Volume I - Sister of Darkness - The Nicci Chronicles

Another book with someone who doesn't have access to their gift. The way you tell us the same info two or three times in the same chapter is annoying. Weak villains. Felt like more filler than story. Do yourself a favor and stop at book two. Stone of tears. That's as good as he gets.

Let me just say, right now, that Death's Mistress was a book I thoroughly enjoyed, from the first page to the last. It's hardly anything new - in fact, it feels very much like a traditional 'quest' fantasy - but it breathes fresh life and real excitement into the world that Goodkind has created. Nicci and Nathan are allowed to carry the story here, taking us far beyond the known borders of the original books, and deep into lands never before mentioned.

Like I said, this is very much a traditional quest novel, with no overarching conflict or political upheaval against which we're to struggle. Instead, it's a rather simple tale, with Nicci sent off to spread the word Richard's triumph over Emperor Jagang. There is one last prophecy to give the quest purpose, but it's more of a roadmap than a defining aspect of the story. Along the way, we get to visit new lands, meet new characters, and enjoy some fantastic battles that mix a sense of wonder with genuine danger.

At the same time, we get some real character development - both for characters old (Nicci and Nathan) and new (Bannon and Thistle). Nicci has always been cold, harsh, and somewhat one-dimensional, but here she has a chance to breathe and grow emotionally. As for Nathan, I generally loathe it when characters are stripped of their powers, but here it actually frees him to be something more than just the dangerous mouth of prophecy. Bannon is perhaps the greatest surprise in the book, a nuisance side character who develops alongside Nicci and Nathan, and who ultimately becomes a genuinely heroic character about whom we'd be happy to read more.

It genuinely feels as if Goodkind has rediscovered his love for the genre with Death's Mistress, and that bodes well for future volumes in the series.

As usual his writing keeps you reading to the end. Read it in three days. Makes you have to know what's going to happen. Nicci and Nathan are both
awesome and it will be fun to see how this chronicle plays out. PS Mrrr is cool too.

The Nicci Chronicles picks up after the rest of the Sword of Truth series. Its a good story and really builds on Nicci's character. But there are some spoilers if you haven't read the rest of the series.

I really like Nicci and Nathan as traveling companions. I was wondering how anything was going to be challenging to this pair, but I loved the adventure as it went along. The places and people they meet were really great. I am looking forward to the next chronicles of Deaths Mistress.

Coming off the heels of the last adventure with Emperor Saluchan and putting the Omen Machine back to the under world and ending all prophecy for good, Nicci and Nathan are summoned to the layer of Red the witch woman. Braving some hazardous swamps to ge there, they find out they have another mission and that is to save the world and make Nathan whole. They are charged with finding the city of Kol Adair, which is at the other end of the DHaran Empire..
Enroute to Kol Adair, Nicci rescues a young man who is about to be killed by the name of Bannon. Bannon works on the wave walker, his captains ship. THe ship goes searching for Wish Pearls. It is on board this ship they come under attack for stealing pearls that belong to the selka. The selka are a race of sea people egineered by the wizards to fight in wars. The ship is attacked and of course the only three to survive are Nathan, Nicci and Bannon.
As they are shipwrecked on a strange and distant shore, they come across a small fishing town that is isolated from everything else. The villagers are very hosptable to the trveling trio. Yet only after being there for a while the town is attcked by Narukai slavers. Nicci is able to access her magic and use wizard fire to fend off the attackers. Nathan and Bannan must make do with swords. Nathan has lost his magic ever since the Omen Machine was returned to the underworld. When he does access his Han things go awry.
Their next adventure takes them to towns where everyone has been turned to stone. A wizard gone rogue has gone around assessin peoples guilt an turning them to stone. Nathan goes off on his own and sees a tower adorned with painted glass windows. THe wndows depict battle scenes of old. It is here that Nathan must battle some magically charged statues.
Their next two adventures take them to a place that is bein ravaged by another wizard called the Life Drinker. Rolland a wizard who accessed an ancient library was dying dying from/a wasting disease. To cure himself he used magic which casused him to drain the entire valley of life. Piecing together magic from ancient books they obtain a magic acorn from the tree of life. The next adventure has a priestess sacrificing herself to reanimate the valley. things seem to be going haywire. Kol Adair is a ways off still.

