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"

This book is my favorite book out of the Sword of Truth series. For the last 400 pages it made me do an all nighter because i couldn't put it down.
Some complaints i've heard are that the ideas that Goodkind presents are childish, simple and just plain obvious. But those are the ideas that we do need to live by. Those simple ideas are usually the most important ones, and that's why Goodkind shows them so much, and so well, in this book with Richard doing the right, but not easy, thing again and again in hard times. I loved this book because of those revelational theme idea parts. They are my favorite parts of the whole series and i can't explain to you how annoying it was to read about those characters pretending to not be able to work for stupid reasons and getting money, and how great it was when they were shown the truth.
This is a great book in the Sword of Turth series and very much worth picking up.

This was the last book in the series that I actually got through, and if you've read some of the other reviews, you might see why. The first few chapters of the novel are interesting, with Richard, Kahlan and Cara living on their own. Then Nicci comes along with the idea that by kidnapping Richard she will firstly be able to convert him to her way of thinking; and secondly that the 'light' in his eyes will answer some obscure question she has, presumably about the grand meaning of life. Richard sure is a great great guy. This is the first book in the series that Goodkind really climbs up onto his ideological high-horse and lets the reader know how he feels about political and economic systems. I didn't know much about capitalism or socialism or Marx when I read this book, so it seemed rather nice when Richard urged everyone to get off their rears and work hard instead of relying on stingy handouts. I thought the crowd's reaction to the unveiling of the statue was slightly ridiculous, but that also had a certain symbolic appeal. However, now I look back on these books and can hardly bring myself to pick them up. Goodkind is not the most subtle author out there, and I believe that many of his ideas are quite elementary, even if they're wrapped up in exciting quests and fantastical lands.