Sword of Truth vs. Legend of the Seeker

So, I’ve been away for a while. I can’t help it. I’m rewriting my book – which I only thought was finally finished, and I’ve also taken to reading the Sword of Truth series again. The first book Wizard’s First Rule was published in 1994 – I was in 4th grade. I guarantee you I was not reading these very adult books at that age. I was probably reading Bill Wallace books: A Dog Called Kitty, Beauty, etc. I did however start reading Terry Goodkind’s series of books in middle school.

My older brother got them for himself but after he finished one, I picked it up. Not exactly the most appropriate reading material for a 12 year old, but I always was a very mature reader. Our library at school had a “naughty closet” where they kept the books too advanced or too adult for the “children.” Those of us that had matured enough to not snicker at the fact that someone “went to bed with a whore” were allowed to read from this closet.

But I digress…

The point is that almost 9 years later, my older brother tells me there’s a TV series being based off this series of books. He recommended I watch it, but I saw a few trailers and just thought they had ruined the characters. I was totally disappointed. I refused to watch it for the first season. Then someone at work came in with a copy of the book. And then another person. And then a third actually told me they’d started watching the series and that I should give it a chance.

Well, by this time I had just signed up to Netflix, so I didn’t have to wait to catch the show on TV. I just streamed the first episode and watched it. I was really a bit surprised to find that my assessment from the trailers was all wrong. A few moments seemed a bit campy, reminiscent of TV shows from the mid-90′s, but it got steadily better.

I hesitate to admit that I blew through something like 19 episodes in one day. But I found the show very well done and highly entertaining, with only the occasional tongue-in-cheek, campy writing that can get old if overdone. However, I will not say that the show is exactly like the books. Too much seemed off from what I had remembered reading, so I decided to start reading the series again.

Turns out there are only roughly 3 or 4 episodes out of 22 that actually could have been taken from the first book. A few ideas or snippets of conversations between characters in the books may have developed the ideas for the rest of these episodes, but they’re totally their own. So while I do like the show, there are things about it that drive me insane. They changed some of the most ridiculous facts and without really needing to. Certain characters now have different hair color, age, dispositions, etc. I don’t like how they do that.

But I do recommend you give it a chance if you read and liked the books. It’s a similar story told differently. Just sit down and watch the show with the understanding that its the same characters but the TV series is handling their adventures in their own new way.