Stone of Tears

Sword of Truth, Book 2

By: Terry Goodkind

Narrated by: Jim Bond

An epic of awesome power from Terry Goodkind, the second installment of the bestselling series A Sword of Truth

Kahlan has at last gained the one goal she had always thought was beyond her grasp...love. Against all odds, the ancient bonds of secret oaths, and the dark talents of men long dead, Richard has won her heart.

Amid sudden and disastrous events, Richard's life is called due to satisfy those treacherous oaths. To save his life, Kahlan must forsake Richard's love and cast him into the chains of slavery, knowing there could be no sin worse than such a betrayal.

Richard is determined to unlock the secrets bound in the magic of ancient oaths and to again be free. Kahlan, alone with the terrible truth of what she has done, must set about altering the course of a world thrown into war. But even that may be easier than ever winning back the heart of the only man she will ever love.

War, suffering, torture, and deceit lie in their paths, and nothing will save them from a destiny of violent death, unless their courage and faith are joined with luck and they find the elusive...Stone of Tears.

Epic edge: listen to more in the Sword of Truth series.©1995 by Terry Goodkind. (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Better

I'll start by saying that the narration does seem better than in the first book. The writing has also become much better, mainly in the fact that he has finally begun creating a world, as opposed to the random seeming locations in the first book.
While this was much better, there were still some flaws. The first is that I can still sum up most of the story by the following: Richard does something idiotic, it ends up being the exact thing he needed to do, everyone tells him how great he is. I thought with the introduction of the sisters that this would change, but it does not.
Next, one reviewer said that it is unfair to compare this series to Jordan's WoT (which had 5 books complete when this series started), but how can you not. Nearly every new character type is directly taken from Jordan. Sisters of the Dark=Black Ajah, Blood of the Fold = Whitecloaks, Aes Sedai=Confessors (1st book) & Sisters (2nd book), both even having novices and sisters, long lives and live on an island, Darken Rahl=Ishmael, Mord Sith=Sul'dam (first book) & Maidens (second book on), Pebble in the pond=Ta'Veren, etc., etc.
I'll admit that most authors borrow from others, and even Jordan took from LoTR and Dune, but he took basic principles and character sets and built from them. Goodkind takes nearly every concept from WoT and just changes the name (with Blademasters he did't even do that). As I'm hungry for more epic fantasy I could be fine with this, but the main issue is that, unlike WoT, LoTR, SoI&F etc., in this series you don't care about the main character. As of book 2 there is no character that I really couldn't wait to hear about. Richard's arrogant, Kahlan is boring and neither have any depth. The depth of the characters is what makes reading 100 pages of description setting up a single scene worthwhile. With boring characters it becomes a chore.
I'm on book 3 now, and I really hope that it continues to improve.

Masterful storytelling

I am so glad that this series came to Audible as it has become my new favorite series. The author has a gift for making a 35 hour audiobook seem like it is only 8 hours long. Every word has purpose and meaning and builds the story. What I love about these books (the first two anyway) is that there is a completion to a story line while a new one is left open to develop for the next book. Having this closure in each book is unexpected as many of this genre like to end with a cliff hanger leading you into the next book. Mr. Goodkind just leaves the door open and takes you on a whole new journey with each new book. With many books in a long series I find myself losing that sense of wonder after the first few books. Not so with this series. I did note that several people complained about the narrator. While I respect each person's preference I would urge anyone who is on the fence to give the series a try. While I am not enthralled with the reader, he is not awful and it certainly is not a good enough reason to deprive yourself of some of the best stories ever written. My advice is the same as a classic commercial... Try it, you'll like it!

Bad narrator

I'm only a bit in to this book, but I'm already gritting my teeth. I love the story and author, and intend to listen to the entire series. But the dude that reads this reminds me of the guys you hear on automated response systems ... "if you would like to speak to the customer service division, press 1." He is horrible. But I see he doesn't do the third book, and hope the people who cast these books realize this in all the books after number two.

The WORST narrator in history.

Jim Bond completely destroys this story. He reads it like he never read the book, mispronounces words, and gives characters accents (Sorry, but Zedd isn’t Irish!!!!). He completely ruins a great story, one of my favorites, having read it 5 times over the years. My job requires a lot of driving and I thought I could wade past some of the negative reviews but I just can’t listen to him butcher it any longer. Someone go find a second grade child to read it since they’d do a better job.

Amazing Series! Horrible Performance.

I can’t for the life of me understand why they changed the narrator.
It’s a good thing the story is so gripping because this performance was So Awful it was hard to keep going. I would have rated 0 stars for performance if it were an option.

Horrid narration

Couldn’t even get through a few chapters! The narrations was so bad especially compared to the first book of the series…

Stone of Tears (Unabridged)

Very entertaining, very well constructed story line that flows as easily as water down a waterfall. Loved it.

Trust the other reviews

I can't believe it happened. I thought I could overcome the narrator, he is poorly matched for the story. made it hard to follow and keep the momentum. I wanted to find out what happened, but the narration killed my mojo. This has never happened before out of 200+audio books. Plenty of tropes, but story was entertaining, starting to get repetitive.

Fantastic story ruined by dreadful naration

What made the experience of listening to Stone of Tears the most enjoyable?

Terry Goodkind is a master of storytelling, and follows the success of the Sword of Truth with the powerful epic.

What did you like best about this story?

The cast of characters are more developed, and seem to come into the their own.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator sounds like a computer recording as there is no determinable inflection to any words. Furthermore, it is virtually impossible to tell one character from the next, as they each sounds alike.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was immediately prompted to return my purchase.

Any additional comments?

Please remake this with a better performer.

The Good and Bad

I love the naturalness to how the imagery is brought about. I dont care for how detailed and frequent the author gets about sexual assaults