• Wizard's First Rule

  • Sword of Truth, Book 1
  • By: Terry Goodkind
  • Narrated by: Sam Tsoutsouvas
  • Length: 34 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (20,876 ratings)

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Wizard's First Rule  By  cover art

Wizard's First Rule

By: Terry Goodkind
Narrated by: Sam Tsoutsouvas
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Publisher's summary

The masterpiece that started Terry Goodkind's New York Times bestselling epic Sword of Truth

In the aftermath of the brutal murder of his father, a mysterious woman, Kahlan Amnell, appears in Richard Cypher's forest sanctuary seeking help...and more. His world, his very beliefs, are shattered when ancient debts come due with thundering violence.

In a dark age it takes courage to live, and more than mere courage to challenge those who hold dominion, Richard and Kahlan must take up that challenge or become the next victims. Beyond awaits a bewitching land where even the best of their hearts could betray them. Yet, Richard fears nothing so much as what secrets his sword might reveal about his own soul. Falling in love would destroy them - for reasons Richard can't imagine and Kahlan dare not say.

In their darkest hour, hunted relentlessly, tormented by treachery and loss, Kahlan calls upon Richard to reach beyond his sword - to invoke within himself something more noble. Neither knows that the rules of battle have just changed...or that their time has run out.

Wizard's First Rule is the beginning. One book. One Rule. Witness the birth of a legend.

Epic edge: listen to more in the Sword of Truth series.
©1994 by Terry Goodkind. (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Wonderfully creative, seamless, and stirring." ( Kirkus Review)

What listeners say about Wizard's First Rule

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14,701
  • 4 Stars
    3,778
  • 3 Stars
    1,317
  • 2 Stars
    562
  • 1 Stars
    518
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12,627
  • 4 Stars
    3,397
  • 3 Stars
    1,165
  • 2 Stars
    352
  • 1 Stars
    285
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12,986
  • 4 Stars
    2,920
  • 3 Stars
    1,062
  • 2 Stars
    424
  • 1 Stars
    486

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This book is a blast

I first listen to this many years ago on cassette. I loved it, so when audible offered it at almost nothing, I had to listen again. I was a little worried, since the first time I listened it was read by Dick Hill, who was great. It took I little while to get into ST, but by the end I thought he did a great job.

This book is a thrill ride from the first minute and all the way through the 34 hours of listening. The main character Richard is no super hero, he is a guy like you and me. He has anger issues, he makes mistakes, he questions himself, etc. I must admit that at times the book sounds almost YA and it is a little preachy about Friends and the Truth and working hard, but with all the action, all the drama, all of Goodkind's wild imagination, this can easily be overlooked. There are no filler chapters, something is always happening. Here are just some of what you will find in the book: Quad Assassins, Gars, Blood Flies, Shadow People, Wayward Pines, a night wisp, snake vines, The Book of Counted Shadows, a Seeker, Heart Hounds, Wizard Rocks, The Underworld, Night Stones, Bone Woman, grippers, birdman, Wizard's Fire, Mistress Denna, Additive and Subtractive magic, the Con Dar, The Blood Rage, Scarlett the Dragon, etc.

My favorites of any book I have ever read were The Mother Confessor, The Mud People, and Mord-Sith. The Mother Confessor can with one touch, make you her slave. You will be in constant anguish, worried that she is not happy. If she says to you "I wish you would just die." You will make your heart stop and die. The Mord-Sith are women torturers who dress in red leather, so your blood won't show as much. From little girls they are raised to torture others and are tortured themselves. There are some strong women in the this book. The Mud People have a great since of humor and are very funny. As a form of greeting they slap each other. Any of these three would have been great to make a book around, yet TG has all three and so much more.

There are probably only two books I like better then this, Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

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117 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

First Rule. First Rate. However...

Wizards First Rule is thoroughly entertaining and an enjoyable listen. Richard, the main protagonist, is somewhat of a dimwit. For example, despite having been cautioned multiple times by multiple magicians to ignore the callings of ghosts and shadow peoples, Richard still gets persuaded to enter the underworld by phantasmagoric images of his dead parents once or twice per day. Sam Tsoutsouvas's narration is superb; however, this is the only book in the series that Sam narrates, and the succeeding books are butchered by a revolving cast of atrocious narrators. Therefore, I highly recommend that you read (vs listen) to this series. Note: Please Do Not Leave a 5-Star Review When The Narration Is Worthy of Only 1-Star.

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108 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, fantanstic narrator

This was my first choice for a fiction audio listen. I was a little worried about a narrated fiction because my own imagination is usually better, but I was not disappointed. In fact, I'm half-way in love with Sam Tsoutsouvas' voice! He narrated this story beautifully, made the characters and story absolutely come alive! I highly recommend this audio book for anyone who enjoys a good escape into another world with the bonus of a wonderful guide found in Tsoutsouvas's voice.

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78 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not for me, but I would recommend it for some.

I can see the appeal of this book. It doesn't waste any time getting into the action, and there is lots of action. Emotions always run high as the characters are constantly in situation that put them in harm's way, and the few times they aren't there is no lack of angst. This is all by design no doubt, since the main character's magical weapon is fuelled by righteous anger.

It's that design that finally burned me out on this book. Every situation is emotionally intense, and after a while I stopped caring. Richard, the main character, is in emotional turmoil even when he's feeling emotionally numb. I never really connected with Richard for this reason. He is always distressed unless it's all gotten to be too much and he is righteously enraged.

