I'll keep this short and sweet. Goodkind knows how to weave an intriguing tale, no question. Even if he is very repetative and formulaeic, it is still a great story with characters whom you genuinely care about. This last book was not a story, though. It's a manifesto! I have never read such a preachy book in all my years. 10 pages of monologue and 2 pages of action or conversation is not my idea of a good time. Goodkind took something that I thought of as an annual treat, and turned it into a poorly structured lecture. I graduated college and grad school. If I want to be lectured, I'll go for my doctorate. I read these books to have fun, and he ruined the previous 10 books for me. Unfortunately I don't think that he'll refund my $.

If you're reading this review, you know what to expect and you're probably willing to live with it. Yes, Richard is preachy and reiterates the same message over and over. Yes, he's still flawless and never makes mistakes or suffers from any bad emotions like hate, jealousy, or anger. Yes, there are long explanations about magic that don't seem to serve much point except to show us how proud Goodkind was about his own system of magic. And yes, people are saved by weird coincidences and deus ex machinas.

But...

Like I said, if you're reading this review, you've likely already read most of the series or have read other reviews and know about this. So on to the good of the book. For starters, the entire second half is pretty darn good. There really is some good action. As well, Goodkind isn't afriad of killing off some big characters. Kudos. Most authors suck at that. Just about everything big gets wrapped up pretty well and the ending is satisfactory, if a bit rushed. If you're a fan of the series, you know it's a love story at heart and you want to see that prevail. Great. Goodkind delivers. Lastly, there are some amusing - if superflous - tiebacks to older bits.

So I give it 4 stars. I don't regret reading it because it was honestly entertaining. A classic of fantasy? No, not really. But at the same time, it wasn't the steaming load so many other reviewers seem to think. If you're willing to look past Goodkind's faults as an author, there's actually a decent story here. And hey, there honestly aren't many long running epic series' that don't have pretty big flaws after 3 or 4 books.

My nephew read this book as soon as he got it and he enjoyed reading the book.

The Confessor is an excellent conclusion to the Sword of Truth Series... I found it hard to put the book down until I was finished... Even now.... I find myself picking it up and re-reading it again... I think I have already read it three times since I recieved it... I recommend it...

I think this is a great end to a series I love, though there are a couple thing's we could have done without.

1: Pillars of Creation: I don't get this at all. He departs from the story for two insipid, unnessary new people. Who, by the way, don't even matter in the story. Stupid.

2: Confessor: Great end, but Richard spends the first two-thirds of the book as a ball player for Jagag! What the heck?! Dumb!

And while "Naked Empire" may have bad preaching, it DOES have an exciting premise, cool "Rule" and a realy nasty villan. Worth reading I say.

this book tries to tie everything together in the very end. it seemed a little strained to me, but I'll have to re-read it. I just remember laughing out loud at the absurdity of some of the turns. however. I did thoroughly enjoy it---I think I finished it within a day. It arrived in a timely manner in extremely good condition.

Fantastic series of books. Could not wait to pick up the next one. I was happy to get answers to long open questions, but happy to see there could be more books. Can't wait for the SciFi Channel series to start.

I really like these charecters and have endured the final books in the series to see what happens to them but really, someone buy this man a thesaurus, "I understand" "raptor gaze" and other repetative phrases not to mention the prolonged sermons, diatribes against the "order" and all too frequent recaps made reading this a frankly painful experience. There was very little charecter development other than Nikki whose charecter felt somehow unfulfilled at the end. Save your time and money.

There is nothing more than can be said about the novel itself. Instead, I will chip in my two cents: I hated Confessor. I read Confessor just so I could say I've read the entire series. I am not a better person for having read Confessor. In fact, I hate myself a little more for reading Confessor.

IF I ever read Terry Goodkind again, it will be only to re-visit "Wizard's First Rule" and fantasize about what could have been.

I did like the first books of this series, but the later books became progressively more boring due to dialog repetitiveness. I had hoped since this was the last book of the series that Mr. Goodkind would go back to his earlier style, where characters actually had more than one dimension and spoke like human beings, unfortunately this book was probably the worst of the entire series.

Characters, especially Richard. go on and on, saying the same thing over and over again. I found myself skipping over these long monologues that went on for pages. The characters were pretty much cardboard cutouts. The dialog was really stilted and character interactions just seemed so unreal. This book was long on speeches, short on character development.

I'm glad the series is over, as the creativity that it started with is long gone. I won't be buying anymore of Mr. Goodkind's books, just too lame... I'll wait for George RR Martin's next book - There's a guy who knows how to develop good characters, even though I find it sad that he has no problem killing them off!

FINALLY! An end to this lengthy series...