I like the story behind the book but the spoken delivery in the audiobook is just fair. The first thing I noticed is that the speaker must never have listened to a Sword of Truth book before or she would know how to pronounce names of characters, such as the Dreamwalker(Jagang vs. Jagong). Secondly, when they go back to describe past events it would be nice if the event matched the person. I cite where Nathan is described when with Red that he cast a light spell that destroyed the Palace of the Prophets when, if I'm not mistaken, it was Zed that did that but did not have enough power to set it off leaving Richard to finish the destruction with the spell. Simple things like this mean a lot to fans of the stories. There were a couple of books earlier in the SoT series when a different reader didn't know how to say Kahlin and kept calling her Kuhlin. Make them listen to the prior audiobook's before reading new ones please!

I am honestly convinced that Goodkind did not write this book, he just put his name on it. I've been known to do marathon reading sessions but I could only handle about an hour of this book before I had to put it down. It's that bad. The same phrases and ideas are repeated over and over. I lost track of the number of times he wrote "evil wizard". Do yourself a favor and get it secondhand.

ONE OF GOODKIND'S ABSOLUTE BEST!

Once again, Goodkind has taken me on an emotional rollercoaster ride. If you are/were a fan of Goodkind's earlier works, then this one is a must read!

I, of course, would suggest reading all of 'The Sword of Truth' series (beginning with Wizard's First Rule and ending with Warheart) before reading this one, but the good news is that you don't really have to.
There are several instances that allude to the prior books, however I believe that this book could stand on its own. (If anything, after reading this one, you will want to read the others, while waiting for the next book in this new series to come out.)

Goodkind has gone back to the basics with this one, creating a thoroughly captivating and totally engrossing story - one that any adventurer/quest-lover will totally absorb!

The only thing that I didn't like about this book is its cover. (I am sorry, but the cover portrayal of Nicci is completely off-base, in my mind, as is Nathan Rahl in the background.)

That said, I have no doubt in my mind that this book will make it into my "Top Ten" list at the end of the year.

Terry Goodkind has begun an all new epic entitled Death's Mistress. Wizard Nathan and Sorceress Nicci are an unlikely teamed charactered driven duo that have discovered a dramatic reconfiguration of magic in the Goodkind created universe. His conjured characters who begin a quest of commonly agreed rules for each individual land, becomes a task proven to be heavy handed for all involved. Within this realm the reader will be versed in many exciting new Goodkind creations including beginning a life book chronicling accomplishments and experiments of a wizards prolific journey to prophecy driven events that consists of strange species such as the deadly sea bearing creatures known as the Selkin. This hefty novel is one heck of a Terry Goodkind adventure awaiting the reader.

Although Goodkind mercifully keeps his milking of Ayn Rand's Philosophical Breasts to a blessed minimum he continues to borrow some of the Terry Brooks Shannara ('Wishsong of Shannara' - Brin Omhsford) Mythology for some of the book's latter chapters and antagonist + plot requirements. Additionally, Magic is overused as a plot-device, problem pave-over, and deus ex machina; it's irritating that Nicci is all-powerful or non-powerful as it suits the plot. Once again, Unfixable Problems are fixable with magic and Fixable Problems are Magically Unsolvable. Other than these problems, The Nicci Chronicles is a welcome Extension and Spin-Off which has a lot of room for expansion and development.

Building on the success of the Sword of Truth Series author Terry Goodkind continued the story well with The Third Kingdom stories. However, what should have been at least a feasible foray into a post "star-shift" world through the perspective of everybod's favorite Sister-of-the-Dark becomes instead a rambling and seemingly random series of events and characters that appear to be nothing more than page-fillers in order to capitalize on past success. Also, it bears mentioning that I am a huge fan of his other works. It almost seems to me as though Goodkind is not even the same author behind the words plastered together in this work. It is highly possible that he has a master plan and vision that will prove true as he continues this series, which will become clear further down the line of books, but as of now it just doesn't seem to make much sense to me. Sorry Terry...still friends???

