Rating: 
Summary: Naked Empire
Review: Naked Empire is book 8 of Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. It picks up the story right where book 7 (The Pillars of Creation) left off, with Richard, Kahlan, and Cara, together with Tom and Richard's half-sister Jennsen, far down in the desert somewhere in the Old World. The situation is, as always, desperate, with Richard about to be killed by an unbalance in his own gift, and the Keep up in the New World in dire danger from the hordes of Emperor Jagang. On top of all this, our heroes get sidetracked when a sniveling weakling by the name of Owen turns up, demanding that Richard must save Owen's people from the Imperial Order, and then poisoning Richard to force him to comply in exchange for the antidote. So it's off to the Bandakar Empire, and a confrontation with the main baddie, in this case a wizard by the name of Nicholas the Slide.
Goodkind is in good form, delivering lengthy diatribes on every other page in, even for him, unusually harsh language, coupled with sugary and steamy descriptions of the love between Richard and Kahlan. The strong influences from Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy is as clearly evident as always, which, for me, makes this book all the more enjoyable. Goodkind has lost none of his ability to provoke his readers, and to evoke strong emotional responses to the situations he's describing. As always, it's the story and the desperate situations the main characters find themselves in that are the main things in the book. The fantasy world itself in Goodkind's books never serves as anything more than a loosely defined stage for his stories to play out on, and as a result you never get the "realistic" feeling of the detailed worlds created by, for example, Tolkien and Jordan. When Goodkind does offer detail, it's always intriguing, but you don't get the feeling that it's all part of an interconnected whole. Yet, at the same time, you also get the feeling that the Goodkind world is huge, as large as the real world, with enormous areas still unmentioned and unexplored. This feeling is underscored by the map of the New World, which is almost completely lacking in detail, and the fact that there is as yet no map at all of the Old World.
The Imperial Order, which is the evil ideology that Goodkind attacks in all his books, has very clear parallels to the real world. Exchange "Christianity" for "the Order," and you have what is essentially an accurate description of the Dark Ages and medieval Europe. A lot of the most horrible descriptions of brutality, butchery, depravity and sheer evil in Goodkind's books are lifted almost straight from the blood-soaked doings of the medieval Inquisition, the crusades, the witch trials, etc. It is a very frightening thing to consider that almost all the mind-numbing horrors that Goodkind describes so vividly in his stories have actually happened (if you remove the fantasy trappings) to real people in our real world, and all of it in the name of God Allmighty. And a lot of this stuff is still happening, all over the world, in the on-going (and mostly religiously motivated) conflicts of today's world. Furthermore, the ideology of the Order is, practically point by point, that of Christianity, although few Christians today would recognize what their religion is truly teaching, or how it was practiced in bygone days. Of course, it was probably not Goodkind's intention to single out Christianity in particular as the inspiration for his descriptions of evil, you could just as well, in many instances, place any other organized religion or ideology (such as Communism or Nazism) in the place of the Order.
It is clear, as well, that a lot of this book has been shaped and influenced by current events. The warped pacifist ideas of the Bandakar people, and Richard's dealings with them, is, of course, a commentary on the peace movement and the war in Iraq. Richard's solution is one I myself many a time have wished could be applied to the peace fanatics... Just for that, Goodkind gets an extra star from me.
Rating: 
Summary: spare me the lectures
Review: Entirely too many pages of this book are spent with speeches and lectures on morality. The story is a good one, when they finally get around to it. Two thirds of the book is Richard talking to people about how they should value life and on and on about right and wrong. I was annoyed with it in Faith of the Fallen and I am not impressed with it now. I sincerely hope that there will again be a focus on the story and the characters, not these cardboard cutouts that keep coming into the story to be lectured on the black and white of life as Richard sees it.
