Rating: 
Summary: A LOT of ranting -- but I STILL enjoyed it...
Review: First off, I was REALLY disappointed with Pillars of Creation as were most of the readers (if the reviews here at amazon are any indication), and I was HOPING -- PRAYING for a return of the central characters that made reading this series so enjoyable over the course of the previous books...I was also hoping for an update on a few of the *lost* people, namely Nathan the Prophet, the REAL Prelate of the Sisters of Light and Adie & Zedd. Thank HEAVENS we get a small glimpse of what they are up to and where they all are in the battle to eliminate the Imperial Order from the face of the earth. I hate lectures as well as the next guy, but one of the reasons why I wasn't put off by Richard's (sometimes) lengthy speeches is simple: I AGREE WITH HIM. The pacifists of this world would rather lie down and DIE rather than actually DO something about the sorry state they find themselves in, much like the Naked Empire we find in this book. They firmly believe that bowing down to terrorism is better than fighting for freedom. These are the same people who insult the hundreds of thousands of men & women who have over the course of the past couple centuries died to let us have the freedoms we enjoy in this country. YES, war SHOULD be avoided IF possible. Unfortunately circumstances DO warrant action, sometimes drastic action, and this is what I believe Richard is talking about in Naked Empire and also in Faith of the Fallen. YES, he more than likely could've cut plenty out of the speeches to avoid needless repetition, but I also believe that one of the main reasons why it was brought up so often is to maintain the realism of the situation that the characters find themselves in: Namely trying to convince confirmed pacifists to STOP dying for NO GOOD REASON. If you have ever met a TRUE pacifist, you know that attempting to talk sense is like pounding your head against a wall. Often those who talk like pacifists have never truly lived in ANY kind of situation that would require them to live in fear as do many in other parts of the world where the price of freedom is truly being able to defend ones self fully. Living a life of pacifism is no life at all -- JUST as Richard says. I honestly don't care if Mr. Goodkind IS copying Atlas Shrugged, personally I don't see the similarities as some claim there to be, but just like religion, you have ONE BOOK (the Bible) and a thousand different interpretations. While mine may differ from many, I still enjoyed this story. The new Empire that Richard, Kahlan and company are forced into visiting and helping truly believes that submitting to the torture and rule of the Imperial Order is better than living free. Richard desperately attempts to force them into seeing how this is going to eventually cause their people to be eradicated, and although it takes him the better part of the book for this to happen, he finally breaks through their stubborness and this is truly where the action begins. Once again, I wish this had happened much sooner, but as I've said before, this is Terry Goodkind's tale, and if he wishes to take 10 more novels to finish it up, that is HIS right. Sure, I can hint for him to wrap up the battle with Jagang and restore peace to the land as soon as possible to get the plot back on track, but no matter what, I will be first in line to purchase his next novel, regardless where that story goes. Oh, one person DID bring up something interesting in a previous review that I felt was worth noting: from reading the Stone of Tears I didn't think there were all that many Sisters of Light & Dark, but there certainly seems to be an in-exhaustable supply of Dark Sisters in Jagang's hoard of evil-doers. I'm just wondering where they all came from -- especially since between Richard, Kahlan, Zedd & Adie they have killed off dozens of them in earlier books. Just curious, that's all. If you are one of the many who have been turned off by Mr. Goodkinds last few books, that is certainly your choice, but I for one am sticking with him and fervently hope that he continues to write full-time and as long as he does, he can count on me to be a faithful reader.
Rating: 
Summary: great piece IF your inteligient
Review: Anyone who complains about the long winded speaches might just not be smart enough to understand what goodkind was saying . And theres nothing wrong with a funky lil goat getting some spot light . Yes it is a little under par for him but Goodkind has given us 8 GREAT books and he deserves all the respect in the world . Goodkind is now 8 for 8 with no truly horrible books .
Rating: 
Summary: Serious Ayn Rand Ripoff
Review: Fantasy fans are used to running across the occasional piece of regurgitated trash, that just rehashes Tolkein into three more books, with no originality or inspiration. Goodkind does not do that. I have always liked him as a writer, primarily because he shows so little influence from Tolkein. But Goodkind has found someone else to rehash and rip off: Ayn Rand. And he rips her off hardcore, as bad as the worst Tolkein ripoff you ever heard of in fantasy. Well over half the material that spews from Richard's mouth is a thin paraphrase of Ayn Rand's essays. Sometimes, Goodkind doesn't bother to paraphrase, and lifts a phrase directly from Rand. I won't call it plaugerism, but it's the next best thing, and it's really scandalous. I also found it derogatory. In the academic world, if you reuse someone's research, argument, etc., you say so! Well this is a novel, but Goodkind borrows so much material from Rand that he should have dedicated the book to her, or at least mentioned it in a forward, or had his publisher include a review quote on the jacket noting how heavily this book uses Ayn Rand's material. There is THAT much of it. And that is standard practice amoung artists. If your work is that heavily inspired by another's, you're supposed to say so. Goodkind doesn't; he makes off as if these are all his own ideas. Far from that, even much of the language in the speeches isn't his. It's just wrong. This stuff is no secret, or special theory of mine. In interviews, Goodkind occasionally mentions Ayn Rand. His 6th book, Faith of the Fallen, was heavily inspired by Rand, but still original and tasteful. I enjoyed it. Since then, Goodkind has gone downhill. Naked Empire is uninspired cut-and-paste, very nearly plaugerism. What's worse, Goodkind isn't just a second-hand Ayn Rand, he's a BAD one. His villains are boring idiots, his speeches state the obvious over and over -- he has literally lifted the most boring, simple stuff from Ayn Rand -- perhaps the only part he understands -- and repeated it a dozen times over -- and you can see every plot twist coming a mile before it happens. Again, compare it to the worst Tolkein ripoff you've heard of. That's what he does with Ayn Rand. The ONE redeeming feature of this novel is that it's Goodkind's first without a graphic sexual torture scene. An amazing step forward! He seems to have contented himself with several (I fear I lost count) scenes of women kicking men in the groin, but at least the graphic sexual torture is gone.
