Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind

This book is pure unadulterated rubbish. I adored the first six books of this series and rushed out to buy Pillars of Creation. It turned out to be an absolute abortion, but that's another review entirely. Thus, it was with great trepidation that I purchased Naked Empire, and all my worst fears turned out to be justified. It is a dreary repetitive mess, composed mostly of a rehash of the story thus far and endless pages of Goodkind's/Richard's eclectic, illogical, and contadictory quilt of political views. If I wanted political propoganda, I'd tune in to the American news networks: at least they are coherent. Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing in the way of character development, and precious little in the way of plot. What plot there is is merely poorly written connective tissue linking a series of droning political monologues. One day, if I'm stuck in an airport, with a twenty-hour flight ahead of me, and absolutely nothing else to read, I just MIGHT purchase Chainfire.

The rainiest May on record in Ireland resulted in our purchase of this book. (We were on vacation, and tired of hassling with the umbrellas) I have never read Goodkind before (what an inappropriate name), yet I finished this book. I will never know why. I do enjoy science-fiction, but this had to be one of the worst-written books I have read in a long time. His descriptions are hackneyed. How many times to I have to read about Kaylen's "special smile" or the "puling of the goat". The characters' preaching are obnoxious. The book is full of contradictions. And what about the insertion of gratitious scenes of violence, such as Darken Rahl forcing a soldier to put his head into the entrails of a slain horse and eat the entrails until he suffocates. As a liberal I try to understand different points of view, just like the population that Goodkind criticizes, but this is too much. I think Goodkind should just run for office and get it over with. He obviously is more interested in politics than writing. And he certainly is obsessed with rape. This is one man I would shudder to have dinner with.

I am a fan of Terry Goodkind and have read all the books in the series. I'm amazed that more people haven't picked up on the Objectivism in this book. At times I felt it could be John Galt from Atlas Shrugged talking, not Richard! It seems that Goodkind got tired of talking around his point and decided to ram it down our throats. I enjoyed it but prefer a less didactic novel!