Terry Goodkind, Master of Fantasy Fiction, Is Dead at 72 (Published 2020)

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.