Terry Goodkind, the author of the best-selling epic fantasy series “The Sword of Truth,” died on Sept. 17 at his home in Boulder City, Nev. He was 72.
His wife, Jeri Goodkind, confirmed the death but did not specify a cause.
Mr. Goodkind was a latecomer to writing: He spent years as a woodworker and wildlife artist before publishing his first novel, “Wizard’s First Rule,” when he was 45. But that book — the story of a heroic forest guide, Richard, who teams with a beautiful woman, Kahlan, to defeat an evil wizard, Darken Rahl — won legions of fans and earned positive reviews when it was published by Tor Books in 1994.
Kirkus Reviews called the novel, which became the first book in the “Sword of Truth” series, “a wonderfully creative, seamless and stirring epic fantasy debut.”
Over the next 24 years, Mr. Goodkind’s series grew to include 17 books, several of them best sellers. Together, the “Sword of Truth” books have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide. In 2008, the books were adapted by the director and producer Sam Raimi into a television series, “Legend of the Seeker,” that aired for two seasons on ABC.
“Goodkind’s books are popular in part because, in a complicated world, he boils things down to stark contrasts,” the New York Times book critic Dwight Garner wrote in 2006, after the 11th book in the series, “Phantom,” debuted at No. 1 on The Times’s hardcover fiction list. “Good is good, evil is evil, and heroes are studly, hyper-rational armies of one.”
Mr. Goodkind made no apologies for writing old-fashioned heroes in the Doc Savage mold, and he said he regarded Richard and his other fictional protagonists as extensions of himself.
“When you’re reading a book, you’re looking at the soul of an author,” he said in a promotional interview for “Phantom.” “He’s telling you what he thinks should be normal about mankind. I believe that heroes should be somebody worth looking up to. What life can be, what’s the best of what life can be.”
While Mr. Goodkind attracted numerous readers with his storytelling, he angered some others with his worldview and his criticisms of fantasy fiction. He was a follower of Ayn Rand, whose Objectivism prized the individual over the collective, and he spoke about her ideas publicly and inserted them into his novels. He also often distanced himself from the genre in which he had achieved fame.
He told an online audience on Reddit that he had “irrevocably changed the face of fantasy” and “injected thought into a tired, empty genre.”
In a phone interview, his literary agent, Russell Galen, said: “His fans were wrapped up in his work and Terry personally. And then there were people who literally despised him. Terry was unique in that field in delighting in controversy, delighting in stirring up verbal combat, delighting in stirring up criticism. He was very feisty.”
Terry Lee Goodkind was born on Jan. 11, 1948, in Omaha. His parents, Leo and Natalie (Ruggerio) Goodkind, ran a direct-mail business. As a child, he had undiagnosed dyslexia and would sneak away to the library to read at his own pace. He later dedicated one of his novels to the lone teacher who he said recognized his ability and encouraged his love of storytelling.
Mr. Goodkind attended art school but dropped out. In the mid-1980s, he and his wife, whom he met in 1971, moved to Mount Desert Island in Maine, where he spent nine years building their house.
It was typical of Mr. Goodkind to throw himself intensely into a field of interest, whether it was woodworking, violin making or racecar driving, until he achieved a kind of mastery. He once told Mr. Galen that he had spent years revising and perfecting “Wizard’s First Rule” before sending off the manuscript for consideration.
Mr. Goodkind published other popular series, including “The Nicci Chronicles” and “The Children of D’Hara,” both spun off from the “Sword of Truth” books. In recent years, he turned to contemporary settings in his fiction, writing thrillers, like “The Law of Nines” and “Nest,” which met with similar commercial success.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Goodkind is survived by his mother; a brother, Dan; and a sister, Sandra Aquila.
At his death, Mr. Goodkind was halfway through another novel.
“Only he knows where it was going and how it would end,” Jeri Goodkind said. But, she added, “He was incredibly happy writing it.”
