And I don't just mean in the sense I hate to say that about anyone with double-digit books. I sometimes feel he gets an unfair wrap. His prose sucks, but that describes at least half of the well known SF/F writers and the ones who actually have good prose tend to have English degrees like Zelazny or Tolkien and since I like Hard SF I'll take a scientist writing bad prose but good imagery and solid concept over good prose. Its not that he's an arrogant prick, that also describes at least half the well known SF/F writers. His imagery is way to heavy on the sex and violence crap but he's practically G-rated compared to GRRM or Anne Rice. There's the whole ranting about his politics/philosophy thing but there are a fair few authors just as ham-fisted and whole truckloads that do it just as much, and prove their points in just as contrived a fashion but just cover it better.

He does make it hard to be a fan though. The first book was great, so much so that I almost think he stumbled into it on accident. It steps on a lot of tired and worn out cliches in fantasy. Second book was decent, after that it varies a lot but always follows the same theme, Richard and Kahlan get separated, one or both of them loses their powers, almost a necessity since they're both so Mary Sue, the situation is hopeless, bad guys are defeated, and also the bad guys are utterly totally evil with no redeeming merits whatsoever.

So the books started sucking from 6-8, improved a bit for 9 & 10, sucked some more for 11, I wrote the series off after 6, only skimmed 7, almost threw 8, but read 9 and was happy enough with it to do 10 and carry on for the 'conclusion' in 11, which sucked. I swore off and didn't read his prequels or side book on Earth.

But some time elapsed and I decided to give the new book a try and Omen Machine was actually fairly good. The graphic violence/rape thing was nearly absent, the plot was vaguely stimulating, and all the core cast were in the same place for a change and not screwed up or missing their abilities.

New book, still plodding through it, thus far it's Richard talking with some girl, minus his abilities, minus his allies, just talking... and talking... and talking. It's not exactly insanely boring but its definitely not sucking me in. I was going to say it seems like his editor quit or something, with the sheer repetition of word choices in the dialogue so far but I have to assume based on the rest of the series that his editor either nods at everything, gets ignored, or is a gibbering nail-biting wreck occupying an asylum by now.

All that said though I never get why Goodkind sets so many people's teeth on edge. I can't think of anything he does that's particular abnormal in SF/F circles.