"'You knew they were there, didn't you?' Kahlan asked in a hushed tone as she leaned closer. Against the darkening sky, she could just make out the shapes of three black-tipped races taking to wing, beginning their nightly hunt. That was why he'd stopped. That was what he'd been watching as the rest of them waited in uneasy silence.

"'Yes,' Richard said. He gestured over his shoulder without turning to look. "There are two more, back there." Kahlan briefly scanned the dark jumble of rock, but she didn't see any others. Lightly grasping the silver pommel with two fingers, Richard lifted his sword a few inches, checking that it was clear in its scabbard. A last fleeting glimmer of amber light played across his golden cape as he let the sword drop back, in place. In the gathering gloom of dusk, his familiar tall, powerful contour seemed as if it were no more than an apparition made of shadows.

"Just then, two more of the huge birds shot by right overhead. One, wings stretched wide, let out a piercing scream as it banked into a tight gliding turn, circling, once, in assessment of the five people below before stroking its powerful wings to catch its departing comrades in their swift journey west. This night they would find ample food."

Listening Length

22 hours and 30 minutes
Author

Terry Goodkind
Narrator

Jim Bond
Audible release date

May 13 2008
Language

English
Publisher

Brilliance Audio
ASIN

B0725MZHC7
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	22 hours and 30 minutes
Author	Terry Goodkind
Narrator	Jim Bond
Audible.ca Release Date	May 13 2008
Publisher	Brilliance Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B0725MZHC7
Best Sellers Rank	#5,457 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #9 in Sword of Truth #245 in Action & Adventure Fantasy #425 in Epic Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

3,146 global ratings

5 star		61%
4 star		26%
3 star		10%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Not one of his better books

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 24, 2014

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To be honest, I have been somewhat disappointed with the last few books, including this one. At this point, Im really just still reading them for the sake of wanted to finish the overall story, but am not making this series a priority.

This book spends a good amount of time repeating itself. I lost count of how many pages were wasted on the exact same topics covered earlier in the book already. I won't spell them out to spoil it for anyone who plans to read, but you will catch on fairly quick...

One person found this helpful

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Cathy M

Love the series

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 31, 2020

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Another favorite book

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Raymond Weiler

Good book, few mistakes

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 28, 2016

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I enjoyed reading this book again. This rendition of the book doesn't have that many mistakes in it and doesn't distract from the story.

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Jeff Gomske

A LOT of ranting -- but I STILL enjoyed it...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 1, 2003

First off, I was REALLY disappointed with Pillars of Creation as were most of the readers (if the reviews here at amazon are any indication), and I was HOPING -- PRAYING for a return of the central characters that made reading this series so enjoyable over the course of the previous books...I was also hoping for an update on a few of the *lost* people, namely Nathan the Prophet, the REAL Prelate of the Sisters of Light and Adie & Zedd. Thank HEAVENS we get a small glimpse of what they are up to and where they all are in the battle to eliminate the Imperial Order from the face of the earth.
I hate lectures as well as the next guy, but one of the reasons why I wasn't put off by Richard's (sometimes) lengthy speeches is simple: I AGREE WITH HIM. The pacifists of this world would rather lie down and DIE rather than actually DO something about the sorry state they find themselves in, much like the Naked Empire we find in this book. They firmly believe that bowing down to terrorism is better than fighting for freedom. These are the same people who insult the hundreds of thousands of men & women who have over the course of the past couple centuries died to let us have the freedoms we enjoy in this country. YES, war SHOULD be avoided IF possible. Unfortunately circumstances DO warrant action, sometimes drastic action, and this is what I believe Richard is talking about in Naked Empire and also in Faith of the Fallen. YES, he more than likely could've cut plenty out of the speeches to avoid needless repetition, but I also believe that one of the main reasons why it was brought up so often is to maintain the realism of the situation that the characters find themselves in: Namely trying to convince confirmed pacifists to STOP dying for NO GOOD REASON. If you have ever met a TRUE pacifist, you know that attempting to talk sense is like pounding your head against a wall. Often those who talk like pacifists have never truly lived in ANY kind of situation that would require them to live in fear as do many in other parts of the world where the price of freedom is truly being able to defend ones self fully. Living a life of pacifism is no life at all -- JUST as Richard says. I honestly don't care if Mr. Goodkind IS copying Atlas Shrugged, personally I don't see the similarities as some claim there to be, but just like religion, you have ONE BOOK (the Bible) and a thousand different interpretations. While mine may differ from many, I still enjoyed this story.
The new Empire that Richard, Kahlan and company are forced into visiting and helping truly believes that submitting to the torture and rule of the Imperial Order is better than living free. Richard desperately attempts to force them into seeing how this is going to eventually cause their people to be eradicated, and although it takes him the better part of the book for this to happen, he finally breaks through their stubborness and this is truly where the action begins. Once again, I wish this had happened much sooner, but as I've said before, this is Terry Goodkind's tale, and if he wishes to take 10 more novels to finish it up, that is HIS right. Sure, I can hint for him to wrap up the battle with Jagang and restore peace to the land as soon as possible to get the plot back on track, but no matter what, I will be first in line to purchase his next novel, regardless where that story goes. Oh, one person DID bring up something interesting in a previous review that I felt was worth noting: from reading the Stone of Tears I didn't think there were all that many Sisters of Light & Dark, but there certainly seems to be an in-exhaustable supply of Dark Sisters in Jagang's hoard of evil-doers. I'm just wondering where they all came from -- especially since between Richard, Kahlan, Zedd & Adie they have killed off dozens of them in earlier books. Just curious, that's all.
If you are one of the many who have been turned off by Mr. Goodkinds last few books, that is certainly your choice, but I for one am sticking with him and fervently hope that he continues to write full-time and as long as he does, he can count on me to be a faithful reader.

