DEBT OF BONES by Terry
Goodkind
Victor Gollancz (Orion) - August 2001
ISBN: 0575072563 - Hardback
Fantasy
Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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Returning to a time
before the birth of Richard and Kahlan this is a novella about an incident
in the life of the young First Wizard Zedd. The war with Panis Rahl is
raging and getting an audience with the most powerful wizard in the world
is very hard, but young peasant woman Abby is determined to do just that
to save the lives of her daughter, husband and village. She is entitled
to help for she has a debt of bones and the wizard owes her a favor. But
how this is going to turn out is going to surprise everybody
Goodkind is noted for his wonderfully well-realized fantasy world populated
with lively characters but not for his economy with words so a novella
is a surprise. He manages the form well enough and sketches in the characters
deftly in a few bold strokes that is impressive for a writer of very long
novels. This is an exciting story too, lacking much depth but being instead
a vivid snapshot of a time readers have heard about but not been shown
before. If you are a fan of the Sword of Truth series then do read this
- if you haven't yet had that pleasure it would be better to skip this
for now and read the first book Wizards First Rule instead.
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