The Scribbly Man

Somehow, Terry Goodkind’s usual bad habits are all here… and I still gave it five stars.

The Scribbly Man has many of the familiar problems that come with the Sword of Truth universe. Goodkind can be painfully long-winded, he repeats points that were perfectly clear the first time, and characters occasionally seem determined to explain something until there is absolutely no possibility that even a distracted houseplant could have missed it.

And yet I really enjoyed this.

The storyline grabbed me quickly and kept me interested despite the usual verbosity. Returning to this world and these characters worked surprisingly well, and the shorter format helps keep things moving even when Goodkind inevitably wanders off into one of his extended explanations.

What really pushed this up to five stars, though, was the ending. I really did not see it coming, and it completely changed how I looked at what I had just read. Obviously I’m not saying anything more than that, because this is one of those endings that deserves to arrive completely unannounced.

So yes, it’s repetitive. Yes, it’s long-winded. Yes, occasionally you want to grab Goodkind by the shoulders and yell, “WE UNDERSTOOD IT THREE PARAGRAPHS AGO.”

I loved it anyway.

Overall: A slightly baffling five stars: all the classic Goodkind annoyances, wrapped around a really interesting story with an excellent payoff. If you enjoyed Sword of Truth despite occasionally wanting to confiscate Goodkind’s thesaurus and red pen, this is absolutely worth reading.