You know that you're engrossed in a series as you read 600 pages of a seemingly, entirely new storyline just to get to the last 100 pages that ties everything together. I can't wait to see where we go from here! I have a feeling that the half brother shows up again. Spoiler alert? I don't know, I could be wrong- Pffft

Good book in the series, author did a great job introducing fully a new character. The ending was pretty abrupt but overall it is a great addition.

This is by far the worst book of this series. I did not read six books, all of which were over 800 pages, in order to read 52 chapters without the main characters. This is beyond bad. I would not recommend this book. The author and his editor have lost their minds. Why would I care about these "new" characters who are barely connected to the main characters. Everything in this book is forced, but the author cannot force me to care about poorly written boring characters who do nothing important for 7/8ths of the book all the while knowing that Jansen's motivations are ridiculously false. I hope the next book is better, but I am starting to get that George R R Martin feeling, you know, the one where your ass gets chapped.

Za malo pa cetvorka. Ovaj covek zna da pise ali u neki delovima se toliko ponavlja i razlaci da je to cudo. A najgluplja stvar u knjizi je jedna koza. Dokle bre vise sa tom kozom ajde. Inace svidja mi se ova postavka knjige koja mesa dobro i zlo da se ne zna ko je i sta je ko do kraja knjige mada se od sredine vec pomalo naslucuje ko bi tu mogao ko da bude

There is something that continually brings me back to Goodkind's work, even though every time I read one of his books I find numerous flaws and inconsistencies that would drive me up a wall with most authors. Perhaps it is his characterization, or perhaps it is the magic system. Either way, his books are always worth a read.
This volume, however, came closer to falsifying that statement than any in the series so far. The largest, and most obvious criticism, is the book's extreme length. It is far from the longest book in the series, but given the amount of plot and character development the book should have been much shorter. It was nice to get to know Jennsen and Sebastian (until, in a less-than-graceful plot twist, he turns out to be a traitor), but they were given far too much time. Betty the goat added almost nothing to the story, and Oba Rahl was utterly useless. His viewpoint could have been eliminated entirely.
Any decent editor would, I think, have been able to cut a good 200 pages out of this book. The Althea vs. Lathea confusion did very little for the work, and the story of how Friedrich got the "Pillars of Creation" book to Richard on behalf of Nathan could have been reduced to a single chapter. The same could be said for all the time that was spent rescuing Sebastian.
Other miscellaneous critiques include Goodkind's tendency to describe rape and murder in excessive detail, the occasionally painfully over-thought dialogue (I understand that he supports Objectivism, but when you have a twenty year-old girl talking like Howard Roark during a life-or-death struggle it gets ridiculous), and the failure to explain exactly what the magical issue at hand was.
In the end, my patience paid off. The battle of Aydindril was fantastic, and Richard and Kahlan were as fun as ever when the finally showed up. I do plan on rereading the series, but when it comes to this volume I think I will simply read a plot summary and perhaps the last fifty pages.

I enjoyed this little side story in the Richard/Kahlan adventure. Surprisingly, the main characters (Richard, Kahlan, Zedd, Cara, etc.) have an almost non-existent role in this book. I was thrown off by this a little at first, but it made for an interesting break in the overall story. Very similar to the first season of Once Upon A Time, when they were explaining the role and histories of the various residents of Storybrook and took a hiatus from the main characters live. I've been finding the last few books in the series exceedingly "preachy" but this one didn't carry an overt message like that. What I dislike most about these books and what seems to be a major theme in these works is an overabundance of characters who are dealt difficult circumstances and before they do anything productive about it, they spend a chapter or two whining about it and feeling sorry for themselves. He could cut done on the duller sections of the story if he could have the characters spring into action a little faster.

The Pillars of Creation by Terry Goodkind is an epic fantasy novel full of magic, war, and deadly creatures. The Pillars of Creation is book 7 in the Sword of Truth series. This book barely has any existing characters featured and relies heavily of introducing and focusing on two new characters. To put this book into percentages 92% is all about fresh new characters and 8 percent is focused on the old returning characters. This is very bold from Goodkind not that he hasn't done it before but the main characters in the series were in at least 40% compared to 8%. The idea for this stories narrative is pretty smart it really shows off the two sides of war as the bad guy is the more sympathetic for a majority of the story, even though the reader knows the good guys from bad guys, an interesting argument is made for some of Richard Rahl's decisions in war, can look borderline terroristic under the enemies view. The pace is a little slow and there is some repeating of scenes which really slows down the book. The climax puts all the characters together and is pretty tense and fulfilling. The new character's magic is interesting and really ties into the title of the book.

