Rating: 
Summary: The Division Bell
Review: Beginning with Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth fantasy series contains fiction that is both entertaining and challenging. Goodkind's latest foray seems to take on allegorical undertones that are none too subtle.Today's current struggle with terrorism is a curious one. There are those who would denounce the existence of evil, claiming that there is no such thing. What is perceived as evil is nothing more than people who can be nurtured and shepherded into normal life with only the open arms of love. President Bush became enmeshed in a quagmire of negative criticism when he declared the existence of a triumvirate of evil that existed in the world during his State of the Union address. Perhaps Goodkind used Bush's speech and subsequent criticism as the basis for Naked Empire, and mayhap he merely was inspired by presidential candidates who actively denounced the United States' war against Iraq. Clearly, Goodkind's intention is to level profound criticism upon the spirit of appeasing political tyrants. The hero of The Sword of Truth, Richard Rahl, finds himself coerced to help an empire of people who are simply known as pillars of creation. These people are born without a single spark of magic. Magic cannot touch them and these people are blind to magic's wonders. These pillars of creation have built an empire that is truly 'enlightened'. There is no death penalty. People who resort to violence are banished. No decision is reached without social enlightenment. Along comes the invasion of Jajang and his Imperial Order. If ever there was a comparable Saddam Hussein figure in literature, the evil Jajang is he. The empire of the pillars of creation is sacked, and the people are used and abused royally. They refuse to fight back, choosing instead to use appeasement as their weapon of choice. Things get worse. In order to assist the pillars of creation, Richard tries to elicit their help. He offers a history of their people, telling why the pillars of creation were banished and allowed to form their own empire. "'...banished your ancestors not only because they couldn't see magic, but, more importantly, because they couldn't see evil.'" One of the pillars answers, "'But what you call evil is just a way of expressing an inner pain.'" Another says, "'Saying someone is evil is prejudiced thinking. It's a way of belittling someone already in pain for some reason. Such people must be embraced and taught to shed their fears of their fellow man and then they will not strike out in violent ways.'" Richard loses his patience and informs them that those who banished the pillars of creation "'feared you because you are dangerous to everyone...you embrace evil with your teachings. In so doing, in trying to be kind, to be unselfish, in trying to be nonjudgmental, you allow evil to become far more powerful than it otherwise would. You refuse to see evil, and so you welcome it among you. You allow it to exist. You give it power over you. You are a people who have welcomed death and refused to denounce it.' 'You are an empire naked to the shadow of evil.'" These are powerful words that could be spoken by today's left and right presidential candidates. As the last line spoken by Richard Rahl indicates, the book's title lurks within his final climatic statement. The pillars of creation will discover those words to be as sharp and true as the sword of truth itself. Unlike other fantasy series that seem to lose momentum with each book, Terry Goodkind writes with a crescendo of adventure, usually insuring that each new book in the series surpasses the last. The Naked Empire is no exception. Not only does Goodkind entertain, he also sheds light upon today's current events. Put simply, when it comes to creating brilliant allegorical fantasy, nobody does it better.
Rating: 
Summary: Naked Empire good and the bad
Review: This book in not one of his best but is still a good book there are a few part where it lags in the middle of the book but the good news is that he stoped switching between Characters so often in this book, making les frustating to read trough those dull molments, over all i say it was a prity good book, it left me begging for the next one wich thay have not announced yet.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Wonderful book. Great character development in the series overall, and further in this outing. As to the opinion that TG wrote this book to expound upon the Iraq war, I say RUBBISH. Many writers have put there personal thoughts in an allegorical manner. I thought his book made sense, and put down ideas that are as valid today as they were in yesteryear.
Rating: 
Summary: The end of the Sword
Review: The first 6 books of the series were fun to read. Filling his tales with magic and serpentine plots, the reader could ignore his sophmoric writing, but with 'Pillars of Creation' the series started coming apart. 'Naked Empire' is the final nail in the coffin. (I hope) The first quarter of the book is nothing but a retelling of the first 7 books as the characters move from the middle of a desert to it's edge. The plot twists are transparent, the writing dull and repetitive. It reminds me of the Hardy Boy books I used to read when I was 10 years old, except for the extreme violence. Mr. Goodkind has a creepy fascination with rape and violence and that disqualifies this as a children's book, but that is basically what it is. The author spends hundreds of pages saying absolutely nothing and I for one, was insulted. To quote Terry Goodkind, "Dead is Dead". Let's hope he heeds his own advice and spares us any more trips to this very dry well.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolutely Dreadful Book
