Name | Terry Goodkind |
---|---|
Caption | Goodkind in 2005 |
Birth place | Omaha, Nebraska |
Occupation | Author |
Genre | Epic fantasy, sword and sorcery |
Notableworks | The Sword of Truth |
Influences | Ayn Rand |
Website | http://www.terrygoodkind.com/ |
Terry Goodkind (born in 1948) is an American writer and author of the epic fantasy The Sword of Truth series as well as the contemporary suspense novels The Law of Nines and the The Omen Machine (published in August, 2011) which have ties to his fantasy series. Before his success as an author Goodkind worked primarily as a painter, as well as carpentry and woodworking. Goodkind is a proponent of Ayn Rand's philosophical approach of Objectivism, with references to Rand's ideas and novels referenced in his works. The Sword of Truth series sold twenty-five million copies worldwide and was translated into more than twenty languages. It was adapted into a television series called Legend of the Seeker, premiering November 1, 2008 but canceled after two seasons in May, 2010.
Goodkind has dyslexia, which initially dissuaded him from any interest in writing. Before starting his career as a writer, Goodkind built cabinets and violins and was a marine and wildlife artist, selling his paintings in galleries. In 1993, during the construction of his home on the forested Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine with his wife Jeri, he began to write his first novel, Wizard's First Rule, and his writing career was launched with its publication in 1994.
Goodkind has subsequently published 11 other novels and one novella. All of his books, with the exceptions of Stone of Tears and Wizard's First Rule, have appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. Of his latest novels, Chainfire, debuted at #3; in January 2005, Phantom at #1 in August 2006; and Confessor at #2 in November, 2007. His Latest Novel The Omen Machine has been announced to be listed at the #1 New York Times Best Seller of September 4th 2011.
Goodkind's twelve books in the The Sword of Truth series have sold twenty five million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages.
Goodkind has been strongly influenced by the books of Ayn Rand and is a strong supporter of her works and her philosophical approach known as Objectivism. Writing about the series in The Atlas Society newsletter, Willam Perry states that Goodkind's "characters, plots, and themes...are clearly and directly influenced by Rand’s work, and the book’s heroes occasionally invoke Objectivist principles" with Goodkind using the novels to illustrate these themes. Perry notes the Objectivist themes become most obvious in Faith of the Fallen, which made the novel controversial among Goodkind's fan base; morever, the novel contains several scenes which echo plots of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Some of Goodkind's political views have provoked controversy, notably the dedication to his 2001 novel The Pillars of Creation: :"To the people in the United States Intelligence Community, who, for decades, have valiantly fought to preserve life and liberty, while being ridiculed, condemned, demonized, and shackled by the jackals of evil".
Robert Eaglestone described the books as a "depressing read" due to the overarching cynicism of the series, with a weakness being the heroic characters are only likable in comparison with the utterly murderous. Eaglestone notes that Goodkind brings "a sense of evil that is genuinely disturbing, deriving from twentieth-century monsters like Hitler and Jim Jones" to the post-Tolkien epic, also noting that Goodkind's use of sadomasochistic imagery was interesting, generating a genuine sense of perverse.
;Related novels
;Contemporary thriller
Goodkind wrote a novella titled Debt of Bones for the 1998 anthology Legends, edited by Robert Silverberg. The novel takes place in the Sword of Truth universe and is set a few decades before the events in the main series. In 2001, the story was published as a stand-alone book.
The last book in the story arc, titled Confessor, was released on November 13, 2007.
In June 2008, Goodkind signed a contract to publish three mainstream novels with G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Books. The first of these novels is titled The Law of Nines, and was released August 18, 2009.
In April 2010, Goodkind signed a contract to publish three more novels with Tor Books, the first of which revisted the world and characters of the Sword of Truth series. The new novel, called The Omen Machine was published on August 16, 2011 by Tor Books.
Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:American fantasy writers Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska Category:People from Hancock County, Maine Category:Objectivists Category:The Sword of Truth
bg:Тери Гудкайнд cs:Terry Goodkind de:Terry Goodkind es:Terry Goodkind fr:Terry Goodkind it:Terry Goodkind he:טרי גודקיינד hu:Terry Goodkind nl:Terry Goodkind ja:テリー・グッドカインド no:Terry Goodkind pl:Terry Goodkind ru:Гудкайнд, Терри simple:Terry Goodkind fi:Terry Goodkind sv:Terry GoodkindThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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