Naked Empire (Sword of Truth)

I know that some others didn't enjoy this book, but there was something about this one that kept my interest. Nowhere near my favorite up to this point, but I did like it. A formerly secluded empire suddenly is thrust back into the world after the boundry keeping them hidden away is taken down and

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the Imperial Order moves in. The story is really a tale of an "enlightened" people who learn to fight for their freedom in ways that go against everything they've known.

This starts off a bit slow but after plugging through the first few chapters it starts to come together. Some view this novel as being preachy for Terry's political ideas, but I didn't see it that way (perhaps because I tend to agree with his philosophy). If you're looking for sword / sorcery, high fantasy, then I can see where you may have problems with this book, but if you've made it this far in the series then this fits nicely and moves the story along.

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This book, while an improvement from the previous book in the series, continues to not add much to the overarching plot of the series. However, I do appreciate Goodkind using Richard and Kahlan to do little, in sharp contrast to using a new character, as in the last book.

Goodkind's 8th novel in his epic finds Richard and Kahlan travelling with Cara, Jennsen, and Tom to a group of "banished" people - a whole empire of the ungifted - who have fallen into the clutches of the order. The Order is using them to help breed magic out of the world, and using some of them to

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overtake Wizard's Keep. These people have no idea of freedom, and flee from any conflict. As a consequence they poision Richard in an effort to compel him to rid their land of the Order. Richard has other issues though - his gift is killing him and he does not know why. He teaches the Bakandar how to fight for thier right to live, to deserve vistory - as the Wizard's Eighth rule states, but will he learn his own lesson from them?

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By far the worst in the series. Mostly different characters giving long, long sermons which would be bad enough but becomes unbearable since I disagree completely.

I had invested a good amount of time in reading the "Sword of Truth" series. I found myself increasingly frustrated with the thinly veiled agenda of Terry Goodkind. I hated this book and I didn't finish the series. Just avoid this book series altogether, unless you are in the Tea-Party.

More interesting than the previous tome of the series, with once again a dissertation on morality, good, evil and the justification of acting against evil. The suspense of the plot keeps you wanting to tell Richard 'no, you are wrong, what you think is false', but of course we cannot and we keep

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wondering whether he will die at the end or not.

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The eighth volume in the Sword of Truth series, Naked Empire tells the tale of a civilization of the pristinely ungifted, a race of people banished from the New World thousands of years before and who Richard encounters as they fall prey to the schemes of the Imperial Order. Richard, Kahlan, and

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Cara find themselves engaged in a battle to convince these threatened people to fight for their lives, while Richard's life is also threatened by a progressive poison. The war between the New World and the Imperial Order takes some new twists and turns in this volume. A great story and a wonderful series.

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Know the phrase "jumping the shark?" It's that moment in a series, book or television or feature film, where a once-loved franchise moves into a point of no return. With almost all the series I had read before Sword of Truth, I had been lucky if I liked it to keep liking it. This and L.K.

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Hamilton's Anita Blake are what ended that happy streak, and ended my practice of sticking it out to the end no matter what. With Hamilton, I finally quit some time ago mid Book 17, and am happier for it. With Goodkind I stuck to the (very) bitter end. And I'm not alone in feeling disappointed with a series that at first enthralled me.

A lot of people feel Goodkind lost it when he began to insert more and more of his political philosophy into his books. It certainly helps if, like me, you're basically sympathetic to a libertarian philosophy. The first dividing point seems to come from the reviews I've seen with Soul of the Fire, the fifth book, where people first notice some preachiness. Goodkind's philosophy becomes much more overt in the plot with Faith of the Fallen, with its clanging anvils about the evils of socialism, but for the record, I still was greatly enjoying the series there. I hated The Pillars of Creation; I wanted to strangle Jennsen by the end, and her little goat too! But all was well I thought when here the focus returned to Richard. Well, except in this novel the preachiness did become nigh unbearable even to me here in the choir. If anything did annoy me in Faith of the Fallen it was how Richard had become a Marty Stu. OK, great tracker, leader, general, magician. But now a sculptor to rival Michelangelo in greatness? In Naked Empire I thought I saw another trait of Marty Stu-ness. Or maybe just authorial ego amok? Richard is never wrong. He never even thinks he might be wrong. And this is where I thought Richard's adversaries truly were straw men I couldn't believe could ever be encountered outside fiction.

I did enjoy this novel much, much more than The Pillars of Creation though or would the concluding Chainfire Trilogy. There was still life in the series, and characters I still enjoyed like Cara. That's why I'm rating it as high as I am. Probably also helped Naked Empire came out in paperback just as I was reading through the series. Sheer momentum propelled me forward I'm sure. It was a very different case when Chainfire came out in hardcover after I had to wait for it. Naked Truth was the last book in the series I could (barely) enjoy at all.

