Author In memoriam

Terry Goodkind

Q: What should I read first by Terry Goodkind?

Start with the Sword of Truth series, since it is the first on file, then read it in publication order.

Terry Goodkind has 29 known credited books (29 published) across 4 series. Start with Sword of Truth.

Terry Goodkind was an American author best known for the Sword of Truth series, launched with Wizard's First Rule in 1994, which grew into an eleven-book epic fantasy saga following Richard Cypher, a woods guide who discovers he is the last of a line of powerful wizards, and Kahlan Amnell, a Confessor whose touch strips away a person's free will. The series became a massive commercial success, selling in the tens of millions of copies worldwide, and was loosely adapted into the television series Legend of the Seeker. Goodkind was known for combining traditional quest-fantasy structure with often brutal violence and an outspoken philosophical undercurrent influenced by Objectivism and the writing of Ayn Rand, giving the Sword of Truth books a distinctly individualist, good-versus-evil moral framework that set them apart from much of the genre's other epic fantasy. He continued the world of Sword of Truth after its main sequence concluded, writing the Richard and Kahlan series as a direct continuation and the Nicci Chronicles following one of the original series' most prominent supporting characters. A former violinist and painter before turning to writing full-time, Goodkind was known for being unusually resistant to being categorized purely as a fantasy author, insisting his books were 'stories about human beings' first. He died in 2020.

Series: 4
Credited books: 29
Published: 29
Active: 1994–2020
Best known for: Sword of Truth

Key facts about Terry Goodkind

Terry Goodkind has 29 books on our list. 26 of them belong to a series, while 3 stand alone. Since all 29 are out now, every book here is ready to read. Their series sit on our epic fantasy shelf.

Terry Goodkind has 4 series on file. Sword of Truth has 13 books, while Richard and Kahlan has 4 books. The Nicci Chronicles has 4 books, starting in 2017.

The Children of D'Hara has 5 books, starting in 2019. In particular, Sword of Truth is the longest series on file.

Sword of Truth starts with Wizard's First Rule, while Richard and Kahlan starts with The Omen Machine. The Nicci Chronicles starts with Death's Mistress.

Since Sword of Truth is the first series on file, it is the place to start. Their first published book on file came out in 1994.

There are also 3 standalone books. You can read them in any order, since each one stands alone. The newest one that is out is The Girl in the Moon, from 2018. The oldest on file is The Law of Nines, from 2009.