently show up in charity shops, in my experience. On the other hand, I feel it's unlikely we'll be able to top this summary of all the delicious crazy in the books. Make sure to follow the links to the forum thread with all the quotes direct from the books. The scene where the hero nobly kicks a nasty 8-year-old girl in the face really hard (hoping that she'll die and therefore be saved from growing up to become a nasty 18-year-old girl) is... well, it's really something.

You know ... let's ... not ... do this.

Hilarious summary although it made me cringe. I can't believe people are allowed to write such books (not becuase I'm shocked at the content, just because they're blatantly *bad*) and get paid for it. And presumably read by people.