Review: Goodkind is all for "moral clarity," so I have to put this bluntly. The book is terrible. The plot is advanced perhaps a millimeter in hundreds of pages. Why, you ask? So that we may have the great fortune of listening to Mr. Goodkind rant his sub-Ayn Randian Objectivism for page after page. The ideas espoused are spoken with the conviction a Hitler youth--just as naively self-assured, just as accepting (embracing) of violence. I am all for individual responsibility, freedom, etc., but to have them preached to me page after page in such a clumsy and didactic fashion (your childhood Sunday School teacher was more elegant and eloquent than Richard's speeches on the subjects) made me want to toss up my hands and surrender. In fact, if it weren't for the disturbing brutality of Richard and his enemies, I would say that this was intended for youth, like the Victorian-era morality tales that sold so well. The story involved Richard being poisoned, finding a group of people that lack "moral clarity" (read "peaceniks" or "hippies" here--two groups that the author obviously loathes) and searching for the antidote. During this time he suffers nausea and headaches that we just don't care to hear about. His wife, Kahlan, again plays the fool and gets herself captured. There is a new evil wizard that can steal the souls of the people he impales on sticks. He then uses these souls somehow to control large black birds and goats (though why he does not simply put his own spirit into them without placing people onto sticks is not made known to us). There is a girl that has no magic that keeps company with a goat. The girl has no character, has nothing to do with the story. The goat, being a goat, should probably not be a main character in a novel, but this is a decision left to Mr. goodkind. At times the writing makes you want to laugh out loud. When the evil wizard has placed people on stakes so that he can fly in big birds, the dialogue becomes exactly what you read in "Fun with Dick and Jane." "look, look. See, see. Go up. Go down." I know you think I exaggerate, but you can verify this for yourself if you wish. The arguments for the capitalist and objectivist philosophy are not fun to read. They ramble on and on, and the points they make are trivial at best. The characters act, conveniently, in ways that bolster the arguments. In fact, they are not really human characters at all, they are pieces of cardboard, cut out and painted neatly with black or white finger paints. The good people are wholly good--perfect and sainted. The evil people are absolutely and totally evil--they have no redeeming merits and hate even their own mommies. In short, they are contrivances. The outcome is a forgone conclusion. I could not ruin it for you because it is too obvious. I cannot say that it was satisfying. Nothing about this puerile work really was. I know that sounds harsh. But as a new convert to the righteous Mr. Goodkind's vision of "moral clarity", I have to call it what it is.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: Hey guys if any of you didn't like this series or book i would urge you to read Robert Jordan's Series The Wheel of Time, because you would come crawling back to Goodkind after the first few books. At least with the Truth Series stuff happens and its interesting and all the characters dont act the same and have the same stereotypes and say the same things over and over and over again. If you need a good nap i suggest Jordan over Goodkind anyday.
Rating: 
Summary: At least it continues the story line...
Review: At the end of the 6th book, "Faith of the Fallen", I was actually EXCITED about a book, and couldn't wait for the next one. The 7th book, "The Pillars of Creation", was well written, but it disapointed in that it deviated so much from the storyline (Richard and Kahlan don't appear until very near the end of the book). It does, however, ultimately introduce a new plot line (people who are totaly separate from Magic) which is advanced in the 8th book, "Naked Empire". "Naked Empire" has the kernel of a decent novel, if you can get past the sermons. There are places where I got tired of the preaching and skipped whole pages. The bad thing is that I actually AGREE with most of the points; I just don't want to read pages and pages of empasioned explanations and justifications of them. Just like the 7th book, the ultimate plot line is only slightly advanced. Actually, the 7th and 8th books could probably have been combined fairly easily. I'd recommend borrowing this book from a friend or buying a used book before investing in a good-quality hardcover for your collection. Some people really liked it. I didn't.
Rating:
Summary: what happened to this series???
Review: I started with the first few books of Terry Goodkind's 'Sword of Truth' series enjoying them wholeheartedly. The quick action scenes, combined with descriptive and imaginitve scenes, dialouge and great plot twists got me hooked. But as the series proceeded, i started getting a feeling that Terry was trying to get at something. Now with book 8, Goodkind has thrown any pretext of a 'Novel' aside and has reverted into the kind of raving dribble usually relegated to AM radio. First Richard had to battle an 'evil' empire that remarkably resembled communism, by using free market ideals to inspire the populance. Wow, thats insightful.
Now we find our intrepid hero doing battle the 'evil doers' that are just plain evil (osama anybody?) and what stands in his way?
Peace protesters shouting "no war", fortunately our brave hero wastes no time hacking the unarmed women and children to bits before doing battle with the evil ones. As the series progressed, less and less imagination has gone into the plot. And far more energy has gone into pushing Mr Goodkind's right wing maniacal vision. What started out as a promising series, now has degenerated into an Ann Coulter diatribe with battle scenes. If youre at book 5, stop there and start reading a new author. If you have any doubt about this, check this guys photo. He has a pony tail for gods sake. I bet hes 5 foot 2.
Rating:
Summary: Back on Track
Review: Terry Goodkind seems to have realized the mistake he made by moving the focus of the series away from Richard and Kahlan. Unlike "Pillars of Creation" which spent the majority of its time on secondary characters (who knows, they may become pivotal in the next few books), in "Naked Empire" we again follow the wayward couple as they enter a new area of the Old World.
I won't give away plot details, but will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The plot twists kept me awake several nights as I couldn't put it down. Although certainly not the best in the series, this definately ranks high for sheer entertainment value. If you're a fan, pick it up and dive in. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Easily the worst book in the series
Review: Goodkind's writing has become flat, the dialogue bland, and Richard is overly preachy. His new characters are boring, and Kahlan and Richard barely changed, other than some of Richard's big revelations about his gift. This book is pretty much a 667 page argument for the death penalty. After a stunning 6th book, I was looking foward to the continuation. Both book 7 and this book are far bellow what Goodkind is capable of. And after everything Richard and company has gone through, they aren't even one step closer to getting rid of Jagang. Hopefully the next book actually advances the main plot.
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