It took me almost three weeks to read this instalment of The Sword of Truth series, which is almost unheard of for me. Part of the reason is that I found Faith of the Fallen a somewhat slow drag through rather unpleasant circumstances. Having drawn readers through five books of magic and wonders, Terry Goodkind presents us here with bleak, endless war: the regular kind, and a war against human thought and freedom, as we see what life under the Order is like.

Eventually, the whole thing does have a rather good ending, sweeping us back up in the former spirit. But to get to that point, I confess I did find the story a bit depressing.