Also, did you know good and evil are perspectives and that sometimes people have to make hard choices for the greater good? You did? Well, get ready to hear about it over and over again! It's a fairly simple point of view and most people will understand this concept in full the first time it is discussed by the characters. However, it will be discussed many times, sometimes at length, as a group and by nearly each character in private conversation with the main character. These conversations fill the rare moments the author didn't fill with emotionally stressful situations where the characters are about to be killed.

All that said, the threats are almost always something new and imaginative. The villains are really evil, creatively so many times. The action doesn't stop, and if that's your cup of tea, I'd recommend you give the series a try. For me, however, Richards's constant emotional state has become very annoying and I'm not sure I'll make it to the end of this story, let alone continue with the series.

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76 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

RUN FAR AND FAST!!

I have 8 audible accounts and have 45+ gigs of audible books and this will be the only one that I delete. This book is so bad that I feel compelled to write my first review ever in 5 years of being a member. If you have ever read Fritz Leiber, George R.R. Martin or David Weber run far and fast. If you have not read any these authors, look them up in place of this garbage. I am listening to the last 30 minuets of this book as I write this and feel dumber for my effort. The story and the characters are childish and should be confined to pop-up books for 3-year-old children. DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY ON THIS!!!! If you ignore me and the other adults that have left reviews on this travesty of a book you deserve what you are in store for. I am only giving this book 1 star because the interface requires me to.

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62 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Warning: sadomasochistic porn in fantasy setting

For the first few hours of listening, this seemed like an ordinary, pretty much ok fantasy story and I was looking forward to listening to it, and maybe to sequels. However, it slid into graphic, detailed violence, and then to what seemed like hours (and was at least an hour, possibly more) of graphic torture scenes, gradually becoming more sexualised. When it got to a graphic rape scene, I couldn't take it any more. It feels like the author is reveling in the details of these events--like they are more than plot elements. I could tolerate some of this, but it goes on and on, and on and on.....

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57 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Just bad

It’s starts nice.
Then there are 4 plus chapters of BDSM.
It got tedious and boring.
I get it! She’s cruel and evil and twisted and crazy!
He’s in pain! He’s broken! Then a miracle happens and he’s completely fixed! 4 almost irrelevant
chapters.

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55 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Better than the show

I bought this book because I saw the first two TV seasons based upon these books and I wanted to know what happened later. I found the book different and for the most part better than the show. The performance is outstanding. I highly recommend it to those who like this genre.

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40 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely terrible

each portion of this story was entirely disjointed and drawn-out far longer then was even remotely necessary to tell the poor quality story that was attempted. anything that happened during this book was either cheesy to the point of cringing or overly graphic, either due to violence or sexuality, to the point of absurdity. I would review this book further, but then I would be spending more effort on this review than the author spent writing this book

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

....Not the best way to start.....

I am a huge Brandon Sanderson fan. This is not that type of writing. The epic feel of Brandon's stories is not present here.

What is present is a very close look at a hero and his journey to defeat an oppressive evil. Every good story makes a promise and then keeps it. A great story surprises you in how it keeps it, or makes you wish with all your heart that it is kept a certain way... and then tragedy or comedy shows you why it must not be kept that way or shows you that you were so right and you didn't understand how much so.

The author, in his effort to show the evil of the opponent, went too far in my opinion and at the same time failed to convince me of the motivations of the enemy. I felt the story wandered far too much. It was more like a reality show, than a movie.

With all that said, the book makes a sneaky promise, and at the end of the book it is kept. I won't tell you what it is. I'll leave it to you to see it. The author also surprised me about a few plot points, but it wasn't done as expertly as other authors have done, such as Brandon Sanderson, Anthony Ryan or even GRRM

As with all audio books, it can be difficult to separate out the writing from the speaker. I feel I can confidently say this reader was solid. A few sections I didn't like his interpretation of the writing, but overall I found him worth the listening. I would say he added something the original book lacks without him.

As a first book, this one was good. Terry Goodkind did a very good job of character development and world creation.

My one complaint is that he set the standard for the rest of his book, he created situations where his characters needed supernatural means to survive. Now a few of those situations were needed to reveal character's hidden talents, but to many in one book just starts to wear down the series if it continues with any frequency. If your main characters are backing themselves into that many corners one of two things are happening. Either your main characters are too stupid to survive, or in way over their heads and you have made your bad guys too good. In the first case it becomes pretty obvious fast if your characters are stupid and that's bad for buying in to the survariability of your characters. Goodkind avoids this by making his characters ignorant but smart. They aren't stupid so when they get into situations because of their ignorance you can buy into them getting out of it by using their brains. Where Goodkind makes his mistake is in the second situation. He makes his bad guys really good, but really dumb in some areas. You have the brains to send a deadly Mord Sith after your main character, but after your main character successfully defeats this same Mord Sith in front of your main bad guy, you give said main character free reign of the grounds for a number of days? Really?

I realize Goodkind was trying to show arrogance in his main bad guy, but that's not arrogance that's stupidity. No bad guy that had amassed as much power as Darkin Raul could be that stupid. This and a few other occurrences in the book are what drop it from a 4 star to a 3 star. This is a good story by itself, but a poor start to a series.

Is it worth buying? Possibly. I don't regret my purchase, but I am not overtly eager to continue the series.

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31 people found this helpful