Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: Let me say right off the bat that this book stands up on its own in the Sword of Truth Series. I believe Terry Goodkind tries to explore something new with every book he publishes. People seem to compare each of his books to one another but I think that's ridiculous! Goodkind attempts to draw upon the vast pool of human experience and possibilities and wraps each book around these. What makes the series so engrossing is that each of the novels expand and explore different niches of the world revolving around the main characters. Some complain that Goodkind takes a complete sidetrack from the main plot on certain books like the Pillars of Creation. However, if anyone has read Goodkind's interview they would find that his goal isn't neccesarily the plot but the people. Goodkind writes about people, they are the focus of his books. Each book explores different aspects of human nature through the eyes of the main character, be it Richard Rahl or others, like his sister in Pillars of Creation. That is what makes Goodkind a great author.
Rating: 
Summary: The last Sword of Truth Book I'll read
Review: I loved the first three books in this series, and found decreasing pleasure in the next three. Even though Goodkind is an astonishingly bad writer, his first books told captivating stories, developed a broad diversity of characters, and positively made me fall in love with his protagonists.But Naked Empire is awful. The old characters have melded into two: the good guy, and the bad guy. Aside from Nicholas, none of the new characters has an ounce of originality, and even Nicholas is just a rewrite of Jagang with a mix of Goodkind's stock degeneracy. And while his scenes in past books have been vivid, original, and fraught with tension, the scenes in this book have nothing-- no suspense, no unpredictable twists. Nothing. At points they go on for many, many pages with Goodkind's central point repeated over and over in speeches by Richard. The character of Jennson is created only to give Richard someone to bludgeon his point into, and has no integrity as a character. The ending is as flat and contrived as any I've read, and falls far short of the expectations built up throughout the book. In addition, the central mystery of the book is solved in a way that seems more of a political statement on current events than anything having to do with the narrative of the story, and it completely undermines the previous stories in this series, forgetting key details. The entire book is one long, simple sermon illustrated by flat characters, down to modern political buzzwords worked into the text, and, it has to be said, seems crafted only to support his political leanings. His scenes, his characters, his logical narrative consistency, all yield to this personal message of Goodkind's. Read the first three books of the story, and if you love the characters, read Temple of the Winds. My suggestion is when you have finished Temple, pull out a sheet of paper, and write the words "Richard and Kahlan lived happily ever after," and use that to replace the rest of the books of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful reading
Review: I love all Terry Goodkind's books. I have read all of them. I hope there will be another book related to this series. I truely enjoy his writing style.
Rating:
Summary: Dear Creator, get rid of that STINKING GOAT!!
Review: Look, the book is horrible -but so was the last one- so I have no one to blame but myself for buying it. The characters have melded into one "cardboardy", preachy, predictable version of each other. And yes, the message is simplistic and transparent and frustratingly redundant. But, I LOVE those elements of the book compared to that freaking lousy goat. I'm embarressed for Mr.Goodkind's children when that bleating contrivance shows up. When they get old enough to read and find out that their daddy stuck that filthy goat down his readers throats they're going to claw their eyes out in shame. I can never be friends now with a woman named Betty because of you, Goodkind. If Roy reads this thing while he's recovering, he'll hate the goat more than the white tiger, I can tell you that. The president of PETA even said that he hopes Jagang the Just ends up raping and eating Betty. Now having said that, I ADORED that goat compared to that devastatingly not-cute, forced-precocious, sickenly saccharin character of Rachel. The next time I read about Rachel I hope it's on a milk carton.
Rating: 
Summary: George the Just...
