Legend of the Seeker

I bought Wizard's First Rule the day it was released in 1994, simply because of the great cover art and my love for new, good fantasy books. What I got was my favorite fantasy series of all time, including Tolkien and Jordan. I am a published author myself, as well as having a profile on this website. I am an avid reader of classic literature since 1975, especially fantasy. So, written above, is my claim to believability.

This series is terrific. The camera work and ambiance is smooth and satisfying for the fantasy genre of swordplay, magic and high adventure on an epic scale. The story is changed a bit, especially the time line, but that is expected to keep it exciting and suspenseful for a TV audience, which it is. Can you imagine tuning into a show about a book you've never heard of and watching a woods guide walking around the forest for 2 hours? Of course not. It amazes me how many people complain about the series without doing a bit of research, making common errors. Terry Goodkind IS involved, intimately, with the story flow of the show and to keep his characters as close to his creations as possible, allowing only changes needed for TV adaption. You can read a letter about the series, directly from Terry to his readers, on his official website TerryGoodkind.com. It explains everything. Go read it to keep this review shorter after you've finished here.

Some people are comparing this series to the Lord of the Rings movies, and, in the same breath, complaining about the changes made for this TV series from the Wizard's First Rule book. Yeah, like they never had to cut anything out of LOTR movies. That book was only about the size of the bible. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOTR; books and movies. It's my second-favorite fantasy series of all time. The only reason I like Goodkind better is deeper characters more easily related to. As for the changes in the "Legend" series, as you will read in Terry's letter, they are mainly ADDITIONS to use up all the time they are afforded in a full TV series. People seem to be uninformed of this and are making snap judgments. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything better than watching my favorite book series in live action with even MORE content and background, from, and approved by, Terry himself. I'm beside myself with happiness at this and hope everyone tunes in and avoids the uninformed negativity, and that it runs for 11 seasons to tell the expanded stories of every single book in The Sword of Truth series.

Some are also comparing this to Hercules and Xena simply because some of the same people happen to be working on it. Hercules and Xena this is not. Those shows were entertaining in their own right. I enjoyed the episodes that I saw. However, they were mainly a bunch of campy, individual fantasy-based shows that happened to form a series. They were meant to be that way for people who enjoyed that type of show, and I don't fault them for that, at all. Legend of the Seeker is a continuing story of amazing vision, that of Terry Goodkind's first book, "Wizard's First Rule." If you enjoy epic fantasy, trust me, keep watching.

I hope you found this helpful.

So how is the Legend of the Seeker? What do people think so far? Looking at the comments we get a load of onestars from people saying it doesn't follow the books to the letter, people that can't understand how Goodkind could "sell his soul to Hollywood" (really... wow), and people that make untrue claims about inaccuracies in the TV-series apparently without having watched it themselves.

So is the Legend of the Seeker that awful? Nah, not really. It's a fun series, a bit heavy on the comedy on some occasions, and it's taken a while to get the story rolling, but its good fun to watch, beautiful scenery, good main actors that feel believable. It doesn't take itself too seriously and in my opinion, neither should the viewers.

In conclusion: The naysayers say, No! Horrible! Goodkind sells his soul to mammon! But I'm sure after an honest viewing without preconceptions most will agree that its a nice example of a good, old-fashioned fantasy story with all the sword slashing, magicking, and vanilla romance to make it a recurring theme in the rss-downloader.

I heard about this series by a friend that said "Just don't read the comments before you see it". Of course, that was the very first thing I did, and let me tell you how afraid was after I read them!! I though this series was going to suck big time, but had to see it by myself and guess what - I loved it! OK, it's not phenomenal, but it's quite good. I was kept interested, the photography was awesome, the costumes, too. I've only just seen the first two, but I sure am going to see the others and if they continue like this I'll be a fan. I'm not sure if I'd would of liked it had I read the books that this series is based on, but I think I would have. I've always been good at separating the books from their interpretations to the theater or television. When I watched "Legend of the Seeker" I watched the show for itself and therefore I enjoyed it very much. It's good entertainment for a fantasy series and I was actually quite surprised by the excellent performance of the actress Bridget Regan.

When I first heard about the TV series, I knew it was an adaptation of a book. At first, I didn't want to watch it thinking that the TV series is surely not as good as the book. Of course. Surprisingly it is charming and captivating to watch. It is like an addiction, you want to watch it again and again.

I like all the main cast. Craig Horner as Richard from my opinion is a good actor(hunk!haha) and Bridget Regan as Kahlan was doing a really good job as the confessor. The wizard Zedd has a good sense of humour (kind of weird at first). I enjoyed the series so far.Can't wait for the next episodes..

OK here is the bottom line: Wizard's First Rule is a mature adventure filled with both intense violence and extreme sexual content. To put this miniseries on a channel other than HBO or other unedited station would be compromising the original drama and story line of WFR. If this show is put on a channel where it will not be able to show the Demmin Nass content, the sexual scenes between Richard and Kahlan, and the gore of the seeker's battles, then it should not be created in the first place. If you do not agree with what I am saying. then you obviously and sadly do not fully appreciate the artistic beauty of what Goodkind writes. A great deal of drama and feeling cannot be portrayed within WFR without the mature content. But then again, it will still never compare to actually reading the novel.