His face set in grim determination, Richard slogged ahead, his fingers reaching up to touch the tooth under his shirt. Loneliness, deeper than he had never known, sagged his shoulders. All his friends were lost to him. He knew now that his life was not his own. It belonged to his duty, to his task. He was the Seeker. Nothing more. Nothing less. Not his own man, but a pawn to be used by others. A tool, same as his sword, to help others, that they might have the life he had only glimpsed for a twinkling. He was no different from the dark things in the boundary. A bringer of death.

Terry Goodkind (born in 1948) is an American writer and author of the epic fantasy The Sword of Truth series as well as the contemporary suspense novel The Law of Nines which has ties to his fantasy series and The Omen Machine which is a direct sequel thereof. Before his success as an author Goodkind worked primarily as a painter as well as doing carpentry and woodworking.

It was adapted into a television series called Legend of the Seeker; it premiered on November 1 2008 and ran for two seasons ending in May 2010. The Sword of Truth series sold twenty-five million copies worldwide and was translated into more than twenty languages. Before his success as an author Goodkind worked primarily as a painter as well as doing carpentry and woodworking.