Rating: 
Summary: Another fluff book
Review: Okay, what is going on here? Goodkind is trying to milk as much money out of the public that he can. First off, I am a Goodkind fan. The first four books were absolutely amazing. The last four in the series are so so, especially the last, Naked Empire.First, what's with the monologues? Every character constantly breaks into a page or longer monologue. Is there no interaction between the characters? They will be in the heat of battle, everyone is mad, ready to kill, Richard has a man by the collar holding inches from his face and, what happens? The man everyone wants to kill breaks into a monologue and everyone patiently waits. Then, on top of that, they sit him down and he delivers another monologue. I mean, come on! The monologues are so often and so long that you read through them thinking 'blah blah blah' until they return to the story. Where is the real character interaction? And why is everything repeated over and over again within the monologue, as well as throughout the book? Why? Because he needed to create the words that could give him the large book. Tell me, what language can remain utterly isolated, no contact with the parent language, for over a thousand years and remain exactly the same? It isn't possible. English wasn't even a language a thousand years ago, seven hundred years ago in Chaucer's time it is utterly unrecognizable, Shakespeare's time is different but recognizable, even a hundred years ago is a little different. Yet Goodkind has not only the Old World and New World languages the same (after much more than a thousand years) but this new Empire as the (I can say this much since the previous reviewer decided to reveal the plot line) same as well! Granted in fantasy we are to suspend reality, but not to this extent. At least follow the normal paths of evolution so that we can base something that looks real, and therefore be able to identify with it. And what's with the goat? Who brings a goat into the middle of battle, or takes a goat into a town to start killing people? Who takes a goat with you everywhere you go, in peril and in pleasure? There are some parts that are fascinating, though. Zedd's chapters are good and are perhaps the only chapters that evoked any emotion at all (which is sad because Goodkind used to be able to do this in his other first four books) and a few of Richard's chapters are alright. But where has Goodkind gone to? Who is this amateur sitting in his place? If he would only return to the story line, where he left off after Temple of the Winds, or maybe Soul of the Fire, then perhaps he can evoke enough emotion within himself to be able to animate his stories with life. As is, Naked Empire is yet another fluff book to fatten his wallet and draw out the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Helluva lot better than the last one...
Review: I've got a problem that I think most of the people who have made it this far in the series share: I'm hooked. No matter how bad the last book was, I'm gonna buy the new one in hardcover simply because I don't have the patience to wait for it in paperback. Having said that. I'm glad I came back and read this one. I was not at all impressed with POC and it kinda left a bad taste in my mouth, but Naked Empire was a joy to read. The main characters and back and the struggle continues. Richard and Khalan are winning friends and influencing people as usual and Zedd and Adie are back, as are Nathan and Ann. You see a Sister here and there and Mord-sith are all over (but where the hell is Gratch? ;-) ) Overall, I highly recommend it. It's a quick read. Knock it out in a weekend. Goodkind has once again risen to the top of the genre with his latest.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book...but to preachy.
Review: I overall really enjoyed this book its picked up right where the last one left off. Richard is having probems with his gift again he must figure out what is wrong with it not only to save him self but an empire that had been shut off from the world for centuries. Zedd and Adies parts in this book are also very entertaining i wont explain much cause that would kinda ruin it but its very good. Nathan,Ann,Varna, and of course the D'Haran army also are in this book but only for a few chapters and only Ann and Nathan have any signifigant role in this books main story. Overall i would have given this book a 5 but the preachyness of Richard kinda of annoyed me so i only gave it a 4. Still a must buy book though.
