Sword of Truth
#3754.01 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 15 books Status Complete 1994–2015 Reading commitment High Terry Goodkind Last reviewed 2026-10-14
Overview
Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth follows the wizard Richard Rahl and the Mother Confessor Kahlan Amnell across a fifteen-novel main sequence published between 1994 and 2015, beginning with Wizard's First Rule and closing with Warheart, with a substantial body of same-continuity side material, prequels, the Nicci Chronicles, and the Children of D'Hara, published around and after it. The series follows Richard's rise from a humble woods guide to the ruler of D'Hara and beyond, as he and Kahlan confront a succession of tyrants and magical threats across a world split between the magic-suppressing New World and the untamed Old World. Wizard's First Rule became a bestseller on release and later formed the basis of the 2008-2010 television series Legend of the Seeker, bringing the series to a wider audience beyond its already large readership. Goodkind continued writing in the same world well past the original sequence's nominal conclusion.
Epic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (15 works) counts toward ranking
Sword of Truth (main sequence) Terry Goodkind
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Wizard's First Rule | 1994 | 1 | core | 4.12 (255,523 ratings) |
 | Stone of Tears | 1995 | 2 | core | 4.11 (117,654 ratings) |
 | Blood of the Fold | 1996 | 3 | core | 4.01 (84,599 ratings) |
 | Temple of the Winds | 1997 | 4 | core | 4.03 (85,047 ratings) |
 | Soul of the Fire | 1999 | 5 | core | 3.88 (70,327 ratings) |
 | Faith of the Fallen | 2000 | 6 | core | 4.11 (75,277 ratings) |
 | The Pillars of Creation | 2001 | 7 | core | 3.72 (61,856 ratings) |
 | Naked Empire | 2003 | 8 | core | 3.84 (57,001 ratings) |
 | Chainfire | 2005 | 9 | core | 3.96 (54,819 ratings) |
 | Phantom | 2006 | 10 | core | 4.00 (48,772 ratings) |
 | Confessor | 2007 | 11 | core | 4.09 (52,272 ratings) |
 | The Omen Machine | 2011 | 12 | core | 3.71 (22,088 ratings) |
 | The Third Kingdom | 2013 | 13 | core | 3.88 (13,655 ratings) |
 | Severed Souls | 2014 | 14 | core | 3.92 (10,807 ratings) |
 | Warheart | 2015 | 15 | core | 4.09 (8,979 ratings) |
15-novel continuous main sequence; publication order equals internal chronology throughout. Correction: The Pillars of Creation's first US edition is 2001 (Nov 20), not 2002 as some secondary listings state; 2002 is a paperback/reprint date bleeding into 'first publication' fields.
Library / Expanded (12 works)
The Nicci Chronicles Terry Goodkind
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Death's Mistress; The Nicci Chronicles: same universe/continuity, set after Warheart, following the character Nicci. | 2017 | N/A | |
 | Shroud of Eternity; The Nicci Chronicles: same universe/continuity, set after Warheart, following the character Nicci. | 2018 | N/A | |
 | Siege of Stone; The Nicci Chronicles: same universe/continuity, set after Warheart, following the character Nicci. | 2019 | N/A | |
 | Heart of Black Ice; The Nicci Chronicles: same universe/continuity, set after Warheart, following the character Nicci. | 2020 | N/A |
4 novels (2017-2020), same continuity as the main sequence, post-Warheart.
The Children of D'Hara Terry Goodkind
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Scribbly Man; The Children of D'Hara: 5 novellas, same continuity/timeframe as the Nicci Chronicles, different POV characters. Collected in a 2021 omnibus of the same name. | 2019 | N/A | |
 | Hateful Things; The Children of D'Hara: 5 novellas, same continuity/timeframe as the Nicci Chronicles, different POV characters. Collected in a 2021 omnibus of the same name. | 2019 | N/A | |
 | Wasteland; The Children of D'Hara: 5 novellas, same continuity/timeframe as the Nicci Chronicles, different POV characters. Collected in a 2021 omnibus of the same name. | 2019 | N/A | |
 | Witch's Oath; The Children of D'Hara: 5 novellas, same continuity/timeframe as the Nicci Chronicles, different POV characters. Collected in a 2021 omnibus of the same name. | 2020 | N/A | |
 | Into Darkness; The Children of D'Hara: 5 novellas, same continuity/timeframe as the Nicci Chronicles, different POV characters. Collected in a 2021 omnibus of the same name. | 2020 | N/A |
5 novellas (2019-2020), collected as a 2021 omnibus; roughly parallel to the Nicci Chronicles' timeframe.