The Plot of Wizard's First Rule (book 1): Richard Cypher is a wood guide that that has recently lost his father to a brutal murder with no suspects. His father and him had a code where one would leave an item in a jar my the door, the item is a rare vine that should not grow in his land. Richard is on a mission to find the vine and it takes him on the outskirts of the boundary of Westland. While investigating he finds a beautiful woman, Kahlan being chased by four big men. Richard knowing the trails can get to the woman first. He gets to the woman first and ends up defending her and defeating the men. they become fast friends as the woman in mystified by Richard and the way he treats her, it is revealed she is from the other side of the boundary, the Midlands, the boundary is protected by miles of border wall of the underworld, and not used to the kindness from men. Richard takes her to an old healer/ cloud reader friend, Zedd. Quickly Richard finds out that his old friend is not what he seems but a powerful wizard, one of the last of his kind. Kahlan is very important to the cause and Richard is special and anointed the Seeker of Truth, which comes with a powerful weapon the Sword of Truth that is a powerful magical item that focuses emotion into the blade. Richard finds out the true nature of the world that there is a Threat in Darken Rahl that involves tearing down the boundaries and ruling the world. It is up to Kahlan, Zedd and Richard to stop him.

The Plot of Stone of Tears (book 2): The Plot: Two days after Richard defeated Darken Rahl. A creature from the underworld has escaped and it wants to mark Richard so he can open the underworld for the Keeper. Zedd deals with these creatures first and must find Richard and seek side in closing the veil to the underworld. Richard and Kahlan are returning a boy back to the mud people when a creature from the underworld comes for them. They defeat the creature but Richard gets migraines that make it feel like his head will explode they keep getting worse and worse. He meets 3 Sisters of Light that day they can help him but they must collar him and own him to teach him to control his new magic. He refuses and the sister creates suicide right then and there, saying that was chance one you will have two more chances to get help of you do note, you will die.

The Plot for Blood of the Fold (book 3): A funeral is held at the Palace of the Prophets for the Prelate and the Prophet. They were burned by Sisters of the Dark who have infiltrated the Sisters of the Light. Sister Verna who is the a good Sister of the Light and a friend to Richard Rahl the Seeker of Truth, is set up to be the new Prelate she doesn't know if this is for real or a trick of the Sisters of the Dark, the prophesies foretold that the false Prelate will destroy the Palace of the Prophets. She believes this to be free when she unravels a conspiracy that makes the prophesy come to pass. Richard having just came from seeing Kahlan and confirming she is alive when the world thinks she is dead. Richard waits at the Mother Confesser's temple and fights the Mriswith a deadly snake like creatures that he saw and killed in the old world but has never seen one in this world. The Mriswith have now started to plague the land, they are being lead by something Richard must find out. Richard has started to embrace the Rahl part of his name he believes that the only way to unite the Midlands is be the supreme ruler, with all of Midland under his rule. He tries for peace by strong arming The Blood the Fold leader, the very same man who thinks he murdered Kahlan, but the Mriswith help him as their ruler wants him to live, and has a purpose for him. The ruler is known as the Dreamwalker and quickly takes over the Sister of the Dark and the Blood of the Fold, he wants Richard defeated and the Palace of the Prophets to be his especially the slow aging spell attached to it. Richard and Verna must fight the Dreamwalker on to different fronts.

The Plot for Temple of the Winds (book 4): Richard and Kahlan are finally reunited and talking wedding. They get three very special visitors One is a man claiming to be Richard's brother an illegitimate son of Richard's father Darken Rahl. The second visitor is Nadine a girl from Richard's village who was sent by the witch woman Shota to marry Richard. The final visitor is an assassin who's job it is to kill Richard. Through interrogation of the assassin they find that he was not alone, and with a sister of the dark that work for the Dreamwalker. The Sister has started a plague which starts a prophesy for Richard if he does nothing millions will die, if he wants to fight Kahlan will betray him . and Ricard will be no more. When the first victim of the plague dies his spirt takes over his body and talks about the winds This leads them to find out of a spiritual place called the Temple of the Winds that could hold the key to the cure and stop the plague. The price to enter the Temple of the Winds might be too high?

