It is with a very heavy heart that Head of Zeus pays tribute to bestselling author Terry Goodkind, after he passed away at the age of 72 on September 17.
Goodkind is best known for his 17-volume Sword of Truth series, published between 1994 and 2015. In 2015, Head of Zeus published the series in eBook together with the concluding volume, Warheart, in all formats.
In 2019, Goodkind returned to the world of D’Hara with five serial novels published between April 2019 and June 2020. The Children of D’Hara, a 1,000-page omnibus edition, will be published in February 2021.
Nicolas Cheetham, CEO of Head of Zeus, has said “Sword of Truth is one of the great fantasy series. I remember sitting round the kitchen table passing the manuscript pages of Wizard’s First Rule between Anthony, myself and my brother Oliver. It was a point of family honour to know the differences between a short-tailed gar and its longer-tailed cousin. Some three decades later, I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Terry as his publisher. As well as his stories, I admired his questing intelligence, his dedication to perfection, not to mention his invigorating contrarianism. Life without a long, late-night ‘Terry-gram’ won't be the same.”
On his official Facebook page, Goodkind’s representatives posted a short remembrance:
“It is impossible to put into few words just how amazing a man, a husband, a writer, a friend, and a human, Terry Goodkind truly was. He is already desperately missed. We are forever grateful for him having shared his life’s work with all of us, as he was always grateful to be held in our hearts.”
But the final words have to be Terry’s:
“To exist in this vast universe for a speck of time is the great gift of life. It is our only life. The universe will go on, indifferent to our brief existence, but while we are here, we touch not just part of that vastness, but also the lives around us. Life is the gift each of us has been given. Each life is our own and no one else's. It is precious beyond all counting. It is the greatest value we can have. Cherish it for what it truly is ... Your life is yours alone. Rise up and live it.”
– Terry Goodkind, from Confessor, volume 12 in the Sword of Truth series.
- Article provided by Jonathan Ball Publishers, an imp
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