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Terry Goodkind Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Terry Goodkind

Terry Goodkind

Terry Goodkind Biography

Terry Goodkind was born in 1948 and raised in Omaha, Nebraska.  His dyslexia caused him constant frustration in high school and he later dropped out of college

His first novel, Wizard’s First Rule (Tor Books, 1994) was sold at auction for six times more than any other first fantasy novel.  With a substantial first print run of 60,000 copies it went on to be a bestseller. Each subsequent book in the Sword of Truth series has sold better than the one before and some twenty million copies of books in the series have now been sold.

The saga of the Sword of Truth started growing in Goodkind’s mind during the early 1990s while he was building his house in the forests of the northeastern U.S. Before turning his hand to writing he was known for his realistic marine and wildlife paintings.

"It started with the character of Kahlan, and grew from that seed," he recalls. "It really became a haunting experience. As soon as I started writing Wizard’s First Rule, I knew writing was my calling. I'd found something to which I truly want to dedicate my life."

Goodkind also attended art school in Omaha, Nebraska, where he pursued one of his many interests on the way to becoming a writer. Besides a career in wildlife art, he has been a cabinet maker and violin maker, and he has done restoration work on rare and exotic artifacts from around the world — each with its own story to tell, he says.

While continuing to maintain the northeastern home he built with his own hands, in recent years he and his wife, Jeri, have created a second home in the desert Southwest, where he now spends the majority of his time.


Sword of Truth series order

  1. Wizard's First Rule (1994)
  2. Stone of Tears (1995)
  3. Blood of the Fold (1996)
  4. Temple of the Winds (1997)
  5. Soul of the Fire (1999)
  6. Faith of the Fallen (2000)
  7. The Pillars of Creation (2001)
  8. Naked Empire (2003)
  9. Chainfire (2005)
  10. Phantom (2006)
  11. Confessor (2007)
  12. The Omen Machine (2011)
  13. The Third Kingdom (2013)
  14. Severed Souls (2014)
  15. Warheart (2015)

Terry Goodkind's website

This bio was last updated on 06/27/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Books by this Author

Books by Terry Goodkind at BookBrowse
The Law of Nines jacket Confessor jacket Phantom jacket Soul of The Fire jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Terry Goodkind but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Terry Brooks

    Terry Brooks

    With over 12 million books in print, Terry Brooks has been a seminal force in fantasy fiction for the past twenty years. When his first book, The Sword of Shannara, was published in 1977, it earned Brooks a legion of fans and... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Soul of The Fire

    Try:
    Ilse Witch
    by Terry Brooks

  • Orson Scott Card

    Orson Scott Card

    Nobody had ever won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel two years in a row until Orson Scott Card received them for Ender's Game and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead, in 1986 and 1987. The third novel in the series, ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Soul of The Fire

    Try:
    Ender's Shadow
    by Orson Scott Card

We recommend 3 similar authors

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