The Plot for Soul of the Fire (book 5): Richard and Kahlan are finally married by the Mud People and has reunited with Zedd. The wedding bliss does not last long as Richard feels something not right...with a chicken. This isn't the only thing two of the Mud People children has died by mysterious circumstances, and everyone with magic has started to lose it. Zedd ask Richard and Kahlan about the Chimes, the beings from the underworld that saved the world from the dark magical plague, the Chimes manifest in water, air, and fire . Zedd freaked out that Kahlan said them out loud, but in his research the Chimes can only stay in this world if called by the third wife, Kahlan is Richard's second since he was married to Nadine in the last book and did not last. Zedd with prelate Ann knows that somehow the Chimes are here but he knows Ricard will be safe in the Wizards Keep, so he makes up a creature the Lurk and fakes an illness so Richard and Kahlan will race off to the Keep while Zedd can defeat it. On Richard's way to the keep he runs into Du Chaillu a slave girl he was chained to and saved, she comes to Richard pregnant and calls him her husband, with her rules they are married. The Chimes are in this world.

The Plot Summary of Faith of the Fallen (book 6): After the aftermath of the last book with Kahlan getting brutally injured and can not use magic to heal her, Richard takes her to his old town when he was Richard Cypher a woods guide and not the Seeker of Truth. When he arrives the town doesn't want him, that lies of The Order have spread and he is ruining their better life. Richard who just came from a town that rejected him for The Order has but him in an odd place where he doesn't want to fight anymore or yet, because people don't know what freedom is. Nicci a Sister of the Dark and one of Dreamwalker's ,the leader of The Order, disciples, is on the fringe since for some reason the dreamwalker can't always enter her mind. She defies him killing a leader in his army as an example. Nicci is called on by the Dreamwalker while she investigates how Ann a Sister of the Light and her old Prelate have escaped and the Dreamwalker can't enter their minds. She finds out it is Richard is the key, when the dreamwalker can't enter her mind she was thinking of Richard. She finds Richard and place a spell on Kahlan that if any harm comes to her it comes to Kahlan as well. She convinces Richard to come with her to live in the heart of The Order to convince him of it's gifts she goes back to where she grew up. Kahlan and Cara take their anger out on the army of the Order who's invading the Midlands.

Plot Summary of The Pillars of Creation (book 7): Jennsen has been sheltered her whole life, kept away from secrets of her mother. Jennsen is a Rahl half Sister to Richard Rahl. But Jensen is so sheltered she did not know that Richard is good and killed their father Darken Rahl to save people and the land. She meets the chief strategist of Richard's new new enemy the Dreamwalker, and he tells all about The brutal Richard Rahl as he saves her from soldiers that were hunting Rahl family members. Since they pose a threat and have an immunity to magic. Jennsen is convinced she must kill Richard to free from her threat. She and Richard find out that Jennsen is not the only sibling and their are dire consequences if Richard is killed that will effect all lands.

What I Liked: The climax was done very well and my favorite part of the book. I like the magic of the Rahl siblings or lack of magic but it was still pretty cool with what they did with it. I liked that in The Faith of the Fallen a key character dies and in this book we get to see character's react to their death in a pretty brutal way. Jennsen was a pretty good addition to the series. The way it flipped to have Richard look like the bad guy, by telling things he really did from the view point from the other side. There was one really chaotic action scene that played like a haunted house with magic that was awesome.

What I Disliked: My biggest call out for Goodkind is repetition and there's a lot here some worked and other did not and were really annoying. Two character's walk through a swamp at different times we know there is a mystical creature there the first character walk through and we get every detail of the swamp and then they interact with the creature, the second character spends and even longer time walking through the swamp until they interact with the creature. The second character should have had a brief walk through the swamp then met the creature. Goodkind could have cut 100 pages and we still would have gotten the same story.

Recommendation: This was a weaker entry into the series but this book has five scenes where it is really good. This book felt like an experiment can I tell a book where the main cast of the series is only in it for 8% of the novel? I thought the book was still pretty interesting, but I know a lot of people that would do not finish because of it. I rated The Pillars of Creation by Terry Goodkind 3 out of 5 stars. It was pretty close to 3.5 stars to be fair.

This volume is a breath of fresh air in the series. The pulpit speeches are absent, the action is strong, and we have a new interesting main character introduced, along with a few minor ones such as Tom. Plus a very interesting practical reason behind Darken Rahl's practice of killing all of his ungifted children comes to light.