When I first began this series, I couldn't put it down. The first four books were inventive, well-written, and very interesting. Then, the seventh book -- the Pillars of Creation -- appeared as if to have been thrown together just weeks from a deadline. It was so bad, in fact, it didn't even seem to be by the same author. Okay, everyone can have a bad book amidst a series. But what happened after that, I ask rhetorically? After that, the series became steadily worse. First, Goodkind -- or I should say, the Character Richard -- got a pro-war stump, pounding the message home at every opportunity. The magical plots were still as interesting ever, though, so I endured that for a few more books, in spite of how tired I grew of the incessant dialogues. It got even worse, however, with the the Chainfire series. In this trilogy-within-a-series, not only the dialogues, but the scenes and narration itself became so redundant with abhorrent violence, as well as the continuous monotony of the book and characters explaining over and over AND OVER adfinitum the right of individuals to create their own lives and accomplish their own goals that it just became absolutely boring. Okay, that's the negative part. You'll notice that I did, however, give this book four stars. The reason?

For one thing, I thought the book did a good job of tying together in the end all the various elements that had made up the life and times and of the characters and nations throughout the series. Secondly, the breadth of the historical scope of the series was exceedingly broad and consistent. Goodkind gets high marks for the complexity of both his individual plot lines and the connection of them throughout the series, and this book was no exception.

What I really liked about this book was how clever the character, Richard, continued to be. The scenes involving the JaLa game, and the manner in which Richard was able to manipulate the entire crowd was simply brilliant. I also like the ending but I won't spoil it here. Suffice it to say that I thought this was a fitting ending for the series, one in which Goodkind redeemed himself for all he has put his faithful readers, including me, through these last few years.

If you've come this far, I would recommend finishing the series. This book is better than Phantom and I think is worth the trouble. If you haven't read the series yet, do! It's really great! But I'd stop after book six and move onto something else, like JRR Martin's Fire and Ice series, which is really great too.

The Gate of Galithonel: Queen of Peace, Part 1

I was surprised by all the negative reviews. I guess I wouldn't of been reading the eleventh book unless I really enjoyed the series but I found it a total joy. I was thrilled to be spending more time with Richard, Khalan, Zedd, Nicci, Cara, and all the rest of the bunch. In my opinion Goodkind has created some of the greatest characters of all time. Please don't let negative reviews keep you from another chapter of this great series. I was very sorry to see the ride end for these characters that I have come to love.

I have been waiting to finish this series for years. I really liked the beginning books...the middle ones got to be a little drawn out, but the story flowed. The biggest problem was that as each book came out, I had forgotten the previous storyline and where it left off. So I finally just bought each book as it came out and left it on the shelf waiting until the series was complete. After years of collecting/patience to gather the series, the final book finally arrives in "Mass Market Paperback" (I do paperbacks, not hardcovers). So I get to a book store (sorry, not Amazon this time) and I grab the book off the shelf (the new Confessor books are all in a special display, not mixed with others). I get the book home and low and behold...its a 1/2 an inch taller than all my other paperbacks! What is that all about? Luckily, I didn't read it yet, so its going back, until its published in a normal paperback size.

So if you collect as well as read these "paperback" books, be careful at this point. :-)

So of course all the other books in The Sword of Truth series I read in break-neck speed, I was excited and couldn't wait to read what was next, but not this one. I held on to every word, couldn't bare to turn the page because I knew it was drawing me closer to the last. I let myself absorb and enjoy every bit of it not wanting to miss a thing, I was completely satisfied with the way good ol' Goodkind chose to end this adventure. It came to a nice slow end, exactly what I was hoping would happen, did. The only thing that saddens me is that indeed it did end. I encourage anyone who is interested to read them all so you can end up here with The Confessor.
Brittney

After reading a bunch of the posted reviews for this book, I can't help but think that all these people missed the point of the series. I don't know how you can make it to book 11 and still think that Goodkind is writing an epic tale of magic. The series has been about reason, and the people who choose to use it or turn from it, from the very beginning. Did Richard triumph over Darken Rahl using superior magic and force in Book 1? No, he used logic and his ability to reason. Magic and fantasy are the tools that Terry has used to preach his message, not the point.

If you take offense to many of the things goodkind has to say, I can't help but wonder why. If you have a disagreement with one of his views, and you have a rational understanding of the disagreement, then you'll be confident enough in your own view to not care. If you don't know why you disagree or your disagreement is based on wishes and whims...well, to quote Zedd, "People who for whatever reason don't want to see the truth can be acutely hostile to it and shrill in their denunciation of it."

That said, I found Confessor to be one of the more action packed novels of the series. I never felt it dragging like Pillars of Creation or Naked Empire. I was thoroughly entertained throughout, and I really enjoyed the Ja'La tournament. I thought the book was a fitting end to a fantastic series.

For any of you who enjoyed the concepts and idea's presented in this book, I would reccomend reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I think you'll find that the latter half of this series is severely influenced by her writings. Richard's monologue at the end of this book (the one lots of people are complaining about) is basically a condensed version of John galt's speech towards the end of Atlas Shrugged.