Review: Exactly What I Expected From Terry Goodkind
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 3, 2012
The First Confessor (The Legend of Magda Searus) by Terry Goodkind is exactly what the title claims, the story of the Magda Searus, the first Confessor.  The events played out here are a crucial part of the back story of the Sword of Truth series.  As the story opens, Magda Searus has just lost her husband, First Wizard Baraccus.  Feeling lost and alone, Magda sets out to commit suicide in the same manner as her husband, by throwing herself off the wall of the Keep and falling to her death a thousand feet below.  At the last possible moment, she finds a note left by Baraccus, urging her to find truth.  In the chapters that follow, the reader is given a closer look at the events laid out as backstory during the Sword of Truth series.  How the war between the Old World and the New was first started, the making of the Sword of Truth, the hiding of the Temple of the Winds, the creation of the D'Haran bond, the dreamwalkers, the traitors in the Keep, and the reasoning behind the creation of the Confessors.  And other events even further back in history are hinted at.This was an excellent read.  I've read each book by Goodkind in one sitting, and this was no exception.  This book explains many of the secrets behind the Sword of Truth series and gives the characters mentioned in the series their own stories.  Even though this wasn't about the main characters, Richard and Kahlan, I was just as interested in the characters and eager to know more about them.  The only two problems I had with this book were that now I feel the need to go back and read the whole series again and now I want to know more about the other events mentioned in the series.  Here's hoping Mr. Goodkind feels the urge to write more of the backstory.A note about the format:  The First Confessor (The Legend of Magda Searus) is a self-published e-book.  Many of his loyal fans seem to be quite upset that it's only available in e-format, as they don't have the necessary e-readers.  Terry Goodkind wanted to tell the story in his own way, without the limitations imposed by a publisher.  Apparently, he's one of the first big name authors to venture into the realms of self-publishing.  His reasons for doing so can be found on his website at terrygoodkind.com.  As reviewers, we tend to shy away from author self-pubs.  Many that we've read have had lots of grammatical errors, formatting issues, continuity problems, or just plain poor editing.  I didn't find a single thing wrong in this book.  That's not to say there aren't problems, just that I didn't find them, and I usually do.  If you're leery of reading this because it's a self-pub, don't be.  It could easily have been printed by any of the major publishers and I wouldn't have noticed any difference while reading it.