I've read a lot of reviews bashing this book because it doesn't focus on Richard and Kahlan. People who write those reviews are those who can't adapt to change and don't understand the complexities of writing a novel series.

Firstly, this story is so necessary to understanding what I'm sure will come next in the series. Really important concepts and discoveries are made that will affect Richard and Kahlan in the later novels. Secondly, Jennsen is a really cool character! She's brave, intelligent, caring, and misinformed on several topics; and watching her grapple with new information and how it affects her feelings and world view is fantastic. Goodkind has created a brilliant character in Jennsen. Thirdly, we are rewarded at the end of the novel by meeting up with our beloved protagonists again! All the storylines tie up, and we're left wanting to dive into the next book immediately.

So really, don't listen to those who bash this book. A long series always needs to change and grow, and Goodkind does that very well by adding diverse new characters whom we grow to love.

This book was considerably better than the last one but that's not saying much considering how horrible the last one was. There were still some things that I didn't like about this book but it was an easier read than the past one. I think that Goodkind's writing is somewhat more enjoyable when it's not about Richard and Kahlan because there isn't as much angst and constant struggle about how they'll ever be together and how much they've been through and blah blah blah. I'm not a fan of their relationship, I think it's forced and unnatural so I don't enjoy it. I felt a little bit of that in the relationship between Jennsen and Sebastion and also Jennsen and Tom. It feels very much forced rather than naturally developing the way you would expect.

Again, I have issues with the editing/writing. I really wish that both Goodkind and his editor would learn the difference between insure and ensure because they are not the same thing and should not be used interchangeably. I also thought the story was poorly paced. The vast majority of the story was kind of slow in developing and then the end came very suddenly and was all wrapped up quickly. Overall the story was okay but I wasn't really impressed and wowed by it. After the last book, however, it read better than it would have otherwise.

Changement de perspective dans ce roman où l'on suit les aventures de Jennsen. Très intéressant, le livre m'a bien plu.

This book is the perfect example that once you become really popular and wealthy, your editor actually stops reading your stuff because he/she's too busy sniffing powders off surgically enhanced anatomy of certain people of questionable employment on a yacht somewhere, enjoying the handsome percentage cut your work brings in. All that money means your writing must be good, right?

Terry Goodkind pushes the limits of this statement to a special new high. He takes it to such an extreme that even Robert Jordan would feel uncomfortable exploiting the written form with so vividly contrived side plots and wickedly inane and forgettable characters deftly extracted from the colon.

The rating also reflects how I was once young and naive and believed in unsigned integers.

Anyway ...

Richard Rahl isn't in this book.
But Jennsen is. Who the fuck is Jennsen? Who cares.
And Oba. We have Oba. Who is he? Some schizophrenic dude with magic.
And that's it. That's the book.
Honest, miss.

Jennsen is hunted by Darken Rahl's men, because. Oba decides to off his mother and hunt Jennsen. There's a bunch of 'previously on SoT' moments, spanning 50-60% of the book. Somehow, Kahlan and the Keeper are also cunningly added to the plot, happy ending, WHAM! We have a complete manuscript!

Utterly pointless. I read this because I once believed in OCD-ing my way through books. I should thank Terry Goodkind (and a few other brave souls) for weaning me off my filthy habit.

Le song:

Oba, Oba, he's the man,
Oba, Oba, loves his pan,
Oba, Jennsen, Richard Rahl,
Kahlan, Keeper, mighty brawl,
Sebastian, Sebastian, a new friend,
Bullshit, rehash, the end.

Igor

The Sword of Truth book 7 takes a departure from the other books as the main characters are a unknown step sister and step brother of Richard Rahl.

For me the most fascinating aspect of this book was that the characters were making logical decisions based on what they knew. But anyone who has read any of the other books will know just how wrong they are. Mr Goodkind weaves this story very well and leaves the reader thinking "No no no" most of the way through. It's a page turner to be sure. My only complaint was that the ending felt a bit rushed with the final climatic confrontation taking up only 40 or so pages.

