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The Sword of Truth

series of twelve epic fantasy novels written by Terry Goodkind

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ8539013
Source-derived summary

The Sword of Truth is a series of 21 high fantasy novels and six novellas written by Terry Goodkind. The books follow the protagonists Richard Cypher, Kahlan Amnell, Nicci, Cara, and Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander on their quest to defeat oppressors who seek to control the world and those who wish to unleash evil upon the world of the living. While each novel was written to stand alone, except for the final three that were intended to be a trilogy, they follow a common timeline and are linked by ongoing events that occur throughout the series.

The series began in 1994 with Wizard's First Rule and Goodkind wrote eighteen more novels in addition to a novella titled Debt of Bones. The latest novel in the series, Heart of Black Ice, was released in 2020. As of 2008, 25 million copies of the series' books have been sold worldwide, and the series has been translated into more than 20 languages. A television series adaptation of the novels, titled Legend of the Seeker, produced by ABC Studios and broadcast via syndication, first aired on November 1, 2008. The TV series loosely adapts the book series, mixing together elements of several volumes.

Keith Parkinson served as the cover artist for all the novels of the first edition, apart from Wizard's First Rule and Blood of the Fold. New hardback and paperback editions of those two books were later published with new cover illustrations by Parkinson.

Editorial summary

“The Sword of Truth” enters the record as series of twelve epic fantasy novels written by Terry Goodkind. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sword, Truth and series can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1994, 2020, 2008—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2007-11. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Sword, Truth and series.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Sword of Truth” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Sword, Truth and series provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8539013. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994, 2020 and 2008.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Sword of Truth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.