An Utter Disaster!

What a devastating night for fans of Terry Goodkind’s fantasy series Sword of Truth when they sat down to view his world through the eyes of Sam Raimi, the director of the series’ TV adaptation called the Legend of the Seeker.

I got into the Sword of Truth series a couple of years ago when I was an undergrad. Debi, a friend I worked with, had gotten me the first book for my birthday. She told me that her sister had read all the books that had been published up to that point and that she loved the series. Her sister was trying to get her to read them, but since Debi did not have the time to sit down and read them, she bought the first book for me.

At the time, I did not have time to read them. I was in the midst of almost graduating and trying to get through my last couple of classes. I did not pick up the Wizard’s First Rule until a few months later after I had graduated and had time to devote to reading for pleasure. Granted, it took me a bit to get into the book, what with all the descriptions of the woodlands, but once I got into the lives of Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd, I could not stop reading.

I just recently finished reading the final installment in the series entitled The Confessor and I have to say that I wish Terry Goodkind had continued with the series, but on the other hand, I am happy to know that he has decided to write another fictional series, if not fantasy-based.

I actually got my mother to ‘read’ the books, which is to say, I bought the books on CD for her. With two jobs, she doesn’t have a lot of time to devote to reading even though she loves to read (which she passed on to her nerd-ish daughters!) so books on CD are great for her to listen to while driving to work :)

So with our love of Terry Goodkind’s fantasy world of the Midlands, D’hara, and Westland, my mother and I sat down last night to watch the two hour premiere of the TV adaptation, praying that it would live up to our expectations.

To say that the adaptation was disappointing is only the beginning. For me, this adaptation is on PAR with the Eragon movie, which means it was terrible. While yes, you can enjoy the Eragon movie by itself as a stand-alone film, if you have read the books it does not compare in the slightest. (Yet another rant I could go into, but won’t!)

From the start, our expectations were dampened slightly by the lead actor they had cast as Richard Cypher, the main character of the entire series. While the actor they chose was handsome, he was too young and willowy for the descriptions of Richard. The leading lady who plays the character of Kahlan Amnell didn’t live up to the ideal of a Mother Confessor. If it was my decision, I might have chosen Cate Blanchett because at least she would have portrayed the leadership and command qualities that are evident in the novel. Honestly, she isn’t meant to be a temptress running through the Westland woods, looking sexy. Her life’s mission is to protect the citizens of the Midlands from the threat of Darken Rahl’s rule. Her sole purpose in braving the Boundary, a magical wall dividing the Midlands and Westland, is to seek out Zedd so that he may name the Seeker, i.e. the only person who can defeat Darken Rahl.

With temptresses in mind, the plot of the book was changed considerable for the TV adaptation in order to lure more viewers into the series. While my mother and I could have overlooked the actor/actress choices for the series, we couldn’t take the plot changes!!! (sigh) Richard’s father hasn’t been murdered yet. His brother already knows that Richard isn’t his brother, but an adopted orphan. The Book of Counted Shadows exists and Richard has never seen or read it before. Zedd is a total stranger to him.

Points to be made:

1. Richard’s father had already been murdered. The book, a much better version by far, starts out with Richard wandering the woods of Westland looking for a vine that his father had placed in a bottle before being murdered. Richard assumes that the vine (a plant not native to the Westland) might be a clue to whoever murdered his father.

2. His brother, Michael doesn’t know of anything unusual about Richard; he assumes he is his little brother. Michael is running for Council of Westland and does not share Richard’s thoughts of pursuing the murderer.

3. Kahlan isn’t meant to be a sexy temptress; she’s the Mother Confessor. Richard runs across Kahlan by accident while walking back towards the town of Westland. Kahlan Amnell is being chased by a Quad (a group of four men, sworn assassins of Darken Rahl) because she is the last obstacle in his way to ruling all of the Midlands. He helps Kahlan eliminate the Quad and persuades her to allow him to take her to Zedd.

4. Richard has known Zedd since he was a child. He was like a second father to him while his own father was away on business trips trading/selling oddities to the rich. Zedd is a bit of oddity himself; he passes himself off as a strange old man who knows about herbal medicine. In fact, he is First Wizard and has been molding Richard for his role as the Seeker since childhood.

5. Oh, and the Book of Counted Shadows doesn’t exist. As a child, Richard’s father made him memorize the book and recite it back to him over many years until he could finally recite the entire book by memory. At that point, his father built a fire and destroyed the book. Richard was told never to reveal the contents of the book to others.

I won’t go any further about the plot differences between the TV adaptation and the book because it makes my brain hurt just to contemplate the silliness of directors. I guess they need the Xena and Hercules audiences to approve of this series so they’ve changed many things, but I would like to point out that those same audiences have many devoted readers of various types of books. While we realize that you can’t always stick to the plot of books line by line, you could at least do us the courtesy of sticking to the main points and changing the minute details. We would appreciate it!!

So to wrap up this long-winded post, if you haven’t read the books, you might enjoy the Legend of the Seeker, but if have read them you’re in for a disappointment!!