Books like The Sword of Truth Gift Set

The first two books in this series were great, as was Faith of the Fallen, book six. Books 3-5 were mediocre in plot and impact, and everything after Faith of the Fallen, books 7-end, were absolutely horrendous, and showed just what a terrible thing it can be for someone to take Ayn Rand too seriously. While Faith of the Fallen is a pretty blatant ripoff of The Fountainhead, at least Goodkind let the characters figure things out on their own, instead of forcing them into situations where they can act "objectively." Subsequent books in the series, all the way to the end, were such poor examples of what publishable writing should be, that I will never in good conscience recommend them to another living person. Except maybe some future enemy of mine, whose writing career I wish to ruin with the influence of this horrible series (books 7-end, I mean). It is one thing to use some philosophy to influence and shape characters. It is quite another to force characters into situations which "prove" that said philosophy is correct. Goodkinds despicable monologues from his main character, Richard, are the sort of thing that belong in bad philosophy books, not fiction. It strange, but I think Goodkind is one of the few writers I have ever read who has progressively gotten worse at his craft as he has progressed through his career. It's also unbelievable that his work has been so successful. I could understand it if the caliber of the work had remained at the level that it was in books 1, 2, and 6. But the work of everything after that, for all intents, should've buried his career. It's possible, now that the series is finally, thankfully over, that it has.