The books ruined the series for me.

[Necros]

I would, however, strongly advise against starting with any book other than WFR! The SoT series has to be read in the correct order, if at all. Also, it doesn't make much sense to read any book from the middle of the story, but not the previous or following ones.

But that's exactly my point, even if you skip WFR, you'll learn what happened there later because of TG's tendency to repeat everything a million times. At least the more important, big events.
And if someone isn't an R&K fan, like me, WFR and 99% of SoT isn't required to understand the events in the following books with Cara, Berdine and Raina.

[Ellond]

I LotS were to picked up by STARZ they would be able to go extremly violent, and dial up the sex. Similar to Spartacus. Although now that I think about both shows that would be a really big extreme. Almost a little bit to violent and crazy. I thought the show did a decent job with all that stuff though.

[spirit]

you'll learn what happened there later because of TG's tendency to repeat everything a million times.

You'll learn how Richard and Darken Rahl are related to each other, where Richard and Kahlan first met, and how Richard became the Lord Rahl. Terry does indeed tend to repeat things, but he certainly cannot and does not repeat some 800 pages in his second novel. There's a great deal of things you'd miss, important things needed to understand the story, and things you should know if you've any interest in the world and the personality of the characters.
If the key events are everything you wanna know, you could just read the SoT wiki ...

And if someone isn't an R&K fan, like me, WFR and 99% of SoT isn't required to understand the events in the following books with Cara, Berdine and Raina.

The SoT series IS about Richard & Kahlan! Without being interested in those two characters it's just pointless reading the series. Again you could just search for Cara, Berdine and Raina on the wiki and learn almost everything there's to know about them.
It's the depth of Richard and Kahlan's personalities, their lovestory, their interacting with other people and creatures, their struggle throughout the series the whole storyline revolves around! Nicci does become important for a while to fill the place left empty by Kahlan's absence, but the impact on the story the three mentioned Mord'Sith have is quite little in the grand scheme of things.
Yes, I did like them too, especially Cara, but I wouldn't struggle through 7.301 pages just for a few funny lines from her which I, mostly, could also read in a thread here on this very board.

Reading the SoT series just for Cara, Berdina or Raina is like Reading Harry Potter for Dobby, or Lord of the Rings for Eowyn. Nobody would do that.

Similar to Spartacus. Although now that I think about both shows that would be a really big extreme. Almost a little bit to violent and crazy. I thought the show did a decent job with all that stuff though.

Well, I think the comparison between LotS and Spartacus is flawed. If LotS had been filmed in a more mature fashion, it most likely would have been like Game of Thrones, especially in regards to sexual content and violence. I may, of course, be mistaken, but I see a lot more similarities between the worlds and characters of LotS/GoT than those of LotS/Sp.

[Necros]

The SoT series IS about Richard & Kahlan! Without being interested in those two characters it's just pointless reading the series. Again you could just search for Cara, Berdine and Raina on the wiki and learn almost everything there's to know about them.
It's the depth of Richard and Kahlan's personalities, their lovestory, their interacting with other people and creatures, their struggle throughout the series the whole storyline revolves around! Nicci does become important for a while to fill the place left empty by Kahlan's absence, but the impact on the story the three mentioned Mord'Sith have is quite little in the grand scheme of things.
Yes, I did like them too, especially Cara, but I wouldn't struggle through 7.301 pages just for a few funny lines from her which I, mostly, could also read in a thread here on this very board.

Reading the SoT series just for Cara, Berdina or Raina is like Reading Harry Potter for Dobby, or Lord of the Rings for Eowyn. Nobody would do that.

Funny, I'm doing just that, like quite a lot of other people I saw on the net talking about the same thing.

Yeah, the books are mostly about the epic lovers (blergh), but not only about them. Not everything is R&K. Yes, they have an effect on most things, but I don't care about that, I care about the Mord-Sith affected by them. And the story, I just wish it was written better, TG had some good ideas.