Rating:
Summary: Deserved victory
Review: Another gem to the collection. I liked this book very much. For one it picks up a theme that made me lots of thinking anyway. One that is way less trivial than the themes used in books 3-6. And it also streightens a few issues of the past books. :) I see lots of people claim Goodkind is preaching. Well, if you read the other books and think he was preaching in those, you'll think the same here. If you don't like it, better stay away.
And for reference let me put how I value the other books in this serie:
1:5+ 2:5+ 3:4 4:1+ 5:3+ 6:5+ 7:3 8:5- Some extra things I liked in this book: 1) no lengthy recaps of the past. Some of the previous books got much invested with that. 2) cool twist at the end. What I disliked: 1) the goat, as the other readers. 2) Kahlan not using her power. (Same stands for the previous books) here she finally does. Once. Then stops at that, wonder why.
And what don't really get: we should run out of dark sisters by now, shouldn't we?
Paul
Rating: 
Summary: Has Terry run out of ideas?
Review: I really enjoyed all the other Sword of Truth series and I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunatly this was the most boring repetative book I've read in a long time.
We get it. Stop repeating yourself over and over. I couldn't believe how many times Goodkind repeated the same thing. The only part that was the least bit interesting was when Zed got rescued.
Thats the last one for me. Too bad I really liked the Mordsith and Richard. TOO PREACHY!! AND A GOAT???
Rating:
Summary: Is this the same series?
Review: Just finished this one. Took me over 3 weeks, and I read the first book in the series in 2 days -- does that tell you anything? It'd been so long since I started this series, that I wondered if possibly my memory was bad and Goodkind really was just a mediocre author. Turns out, the first books really WERE good, and this one really WAS pretty much worthless. Aaagh, I'm poisoned, but I'll drink anything that *anyone* hands me, as long as they call it an antidote. Doggone, if I'd just eaten that Big Mac, my gift woulda functioned at the BEGINNING of the book! Love, love, love -- and a goat. Maybe it was allegorical, as reading this book was about the same as slowly dying of poison... Can someone please write a KICKIN' fantasy series and wrap it up in less than a decalogy???!!! George R.R. Martin, don't let me down!
Rating:
Summary: ridiculously preachy
Review: i think goodkind is running out of ideas and words. he spends chapter upon chapter repeating the same sermon. this series has ground to a halt. don't bother reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: just plain BAD
Review: Oh man. What a horrible book. I am a lover of the SOT series, and as a fantasy freak in general I tend to be fairly forgiving towards books that other readers are quick to decry, but Goodkind should just bang his head against a wall after writing this one. The preachy political philosophy that was almost too excessive in Faith of the Fallen has been multiplied by such a large factor that it dominates the entire book. Nothing at all happens, since Richard spends probably 3/4 of the book spewing Goodkind's rabid political ideals that have already been gone over in his previous books. Yeh, yeh, the war against Iraq - we get the point! So just drop it already and how about you have the characters do something?
And what exactly happened to the characters we all know and love? I can't stand Richard's transformation into an omniscient philosopher-king in the later books. That's not character development; it just makes me want to punch Richard in the face to end his rambling. Kahlan has been demoted to little more than a camp follower of Richard, Jehnsen is utterly worthless to the plot (as is book 7), and we may as well just kill off supporting characters like Ann (I never liked her anyways). The characters have become so unrealistic that I dislike them even more than Nyneave and Elayne in Jordan's later WOT books, and I utterly DESPISE them!
It's a shame that such a great series has degenerated into a political discourse. This sham of a book takes nothing away from the glory of his earlier works, but Goodkind seems to have forgotten a key element to fantastic literature - a way to allow readers to relate to imaginary characters in an imaginary world without having to rely on political and historical allegory.
Rating:
Summary: It was one of the best
Review: This book ended too soon. Well done. Kept me on edge. Can't wait for more
Rating:
Summary: Another success for Goodkind!!
Review: This book was much better than Pillars of Creation. I have all of the books in this series and have fallen in love with the story and characters. You need to read all the books to truly appreciate the story. This is a long book that keeps your eyes glued to the page. This book explains what the Pillars of Creation are and how it will change future books in the series. There are new villains, a new eloi-ish society, and Richard and Kahlan are back as the main characters.
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