The Omen Machine HC by Terry Goodkind – A Richard and Kahlan Novel

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The Omen Machine (Sword Of Truth) Hardcover by Terry Goodkind (Author)

“THE OMEN MACHINE – This is the extraordinary story of what happens next in Richard and Kahlan’s world now that the great war has ended. (A few have asked, and no, there is no connection whatsoever to THE LAW OF NINES.) I’m having a great time writing this book and can’t wait for people to read it. From the first sentence you will be just as mystified as Richard, Kahlan, Zedd, and many of the other characters we’ve all come to care so much about. I can’t say much more for now… except fear what is about to happen.” – Terry Goodkind, December 2010

Richard and Kahlan are contentedly enjoying Cara’s marriage when a boy named Henrik warns them of dark things to come before scratching them both and running away. Soon after, Cara warns Richard that something or someone was watching her in her room. At first unbelieving, Richard and Kahlan notice the same spooky presence on their own. Shortly after these events, prophecies are given by the most unexpected places and people, but appear equally in a book titled End Notes. After failing to reason with the delegates alarmed by these prophecies, Kahlan and Nicci frighten them into silence with a prediction invented by themselves. Meanwhile Richard finds a strange machine underground, bearing an emblem exactly as on a wordbook for translating the language of creation, only reversed. It is later revealed that this machine is the source of all the new and strange predictions, and may be an artificial intelligence. Among the delegates is Abbot Dreier, the representative of Bishop Hannis Arc of Saavedra, who becomes the antagonist of this book and its sequels.

The scratch on Kahlan’s arm worsens, and Zedd fails to heal it. When Kahlan feverishly wakes from a rest, she finds a pack of dogs surrounding her. A fight and chase then ensues until Kahlan runs away in a carriage. When Richard finds out that Kahlan is gone, he traces her footsteps and sends soldiers to find her. She is ultimately captured by a monstrous ‘Hedge Maid’: a macabre sorceress associated with necromancy. Richard tries to save Kahlan, but is himself captured. Richard remembers the machine’s last warning, protects his and Kahlan’s ears, and cuts the leather strips on the Hedge Maid’s mouth, whereupon she emits a terrible shriek and dies. Richard and Kahlan are found by Nicci and Zedd, who take them to the Garden of Life to heal them.

Hannis Arc, working on the tapestry of lines linking constellations of elements that constituted the language of Creation recorded on the ancient Cerulean scroll spread out among the clutter on his desk, was not surprised to see the seven etherial forms billow into the room like acrid smoke driven on a breath of bitter breeze. Like an otherworldly collection of spectral shapes seemingly carried on random eddies of air, they wandered in a loose clutch among the still and silent mounted bears and beasts rising up on their stands, the small forest of stone pedestals holding massive books of recorded prophecy, and the evenly spaced display cases of oddities, their glass reflecting the firelight from the massive hearth at the side of the room.

Since the seven rarely used doors, the shutters on the windows down on the ground level several stories below stood open as a fearless show of invitation. Though they frequently chose to use windows, they didn’t actually need the windows any more than they needed the doors. They could seep through any opening, any crack, like vapor rising in the early morning from the stretches of stagnant water that lay in dark swaths through the peat barrens.

The open shutters were meant to be a declaration for all to see, including the seven, that Hannis Arc feared nothing.

#1 New York Times-bestselling author Terry Goodkind returns to the lives of Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell?in a compelling tale of a new and sinister threat to their world.

Series: Sword Of Truth (Book 1)
Hardcover: 528 pages

Terry Goodkind is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sword of Truth series, Richard and Kahlan stories, author of The Law of Nines, foundational novel The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus, as-well-as collaborator for Legend of the Seeker, the Sam Raimi produced, Disney ABC television series based on The Sword of Truth books.

With the Omen Machine, Goodkind returns to the world and characters of the Sword of Truth series after a three-year hiatus. Generally, Goodkind’s strengths as a novelist are more in evidence in “The Omen Machine” than his weak points. For starters, he returns with a fresh story line and the novel unquestionably starts strong. The plot is dark and haunting and we can feel the anguish of the characters about some of the choices that they have to make. Most importantly, things actually happen even if many of the scenarios and dilemmas that Richard and Kahlen face sometimes seem a bit like the ones they faced in previous novels. It was nice to see the great characters from the Sword of Truth Series (Richard, Khalen, Zedd, Nathan and Nicci) not only return but also move in new directions. Goodkind also refrains from his tendency to be preachy and his writing style in this novel is generally simple and direct.

The start of a sequel series to The Sword of Truth, the Richard and Kahlan novels, where prophecy plays a major role, and the titular device is discovered partway into the book, its omens largely coming true and being deadly. I love the Sword of Truth series and now the Richard and Kahlan novels. I was hoping this new addition to the Richard and Kahlan saga would result in the happy ending I’ve been wanting but it’s taken a much darker turn.

978-0-7653-2772-7

First Edition. Near mint condition.