Wizard's first rule has a lot going on, some good and some bad. The so called "Wizard's First Rule" is pretty cool to think about, and there's some kind of nifty fantastic monsters and a well executed villain.
The main issue with the story is that it deals poorly with themes pertaining to gender. An argument can be made that Goodkind is attempting to present very unfortunate scenarios and stereotypes with the aim of deconstructing them, but he fails to grasp the issues appropriately in any case leaving a bad aftertaste. Very uncomfortable explicit passages make this a lot more apparent.