Debt of Bones (1998) ; First appeared in the multi-author anthology Legends (ed. Robert Silverberg, 1998); reissued as a standalone chapbook in 2001. Prequel, set roughly one generation before Wizard's First Rule.
The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus (2012) ; Self-published digitally in 2012; Tor hardcover edition 2015. Prequel set centuries before the main sequence, the earliest point in the franchise's internal chronology.
The Law of Nines (2009) ; Contemporary-thriller-framed standalone; connection to the D'Haran world is confirmed but tenuous (an implied descendant of a Sword of Truth character, revealed near the book's end), registered as Expanded with this caveat rather than excluded, per the project's 'preserve the full work' principle.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Sword of Truth? Sword of Truth's Core Canon is 15 books, plus 12 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for Sword of Truth? Publication order, starting with Wizard's First Rule. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Sword of Truth finished? Complete (1994–2015).
- How much reading does Sword of Truth take? High reading commitment (estimated from 15 Core Canon books · ~9,794 pages).
- How is Sword of Truth ranked? #375 in this site's official ranking, based on 1,018,676 reader ratings across 15 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #375?
Ranked #375 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.01 across 15 core books.
- Backed by 1.0M reader ratings.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.71 to 4.12.
- Less than 0.01 behind #374, Eon (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 15 books · Complete · 1.0M ratings · Ranks #375 overall
Good choice if you want a long-running epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (15 Core Canon books)
- Wizard's First Rule (1994)
- Stone of Tears (1995)
- Blood of the Fold (1996)
- Temple of the Winds (1997)
- Soul of the Fire (1999)
- Faith of the Fallen (2000)
- The Pillars of Creation (2001)
- Naked Empire (2003)
- Chainfire (2005)
- Phantom (2006)
- Confessor (2007)
- The Omen Machine (2011)
- The Third Kingdom (2013)
- Severed Souls (2014)
- Warheart (2015)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- British Fantasy Award (Best Newcomer ("Icarus Award", the category's 1988-95 name)), 1995: nominated: Wizard's First Rule; Lost to Maggie Furey. "Icarus Award" is the period name of the Best Newcomer category, not a book title.
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 1995: finalist: Wizard's First Rule; Locus reader-poll placement, ranked 7th.
- Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 1996: finalist: Stone of Tears; Locus reader-poll placement, ranked 15th.
- Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 1997: finalist: Blood of the Fold; Locus reader-poll placement, ranked 18th.
- Prometheus Award (Best Novel), 2006: finalist: Chainfire; Libertarian Futurist Society; lost to Ken MacLeod's Learning the World.
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Suggestions computed from what Sword of Truth and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Riftwar Cycle Epic fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.16
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- The Paksenarrion Universe Epic fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.14
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.01 across 1,018,676 ratings on 15 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Sword of Truth admitted; Core Canon; publisher-year correction; Prometheus claim excluded as unverified accepted 2026-08-05
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-06
Rule: New universe, Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth. Core = the 15-novel main sequence (1994-2015); publication order equals internal chronology throughout. Expanded = 2 direct prequels (Debt of Bones 1998/2001; The First Confessor 2012/2015), the Nicci Chronicles (4 novels, 2017-2020), the Children of D'Hara (5 novellas, 2019-2020), and The Law of Nines (2009, a standalone with a confirmed but tenuous continuity link). Correction: The Pillars of Creation's true first (US) edition is 2001, not the commonly-repeated 2002. Exclusion: a secondary-source claim of a 2004 Prometheus Award nomination for Naked Empire could not be corroborated against the Libertarian Futurist Society's own comprehensive award history and is not registered. Sole authorship confirmed throughout; no co-author or ghostwriter claim substantiated.