Review: I've been an avid reader and fan of the 'Sword of Truth'-series for a long, long time, and for that matter, many other fantasy series as well. But, with Goodkind's latest, 'Naked Empire', I can't remember reading a book that gave me such disappointment, especially regarding its ending. There once was a time when I compared SoT with George R R Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire'-series, but, since 'Blood of the Fold', Goodkind has gradually drifted lightyears away from that kind of quality. I have the strong impression that the last 10 chapters of the story in NE were hurried away, while the storyline still invited for many an intricate story detail, able to create at least some 10-20 additional chapters. For example (I'll do my best not to give away spoilers): 1. Nicholas the Slide could have done to Richard what he also was able to do to Kahlan; or:
2. What would have happened if Kahlan/Nicholas had come back to Richard? or:
3. What would have happened if Jenssen had interacted with Nicholas? or:
4. How about a fight between Nicholas and Jagang over who rules the Empire? etc. So, all in all I think Goodkind just failed to create a truly satisfying read, and he or his publisher have limited the length and possibly the scope of the story, especially towards its ending. Another thing: there was much ado about Goodkind's co-called pro-war ramblings as he told them in this book via Richard. Well, for whatever they were worth, I must say I much agree with Richard's line of reasoning: brutal oppression must not be won by appeasement but by vengeance and obliteration of the enemy, see Germany, WWII. But one thing it failed to identify: who then is the enemy in our modern, real world? In SoT, it's easy: the Imperial Order, led by emperor Jagang the Just. But in our real world? In the real world we have to do with terrorism, not bound to states. That reminds me of the following: war is done by nations, but it is the people that are the victims. The same accounts for terrorism, however, terrorism is not bound to nations. So, if Goodkind indeed tried to show some of his modern war-philosophies via this book, I think it's just been a very outdated show how he has handled this theme in the book -- There is a lot in it about the brutal oppression by the Imperial Order (i.e. Germany, WWII), but there is /nothing/ in it about the current problems regarding terrorism and/or its implications, let alone solutions, of how to fight such a 'war'. That makes me wonder why so many people were offended by the war-theme of this book. Unless of course Jagang the Just's Imperial Order Empire should be compared to George the Just's neo-conservative economic-oppression 'Empire'? Now, then /that/ makes for truly interesting reading... Two stars, is all I am willing to give. And that has more to do with good memories of earlier books of the series than with the actual quality of this latest incarnation. /And/ it has to do with the /very/ interesting 'Empire' comparison...
Rating:
Summary: maybe not the best but...
Review: ok first off i think terry goodkind is an excellent writer i love his works and have the whole sword of truth seris,and have read it multiple times.maybe this was not the best in the seris but i did love it it was kinda neat the way he took a small yet big part of the story from a few books back and made a whole book about it and gave some insight into where and what these people where and are and gave more history on richards father and his own past,personally i loved it and await the rest of them..hope he makes it to 10. and for those who are looking for something deep and life affirming,or something to give your life meaning,go to the self help section or read the bible
Rating: 
Summary: An improvement over PoC, but still no cigar
Review: (Knowledge of the previous books is helpful, if not required to appreciate this review.) I have been a loyal reader of the SoT series since 1998, when I discovered Terry's books via a friend. "Wizard's First Rule" was astonishing in every sense of the word. Over the next year, I had quickly read every book up to "Faith of the Fallen" and eagerly anticipated the release of "Pillars of Creation." When it finally came out, I read through it in a matter of three days. PoC definately made me take a step back and look at the rest of the series, namely FOTF. FOTF was good, but the ending was basically a 10-page long preaching session about the evils of communism. Suffice it to say, I already agree with all of the points made about communism, I don't need them rehashed every few chapters, much less in every book. (Some say that books 1-5 were just as preachy, but Terry must've done a good job of hiding it, for I didn't feel like I was being preached to.) Flash forward to PoC. Not only did it poorly tell a story of characters that I cared little about, the ending made it seem like the story was set up just for Jennsen to be taught a lesson about free will. Richard and Kahlan had little or no impact on the story except of course when Richard started giving his long winded speeches about how bad communism is and how the free will of man is the supreme law. Here we are at Naked Empire. My first major problem with this book is that it takes forever for the main plot of the book to get going. Example: at the end of PoC, Richard, Kahlan, and co. are in a desert wasteland. 