Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind. First of all, for some reason I couldn't help but imagine the main character with anything but a mullet. Secondly, I'm not sure I would have finished it but for the fact I was reading it on the recommendations of my sister and my roommate; I don't think it's necessarily that bad, really, but it's definitely not my cup of tea. The only intrigues were that characters kept things from each other for too long, almost every single character expounds on morality at some point or another (and each in turn seems universally wise, leaving little room for variation), and for such a large book the plot and even the number of plot threads seemed excessively simplified.
      Now, in the same token, after discussing I can see where the people I know who've read it are coming from when that simplicity of character and story is a benefit (say, as refreshing after reading a relatively excessively complex George Martin novel), so maybe it just comes down to whether one prefers coffee or tea, as it were. One thing I did like, in any case, was the use of (as far as I could tell) truly original fantasy ideas for monsters and magic, which while interesting unfortunately seemed to be concentrated only at the beginning and end of the novel.