I'm reading TotW now, skipped chapters 19-23 and skimmed through 24 because that seemed to be slightly interesting. I read everything with the Mord-Sith and since they were in most scenes, especially Cara (I love how the first 3 chapters started with her wanting to kill that guy ), that means most pages/lines from chapters 1-18 and 25-27, I'm at chapter 28 now.

And no, I'm not reading the books only to see a few more funny quotes from the Mord-Sith... I guess you think Cara wasn't really important in the show either, right? She was just funny...

Perhaps it's hard to understand for die hard R&K fans, but I don't care about them much, even less so in the books. Richard is an annoying jerk quite often in the SoT series and Kahlan depends on him too much. At least they were more likeable in LotS.

Also, I hope you were kidding when you compared Cara and the others to Eowyn and Dobby, you can not be serious...

[spirit]

I guess you think Cara wasn't really important in the show either, right? She was just funny...

Depends how one defines 'importance'. Besides, Cara appeared in 50 % of the TV show while, I'd guess, in 20 % of the books, if not even less.
Terry plays a lot with Cara's character, probably so as not to make the impression that the books are entirely about Richard and Kahlan. She undergoes the biggest change of personality of all characters, she builds up relationships and does have a few moments where the others relay on her, but her actions hardly affect the story in any way.

Since LotS people might have the impression that Richard, Kahlan, Cara and Zedd are equal main characters, but that's just not true as regards the original SoT story of the book series! As said, it's all about R&K. Of all the supportive characters I'd name Nicci the most important one.

Perhaps it's hard to understand for die hard R&K fans, but I don't care about them much, even less so in the books. Richard is an annoying jerk quite often in the SoT series and Kahlan depends on him too much. At least they were more likeable in LotS.

Also, I hope you were kidding when you compared Cara and the others to Eowyn and Dobby, you can not be serious...

Well, you're free to read the books for whatever reason, but it will always be a riddle to me how one can read a book series with more than 7.000 pages with such disinterest, even dislike, in the main characters as they're portrayed by the author.

BTW: I didn't compare Cara's character with Eowyn or Dobby's, but the importance of it for the story with theirs.

[saxxymatt]

well i am 20 years old, i should put that on my profile. so the extent of the ideas and philosophical stuff wouldn't be a problem, and i like the richard and kahlan story line a lot so i might have to read it.

[ATLGurl]

You'll learn how Richard and Darken Rahl are related to each other, where Richard and Kahlan first met, and how Richard became the Lord Rahl. Terry does indeed tend to repeat things, but he certainly cannot and does not repeat some 800 pages in his second novel. There's a great deal of things you'd miss, important things needed to understand the story, and things you should know if you've any interest in the world and the personality of the characters.

This I agree with. I actually started with Stone of Tears (my personal favorite) and read WFR last because I found the books after the first season of the TV series, and wanted to read the second book before the second season (which it was loosely based on). Then I just read the series and went back to WFR. Although I didn't learn anything new, WFR gave a depth of character and some details that made more sense in context and gave me a better idea of what motivated each of them and gave them a little well-rounded history. I think WFR is an introduction into the world, and the other novels expand and build on it until you reach somewhere around SoF and FotF where you start to see some real progress toward the end of the series. And Denna. Damn, I love me some Denna (obviously).

I get that some folks won't read it for the love story, though. I liked it, but I really loved it for the general message and subliminal objectivism, "Your life is your own", as well as all of the other minor characters. Nicci and Cara in particular have really enjoyable character developments that stand on their own without any neccessary romance, although the a little gratuitous romance is thrown in anyway. I do enjoy lots of novels like LoTR, GoT, Name of the Wind, and Dragonlance where the romance isn't front and center. That's part of what makes those books great.

Everybody has their own opinion about the books vs. the show, but for me the show is just a superficial look at a rich, detailed, and complex world. Some people though, just don't care to read that much into it, and that's just as cool, too.

