In the aftermath of the brutal murder of his father, a mysterious woman, Kahlan Amnell, appears in Richard Cypher's forest sanctuary

seeking help . . . and more. His world, his very beliefs, are shattered when ancient debts come due with thundering violence.

In a dark age it takes courage to live, and more than mere courage to challenge those who hold dominion, Richard and Kahlan must take up that

challenge or become the next victims. Beyond awaits a bewitching land where even the best of their hearts could betray them. Yet, Richard fears

nothing so much as what secrets his sword might reveal about his own soul. Falling in love would destroy them--for reasons

Richard can't imagine and Kahlan dare not say.
In their darkest hour, hunted relentlessly, tormented by treachery and loss, Kahlan calls upon Richard to reach beyond his sword--to invoke within

In the earlier book, Seeker of Truth Richard Cypher tricked the sorcerer Darken Rahl by using Wizard's First Rule (that people are

stupid and can be easily misled) into opening the wrong Box of Orden. Though this saved humanity from the evil mage's tyrannies, it a

lso tore the veil between worlds, so the diabolical Keeper of the Underworld can now reach through and seize permanent control of

the living. To stop this from happening, Richard must now learn how to be a wizard. The Sisters of the Light promise they will teach him

to wield his powers, but they require that he wear a collar of obedience, something he has sworn he would rather die than do. Events

sweep Richard and his betrothed, the Mother Confessor Kahlan Amnell, apart from one another; later, in one of the most vigorous battle

sequences written for a heroine in modern fantasy, Kahlan leads her underage troops against battle-hardened soldiers, the young warriors

naked except for a spectral coat of whitewash intended to make them look like "spirits." Those who like their fantasy

Richard Cypher discovers that he has inadvertently created a gate through which the evil Keeper, Emperor Jagang, and his minions

can enter the land. Separated from his beloved, the former Mother Confessor Kahlan Amnell, who is in hiding to avoid being executed

by the people she once served, Richard must now accept the power of his father, Darken Rahl,

and use all of his magical abilities to defeat

Jagang, to save Kahlan and to close the gate. As in the two previous novels of The Sword of Truth fantasy cycle (Stone of Tears, etc.),

Goodkind builds an intricate plot teeming with violence, treachery and intrigue. Newcomers to the series may find it a challenge to get up to

speed, but once they do, they as well as Goodkind's large, loyal readership, will delight in a complex epic fantasy that

When last we saw our heroes--Richard Cypher (Lord Rahl) and Kahlan Amnell--they each had made enormous sacrifices to save

one another from certain doom. To save her beloved, Kahlan, Mother Confessor of the Midlands, had spoken the three chimes,

 summoning these chaotic beings from the world beyond and unwittingly releasing incredibly destructive power. Now the chimes

are stealing souls, and malevolent forces are reshaping the world itself. To save everything from almost certain doom, Richard, Kahlan, and

The Seeker of Truth and his Mother Confessor sweetie are both looking a little worse for the wear after their chime-hunt in

Soul of the Fire. To top that off, Lord Rahl finds himself a reluctant prophet with the vision that their cause, the fight for freedom

against the Imperial Order, is essentially sunk. (Chalk that up to part of the Wizard's First Rule: people really are stupid.) The two

 lovers soon find themselves separated, Richard off to the Old World thanks to treacherous Sister of the Dark Nicci, and Kahlan

Told in vivid and often gruesome detail, Goodkind's fable grabs the reader with a familiar archetypal theme: a young woman,

Darken Rahl's illegitimate daughter Jennsen, flees her home in the wake of murderous forces rising from her lineage. She runs in

the shadows of Lord Richard Rahl's domain with a spy sent by Emperor Jagang, the enemy of D'Hara. With his help, she journeys

millions of readers worldwide. Now Goodkind returns with a broad-canvas adventure of epic intrigue, violent conflict, and terrifying

commissioned author's introduction and exclusive full-page illustrations by artist Keith Parkinson! Goodkind's fervent admirers

have sent all his books in this landmark fantasy series soaring to the top of the best-seller lists...and the Debt of Bones will surely

continue tradition. Pre-dating Wizard's First Rule, and featuring one of the fans' favorite characters (First Wizard Zedd), this

 epochal tale gives fresh insight to that later story. It begins as a young woman arrives at Aydindril to petition for help in the war

against D'Hara and the vicious rule of Panis Rahl. Little does the First Wizard, much less the woman herself, realize an act from

her past will force him into a cataclysmic duel of magic with Panis Rahl himself.