Death's Mistress, Nicci, is a reformed servant of an ancient evil who now follows the one who saved her from the life she knew-Richard Rahl. After a War which has literally changed the world, she is dispatched, along with an ancestor of Richard's who hasn't aged in a thousand years thanks to magic, to scout out the world and let everyone know that the evil that has ruled the world for so long is destroyed and Richard is a very different ruler. Before the two of them leave, they go to see a dangerous witch for information-and Nicci is told she'll have to save the world...

They also pick up two travelling Companions: Bannon, a troubled young man who Nicci saves the life of early on and who proceeds to attach himself to her, and Thistle, a young girl whose parents have been killed who they meet on their journey. The almost-awkward dynamic between the characters is entertaining, with Bannon trying to flirt with Nicci and being utterly slapped down as she is utterly in love with Richard, Richard's ancestor tutoring Bannon and Nicci standing up for Thistle-even though she doesn't know why herself. Nicci's extraordinary physical beauty is emphasised-but she is known as Death's Mistress after 200 years for good reason. This is not a woman who will ever need protection, of any sort. Except, maybe, from her own heart as the chill of serving the old Emperor starts to thaw from her and she finds that she can care after all...

As they cross the world, they run across threats both mundane and magical, and deal with them as they arise-to the point more than one place they pass through actually asks them to stay after seeing just how effective they are at dealing with "problems" and, in some cases, people. Nicci, of course, refers them to Richard for help-until they come across something they HAVE to deal with on their own.

For all the entertaining writing and colourful illustration of the world they live in, this is Nicci's story, everyone else is just a part of it. Thankfully, she is very much up to the challenge. If you like fantasy stories with strong leads in a well-realised world still being explored? Read this, you'll enjoy it.

Another quite satisfying book by Goodkind. I love that it follows two of the most fascinating "minor" characters in the Sword of Truth series. I love Nathan's childlike wonder and enthusiasm, and how it plays with and against Nicci's cold, dark, practicality. Adding Bannon to the group is like giving them a fully grown child to drag along on the adventures, and adds some extra flavor. His character development is interesting to follow, as well. I look forward to seeing what they find in the next part of their journey, Shroud of Eternity.

I love the Sword of Truth series, and therefore, it was more than just a mild desire to pick this book up. In the spirit of it not being the actual SoT series, I'm trying to judge this book as a separate entity. There were some slow moving parts, but on the whole, I did like the book. As another reviewer posted, some of the battle scenes were a bit anticlimactic. I felt the ones in the first half of the book were developed quite well, but the final battle really was quite lacking. I think it was done intentionally, however. My interpretation is that Mr. Goodkind did this purposely to cater to the emotions which Nicci suffered through in that battle. She showed up, she kicked the necessary butt, and she left. People tend to not put a lot of emotion into the above and beyond the necessary when they are dealing with the traumatic.

All being said, It was a good read. It kept me entertained, it had emotion, and most importantly, it left me wanting the next book.

If you're a SoT fan, pick it up knowing that you'll get nothing more than hints of Richard and Kahlan. This isn't about them. If you can read this as a new series that just happens to have some characters whom you're familiar with, I think you'll like it.

Terry Goodkind is a good writer whose work I’ve often enjoyed. This is one of his best books. The story revolves around Nicci and Nathan traveling through remote parts of the world. They are on a mission for Richard Rahl, the protagonist of the Sword of Truth series. Early in their mission they encounter a whtch who sends them on a quest to save the world. The book is well paced and is written in a very episodic fashion which makes sense since the main characters are moving through the world. We meet a new character who is a foil for Nicci and a kindred spirt to Nathan. The book has 2 flaws that stopped me from giving it 5 stars. The first is that Thistle’s character arc is not believable given her age. The second, is that for the most part, Nicci isn’t that sympathetic of a protagonist.

