Terry Goodkind’s next book will not be published by Tor. With the release of The Confessor last year, the Sword of Truth saga is officially complete and now Mr. Goodkind is looking to switch genres from fantasy to mainstream fiction. To do so he has joined the ranks of Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler and Jack Higgins by signing a three book deal with G. P. Putnam’s Sons. “We are very excited with Terry’s new book and are thrilled to be given the opportunity to share these novels with an even wider market. We recognize the potential to broaden his mainstream audience and I am convinced we can vastly expand his already huge following,” cites Ivan Held, President, G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
The, yet to be titled, first book will be a contemporary thriller set in an American city. “I’m tremendously excited to at last have the opportunity to write stories set in this, our world, in the here and now. I’m sure that most of my readers understand the universal themes that characterize my writing. Those themes transcend genre,” Goodkind writes in a post to his website.
While many fans may be chagrined at the news, Goodkind himself has long stated that venturing away from fantasy was one of his goals. In a 2005 online chat session sponsored by USAToday Goodkind was asked if he had considered writing something other then sword and sorcery. “My interest is in telling stories about heroic figures. In many ways, the fantasy genre is a hindrance to that and so I do consider other ways to tell stories that revolve around important human beings. For me, the biggest interest is the fun of writing interesting tales, and there are a lot of different ways to do that. I’ve thought about writing other stories that are in the same world in a different time, and ultimately, what I’d like to do is write contemporary fiction that general fiction readers are most drawn to. That’s by far my largest audience, is general fiction and not genre readers.”
Terry Goodkind’s career started with a record breaking deal. When Wizard’s First Rule went up for auction he received six times the highest ever paid for a first effort fantasy novel. As fans followed the exploits of Richard and Kalhan, Goodkind racked up twenty-five million copies sold worldwide. Aside from the books, a television series based on The Wizards First Rule, and produced by Sam Raimi (Spiderman, Army of Darkness), is currently in production with an anticipated release of this fall.
The book is set to be released in the fall of 2009
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