Some people have complained that Richard and Kahlan aren't main characters in this book, and if you think that, you aren't paying attention. Richard is the bogeyman. Jensen spends the entire book driven by her perceptions of Richard. This is important for two things. First, it shows how the people who haven't met Richard but have reason to fear Darken Rahl (which would be everyone not evil) wouldn't automatically think Richard was good, in fact they would think he was just as bad, if not worse, since he killed his own father. Second, it showed how easy it was for someone to be swayed by the Order if that person is sheltered from the truth.

An excellent read that shows how good Terry Goodkind can be if he would just rein in the politics.

The Pillars of Creation (2001) 725 pages by Terry Goodkind.

This is the seventh book in The Sword of Truth series. For people wanting their Richard and Kahlan fix, this book must have been torture. Although Lord Rahl is mentioned throughout the book he and Kahlan don't appear until page 648. Jennsen is the main character, she's an ungifted daughter of Darken Rahl. A few chapters focus on Oba, who is another half-sibling of Richard.

The setting switches to D'Hara. The previous volume followed Richard in the Old World and Kahlan fighting in the Midlands. Jennsen and her mother have been hiding from Darken Rahl, who was out to kill all of his ungifted offspring. They learn that he is dead but are still under the belief that they are in danger, from the new Lord Rahl. Their fears are not unfounded as soldiers do come in and attack them, and kill her mother. Sebastian who she had just met and befriended that day helps her fight and kill those soldiers. The two flee together.

Until midway through the book, a newcomer to the series might think that Richard is evil and the Order is good. About then Tom who helped Jennsen says "... The man I fear most is the one who preaches virtue and a better life while using people's good intentions to shade their eyes from the light of the truth."

Basically the whole book comes down to whether Jennsen is going to side with the voice in her head telling her to surrender [to vengeance] or not.

I heard that the series kind of bogs down in the middle, and I can see how this could fall in that category. Not much Richard, and all the way through the reader had to listen to the rhetoric of the Order, having to worry if Jennsen is being brainwashed or if she'll realize the truth. But that was the story. Then at the end he advances the series plot by a little bit.

The reading went fairly quick. The story was not fantastic, but good. You probably don't past this one to the next book.

In a departure from the rest of the series, The Pillars of Creation follows entirely new characters instead of Richard, Kahlan and the rest. Luckily I do like Jennsen who is the main character we're following- one of Richard's half-sisters who believes Lord Rahl is trying to hunt her down and kill her. We also get the perspective of a half-brother who becomes a sadistic serial killer & rapist, though thankfully we spend a lot less time with him.

I actually like the story pretty well, but it does feel bloated and drags in terms of pacing. There is also a lot of violence towards women in this installment and I could definitely do without some of it. Not a favorite of the series, but this idea that there are people that magic doesn't work on is an interesting one.

"Il passato può insegnare attraverso l'esperienza come fare le cose in futuro, portarci conforto con i bei ricordi ed insegnarci le fondamenta di quanto è stato già fatto. Ma solo il futuro è la vita. Vivere nel passato vuol dire abbracciare ciò che è morto. Vivere la vita a pieno ogni giorno significa creare qualcosa di nuovo ogni giorno. Siamo esseri raziocinanti, dobbiamo usare il nostro intelletto e non la cieca devozione".
Non so perché mi ostini ad andare avanti con questa saga che, ormai è chiaro a tutti, non mi sta appassionando per nulla. E come se ciò non bastasse, ogni volume è peggio degli altri… e questo settimo capitolo che non fa alcuna eccezione!
Addirittura ora abbiamo il paradosso che Richard e Kahlan, i due protagonisti dell'intera saga della Spada della Verità, questa volta vengono "degradati" al rango di semplici ed inutili comparse, a scapito di due nuovi personaggi: Oba, fratellastro di Richard e votato al "lato oscuro" e malvagio dei Rahl, e Jennsen, sorellastra di Richard e ragazza semplice e un po' ingenua, da sempre in fuga da Darken Rahl.
Mi fermo qui. Non ho altro da aggiungere, a parte segnalare la storia banale e senza scatti di azione degni di nota.
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I'f you are a fan of Richard and Caylin you will be disappointed. They swoop in at the last moment after not hearing from them the whole book. Felt like a filler book that probably wasn't necessary.