I've been a fan of Goodkind's for years, but as kids came and my own writing took precedence I found it harder to find time to read. Being gone from his books for five years, I picked up this the other day. It was like discovering a long lost friend. His prose is like that of a good beer...comforting and you just want more and more until you are drunk on the story line, which I was quickly. I frequently try to recommend his books to my students and if I were still a bookseller, I would be schlepping his name to every fantasy/ sci fi reader whenever I could.

Please keep up the good work.

Scott

A fascinating and as expected, very well written story. I was missing the sword of truth and here he gives a part of it back. This storyline definitely has the potential to be just as epic. Nikki and Nathan will have many more adventures on their path to tell the known word of Richard Rahl and Dahara winning the war and the peace that will follow. I just wish they would stop referring to each other as "wizard" & "sorceress".
For sure another killer series by the master of fantasy Terry Goodkind!

I am long time fan of Terry Goodkind, as I own a majority of his books in hardcover because I can't wait long enough to get my hands on the next peek into the wonderful universe he's created.

I was not disappointed nor left unsatisfied with his choice in direction with changing the point of view into his creation. I was excited and intrigued to learn we would delve into the mind and world as Nicci sees it.

Jumping right into where his last trilogy left off and a welcome brief refresh of the story so far, I knew I was hooked within the first few chapters. As the premise was formed and reopened my eyes to that universe, I knew I was in for a treat.

As the story unfolds, I found myself turning the pages faster and reading larger portions each time. Learning of new characters while still enjoying the antics of the main characters I already know.

The story as a whole was self satisfying. As new challenges arise and resolve thru out, while still keeping me guessing as to what will happen next and how can they be handled.

As the book ended, I got a peak at the direction this new trilogy was going in and felt that I was not let down any step along the way. I would strongly recommend this book for any fan of fantasy novels and especially anyone familiar with his prior works.

Could not put this book down. I've always loved Nicci as a character and this book gives her some added depth. I also love that even though she is the MVP of the book, every member of the supporting cast gets a chance to shine. And the action scenes are top-notch.

One caveat for some though - the book almost feels episodic, with Nicci and company meeting a threat, defeating it, and moving on to the next throughout the book. I enjoyed it as a welcome change from the sometimes laborious Sword of Truth series (which to me at times had serious pacing issues) but not all may agree.

Was so sad when the Sword of Truth series ended so I was beyond ecstatic to learn that some of the characters were being brought back from the original story line. This book was hard to put down, intense and visceral, I wish I could've taken a few days off work to read it straight through... Thank you Mr. Goodkind, for giving your fans a chance to reconnect with the characters we've come to love.

Great story with a nice story line. However if listening to the audio book, the narration is absolutely horrible. The narrator mispronounces character names and has this breathy quality that just doesn't jive to the previous stories. The emperor's name is pronounced like "jog-on" and it is grating every time I hear it. Otherwise, great story and nice continuation of the series.

I have no idea where to begin with reviewing this horrible horrible thing.

First of all the narrator in the Audible version is the WORST - I have no idea what she or the director was thinking. Her inflections make every sentence sound either like a challenge or a question. It was agonizing to listen to - but I'm not a quitter and paid for this audiobook so I was determined to make it to the end. I think this may have been better to read myself - but I probably wouldn't have finished in that case.

Second - Nicci is a bad ass character - though not the most badass in the SoT series (Kahlan!). I liked her journey well enough in SoT, but this book really detracts from the character that was built up in the book series. Honestly this book portrays Nicci as love sick girl. She has simply replaced her obsession with the First Order with that of Richard Rahl. When Warheart ended I thought Nicci was going off to live her own life - free of obligation to Richard, belonging to no one. But here she is just doing what she must in the name of "true love." Puke. Also, why is she suddenly embracing her title "Deaths Mistress" throughout this book?