[saxxymatt]

i dont mind romance as long as the action doesn't get completely eliminated because of it. and i certainly dont mind more detailed and descriptions. i was just wondering if that because i saw the show first if i read the books would it ruin the books for me or ruin the show for me.

[spirit]

Although I didn't learn anything new, WFR gave a depth of character and some details that made more sense in context and gave me a better idea of what motivated each of them and gave them a little well-rounded history. I think WFR is an introduction into the world, and the other novels expand and build on it until you reach somewhere around SoF and FotF where you start to see some real progress toward the end of the series. And Denna. Damn, I love me some Denna (obviously).

Very well said!

And, yes, the Denna chapters alone are already reason enough to read WFR!!!

i dont mind romance as long as the action doesn't get completely eliminated because of it.

You'll get plenty of it, don't worry.

i was just wondering if that because i saw the show first if i read the books would it ruin the books for me or ruin the show for me.

No one can answer that.

There are people who are perfectly happy with how Terry's world and characters are shown in LotS and they were shocked about all the tenseness, violence and sexual content in the books, or bored by all the themes like philosophy, theology, or the meaning of life.
But then there are also those who love exactly that and dislike LotS because it's kind of "Sword of Truth light", if you get my meaning. So much is missing in the show, and after having read the books you can clearly see that LotS was made to be family-friendly, while the books, were they filmed 1:1, certainly would be X-rated.

However, there's yet another group of people, me among them, who actually love both the books and the TV show, because they manage not to compare the two in every regard, but enjoy each for what it is.

[saxxymatt]

ok thanks spirit, i think i will get into them

[saxxymatt]

hey to everybody who was talking about the wizards first rule on here, i just finished the book and i don't see it as bad as some of you have said. first off it was a great book, spirit you were right on most of what you said that there was plenty of action and romance still. and starting with wfr gave me better in depth look at the characters. but for the deep philosophical messages and the talk of rape and stuff, it wasn't bad at all.

[spirit]

Glad you liked it! As for the philosophical messages, there's a great deal more yet to come ...

[saxxymatt]

alright cool

[saxxymatt]

also was it just me or did the end of the book end really fast.

Spoiler:

after they all got to the palace it seemed like he just spat out everything from the book, rahl died and they all went their own way. but it didnt get into much details after that about zedd moving on or kahlan and richard or explaining what happened to him for a month when they were separated. or is that in the second book?

[aci01]

also was it just me or did the end of the book end really fast.

This is kind of TG's style of writing. The first 3/4 of his books is the build up and then things get really fast and before you know it the story ends.

[Jlyn]

This is kind of TG's style of writing. The first 3/4 of his books is the build up and then things get really fast and before you know it the story ends.

Ain't that the truth! LOL

I'm with Spirit in being one of the people who can separate the books and show and love them both for what they are.

Saxxymatt - Glad to see you jumping into the SoT books. They are among my favorite book series ever. Hope you enjoy them!

[saxxymatt]

ya i love them so far, i have read the first four and am waiting on the fifth from my library. they have quickly become one of my favorite series ever.

and since i have started reading them i can also separate the book plot and tv show plots, though i do make correlations between the two and i use the actors from the show in my head when i am reading i can see them as two things, both awesome.

[Necros]

I'm almost a third way through Chainfire, and for me, this thread's title should be: the series ruined the books for me. The writing is better and the characters are much more likeable too in LotS. I don't understand why so many people seem to love this mediocre (and I'm being generous ) book series...

[aci01]

I'm almost a third way through Chainfire, and for me, this thread's title should be: the series ruined the books for me. The writing is better and the characters are much more likeable too in LotS. I don't understand why so many people seem to love this mediocre (and I'm being generous ) book series...

You can't really argue someone's personal taste.
To you the books are mediocre, to me or somebody else they're great, enjoyable readings. Which one of us is right?

[Necros]

Both of us, I just voiced my opinion. Mostly because I'm annoyed by book fans bashing the show for things you can find in the book series too, and they are in some cases even worse there. And some of the complaints are just bs, like crying about the number of sisters we saw...