Not here to argue, but I had to sign up just to register my rueful lol @ the specious (yet determined) 'defense' of Terry bloody Goodkind.

 

Terry Goodkind is, objectively, a hack. A terrible writer, and a plainly superficial mind.

 

Obviously he stole directly from Mr. Jordan. Obviously and inarguably. 'Sword of Truth' is 'Battle Beyond the Stars' to Jordan's 'Star Wars'

 

If one has even the barest shred of intellectual honesty (not to mention reading comprehension/retention skills) one cannot deny it.

 

Yes, it is entirely relevant that he is an incredibly disgusting human being.

 

Free of the constraints of personal honor, unrestrained by universally recognized ethical boundaries, and in thrall to a philosophy that both rewards and encourages base, self-serving behavior, of course he has no problem whatsoever denying the charge.

 

Liars do not lose sleep because they've lied. They're liars.

 

No thief can be considered a reliable witness to the crimes attributed to them. In this regard, a thief as common as Goodkind should be somewhere near the very bottom of anyone's list of credible arbiters.

 

The assertion that the overwhelming number of direct similarities between WoT and SoT are nothing more than happenstance - an almost random assortment of "many common fantasy tropes" - is the definition of sophistry. It is a laughably untenable line of defense; the "similarities" are flagrant and indisputable..

 

When one ignores the preponderance of evidence in favor of a position more personally palatable to it's adherents, objectivity necessarily comes into question.

 

There is no credible defense of Goodkind's thievery.

 

Among certain publishers, it is a notorious instance of outright conceptual plagiarism. Goodkind's work (and do please add sarcastic italics around that possessive 's') is a veritable 'how to' guide for those unscrupulous publishers who want to cash in on a successful concept when they do not hold the legal rights to that concept.

 

Galt - sorry, Goodkind - is a shameless hack, and he always will be. He wanted money, possibly acclaim, and didn't give two sh-ts how he accomplished that goal. Clearly there are more than a few that share his disinterest.

 

'Sword of Truth' is a poorly realized, ham-fisted, cheap, bargain bin knock-off of Wheel of Time. It is an egregious example of literary pilferage.

 

T'was ever thus.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I remember trying to read Goodkinds WFR, and Stone Of Tear as part of a "endurance challenge" on the ASOIAF website. Besides the fact you can ses Objectivism wseeping into the first book with the whole ban fire bullshit his step brother pulls. And the mighty whitey racism with the mud people. The general one dimensional nature of the bad guys just really got to me. I mean in WOT people who oppose Rand (welle except for the forsaken) really arn't evil in any way. Even the friends of the dark might have motives that could be understandable (despair at a seemingly untenable position).  Compared to all who serve the various bad guys generally tend to be shown to be completley unredemmable. Also those who arn't Irredemabley evil in Goodkinds world are generally shown the light through some great show of character by Tairy..Richard rather than through devleopment of the story. PLus the numerous bastards of Richards father are extradnily comical, remindng me of a bad soap opera. Finally I put a huge value on world building in fantasy and Tairy really just seems to have everything as generic as he can get in a fantasyland perspective.  But despite these differences its obvious there are many similarities, the collar in the Stone Of Tear (yeah that title, being used by the sitsers of the dark draws far to many paralels to several plot points in TSR.  Now besides the being a bad witer and a plagiarist to boot I must admit being religiously opposed to Goodkind, being raised in a high anglican household with a high interest in Catholicism and the writings of Gilbert Keith Chesterton I find the entire philosophy of Objecvism to be anathema to me.