Naked Empire: Sword of Truth, Book 8 (Unabridged) [Unabridged Fiction‪]‬

Goodkinds series has always been one of my favorite. While there is a lager scale story happening there are serveral mini events that happen within each book. Unlike some people I love the fact that these small stories happen and just build onto the major story line.
In fast this is the main reason I enjoy Goodkind over Jordan, Roberts(Wheel of Time). Each book slowly builds upon the prior one but still is a book in itself tying up any situation that is created in that book. By the end of the book you see some type of accomplishment rather then a open ended ending that requires the next book to finish the prior book. Each book can be read stand alone without knowing prior knowledge from other books.
A good explination is each book is a like a step on a stair case. There is a beginning and end to each but the final destination is only seen when you use them all.
In regard to this book, this book actually takes a alternate point of view from the main character of the other books so that both sides of the story is understandable. I cannot tell too many details but I can say that there is some suggestions buried within the story.

As others have noted in his series, the author tends towards the "preachy" - which tends to grate if you don't happen to follow his particular moral compass. This continues in book 8 a bit more than in the earlier books. That said, the story is good and the author tells it well. But having read the previous 7 novels one after the other, the series reads at times like the "Perils of Pauline". Eventually he needs to tell the story of how, together, all of the protagonists are able to defeat their enemy and set the world aright - if, in fact, that is Goodkind's plan. It will be a difficult enough project even with Richard, Kahlen, Zed and their allies healthy and together. Perhaps that is the ultimate goal of the final 3 books. We will see. Another thing... Goodkind tends to get wrapped up in the exquisite detail of what, ultimately, turn out to be particularly low priority events. At times you just want to reach in, grab him by the throat and say "GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!!!". He also has an annoying tendency of "suddenly" springing, a bit illogically at times, some new reason as to why a successful past action or ploy cannot be used this time (the Slyph, Zed & the collar, etc.). This seems a bit contrived and contributes to a relatively poor integration of the entire book series. And, finally, like many authors with strong "bad guys", he tends to imbue his enemies with more knowledge and cleverness than they either should have or have earned through the series.

I have loved the Sword of Truth series and passed the books around my circle of friends and coworkers for years, Its an engaging story line with characters that are truly amazing. Wizards First Rule is in my top 5 books of all time. This book unfortunately was a let down. The bulk of the book was spent solving a pointless problem for a mind numbingly annoying group of people and gritting my teeth through non stop re-explanation of past events. If this book would never have been written the series would be better off. I felt like I was sitting in church being read to by my preacher and part of that was the cadence and the other part was the guy had to be just as bored reading it as anyone who was listening to it. I bought this one as an audiobook in hopes of making a 2500 mile road trip less boring and got just the opposite. I am about to buy the Confessor book and I truly hope it was made to tell a story and not stretch out an already lengthy series. Spoiler alert, this book will leave you feeling unsatisfied and you can probably skip it and not miss a beat.