Naked Empire is the second chapter where we explore the idea of people that are unable to use magic. Richard and Kahlan take the center stage once again and we the readers come to realize that nothing has changed and the last book was borderline skippable.

Jensen Rahl, the main character from Pillars of Creation is still around and is now tagging along with Richard and Kahlen as they find their way into the Pillars of Creation, an actual location in the world.

Richard gets poisoned by the people of this hidden world as they foolishly poison him in order to force him to help save them from the Imperial Order that is controlling their people and threatening war. This was a stupid idea that I still personally cannot explain why that all makes sense.

Richard throughout the book drags Jensen around and uses her as a tool to relate to the rest of the ungifted people that have forced him to help them. To me, this turns Jensen's character more and more into a simple plot device. her sudden incompetence leads to getting stuck in caves or attempting to relate to ungifted people.

While they are attempting to get to this location Zedd gets captured along with Addy in by the Imperial Order and Zedd comes face to face with Emperor Jengang. There is not very much in regards to Zedd’s story here but it does tie slightly to the happenings with the rest of the party on the other side of the world.

Nathan Raul meets up with the former Prellot and learns that Richard is causing issues with the prophecy.

I have to be completely honest here. This book was a whole lot of nothing for nearly the entire book. I could not believe the amount of preaching that this book goes for. It goes on and on. If you have read my past reviews you will remember my opinions on the discussion on Currency with the Mudd People or the back and forth with Oba Raul in Pillars of Creation. The political talk goes on forever. It goes away long enough at times for me to breathe before taking me back down again.

The best way I can describe Terry Goodkind’s method of preaching this to the readers is that he grabs the reader by the head, shoves their head under water until they are about to drown, then he pulls you out so you can breathe just long enough for him to repeat the process until the books over.

To make matters worse, there is no reward for making it through all of this boring, cruel, neverending preaching! The end is the same tired story all over again. Kahlen needs to be rescued by Richard. Richard almost dies in the process. Ohh, no spoiler alert necessary, this happens so often in the series we should come to expect this now. We might as well call Richard Mario and Kahlen Princess Peach.

This book has broken me. It has broken me to the point where I think it might be time to take a break from this series. I have no intentions of reading past Confessor.

What worries me is that Terry Goodkind does not know when to stop. I recently discovered that he is once again doing annual releases in the world of Sword of Truth and I will not be reading those books.

Terry Goodkid certainly writes books in which are right some some people out there, but certainly not me.

The fate of the rest of my reviews or continuing onward really come down to how the next book “Chainfire” turns out. I have heard that this was the worst in the series and I agree so I am willing to move forward to finish the Sword of Truth series, but the Richard and Kahlan series is officially off the table.

If you want to see where this book ranks in the original series, you can find our Ranking the Sword of Truth series article here!