Soul of the Fire: Soul of the Fire Bk. 5 [Paperback]

Each time Goodkind's hero and heroine save the world from supernatural menaces, there turns out to be a catch involved; what we learn, interestingly, from his particular take on fantasy is to be suspicious and cynical. Last time, in Temple of the Winds, the problem was a plague of supernatural origins; this time, it is beings of water, fire and air, who cause sudden and inexplicable death and are gradually eroding the very magic on which the structure of Richard's world depends. And there is still a crusading emperor, a variety of witch-hunters and the complex uncertainties of Richard's emotional life to deal with. It is typical of Goodkind's bleak take on the stock material of fantasy that when, after four previous volumes, Richard finally marries his beloved Kahlan, there should be terrible consequences. We get to see more of this ingeniously thought-out fantasyland--a doomsday weapon in the hands of dim young conscripts and a society whose corruption enables Goodkind to lecture us on the evils of democracy. Most heroic fantasy has an attachment to autocracy as one of its unspoken values--Goodkind is not least interesting because he tends to follow those values through to their limit. --Roz Kaveney

"Goodkind's ingenious world building will keep readers captivated." --"Publishers Weekly"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A stunningly inventive, breakthrough novel that takes the fantasy genre into a new dimension.

In the previous volume of this bestselling series of fantasy novels, our hero Richard Rahl, wielder of the Sword of Truth, and his lover Kahlan unwittingly released upon the New World a terror from the malign and wild magic of the Old World. The Chimes now run free in the Midlands and Richard and Kahlan, powerful in their own right, begin to see their own magic undermined, leaving the people of the New World vulnerable to the encroaching evil that Darken Rahl first unleashed in WIZARD¿S FIRST RULE.

SALES POINTS * Millennium Lead Title for April * A Sunday Times top 10 bestseller in hardcover * Fifth volume of The Sword of Truth - over 300,000 copies sold - the Sword of Truth titles are core stock titles with backlist sales of nearly 80,000 copies per year * Sequel to the international bestselling WIZARD'S FIRST RULE, STONE OF TEARS BLOOD OF THE FOLD and TEMPLE OF THE WINDS * WIZARD'S FIRST RULE mass market paperback is in its fifth impression