<Fans of the Sword of Truth series... skip this post !>
I liked the first book, and so went on with the series. The quality was declining but I kept reading them... out of habit, I guess. Until Faith of the Fallen, where his unfettered objectivism (as in, fucking Ayn Rand's doctrine) just took over the plot. It was too much for me - I skipped quite a few pages at the end of the book and swore never to buy one of his works ever again.
In retrospect, I have trouble understanding what I liked about the muscled, powerful, handsome and daring hero with deus-ex-machina powers (he has no clue how to use them until the plot demands it !) and his beautiful wife saving the world again, and again, and again...
There are quite a few parodies of his work on the Internet - some of them funny.
[spoiler]From
http://sandstormreviews.blogspot.com/2006/08/some-general-goodkind-parodies-or-ones.html (yes, I realize some will find it lame)
As he stalked into the gloominess of the dark cavern, his eyes ajusted to the gloominess, they're puples widening to let in more light. From the corner of his peripheral vision he could barely scrutinize a mysterious object in the gloom ahead. Ponderusly he edged further into the dark cavern, getting himself deeper into it and closer to the more distant and non-proximus parts of the cave. Whom was there he could not fathom to think. Whom? Indeed.
Suddenly, a slow movement of the obstructed object he had been looking at caught his eye. It was nothing but an avariciously meticulus specter of ashen fury. Turning towards it he got into a war stance like no other war stance. The luminous walls of the dark groto thrummed with the power that was corsing through his pulsing veins. It seemed as though everyone stood still, holding their aspirations, tension filling the air.
"You there, I can see you, I know you are there. Get out and stand up right now, this is your final warning," he howled through clenched teeth.
The object wheeled about and through itself at him with a sudden lurch. Almost imperseptably fast, and with amazing speed, he whipped around, turning, and dropped into a fighting stance. Before anyone knew what was going on, he slowly stealed himself and gathered his rage for his assault. When it came, it came so fast that even the damp walls of the cave shuddered with exhilerant surprise. He shattered the object's face with a single blow of the sword. Bits of unidentifiable brain, skin and bone fragments sprayed everywhere, oozing.
"You can come in, now," he called out to the outside of the cave. And the goat entered, flooding the enclosed space with silent nobility.
[/spoiler]
See
http://sandstormreviews.blogspot.com/2006/08/goodkind-parodies.html for a list of horrifying trivia.
I'll leave you with a quote : "[This chicken] was not a chicken. It was Evil incarnate."