If you are a Sword of Truth fan then you will probably read this book. If not, then it would not make any sense as a stand alone. Several people have expressed an opinion that this was their least favorite of the Sword of Truth series. Usually the reason given is that there was not much of the Richard and Kahlin story. Personally I did not so and it holds up well as part of the series.

Filler

His book could have been at least 100 pages shorter. While Jennson had some depth, Oba was a cartoon villain from a Saturday morning kids show.

5/5.

I will be going against the general consensus with my review of this book. Pillars of Creation by Terry Goodkind is considered a least favourite book among the fans of the Sword of Truth series due to the absence of Richard and Kahlan until the last 10% or so. Which, I can understand.

For me, however, I have become more invested in the world than specific characters, so being introduced to new characters and following them along instead of Richard and Kahlan was something I very much enjoyed. From the beginning, I was intrigued by the characters of Jennsen and Oba and it was interesting to see how their upbringing helped shape their approach to their futures.

Jennsen was raised in a loving home, just herself and her mother. She was raised with the knowledge that she was a daughter of Darken Rahl and her mother did everything in her capabilities to protect Jennsen. Opposite to Jennsen, is Oba, whose mother was abusive and neglectful and didn't tell him who his father was. This set Oba on a path of self-destruction and entitlement he thought he was owed.

Do I see the point of this book in the series? No, not really. Except for the introduction of the holes in the world, there was nothing really in this book to indicate why it got its own story. This could have been introduced as part of another book, following Richard and Kahlan.

Did I thoroughly enjoy reading from a new perspective? Absolutely, I did! This book stood out to be as one of the most enjoyable in the whole series so far. This could quite possibly be my favourite book of the year for me. I don't know why, but it was just a book I very much enjoyed and I kept thinking about it and was excited to pick back up when I wasn't reading it.

I'm assuming Richard and Kahlan will be the focus again in Naked Empire, but I do hope that Jennsen and Oba will make an appearance again in it as well.

This was such an enjoyable read. Thank you, Terry!

I remember that the first time I read this book where Jennsen character is introduced, I found it annoying, because of the way Jennsen was deceived about Richard. Throughout near the whole book she thought him evil; and it bothered me. The second read was okay, since I knew she'd come around eventually ;) But I noticed this time that the resolution seemed far too easy. It didn't seem to take a lot for her to figure out how she was deceived. Made me wonder why she didn't stop to think about it earlier... Here's this important man Sebastian, the strategist for an emperor, and he just happened to be in her neck of the woods, and instead of doing whatever mission he was assigned, he decided to help her. Oh well, I guess she had no reason to suspect him, and he was subtle. He kept me guessing whether he believed everything he was saying about Richard... until the conversation between Jennsen, Sebastian and the emperor, where it became obvious that he was saying lies about Richard being the invader.

The Pillars of Creation is the next book in the fantasy series by Terry Goodkind. Having followed the whole series through so far, I was eagerly anticipating the next part in the tale. But for the first time, I found this book actually let me down.

Up until now, we have always followed the main characters. Initially, it was just Richard and Kahlan and then branched off into others. But we always got to know and empathise with these characters before we embarked on their journey with them so they still felt like a main character even if their role wasn’t as large.
The Pillars of the Creation takes a different approach, however. Rather than following the journey of anyone the reader knows, we are thrown straight into a different perspective. And it remains that way for the entire book. It is almost as if starting again, just we are lucky because we have background knowledge of the world they are living in. We know nothing about the characters and have to be introduced to them in the midst of the action.

That alone might have worked. However, due to who these characters are and the influences that are guiding their path, they are almost seeing the other side of things compared to the journey the reader has been embarking on for all of this time. It becomes frustrating and irritating when you know they are wrong and they are going about things in the wrong way considering the information we are already privy too. Richard and Kahlan do not appear until almost the end of the book and some of the references made makes it feel like a book is missing as they have clearly been off on adventures that we can’t see. Yet because of the time span that this book is extending over, we know that other things must be happening and are denied the chance to see what is going on. We are taken from the characters we know and love and instead are stuck on the other side of the war.

