Book: Shroud of Eternity (The Nicci Chronicles, Volume 2)
Author: Terry Goodkind
Pages: 528
Published: January 9th, 2017
Publisher: Tor Books
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Hello Bookish Friends,
I’m happy to bring to you my thoughts and musings about Terry Goodkind’s latest book. Anyone who knows me knows he’s my favorite author, so I try my best to give my most unbiased opinion. He wrote The Sword of Truth series and began his spin-off series now known as The Nicci Chronicles just last year. The first book in this new spin-off series is called Death’s Mistress. Be sure to check out his entire catalogue of books because he’s an amazing Fantasy writer. Here’s the synopsis below:
The formidable sorceress Nicci and her companions―the newly powerless Nathan and the youthful Bannon―set out on another quest after driving ruthless Norukai slavers out of Renda Bay. Their mission: restore Nathan’s magic and, for Nicci, save the world.
Guided by the witch-woman Red’s mysterious prophecy, the trio makes their way south of Kol Adair towards a wondrous city shrouded behind time, Ildakar. But the grotesque omens on their path to Nathan’s salvation―severed Norukai heads on pikes, a genetically modified monster, and a petrified army of half a million―are just a taste of the unimaginable horrors that await within the Shroud of Eternity.
Many have criticized Goodkind’s later books due to his constant “preachy” spiel. I do concur with the masses that his later books in The Sword of Truth series were filled with religious rants and constant repetition. However, Goodkind seems to be taking a turn for the better and is showing some of his old writing prowess. Death’s Mistress while a great start to this new spin-off series, I will admit Goodkind seemed to include too many different things which threw off the cohesiveness of the story. For one, there were too many “villainous” characters in the story which made it hard for a reader to take any of them serious. However, Goodkind rectified those few pitfalls from that book and completely transformed everything in Shroud of Eternity.
We find our ragtag pairing of Nicci and Nathan trekking deeper into the Old World, past Kol-Adair to the ancient and mysterious city of Ildakar. We quickly find out the city is in tact and inhabited with the wizards whose powers rivals of that of old, reason being their city has been around for over 15 centuries. Ildakar protected itself with a powerful enchantment known as the shroud of eternity, which took the city out of time and space. This shroud was a protective measure against an invading army that sought the destruction of the city. It’s ruling class of gifted nobles are damn near immortal. They have created what they believe to be a Utopia, but like all Utopias, something sinister plagues the city underneath its picture-perfect image the gifted nobles try to uphold.
The mysterious sinister element is what immediately draws you to the story. Nicci as always is leery of what she has walked into, while Nathan, a scholar in every sense of the world, seeks to find out everything he possibly can about the city and its inhabitants. After all, Nathan and Nicci are on a mission (I won’t reveal what it is just in case you haven’t read the first book), so they hope to find answers in Ildakar. We see the magical city show it’s rot when we see the fighting area where people are forced to fight to the death against each other and against sinister magical creatures that were created with “fleshomancy”. We see blood magic, slavery, but fleshomancy seems to be the most cunning and dark element to Ildakar. Humans seem to be dolls, mere matter to use to create new creatures through magical creation. Through this magical creation the gifted nobles have created a race of human cattle that are used for pleasure, hard labor, and worse of all, food. YES! You read that right! CANABALISM! Goodkind uses these sinister world-building tid-bits to remind us of his views of social justice, social hiearchy, and social engineering.
Nathan for the most part struggles to make a dominant presence in the book. He complains about something (I won’t say what, since it’s a spoiler for book one), and bemoans the entire time. His obsession with fixing his problem causes quite a hardship for him because he gets himself into some sticky situations, particularly the wizard that does the “fleshomancy”. Bannon ironically, the non-magical one, spots the rotten element of Ildakar a lot sooner than his magical friends. He finds ways to show his own form of heroism, despite being in a city full of powerful gifted. Nicci in my eyes struggled more in this book. She was the most vulnerable I have ever seen her. She’s in a city full of men and women who easily overpower her, despite having both Additive and Subtractive forms of magic. However, the last few chapters are her redemption and are some of the best Nicci scenes.
Goodkind reminds us of his critiques on the world with this installment. Power corrupts and when left to its own devices, breeds the kind of rot that is hard to get rid of. Shroud of Eternity takes great strides in being more cohesive than its predeccesor and we find our characters the most vulnerable than we have seen, allowing for us as a reader to see how far they have come and how far they have to still grow. The cliffhanger at the end will have you reeling and make you curse Goodkind for his devious antics. It leaves readers off with many questions, but sets up the next book beautifully. It shall be a great book.
HAPPY READING!
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