Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: I loved every one of the books, including this one. I have to force myself to put them down.
Rating: 
Summary: Keeps your attention in the series
Review: I liked this book. If you reading the series for the first time you will be glad that you didn't have the wait between Pillars of Creation and this book. Unlike a lot of readers that want 500 books just about Richard and Kahland, Pillars did build a bridge to a wider plot. This book brings it all back together.5 starts for keeping my attention in the series - 1/2 for too much time in the pulpit - 1/2 for the goat for a 4 star total. However I like a goat better than an evil chicken.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost...
Review: This book takes the best or at least, parts of his most popular works, and he weaves them into one story. Like the first novel, this story puts the main characters in a race against time to do the seemingly impossible. Like Faith of the Fallen, we see a society so backwards you just want to scream. After the abysmal Pillars of Creation, I was about to give up hope. However in this novel I felt like I was reading the Wizards First Rule for the first time. That sense of impending doom around the corner, and hoplesness, yet you know in the end they will figure it all out and make things right again. The book has it's faults, namely it felt rushed. You can tell there was an idea here, however I'm guessing he was not given the time to develop it fully. I also liked the new character Nicholas the Slide. However what has fans, and myself frustrated with Goodkind is that he is drawing out the main plotline too much. Get on with the story. I don't understand why drag it out for so long. There was little in the way of plot developement. Jagang is still around, the Imperial Order is still a bunch of savage communist. Richard is still wandering the world, what he is doing makes no sense to me. My biggest gripe is not with the book, but with the overall series. It's going nowhere. Even though this novel works more as a filler, and sets up future novels quite well. I want to see some plot developement, and end to the main storyline.
Rating: 
Summary: Circuit Rider
Review: Enough with the preaching! Way past time to kill off the evangelist and get on with the story. First book in the series is a classic but could not get past the "Sermon on the Mountain." Shudder!
Rating:
Summary: Hanging in there...
Review: Without question, Wizard's First Rule was one of the best books I've ever read. When I read it years ago I hadn't read a lot of fantasy at that point and this book totally floored me. Compelling characters, adventure, romance - it was an awesome read and I was hooked. I've faithfully read every book in the series since. But Terry Goodkind, while still a great writer, has been beating me over the head for far too long with the incessant preaching! Naked Empire has more speeches than should be allowed in a work of fiction! Seriously though, if I didn't love the main characters of Richard, Kahlan (and Zedd) so much I would have quit this series in frustration after Faith of the Fallen. Darken Rahl was a much more interesting villian than Jagang and I miss the little details that made the first books in the series so interesting (anyone remember when Kahlan thought Richard was trying to poison her because he gave her a red apple???). Maybe I'm crying over spilt milk here but like my title says I'm going to hang in there until the end...I'm still holding out hope for a satisfying conclusion!
Rating:
Summary: Enough is ENOUGH
Review: Wizard's first rule was really good, however the pace of deterioration fastens with each book.
The last two books were horrible. Count me out.
Rating:
Summary: Solid story, but they need to continue on the central plot
Review: Okay, I know alot of people are bashing this book about being too preachy. I agree that the book is fairly long winded with Richard preching to the Bandakar people, but it was still enjoyable. I have read on Goodkind's site that he wants to branch out from fantasy. That may be a good idea. It has taken too long for the conflict between the Imperial Order and the D'Haran Empire to end. I mean they set the foundations for the battle at the beginning of the third book, Blood of the Fold, and they still isn't an end in sight. If Goodkind does plan to break out of fantasy soon, hopefully he can end this series right, and give a riveting book like Wizard's First Rule.
Rating: 
Summary: Cow's milk running low
Review: There isn't much difference between this book and Soul of the Fire and Faith of the Fallen. The same themes are recycled used in different places with different people. Richard preaches. People doubt. So Richard preaches some more until at the end the people realize he was right all along (shucks!) and that they are but sand in the draft of Richard's sword strokes that blows out of the realm of the book, into nothingness, then reincarnated into the next volume as different characters until Richard comes and preaches more to them. Richard, or rather Goodkind disguised as him, yaps continuously about his "kill before you are killed" motto to the point, actually, where I thought that it would neither be his skewed gift or the poison that would do him in, but rather the exhaustion from endless yapping. I feel sorry for Owen the most. Richard would haunt him even long after he had left Owen's homeland. At night, he would wake to hear Richard's voice somewhere, incessantly yapping about reasons of killing, when all Owen really wants to do is get some sleep. 5 stars for Nicholas the Slide
-1 star for reused theme
-2 stars for Richard's increased jabbering
+1 star for bringing back Chase
-1 star for letting a goat tag along with the team who had the fate of mankind on their shoulders
+1 star for the detailed portrayal of Jajang's eating habits
+3 stars for the author's continued honest prose
-4 stars for the colored portrait of Mr. Goodkind on the back cover, that took up the entire back cover
= 2 stars total
Rating:
Summary: A Good Book Flawed By a Dip Into Philosophy
Review: Terry Goodkind is a good storyteller: he proved that with Wizard's First Rule and his subsequent books. But he'd never make it as a philosopher. In Naked Empire, he forsakes storytelling for philosophy. In Naked Empire, Richard doesn't seem like a good-natured, yet flawed hero: he seems like a preacher going from town to town trying to convert people to the will of God. He has turned into a fanatic. I don't find this surprising considering the times we've been through in the last few years, but Terry Goodkind has pushed his main character over the edge and letting him tug his followers over with him. As far as storytelling goes, this book would be a lot better if it was about Our Hero falling into a state of fanaticism. But instead, Goodkind decides to venerate him, and hold him up as a god. Of course, the mainstays of violence and twists are still there and make up for the preachiness of Goodkind. Overall, this is a not-so-worthy continuation of the Sword of Truth series: Good, but not great.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Pillars of Creation but not by much
Review: I am a Goodkind fan and, thus I anxiously awaited anxiously this latest installment in the series -- in part because I hoped it would be better than the last book. Well, it was, but not by much. In the previous book I felt as if Goodkind were writing for elementary school-aged readers -- something I didn't appreciate at all. In this book, I think he's graduated us to high-schoolers that need a refresher course in lessons of philosophy, fairness and cause-and-effect. This book does have its good points: Richard and Kahlan are together and are included in much of the story, and there is some action - that adds interest to the story. However, when Richard and Kahlan run into a group of people that don't understand what's been going on in the world around them, the lessons begin. Richard espouses over and over and over again about how things are, how they came to be the way they are, what we can/should do to change them, what happens if you don't, etc. Quite literally, the story was bogged down in his constant dissertations on life. That got old quick. And when he wasn't explaining life to these people, he was explaining it to his sister. Because these new characters were so "thick-brained" -- as in, hard-to-learn what seems obvious, there was no real depth to them. They seemed to be just characters thrown in to put a wrinkle in Richard's movement -- if you want to call what was going on "movement". Kahlan had her own issues as well -- blaming herself over and over again for some of what was happening in the world. There comes a time when you just need to "get over it", find a way to fix it and/or move on. She didn't. The Slide was a new and imposing threat that had promise to create a lot more tension than he did -- not only with Richard but with Jagang (sp?) but that didn't happen either. Fortunately Zed had a bit part, since I like him, but it was smaller than I would have liked. The book gets 3 stars instead of 2 because it WAS better than the Pillars of Creation, even if not by much. And there was some action in it and some interesting parts. However, I'm hoping that Goodkind decreases the amount of philosophizing these characters do and gets back to the methods he used to start this series off with a bang. I agree with another reviewer, if he wants to wax philosophic, he should teach a course - not put it in a fiction book for his readers who just want to read another darned good story.
| 