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After having read this novel, I'm pretty sure Terry Goodkind gets paid by the word. He could have cut this novel in half, and it would still be entirely too long. In Naked Empire, Richard Rahl has been poisoned, and he needs to find an antidote. In the meantime, the Empire that he rules is being

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invaded by barbarians.

This novel was absolutely dreadful in many ways. Someone should tell Mr. Goodkind that he's writing a fantasy novel, not a dissertation. He went on and on about the philosophy of magic and people who aren't receptive to it. I felt like stabbing myself in the eye about halfway through it. I have no idea how he can have many readers. Among popular fantasy writers, he is among the worst I have read. His characters are poorly drawn out and not remotely interesting. His plot goes nowhere, and is not particularly imaginative. After reading Naked Empire, I have no interest in reading any further novels from Terry Goodkind.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street

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I have to admit that I liked this one way more than the previous. My favorite characters are back, and they actually stay together for most of the story!

This book doesn't really follow the main story. It is more a side story that is still a part of the larger story. Jagang only appears for a few

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chapters, but there is a new villain introduced that Richard has to take care of. Throughout the book, Richard and Kahlan are forced to help a group of people known as the Bandakar. We later find out who these people really are, and you will find out why Richard is forced to help, but I don't wan't to spoil anything. As this is going on, Zedd and Addie are protecting the Wizard's Keep, but loose it when they are captured by some men and a Sister of the Dark. They are taken to Jagang and tortured for information.

I was really worried about Zedd and Addie the entire time! I really didn't know what was going to happen to them. There were times when I almost cried because Zedd remembers some things from his past that are a bit upsetting. Lets just say I was really intrigued by their story and how it was resolved.

As for Richard and Kahlan's story, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was interesting to learn about these new people and see who they really were. The only problem with this part of the book was that these people were extremely misinformed and cut off from the rest of civilization, so Richard has to go into several lengthy speeches, and it started becoming a bit too preachy for me. Also, the new villain "Nicholas the Slide", was just annoying and not well developed. I couldn't stand all the repetitive details of his actions and thoughts. The battle that Richard and Nicholas have wasn't what I was expecting either.

Overall, it was a pretty decent story. There were slow parts, but they were filled with some history and other important information, and there were also a few enjoyable battles. I liked this book much more than the previous, but it is not my favorite.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has read this far into the series. It is a good and fun read, and better than the last book.

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To date, this is my favorite book in the series. Richard, Kahlan, Cara, and Tom, along with Richard's newfound sister, Jennsen, travel into a land that has been unknown to the rest of the world for three thousand years. Richard is on the brink of death if he is unable or unwilling to help the

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people of this newfound land. And all the while, a new evil, brought to bear by the Sisters of the Dark, threatens the lives of those committed to stopping the Imperial Order. Events unfold at a breakneck speed, as Richard and company race against time to inspire these new people to have faith in themselves and in the truth, and to fight alongside Richard for freedom.

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Not my favourite in the series but not my least favorite either. There is not a whole lot of character growth within the main characters but the storyline does continue to grow well. The return of some of my favourite character also made me very happy.

This took me absolutely ages to finish reading. Only because it is such a huge book and I am unwilling to take it on my commute to and from work, where I would normally read most. So, I have only been catching bits now and then, although there was an unputdownable section in the middle of the book

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that kept me reading long after my usual bedtime. So, it wasn't too bad, and the book solved a mystery or two that had been set up in previous books. The main theme was about the pristinely ungifted Bandakar people, and Richard & friends' struggle to get them to help themselves. Which in part helped Richard to understand himself and sort out his magic. Also, it was nice that Chase made an appearance with little Rachel, in time for the rescue of Zed from the clutches of Jagang. It all ends well too! No kidnap cliff-hangers like in previous books. We know Richard and Kahlan have a lot to do, but at least they are together at the end of this book... for a change!

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Felt like I was being lectured at times, series is starting to take a nose dive.

While this book is better than The Pillars of Creation, it isn't by much. The entire thing is one long preach about the evils of pacifism. Even without the preaching, it's still a poor book overall. Like a previous person said, Richard's sister Jensen has been reduced to a sidekick and good for

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pretty much nothing. Her goat Betty played a bigger role here than she did. And surprise surprise, Kahlan is taken prisoner again. Boring.

At this point, I'm reading the series just to finish it. I'm so tired of Goodkind's writing. In every book, he repeats himself over and over again. How many times do we have to read about the effect that drawing the Sword of Truth has on Richard or the entire history surrounding Confessors whenever Kahlan uses her power? Speaking of which, Goodkind never explains why Kahlan's power didn't have any effect on Nicolas. I also hate how convenient he comes up with Richard's solution to the problem with his gift. It's amazing how wizards much more experienced and far older than Richard didn't know that their theory on balance and how it relates to not eating meat were completely wrong.

I really hope The Wheel of Time series is better than this one.

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