Legend of the Seeker

[Tdata]

Why is it that most books I want to see acted out on TV/Movies is done so horribly and so inaccurately?  It is Eragon all over again...  Has anyone else Read Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule and have watched the Show?

Books:
The main character is a young man named Richard Cypher, a simple woods guide who lends a hand to a stranger seeking a nameless Wizard who disappeared many years ago. Over the course of the series, Richard learns about his heritage while seeking to stop the evil that others would unleash upon the world of the living. Because Richard refuses to sacrifice his values and lives his life as a free man, others begin to understand the nobility of man and what it means to be free. Each book is loosely themed around a Wizard's Rule, tenets by which all wizards should abide.

Show:
The Legend of the Seeker is a live-action television series based on Terry Goodkind's award winning Sword of Truth series. Distributed in syndication by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, with Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, Joshua Donen, Ned Nalle and Kenneth Biller serving as executive producers, the first episode of season one premiered on November 1, 2008.

 

[Grathea]

...not enough for a topic, bucko.
Either fix it up and make it more detailed or it's getting locked. 24 hours.

 

[Tdata]

As I would rather not give spoilers, I didn't post more.  If you really want more, I'll post more.  I don't want to just post my dislikes, I want other's opinions. 

 

[mawk]

Um.

Just give us details about what Legend of the Seeker and Sword of Truth series are, the general premise, etc. If I'm not just being lazy, I can give you lots of detail about the Sixth Sense without telling you that Bruce Willis' character is a ghost! (oops.)

While we're on the subject (here is the shuffling noise of someone taking a mod hat off and putting a member hat on,) I absolutely hate the Sword of Truth series. I've said this before, and it's worth repeating because I really dislike him -- he's almost as bad as Paolini in my books and that is quite an insult. Terry Goodkind is a very skillful writer, but he can't seem to write a book in which he doesn't shove his system of ideals in your face. The basic idea behind the sword of truth series is that absolutely everyone besides richard, kahlan, and zedd (and the badguys) is stupid, ignorant, and impulsive and it is up to the brave wise heroes to solve the problems we place ourselves in. I'm exxagerating, of course, but not by much. It's cynical, it's arrogant, it permeates every decision and situation the protagonists have to make/find themselves in, and I absolutely can't stand the "okay children here is the moral of the story" vibe to it all. He tries to make this less obvious by having characters make poor decisions or act on character flaws, but they're such mary-sues in all other situations that in these instances it comes out seeming incredibly uncharacteristic (you should not feel like berating a character to remind him what his motivation is.)

Basically, I would love to read a book typed up by Terry Goodkind's hands, but only if his head promised it'd mind its own business.

 

[Tdata]

I like Goodkind's writing style, but it is a bit pushy.  Also he makes it so you never need to read the previous book to understand the current one...  That Irks me a bit.  But it does work.  The show on the other hand is based loosely, too loosely IMO, on the Books.

 

[candle]

And that is the point.  I'm a big fan of the books, and I was a little disapointed by the show, but then I remembered a couple things.

The show is not the books.  There are maniy scenes they had to change because they didn't translate well to tv in general, and some had to be changed to make the show pg/pg-13 like the death of Kahlan's "sister" (in the books she was raped and brutalized, then left for dead.  She died in Kahlan's arms after she found her).

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that this is a show and it moves in episodes.  The books are not very episodic, so they had to rearrange some things.  Now why they had to change so many things unnecessarily (the boundary, Zed's coming to Westland, Kahlan having the book

Spoiler

or at least a copy of it

)

Still, I thought it was pretty good, and many people who never read the books might like it.

 

[Tdata]

True.  I realize that the show isn't the books, but as with Eragon, the adaptation loses a bit too much of the story to let those who read the books truly enjoy the show.  Taken apart from the books, it isn't horrible, not quite there yet, but as with most new shows it takes time.  Although I'm the same way about Subs And Dubs.  I can't stand to watch a Dubbed anime after watching a Subbed version.  You lose a part of the show in the process.

 

[neomatrixjc]

well, i think the series adaptation is good, and terry goodkind (author of the sword of truth series) even announced him self that this series was not going to be based on the books for the sole reason of getting people to buy his books. Eragon i can not compare to the world Terry Goodkind has created. In my opinion he is the greatest fantasy author that has ever lived, dont get me wrong their are other great authors such as David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Frank Herber,  and of course J.R. Tolken. The show yes would of been better on HBO or another Premium Channel, but if your a real fan of Terry Goodkind's work then you should like the show.

 

[___]

I'm necroing this just because I discovered the show last week, but OMFG. Seriously? Sword of Truth? Of the broad range of fantasy novels just begging for film adaptations, we pick a lame rehash of the lamer parts of Wheel of Time? Sad, sad sad. The Sword of Truth series isn't that bad up to book 4, but you get the distinct impression Goodkind just thought he could write the same story better and set about proving himself wrong. Then at book 5 he actually starts to diverge a little and plunges into complete disaster (not that Jordan did much better haha).

Seriously though, why this? Why not, say, Song of Ice and Fire? Jhereg? Or a classic like Zelazny's Amber series? Anything slightly less plagaristic?
I guess as the quality goes up so do the licensing fees.