Rating:
Summary: Naked Empire
Review: I'm happy with "naked empire" since it didn't continue in the horrible path of "pillars of creation". There are a lot of good parts in this book where Mr. Goodkind creates new ways for Richard and Kahlan to suffer. Of course they come out all right because hey we can't lose the main characters right? If you are an avid fan of the sword of truth series then you will love this book for continuing in those footsteps. However if you had any trouble reading "faith of the fallen" or thought it went on and on about the morality of everything... you won't like this book. With all of the cruddy fantasy authors out there Terry Goodkind offers hope for the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent (as expected from Goodkind)
Review: Excellent book. Deals with current issues (such as the tough choices between "necessary violence" and pacifism). Brings back some old beloved characters from earlier books. Very good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Same old, same old...(spoilers)
Review: Well, to start off on a good note, at least this was better than Pillars of Creation. Of course, if TG would never have written POC, he wouldn't have had to write this. He could have just moved the actual plot of the series forward as it looks like he will do in the next book. While NE did provide some entertaining moments, which is why it got 2 stars instead of 1, there was entirely too much time devoted on back-filling in the story for those people who hadn't read the other books in the series. Come on - this is book 8 - if they start here, they should just read the other books if they want to know what happened before. This book had many repetitive elements from previous books. Once again, there is a new threat that previously didn't exist, and that we'd never heard of. Once again Richard is taken captive. Once again, every word Richard says looks like there was an entire team of speechwriters who gave him a script and he read directly from it. Once again, the main villian who is supposed to be supremely intelligent, appears to have made a breakthrough only to stupidly relinquish his advantage yet again. The overall plot of the series - the conflict with the Imperial Order - is more or less in exactly the same place it was after book 6. Books 7 and 8 were completely side plots, and it seems clear the book 7 was written so he could write book 8. It is clear we could do without either of them, and not miss a beat in the overall plot. The end was extremely predictable, and it is really starting to get old seeing Richard's gift, which he doesn't know how to use, but ultimately uses based on his 'need', do absolutely anything he could possibly need it to in order to get himself out of the jam at the end. Not very creative writing there. All in all, if it hadn't been for the previous book which was so monumentally bad, this book would have been the worst of the series along with Soul of the Fire, which also had a few moments of good stuff. There doesn't appear to be any obvious new threat leading into the next book, so let's hope we finally start moving toward an overall conclusion to the major plotline in the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Empire Without Pants!!!
Review: This book was awesome! Of course, I haven't read it yet, but you can bet your pants I will be. I'm a huge fan of all of Goodkind's novels so far (except, of course, for Pillars of Creation *shudder*) so I've got pretty high expectations.
Rating:
Summary: another great offering by Terry Goodkind
Review: Book 8 of the Sword of Truth After a one book digression to focus on a different character (Jennsen Rahl), The Sword of Truth series returns to put the focus back on Richard Rahl. Naked Empire begins shortly after the end of Pillars of Creation. By shortly after I mean within a couple of hours in the timeline of the series. Jennsen has finally met up with Richard and has learned that she is his half-sister and that Richard really is a good guy (something we've known for the 6 books before POC). We have learned something about Jennsen. She is what is called "pristinely ungifted". This means that she cannot see magic nor can it directly affect her. The reason for this has to do with the Rahl family, but it would take several paragraphs to explain. With Jennsen together with Richard and Kahlan, they can continue their quest deep into the Empire of the Old World. That's the set up. Here's the delivery: Richard is being tracked by strange, large black birds called races. The races are not doing much more than following (a rare attack), so Richard knows that someone is using the races to find out where he is going and what he is doing. Talking with Kahlan he mentions a book he was reading called "The Pillars of Creation", and it has to do with the Pristinely Ungifted like Jennsen. Apparently there was a whole lot of them several thousand years ago and they were all banished to the Old World. That's all anyone really knows about them. Naturally, this means that we're going to see their descendents (they are actually the Empire in the title, not that of Jagang). Richard is also suffering from extreme headaches that reflect the growing of Richard's gift. Richard and company meet up with an old man who tries to convince Richard to save his people from the Empire. Richard explains that he only explains the options to people and exhorts them to rise up themselves because Richard cannot do everything himself nor does he feel the responsibility to help those who won't help themselves. Richard preaches self-empowerment. The man doesn't quite understand and it is revealed that he poisoned Richard to convince him to save his people. You can guess how this plays out and who this man's people actually are. Now that we are back to the main storyline, things get moving along a little bit more. The point of view switches between Richard in the Old World and Zedd back in the New World. One of my favorite things about this series (in a very twisted way) is how Terry Goodkind does not spare his characters anything. They must endure torture and extreme suffering and in the end we still believe it when they are able to overcome the situation they find themselves in. The only question I have is something that has been questioned in other series: Will it ever end? I don't see where Goodkind is going with the Sword of Truth series and I don't see that it is really moving to a resolution anytime soon. On the other hand, this is also a series that can be wrapped up in any one book. The amazing thing about this series is that every single book is a self-contained novel that has its own story arc while it advances the series story arc. Each novel is a solid offering and is strong on its own.
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