Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind is the eighth book in the “Sword of Truth” series. It is a fairly typical Sword and Sorcery novel. The hero, Richard Rahl, with a company of brave companions is on a quest to defeat a great evil. They have many trials and make surprising discoveries along the way. Of course, since this is a series the great evil is not defeated. A battle is won, not the war. The series will go on.

One of the things discovered is a previously hidden empire. The magic barrier that shielded the hidden empire has come down, exposing it to the outside world for the first time in 3000 years. The people in there don't know how to recognize evil because their philosophy, being completely relativistic, does not accept that evil exists. They believe that people are not evil, just misunderstood. These people have been invaded by the great evil, which is destroying their land, raping the women, killing people, etc. Since they can't accept the existence of evil, they can't fight it. They turn to Richard for help.

Discovering their completely anti-life philosophy, Richard gives them several speeches worthy of John Galt and puts them on a rational, moral, life affirming, path. He also identifies some of his own anti-life behaviors and corrects those. Richard converts the people much too easily and he wins his battles much too easily. But this is typical of the genre.

Other than this and a few other minor complaints, it's not a bad book, and it has a strong Libertarian/Objectivist message.