It’s as if Goodkind knows the reader will keep turning the page because of the hope that their favourite characters will appear and get it through to the people involved that they are in the wrong and explain things properly. Having been guided through this world for so long, it becomes frustrating that we can’t get back to what feels like the main story rather than this side-plot.


While the writing quality was still as good as ever and by the end of the book you do feel for Jensen, the character whose view point we have been following, it was far more of a chore to get through this book and has left me less excited for the next compared to previously. The story is still engaging in its own way and the danger is ever present. But it has the feel that Goodkind was taking a breath and trying to force his readers to do the same, regardless of what they wanted.

Great book

Questo volume è totalmente inutile. Voglio dire, i due-tre precedenti erano anche loro inutili, ma era un’inutilità diversa.
Erano inutili perchè parlavano di storie “piccole”, facilmente condensabili e che sarebbe stato possibile riunire in un unico libro.
I Rintocchi, il viaggio a sud… tutto condensabile insieme al Tempio dei venti. Comunque c’erano delle storie.
C’erano Richard e Kahlan in lotta contro i Rintocchi per salvare la magia delle Terre Centrali; c’era Richard rapito e che riesce a conquistare la futura capitale dell’Ordine portando dalla sua parte una delle sue più pericolose nemiche.

Ora però si esagera. L’unico senso di questo settimo libro è quello di portare in scena una nuova categoria di persone -i buchi nel mondo, gente totalmente priva del Dono e che funge in qualche modo da bilanciamento nei confronti dei Lord Rahl- e introdurre Jennsen, sorellastra di Richard.
Per introdurre buchi e sorella, si sprecano più di 500 pagine imbastendo una storia assurda riguardo alla quale la verità era ovvia fin dalle prime pagine. E l’insistere tutto il libro sulla visione distorta che Jennsen e Oba (un fratellastro che si è concesso al Guardiano, tanto per cambiare) hanno di Richard alla lunga stufa. Ampiamente.

E se alla fine viene fornita una mezza spiegazione su come una ragazza qualunque abbia gabbato le guardie reali del D’Hara, la cosa comunque non mi convince per niente. Così come non convince Jagang che insegue delle illusioni per chissà quanto tempo… passabile che ci caschi all’inizio, ma poi doveva capire che c’era qualcosa di strano. Non è uno scemo, anche se qui viene fatto passare per tale.

Tralasciamo poi la patetica figura di Oba, che è quanto di più ridicolo si sia visto finora. Anche più della compaesana di Richard che cerca di sposarselo nel volume del Tempio dei Venti.

Direi senza timore di smentita che questo è il punto più basso della saga, finora. Gli altri due che ho li lascerei a prender polvere volentieri, non fosse che al momento non ho altri libri nuovi sottomano.

So, this is like that obligatory once-a-season episode of Doctor Who, which he's only in for, like, two scenes. I won't pretend like I wasn't itching to finally reach a Kahlan/Richard/Cara scene (and hadn't flicked through the book to make sure they were in it), but this book wasn't nearly as terrible as it could've been.
Liking it really hinges on liking Jennsen. (Or, god forbid, Oba didn't make you want to smash your head in)

Pillars of Creation kind of felt like a flip of the previous book. Jennsen has reason, but she doesn't have the truth. The people of Altur'Rang had a distorted version of truth, but very few had reason.

In a way, this book was Terry Goodkind shaking the reader, going "HAVE YOU REASON?!" Everything is written subjectively, either from Jennsen's naive innocent POV or from Oba's narcissistic, psychopath POV; the reader knows the truth and TG's guiding where it gets applied.


SRSness aside, GO ZEDDD! The confrontation at Aydindril kicked so much ass! LOLOL@Cara poking Jennsen with her Agiel.