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Dave

It is still an engrossing story

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 10, 2004

I just read some of the other reviews online, and as usual you find those who like the book, and the "critics" who chastise the writer for wasting their time. I hope I am not wasting your time by writing this if you are reading this.
I like fantasy, so I just liked reading the book. It is still an engrossing tale despite some of the comments. I think the critics are right about his last book, "Pillars of Creation" though, not this one. I never finished it because it was, well, not interesting to me, but it was to many other people in the world. This book I found interesting but very fractured with all the characters running around the world in chaos. So, as you would expect, every chapter becomes stand alone with very few ties to the main characters. And the story meandered. That being said, I think the chapters were still entertaining to read. Alot of it was stuff meant for a new reader I think in the series, and was probably required by the publisher. How many times do we need to read about Khalan's undying love or the clothes she wears as a mother confessor, which goes on for pages, etc.? I just paged through those sections. If you've read the series this is commonplace and probably unavoidable by the writer. If you are a new reader then you will enjoy the pictures put into words very nicely. This is still a good book to read, but not up to the standard of "Wizards First Rule" or the other first 3 books in the series, which many have stated, and I believe is true. That book had the passion, love, fear, anguish at losses, intrigue and just excitement in the story that is hard to find in these latest books. I mean I just became one with the story when I first read "Wizards First Rule" as I still do when I reread "Lord of the Rings". That is harder to do with these latest books. But I still like Mr. Goodkinds imagination and his way of describing things which is so vivid and alive. One can easily become lost in the story, that is, if they are not an English Lit major trying to redefine everything the writer has written.
I mentioned that last of all, because although critics are necessary for an artist to understand strengths and weaknesses they are oftentimes very cruel in their expression of their thoughts, and also very wrong. I am reminded of the movie "Back to School" when Rodney Dangerfield had Kurt Vonnegut (I apologize if I misspelled that) write an essay on one of his books for Dangerfield, in college, hehe. It was helarious. Sally Kellerman was the PhD who supposedly knew everything about literature. She gave him a D for the paper and stated that whoever wrote it did not know a thing about Kurt Vonnegut. I am laughing as I write this. I sometimes believe that the severe critics are more into what they (the critics) believe than what the author had to say or what his or her message is or was, if they are deceased. They are more impressed by what they have to say and their way of expressing it, rather than just the joy of reading the material. It is obvious that Mr. Goodkind is expressing his philosopy about war, love, life, death, you name it, and we can all learn from that. But, it has been told through such an engrossing story of love, hate, wizardry, war and deception, you name it. It is a wonderful story. I happen to agree with much of his philosophy on life and his political views on fascism and collectivism, etc. And as described in the book these are controlled by Hegimons, Demigods and Dictators. He himself (Richard), is also a Monarch of sorts, so the political message is obviously distorted. It is up to each of us to understand it in our own way though, just like philosophies and religions of life written by many great people throughout history. Something I do know about, and have studied at length.
Anyway if you just like to get lost in a book and enjoy the imagery, then I recommend this book. If your a Literature major who wants to disect the content of everthing you read and write about it, then read Thomas Mann's story, "Mario and the Magician" or Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist", you can spend a month on those and still not get them right, hehe. Sorry.

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Top reviews from other countries

Ben

Moralistically simple, and problematic. Probably the weak point of the series.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 18, 2021

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Naked Empire - a short parody

Kahlan looked on as Richard climbed onto the platform, and took in the crowd with his raptor gaze.
"I am better than all of you, and you know it," he said, finally. The crowd murmured, if only he could make them understand!
"It is impossible for me to make a mistake. My enemies hate me because I am the ideal man. They have told you that if you oppose them they will kill you all. Well, I am different. I will kill you all if you side with my enemies. If you are not able to tell the difference then I have no hope for you."
The murmuring in the crowd got louder. Kahlan's heart leaped, Richard was getting through to them!
"I am not yet a perfect man", he continued, "I have yet to realize that everything I do is perfect and above reproach. Once I realize this I will find peace with myself."
Cara came to stand next to him, dressed in her tight red leather, and the leather agiel she used to punish men who displeased her in her hand.
"What the author does in his own time is his own business, and none of yours!" she warned the crowd.
Kahlan could feel the mood changing. Soon, these peaceful and gentle people, who renounced violence in all its forms, would realize how evil they were and rise up to kill other men. That she could love the man whose words could bring this about was a source of unbearable joy....

