<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Naked Empire was the typical Goodkind, which i think i am getting a little tired of. When i first discovered Goodkind i loved how he kept the pace of books moving with just enough desciption to get his point across and then would dive into action scene after action scene. The were fast and enjoyable reads that were little more than mind candy, and i liked it and his characters. Even as lately as the last few books he has been spectacular, Faith of the Fallen is my favorite of the series so far and The Pillars of Creation was unusual as it had not much to do with the main characters, Richard and Kahlan, and instead focused on a different, but parallel, storyline. It was a breath of fresh air to see him write 'out of the box' so to speak.
Now, we get to Naked Empire. While still a good read, i found myself becoming quickly annoyed with the main character, Richard, which all but ruined the book for me. Richard, now, is the best swordsman, Richard is the best tracker, Richard is the best archer, Richard is the best at walking quietly, only Richard can read in another language, Richard is the best sculptor, Richard is the most intelligent, God forbid anyone comes up with a good idea besides Richard! The side characters, when not around Richard, are very smart, but suddenly when they are all together only Richard figures out puzzles, only Richard finds the hidden meaning of things and sees the big picture, and only Richard, of course, has to explain it to eveyone else like they are five years old not just once, but multiple multiple times in a long ass drawn out preachy sounding sermon that lasts for 6 pages when the reader had the point at page 1.
I like the side characters and i liked Richard when he was learning and coming into his own, but now he is just the most perfect hero character to the point to where you want him to fail just so he becomes human. Thus, you start rooting for someone else to do SOMETHING good besides Richard, but it never happens. Shit, at multiple points Goodkind even makes the characters step aside so Richard can do the good deed. Example, a female character gets stuck in a small cramped tunnel, the characters crush (who also has a crush on the stuck one) tries to go in and save her, only to have Richard forcibly tell him to stay put while Richard goes in to save her instead. Everyone else, when they are all together, only bumble along making things harder for Richard who still overcome his suddenly idiot sidekicks, being poisoned, and partially losing his magical powers, to save the day and kill countless enemies.
The big twist in the book, Nicolas the Slide sliding into the stupid goat, was easily figured out way before Richard finally realized it, and the ending was unoriginal. Richard creates a complex antidote to the poison inside him by letting his 'magic' lead him to the right ingrediants and procedures. Anytime an author has to resort to an 'unknown magical power' kind of ending has copped out on his readers, IMO. All fantasy books with magic usually draw the line on what magic can and cannot do, overstepping this line because the author cant think of a better solution other than 'its magic!' is dumb.
I used to be way into this series, but i havebeen waiting for paperback versions to buy for the last 3 or 4 books and i will continue to do so until Goodkind steps it up. I am interested to see how the whole thing will get resolved, but i'm sure i can guess that Richard will be the one to do it.</div>
Now, we get to Naked Empire. While still a good read, i found myself becoming quickly annoyed with the main character, Richard, which all but ruined the book for me. Richard, now, is the best swordsman, Richard is the best tracker, Richard is the best archer, Richard is the best at walking quietly, only Richard can read in another language, Richard is the best sculptor, Richard is the most intelligent, God forbid anyone comes up with a good idea besides Richard! The side characters, when not around Richard, are very smart, but suddenly when they are all together only Richard figures out puzzles, only Richard finds the hidden meaning of things and sees the big picture, and only Richard, of course, has to explain it to eveyone else like they are five years old not just once, but multiple multiple times in a long ass drawn out preachy sounding sermon that lasts for 6 pages when the reader had the point at page 1.
I like the side characters and i liked Richard when he was learning and coming into his own, but now he is just the most perfect hero character to the point to where you want him to fail just so he becomes human. Thus, you start rooting for someone else to do SOMETHING good besides Richard, but it never happens. Shit, at multiple points Goodkind even makes the characters step aside so Richard can do the good deed. Example, a female character gets stuck in a small cramped tunnel, the characters crush (who also has a crush on the stuck one) tries to go in and save her, only to have Richard forcibly tell him to stay put while Richard goes in to save her instead. Everyone else, when they are all together, only bumble along making things harder for Richard who still overcome his suddenly idiot sidekicks, being poisoned, and partially losing his magical powers, to save the day and kill countless enemies.
The big twist in the book, Nicolas the Slide sliding into the stupid goat, was easily figured out way before Richard finally realized it, and the ending was unoriginal. Richard creates a complex antidote to the poison inside him by letting his 'magic' lead him to the right ingrediants and procedures. Anytime an author has to resort to an 'unknown magical power' kind of ending has copped out on his readers, IMO. All fantasy books with magic usually draw the line on what magic can and cannot do, overstepping this line because the author cant think of a better solution other than 'its magic!' is dumb.
I used to be way into this series, but i havebeen waiting for paperback versions to buy for the last 3 or 4 books and i will continue to do so until Goodkind steps it up. I am interested to see how the whole thing will get resolved, but i'm sure i can guess that Richard will be the one to do it.</div>
