Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind

If you enjoy reading material that sails close to Lucifer and his minions then this is the book for you! Clever soft and hard layers incorporate with each other to provide a prelude to impending disaster. Although; there does seem to be a lack of care for the audience - it does highlight the problem of nihilism in a political system ruled by an anti - christian sentiment. And all this is provided under a banner of high art. Your heart goes out to the sinners pinned in the underworld.

I only recently discovered the SoT series, and i have really loved every minute of it, i even got a number of my friends into the them too and i have to say that Faith of the Fallen is one of my favourite books of all time, let alone in the series. People are going on to much about communism and such, but this is a great book. Sure there are some bits that are a bit slow, but in those bits there are so many key ideas and issues being brought up that people are missing. I have to admit parts where Kahlan and Cara are with the army frustrated me a bit, but only because i was so intensely engrossed with the Richard/Nicci part of the plot that i just wanted to get back to them! The worded battles between them are epic as their ideas clash in such a strong way, and the clever switching of perception between them gives every scene such added depth as seeing it Richards way then how Nicci view the exact situation. Also this book really shows the ideals that the Order is trying to uphold and adds yet another dimension to the series, because up until now they were simply viewed as an army wanting to conquer, now you know why they are doing what they are doing.
So how people could not like this book is beyond me.

Blatant, heavy-handed anti-communist diatribe. Horribly out-of place and lacking any manner of subtlety. Not that I disagree that Communism is bad; I despise collectivism, the emergence of the total welfare state, and the gradual death of freedom that is, in fact, happening as we speak. That doesn't mean I approve of bad fiction that I may agree with, politically.

In addition to its blunt, in-your-face McCarthy-istic tendencies, it's about as formulaic and poorly plotted as the previous entry (and following entry) in the series.

I really enjoyed "Wizard's First Rule", but every succeeding book was slightly worse. Soul of the Fire was barely worth reading.

Faith of the Fallen is pure tripe. Avoid it, and be warned, those of you who have yet to read Goodkind: The series leads nowhere worth going. I wish I could put up an intellectual street sign regarding Goodkind's work, reading: "Not a Through Road"