Third - what the hell goodkind? It's the same formulas of all the other damn books. Save the world, a character doesn't have access to his powers, victim blaming, rape, and oh - Goodkind just making up an entirely new region we've never heard of to have horrific things happening in. It's an old trick and I'm over it. I'd rather go back to lands we've already been introduced to... so many potential stories. Also - lots of incongruity in this story in general with the previous stuff in the SoT series.

Nathan is the only decent thing in this book.

Don't read or listen to this book. Let's not encourage Goodkind to write another one.

What happened? The First Confessor was good, the Nest wasn't bad, has Terry run out of ideas? I think so. Death's Mistress is dismal. Slow paced, shallow character development feel like an Atari quest game. To bad, Bring back Magda Searus please, no more Nicci!

Although I enjoyed the book and we got to see Nicci and Nathan grow tighter, I felt rushed. It felt like story was rushing them to the main battle then it just slowed. Not as much character development as the others in the past. Still willing to read more

This is not a review on the book. $15 for an eBook that is 500 pages!!! Really?? I know I am only one person, but I cannot support an author and publisher with that type of pricing. Your books are good but not $15 for 500 pages good.

Death’s Mistress by Terry Goodkind is the 1st book in his new series, Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles. I am a big fan of Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, and was happy with the end of the arc of Richard and Kahlan. Though she was a villain early on in the series, Nicci became one of my favorites (besides Cara) later on. I was happy to see that Goodkind has started a new series that will revolve around Nicci, starting with Death’s Mistress.

At the start, our powerful sorceress Nicci and the wizard, Nathan were on a trek to visit with the witch, Red, whom Nathan had a request. Nicci and Nathan have been assigned by Richard to visit other realms and spread the word that the war and slavery is over, and everyone is free. Nicci decides to go with Nathan on his visit to the witch, protecting him since he would be entering dangerous grounds. Before they leave the witch, she will tell them of their destiny; Nathan to find the land that will restore his wizard powers, and Nicci to save the world.

What follows is an epic adventure that will bring in some new characters to join them, as they face some wild and dangerous situations that always come into play in these types of fantasy novels. At many different stops along the way, they come across dangerous and terrible situations with sea creatures or sand monsters, as well as two evil beings that lost their way from using powerful spells buried deep over the years. It will take the ultra powerful Nicci to use her magic to help save the others, as well as Nathan to help find the hidden information to stop the villains from destroying the world.

This is an exciting, non stop action filled story that has you totally engrossed in this adventure. It is difficult to tell too much more, as you need to read and visualize the action. I loved Nicci, and despite her being hard core, she has changed so much since changing her total loyalty to Richard, and in this book we begin to see a small change to her becoming emotionally attached. The two new characters who we meet early were very likeable. Bannon is a young man whom Nicci helps save, and then he joins her and Nathan on their adventure. Thistle is young girl, who loses her family in one of the horrible attacks; she too joins with them. There were many emotional moments throughout the book, which included being on the edge of your seat, fear and even tears.

Terry Goodkind has given us a new series that allows us to stay in the Sword of Truth world, with the focus on Nicci as our heroine. I for one am thrilled about this series, and will be waiting for the next one. If you are a fantasy lover, as well as Sword of Truth fan, I recommend you read Death’s Mistress.

I have really enjoyed this series. I would recommend starting from the beginning, however the author does a nice job with descriptions to keep the reader up to day should they start in the middle of the series or take a brief hiatus and return to the books. Definite recommendation.

It was wonderful to get back into the world of the Sword of Truth series, even if Richard and Kahlan are only mentioned and not seen. I have loved this world since I first opened Wizards's First Rule, and have devoured every book since.
Nicci has always been formidable woman, and she doesn't disappoint in this first book of her new story. The things she and Nathan go through and the people they meet make for an exciting, page turning story. I'm eagerly awaiting the next one to see how their adventure continues.

It is wonderful to see supporting characters brought to the fore. For those very familiar with the world of the 'Sword of Truth' books, this is like taking a turn into a new and mostly unknown neighborhood in a familiar town. 'Death's Mistress' is full of new character development, with a new story line that holds true to Goodkind's wonderful world and great writing style.