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In general, I’m excellent at starting to read new books but not so good at finishing them. I was proud to have completed ‘Wizard’s First Rule‘ a couple of weeks ago. I had selected the book because it was in my late father’s belongings. But Liz, this is a sex blog; why discuss a regular fantasy book here? Because, much to my surprise, there was a considerable amount of BDSM relationships in this novel.
Be warned: much of the following contains spoilers of this book!
Hero on a Quest
‘Wizard’s First Rule’ is about Richard Cypher, a simple woodsman’s guide who rescues a woman followed by four men one day. Little did he know she actually didn’t need any rescuing and could have easily fended for herself. Further complications arise, and together they embark on a journey and end up in a fight with the evil wizard Darken Rahl.
So far, so good, right? Nothing BDSM-y anywhere.
Well, that’s what I thought too. This is where the real spoilers begin…
Mord-Sith and their Agiel
Three quarters into the story, Richard falls into the hands of the Mord-Sith. This group are hardened torturers who use an instrument called the ‘Agiel,’ a small leather rod (commonly worn at the wrist by a chain) that causes extreme pain to anyone the Mord-Sith touches it to. Denna is the Mord-Sith in control of Richard, who tries to break him by torturing him continually for a month.
Gore
I was surprised by the level of torture and how detailed it was described. I don’t want to repeat it here, but it contained a high level of gore. And how Denna tried to break Richard is literally how I read it about slaves being broken in a fictional, extreme BDSM setting.
Eighty Pages of Torture
In the end, of course, Richard escapes. He beats the evil wizard, and all ends well. I was pretty shocked how a simple ‘hero on his quest’ tale suddenly turned into a ‘Mistress breaks her new slave’ story. It wasn’t a one-page thing either. Someone on Reddit counted it as going on for eighty pages, these Mord-Sith, and their torture methods.
Was It Necessary?
Some people say this torture is necessary for Richard’s character and prepares him for worse trepidations to come in future books. To me, it didn’t feel that way. I read it as a writer who stumbled upon a setting he enjoyed a little too much and wanted to prolong it for as long as possible. To me, for a character in a regular ‘hero on a quest’ story, it went on for too long. It wasn’t even described that well, and it could have been a lot shorter. But luckily for me, as a reader with an extensive BDSM story reading background, I wasn’t too shocked, merely surprised, really. And I still wonder what my father thought of this book.
Interesting view of the book. I’ve not read any Goodkind, as I’m not terribly fond of fantasy, but I can see how sex and BDSM would play easily into this setting/genre.
In many instances it does, but usually I’m aware of it before I read the book. With this novel it surprised me a lot because it was a sudden change three quarters into the story 😕
That seems disconcerting. I wonder when writers do stuff like…what leads them to it.
Yeah, and the scenes I describe…well…there were other, worse parts of the book that I don’t want to mention on my blog 😒
And like I said in my text: it’s like the author suddenly discovered he liked writing this stuff and the world just went with it. Apparently publishers jumped at the opportunity to publish this book and he made a lot of money with it. It even came out as a TV series. I just don’t think it wouldn’t have gone that easily had he tried to release the book in 2021 🤷🏼♀️
It helps when you have published a million books. Publishers are less likely to turn your stuff away.