THE LAW OF NINES

In this thriller from Goodkind, a man named Alex Rahl, hardworking artist, blameless citizen of a nice little Nebraska town, is about to turn 27 in a most memorable way.

In the process, he will encounter an Alex he never would have believed possible, discovering things about himself, his lineage, the world he inhabits—and the alternative one he doesn’t—that will prove dramatically transformative. Consider his name. As series buffs know, it’s one to conjure with: Richard, Lord Rahl, is Seeker of Truth, puissant possessor of the eponymous Sword of Truth and, not so incidentally, Alex’s antecedent, going back some thousand years. Then there’s the fraught numerology of being 27, with all those evocative nines (two plus seven; three times nine). The whole astonishing business begins when Alex saves the life of a strange and, of course, beautiful lady, who undertakes his education. It’s through Jax that he first learns of a co-existing world “on the other side of darkness, on the other side of nothing.” And it’s with her at his side that he battles an assortment of Iago-like bad guys in order to save the world(s).

Goodkind departs from his hot-selling Sword of Truth series (Confessor, 2007, etc.), but not entirely.