Continued ad infinitum.

One person found this helpful

A Mediocre middle of the series title.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 13, 2016

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This series is an odd one. It started off very good and has since dropped consistently. Alas being on vacation, I brought the whole series including the four titles after Confessor so am writing the reviews in a retrospective manor of sorts. As I said, the series has dropped in quality but at the same time, I have always wanted to see what happens next so is the reason I have consistently carried on reading the stories, so it can't be all that bad.

This title in the novel carries on from where the last book finished off effectively and has Richard working with a number of "Pillars of Eternity". From this title going forward, Richard has become a bit of a nutty zealot to be frank with most of the book him preaching to some people who have held their belief's for thousands of years, then all of a sudden a light switch comes on. That in its own right is not bad I guess, but this is an attribute further developed going forward which is a tad nutty.

We also see the return of the formula used in prior books, whereby literally 25% of the content is repeating everything that happen'd in prior books. We know Richard is a seeker, we know how he got the sword, we know who his grandfather is and so on, yet as expected, its all repeated here ad nauseum. There is also the expected needless padding fluff to fill out some more additional pages.

However, there is some compelling parts, while the people seem to fall over in there beliefs they have held for thousands of years there is action to the book when things get going. There is an sub-enemy of sorts who has compelling powers and is a solid enemy, although so much more could have been done there.

In all the story is okay, really IMO the series is mediocre, but the wanting to know how it concluded kept me going. This is a good book to pass away the hours, but its far from the standards of goodkinds prior books

4 people found this helpful

NJK

Writing has got worse, story has got worse

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 9, 2022

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I pushed myself to keep reading this series because once I really liked it, but not any more. The characters seem to be constantly tortured, literally and figuratively, for no good reason in the plot. The dialogue is wooden, and there are so many misuses of the word "insure" when it should be "ensure", as well as plenty of typos and misspellings, all of which should have been picked up by a good editor.

Mr. C. J. Frusciante

Already struggling series grinds to a halt

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 16, 2019

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I started reading the 'Sword of Truth' series many years ago but didn't get far past Wizard's First Rule. I recently started getting back in to the series as someone who has now read a great deal more fantasy. As I started making my way through more and more entries, I started to notice things that I didn't enjoy about the way the stories are constructed but as someone who likes to finish a series once I have started, I pledged to make my way through anyway.

Over the course of the previous book, 'Pillars of Creation' and this one, I have gotten to a point where I just cannot do that any longer.

Goodkind has an awful habit of meandering through the plot of his books at a snail's pace. Particularly in this book, the momentum and tension are terribly low throughout. Goodkind will then resolve the entire plot of the book and have the climactic events happen within the space of a few pages. This tends to happen through some Deus ex Machina and it feels like he has run out of time and ideas to get where he needs to go. The ending of 'Pillars of Creation' happens so quickly that I still don't really understand what happened. The magical ability of the primary protagonist is literally that his magic responds to his need and will allow him to do, seemingly, whatever is needed at the time.

The majority of the characters are flat and one dimensional. Many of the protagonists are unerringly good and will be unerringly good no matter what the situation demands of it. One the other hand, many of antagonists are so thoroughly evil that they lose any semblance of personality. Goodkind describes the army of the primary antagonist in such a way that it colours millions of people as murderers and rapists with no individual personality or motives outside of liking to murder and rape. There are minor spatterings of exceptions but over time, those characters are disposed of or fade out of the story.

The real issue that has made me unable to continue with the series however is how heavy-handed the last couple of books have been in handling the insertion of Goodkind's political philosophies. It is not uncommon at this point to have entire chapters where the protagonists argue a particular political standpoint. The antagonists are so incompetent that there is no cross-examination of those views which feels empty and is honestly hard to get through. I find myself skipping entire sections of text knowing that I won't miss out on any new or important information.

At one point, this series did have potential however I don't think that Goodkind has the skills to pull off a series in this way. I, for one, cannot continue reading past this point and will be diving in to something else.

One person found this helpful

Kieran J D Hill Esq

Yet another great book!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 31, 2020

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This book like all of the others has been absolutely fantastic! I get deeper and deeper into the world with each book and I cannot put the book down. Thank you and a must read in the series for all! You will not regret it!

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