Terry Goodkind

Terry Goodkind (1948-2020) was an American fantasy novelist, author of the Sword of Truth series that began with Wizard's First Rule (1994). He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and died at his home in Boulder City, Nevada, on 17 September 2020, aged 72.

Dyslexia put him off formal study beyond high school, and before writing he built cabinets and violins and worked as a marine and wildlife artist. He began Wizard's First Rule in 1993; it was auctioned in 1994 to a group of three bidding publishers for $275,000, reported as a record for a fantasy novel by a first-time author. After his debut he published 16 more novels and a novella, the Richard and Kahlan sequence closing with Warheart (2015), then the Nicci Chronicles (2017 to 2020) and the five Children of D'Hara books (2019 to 2020, with an omnibus in 2021). Later titles such as Chainfire (2005), Phantom (2006) and Confessor (2007) entered the New York Times list at numbers 3, 1 and 2. The series has sold 25 million copies in more than 20 languages and was adapted for television as Legend of the Seeker (2008 to 2010). He also wrote the contemporary thriller The Law of Nines (2009).

For collectors, the first edition of Wizard's First Rule is the hardback published by Tor in New York on 15 August 1994, with a cover by Doug Beekman. Tor remained his publisher into the 2010s, issuing The Omen Machine in 2011.