250 pages into Naked Empire, they're STILL in the wasteland, and we still don't know what's really going on other than Richard is sick and the party receives a warning of eminent danger. The rest of the book is mostly a lesson in anti-pacifism, reiterating the same points over and over again. The whole story about the Bandakar empire seems to me about as transparent as glass, and that now Terry just wants to hawk his political and philosophical ideals. Richard and Kahlan have become hollow shells of who they once were. Terry's character development in books 1 thru 6 was spectacular. I felt like Richard, Kahlan, Zedd, Cara were my personal friends, and it felt like I walked right into the story when I picked up the book. Now, I find it hard to get into the story. Now, when I read about Richard, all I hear is a preacher saying "communism is bad, pacifism is bad, do what you want with you life, fight to keep it" over and over again. Years ago, Terry was asked how he goes about writing a story. He said that Richard and Kahlan came to him, that they chose him to tell their story. To my dismay, Terry was recently asked the same question, and he replied that he chooses a message that he wants to impart, then builds his story around that. When I want to read a story, I want a good story with good characters, good plot, and good imagery. I don't want to read a philosophical dissertation that has wooden characters, poor plot, and dull imagery. I will remain loyal to the series in hopes that the books get better. Hopefully Mr. Goodkind will take all of the "constructive" criticism he's been receiving into account and write us a story that will once again knock us off our feet and make us remember the things we loved about Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, Temple of the Winds, and Soul of the Fire.
Rating:
Summary: the illusion is almost dead
Review: I read the first seven books as soon as I could lay hands on them; even POC was tolerable at the time. There must've been something about the wait for Naked Empire that ended the honeymoon period, because I could barely force myself to pay attention to this book. Then again, it barely required attention, since pages and pages would be wasted on dissecting the same bland morals and virtues: essentially, reading the first sentence often sufficed. Never has a fantasy book reminded me so much of an outdated school textbook...the different here being that this text read like a knee-jerk reaction to the Afghanistan war (perfect timing, too). How many people want to read a fantasy book in order to have someone's views on reality stuffed down their throat? Isn't Fantasy an escapist genre? There's no subtlety here, just an overly simplistic "this is good and right, this is wrong and bad; kill the bad people and anyone who's not totally against them" theory. ...smacks of Bush. If you want good fantasy fare, skip this book. I sincerely doubt it will have much bearing/importance on the following 'chainfire trilogy' that is supposed to wrap up the SOT series. and whatever you do: if you loved the first couple of books, don't try rereading them after sloughing through NE. It's enough to ruin the wonderful mirage.
Rating:
Summary: It's a fantasy book....get over it!
Review: The book was much much better than POC. He returns to the characters that we know and love. I like the premise of the Wizard's eight rule and it was over all a good read. This book is not intended to make deep philosophical statements or to be a mirror of our present conflicts. This is a fantasy book, for people who love to read about different worlds, with there is MAGIC and good and evil are clearly defined. And for the person who says that the bad guys in these books are TOO evil, did you think that the Emperor in Star Wars was too evil?
If you are trying to read these books to understand life, war, today's politics, good vs evil in real world etc....get a life. This is entertainment people, just like going to the movies. This is not a guide for your life or the world today.
Rating:
Summary: Morale sink
Review: This review may be somewhat redundant compared with the other ones that are already there, but I have to get rid of my feelings about this book. After being a passionate reader of all the other books of the SoT cycle, I also bought 'Naked Empire'. While in parts written with the good style and quality we know from the rest of the cycle, I'm more than disappointed about the message of the book and the development of the main character.
Richard, who was once a nice guy who hated violence and killing and did it only when absolutely necessary, is now becoming such a morale sink that I sometimes nearly got sick reading the book.
In elaborate, elongated and often repeating monologues, he preaches the freedom to do violence without thinking or restrain. He orders his men to attack an unarmed crowd, because they "have sided with the enemy". At the end, he comes to the glorious conclusion that he doesn't even have to feel guilty for any killing he does, as long as he personnaly thinks that it was right. Dear Mr. Goodkind, I recommend you to go to war and experience it on your own, before continuing your work. As for myself, you have just lost a reader.
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