I have to admit that, as a Sword of Truth series fan, I was let down with this installment. Chainfire takes Richard in an entirely new direction: firstly, he wakes from a coma to discover that no one, including his friends Nicci and Cara, remembers who Kahlan is. They assume that Kahlan is a figment of his imagination. Richard, obsessed with proving her existence and thereby rescuing her, knocks his head against the wall for 600 pages of this novel. Frankly, I felt like I did too. The plot ran in circles, with Richard's frustration eeking out on every page as he tries and fails to find the woman he loves so much. His friends thwart him, his surrenders what's important all in a desperate plea to find her, and I couldn't believe that this struggle took up so much of the novel. I understand that Chainfire tries to emphasize that with the length of the novel, but the whole time I was reading it, I was getting annoyed at how repetitive the story got. Another thing? Kahlan is my favorite character and she was absent for 97% of the book. The fact is that Kahlan and Richard's relationship, while at times mushy, is also adorable. They function well together. Kahlan's rationale calms Richard's passionate sense of justice. That said, Kahlan's sense of cool reason was desperately wanting in this novel. But maybe I'm just a cranky fangirl. I'm hoping that Goodkind will repay the anguish in this novel with a thrilling resolution in the following book.
