


He is also descended from great wizards and can perform magic. He is, in fact, a man of great strength, both physically and morally.

Richard Cypher is introduced as a simple woods guide, but from the moment he appears, the reader knows that Richard is more. According to his official Web site: “Terry has very expressly stated his own distaste for ‘world-building’ stories, where characters are vehicles used to explore the worlds the author creates.” Goodkind’s novels are used to explore people they are character-driven. But the other reason is simply that he tells interesting stories about intriguing characters.Īlthough Goodkind has created a complex fantasy world, he did not design his novels to explore that world. In part, no doubt, this success stems from the popular genre in which Goodkind writes. Fans around the world eagerly anticipate them, and his stories are the subject of both official and unofficial chat rooms and Web sites. His books appear on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Of course, several Objectivists other than Ayn Rand have written novels, but Goodkind is far and away the most widely read Objectivist novelist since Rand herself. They are clearly and directly influenced by Rand’s work, and the book’s heroes occasionally invoke Objectivist principles. Far more important, however, are the characters, plots, and themes of Goodkind’s novels. His official Web sitehad a philosophy section with quotations from Rand about esthetics and other areas of her philosophy. Can a sword-and-sorcery author inherit the mantle of Ayn Rand ? Terry Goodkind, who writes in that fantasy genre, has explicitly stated that he is an Objectivist.
