Naked Empire (Sword of Truth, Book 8)
by Terry Goodkind
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Book Summary Information
Author: Terry GoodkindEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-06
ISBN: 0765344300
Number of pages: 752
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780765344304
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Naked Empire (Sword of Truth, Book 8)
Book Review: The adventures of Richard the windbag
Summary: 2 Stars
I expected that the SoT books would be getting better and staying better now that we have Jennsen. But what do I get? A lousy book called Naked Empire, that's what! Bags! This is even worse than Soul of the Fire!
We're still in the Old World. We're seeing new landmarks all the time. We could fill a large map with the Empire of Bandakar, the third Boundary, the Keeper's Furnace, etc. But do we get a map? I don't see one. That's just the tip of the iceberg of my complaints about this book.
The plot and character development are not nearly as good as Pillars of Creation. Basically, Richard has to help a bunch of puny pacifist pansies(PPPs), learn how to be soldiers so they can drive the big bad Commies, uh, I mean, the Imperial Order, out of their homeland. His army of PPPs, despite never having picked up weapons in their lives, become deadly warriors and can rout the Imperial Order's trained soldiers, with the help of a Deus Ex Machina(Goodkind must love these; he seems to need at least one per book) in the form of Nathan arriving and blowing apart the Commies with Wizard's Fire. Talk about abrupt character development! I don't care how strongly you PPPs believe in your cause, you're not going to be able to destroy an army of trained soldiers unless you catch them by surprise and outnumber them ten to one.
Other character development? Of course! Richard, once just a simple woodsman, gives several length speeches on how silly the beliefs of the PPPs from Bandakar are, and prattles on without end about how life is beautiful, freedom is good and Communism is bad . . . Yeah, yeah, yeah. Terry Goodkind has hit absolute rock-bottom: Instead of writing a fantasy story, he's disguised a rant against anti-war thoughts as a book and passed it off to simultaneously accomplish his goal of making more money by selling lousy books. This is the worst plot choice a fantasy author can possible make, and Goodkind's latest book suffers heavily from it. Half the dialogue is given in a speech or a rant. Go ahead, Goodkind, rant all you want, but don't have your windbag of a hero preach your beliefs and then try to pass this drivel off as an actual novel.
But what irks me the most is what the author is doing to Jennsen. She was the best character in Pillars of Creation, had her own emotions, interests, and desires, and her own quest and character development, but in this book she is basically reduced to Richard's knife-wielding sidekick! Her mild case of claustrophobia and her stupid goat cause Richard a mammoth load of trouble during Naked Empire. And what happens to her at the end? She stays in Bandakar, with the PPPs. Talk about a sad ending! Of course, Goodkind can't be bothered to actually try to develop the story while he's bashing us over the head with his political drivel, can he?
Ah, and now for the plot. Guess what happens? Are you ready for it?! It will really redefine your definition of epic! . . . Richard undergoes an Ordeal, and he and Kahlan get separated! For the sixth/seventh time in eight books! I really have to hand it to Mr. Goodkind, for managing to sell millions of copies when his plotlines are so unoriginal! Basically, through the haze of repeated themes, his story simply boils down to Goodkind setting up a straw-man of all the beliefs he doesn't like(the PPPs) and he has his hero launch into a holier-than-thou speech on how stupid their beliefs are, and everyone looks at him like his ranting is the epitome of wisdom. A character preaching so much makes the dialogue feel incredibly stilted and unrealistic, not to mention incredibly boring. Any good editor could easily cut 100 pages or more from this book without sacrificing the plot, just by reducing the length and number of the speeches and flashbacks in this book.
Also, Goodkind forgets about Jagang and introduces a new villain: Nickolas the Slide. Though he was actually a very creepy, interesting, and cool villain, he was introduced and killed off way too quickly, without his potential being taken advantage of. When a villain is introduced and then killed off in the same book, with several villains before him, you know the series is going down hill. Goodkind is just throwing a "villain of the week" at us in each book, now.
If you've read the other seven books, than you should probably make an effort to finish the whole series. However, don't get your hopes up. The good days of Wizard's First Rule are long gone, and there is not a shred of hope that Goodkind will ever put himself back on track. Once, he wrote about characters that he felt had chosen him to tell their unique story, characters whom we cared about and who actually behaved like human beings. Once, we followed them through quests where we hoped and feared for them and never were pulled out by the ugly realization that this whole plot is just the author bashing you over the head with his beliefs. Once, he was a real fantasy author. Now, he writes solely to project his close-minded philosophy. Now, he drags the characters we love through contrived situations against their will. Now, Richard and Kahlan are little more than the puppets in Terry Goodkind's never-ending rant. Now, there is no suspension of disbelief.
The Sword of Truth just isn't what it used to be. Now, it's just Goodkind's little cash cow, an empty shell of the epic adventure that it was in the beginning.
1.5 stars.
Summary of Naked Empire (Sword of Truth, Book 8)
Beginning with Wizard's First Rule and continuing with six subsequent fantasy masterpieces, Terry Goodkind has thrilled and awed millions of readers worldwide. Now Goodkind returns with a broad-canvas adventure of epic intrigue, violent conflict, and terrifying peril for the beautiful Kahlan Amnell and her husband, the heroic Richard Rahl, the Sword of Truth.
Richard Rahl has been poisoned. Saving an empire from annihilation is the price of the antidote. With the shadow of death looming near, the empire crumbling before the invading hordes, and time running out, Richard is offered not only his own life but the salvation of a people, in exchange for delivering his wife, Kahlan, into bondage to the enemy.
Richard Rahl has been poisoned. Saving an empire from annihilation is the price of the antidote. With the shadow of death looming near, the empire crumbling before the invading hordes, and time running out, Richard is offered not only his own life but the salvation of a people, in exchange for delivering his wife, Kahlan, into bondage to the enemy.
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