In discovering that Terry Goodkind was writing another Sword of Truth novel—excuse me, anotherRichard & Kahlan novel—I had some mixed feelings. Like many people, I really enjoyed the first few books, but by the sixth or seventh book I’d checked out (although I still read a couple past that).
When Goodkind began the series, it almost seemed he wasn’t sure he’d be greenlit for a sequel. As a result, the first five novels continued to up the ante for the increasingly poweful Seeker of Truth. But with Faith of the Fallen, the novels began to bridge togther into a long, drawn-out saga.
The increased focus on politics and lack of a satisfactory conclusion drove me away from Goodkind’s series; eventually, I stopped reading altogether.
But with the main story concluded in Confessor, I rolled the dice on The Omen Machine being a fresh start for Goodkind’s universe—a return to the episodic adventures of yesteryear.
Unfortunatley, The Omen Machine suffers from the same problems of its predecessors—and from some problems of its own. Instead of a fresh start, Omen Machine feels more like an awkward TV movie from your favorite cancelled television series; it’s written as a stand-alone to please the execs and bring in new fans, but the characters are only shadows of their former selves, forced to act out one last huzzah.
Even in the later Sword of Truth novels, the story had become less about the characters and more about facilitating the further existence of said characters.Omen Machine attempts to return to a “Richard & Kahlan vs. the World” type adventure, but it just doesn’t jibe with the previous stories. By this time they are, for all intents and purposes, leaders of the free world; backyard adventures just don’t seem feasible, and it’s painful to watch them try.
Also disturbing about Omen Machine is Goodkind’s writing style of late. I noticed an annoying tendency for the same phrases to be repeated not just throughout the novel, but multiple times on the same page, and multiple pages within the same chapter. I didn’t read The Law of Nines, but my wife had to stop reading it because it become so annoying.
In short, Omen Machine falls—well, short. Sad to see, but it happens.
