I'm a fan of Terry Goodkind. I have been for a number of years. His books are very long-winded, but for the most part, I've found them well worth the long and sometimes redundant read. The vast majority of the time, I will finish a book of his and think it was great. In this case, when I finished I felt exhausted. This book diverges a lot from the previous ones because a new main character is introduced. Richard, Kahlan, Cara, Zedd... etc. are for the most part MIA in this book. They briefly make an appearance at the end.

This book follows a new character named Jennsen. I may have disliked this book because I wasn't entirely fond of her character. I found her to be overly naive despite the fact the Terry is trying to portray her as being a skeptical and paranoid person from the very start. She readily sided with a stranger, and she was quick in drawing conclusions about people she didn't even know. I don't mind new characters at all, and learning about Jennsen was interesting enough to keep me reading. However, not a solitary moment in the book was I surprised. I knew from the very beginning what was going to happen. I remember pausing many times throughout the book, wondering if I should just skip to the last chapter and be on with it.

I was looking forward to a tense confrontation between Richard and Jennsen at the end, but nothing really happened. Richard talked his way out of the situation. Jennsen's big cut-throat 'Im-a-stab-you-with-ma-knife!' moment turned out to be nothing at all! I felt disappointed. The ending was rushed. I feel that Richard and company too readily forgave Jennsen. Seriously, if someone lunged at me with a knife I wouldn't be buddy-buddy with them that quickly! I would at least be a little bit skittish. I don't know... I feel like this entire storyline was all for naught.

Also, can anyone explain to me how Richard was able to read anything in the "Pillars of Creation" before confronting Jennsen. Seriously, WHEN did he get the time? He obviously would have woken up, and chased after Oba in a mad rage immediately. How could he have read that book?

One more thing: Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the ridiculous amount of grammar and spelling mistakes in this series?

I will definitely be reading the next book in the series. I will probably not get around to it for a long while. This book has discouraged me a bit. I didn't mean for this review to be a rant, but... oh well.

Update 2017: six years later, and I don't have even the slightest itch to continue this series. I guess I was wrong in saying I would definitely read the next book.

I truly enjoyed this book. After a quick scan on other people review of this book I found that I have seen a good number give scathing reviews because the last book was so good and this one followed characters other then Richard and Kahlan. I really like the point of view of these characters because Jennsen and Oba don't know anything. For once the reader knows more then the characters. There is still tons of twist and turns that the reader does not know too that keeps you interested.

I really enjoyed how this seemingly separate story weaves back in to Richard and Kahlan's story. I had fun imagining how this looked to them as they come on to the seen very late in the story. I also thought it was interesting that Goodkind has conditioned his audience to see though Richard's eyes and needed very little explanation on how Richard pieces everything together. In this way the repetitiveness of the story structure is used to give conclusion while letting us focus on something else.

I was impressed with the description of Althea's Swamp. I was beginning to take this world for granted, that I could not be lost in a new sight. While not completely new and breath taking it was well written and had a good balance of description.

Overall, this was a good book. I reserve my 5th star because after Faith of the Fallen I have higher expectation and in comparison its a 4 but that no reason to lose more stars. I have a feeling the next book has a bunch of stuff to work off of and will be another goodread.

Most didn't enjoy this one because of the side stories not really relating all that much to the main story line, however, I enjoyed it a lot!

A slap in the face after the grand and epic nature of the previous book. I found this book frankly, boring. When Goodkind broke from his main characters in Soul of the fire, I found it a refreshing change and necessary to the story. But these new characters are not nearly as interesting. For one, I understand how it is Richard can have a bunch of siblings he doesn't know about, but that doesn't make this an interesting plot point. I couldn't find myself caring very much, and the addition of the gimmicky "adorable animal companion" only deepened my distaste. Aside from that, the author's attempts to keep the tension high gets more and more wearing, and less convincing. Additionally, here begins the author's slow descent, wherein he devolves from a well crafted tale based on interesting philosophical ideals worth starting a conversation over, to blatant preaching. The characters reactions to Richard's ideas are less and less believable, and his espousing of them is more annoying, as he keeps repeating the same ideas over and over, while others are simply dazzled by his wisdom. This is another book in this series I would recommend skipping, as the parts of it that are integral to the understanding of later books are very few, and are covered amply by flashbacks.

This book was a little out of the ordinary. The entire book temporarily forgets about the main characters and their situation, and instead focuses on a new character. At the very end of the book, this new character meets up with the ones we've followed for the previous six books. Though it provides some insight into this new characters life, it wasn't completely necessary to do it in this way and was more than a little odd. The book itself was alright, but you find yourself wishing the other characters would hurry up and get back in the picture.

Originally this series was a complex and interesting collection of literature. I think the author needs to stop spending his newfound wealth on crack. This was one of the WORST books I have ever read. I cant help but feel like he was stealing lines from other authors such as Robert Jordan and George Martin.

A refreshing new shoot to break up what was gradually becoming monotonous grind, which is to be expected with a long series like this.

I am a huge fan of this series, but I must say this particular installment was a bit underwhelming. The idea behind what Goodkind reveals to be the pillars of creation is certainly unique and thought provoking on many levels, but unfortunately, it read as though he was trying to hard to build suspense for the grand reveal, that there was little left over to expand on the effects the pillars of creation had on the midlands. I do appreciate some mystery on such ideas, but this felt like he was using the suspense in lieu of story development, rather than in conjunction with it. Likewise, instead of developing more to the story, there a great deal of times where he was simply restating something that occurred in a previous book, or even within the same book. Most anyone reading this book would already be familiar with characters and backstory, rendering this a large redundancy. Furthermore, when he did retell previous events, it felt very much like he just cut word for word segments from his previous work. Perhaps it would not have been so monotonous if told from the perspective of another character. Regardless, The Pillars of Creation was still fun overall, and reveals some important details about the world of the midlands for the continuation of the series.

Book summary in one word: Incredulous.

If you told me that Terry Goodkind, being the good, kind guy that he is, let his hormonal 14-year-old nephew take the lead in writing this book, I'd believe you! Yeah, it's that bad! And I am not saying this with malice, you'd have to read it to believe it.

Richard and Kahlan are reunited, but with an army occupying their homeland, they must venture into a desolate land. But their quest turns to terror when they become the hopeless prey of a tireless hunter. Bah! This book synopsis just won't do the book any justice. Our two heroes, the premise under which we embarked on this volume, at best simply make a cameo appearance at the end, before they get overpowered and captured like novices.

Onto the next one: What wags its tail like a dog and excitedly follows you around like a dog? A goat of course! (Don't argue!) Who acts all knowing and insanely intelligent in strategy much like a dream walker we knew in past volumes only to act impotent and dumb as fuck in Pillars of Creation? Jagang of course. (Believe it!)

Don't get me started on the likely main characters in The Pillars of Creation: Jennsen and Oba Rahl, ungifted bastard children of Darken Rahl. Oba is frankly a murderous, self-absorbed pain in the neck. His character could very well be the most developed, and most complex character and could have been great, if not for a gazillion glaring plot holes. Terry Goodkind created Oba to be a freak of nature and in that, he succeeded spectacularly. In the same vein, he created Jennsen to be the more rounded one. She's been on the run with her mom for as long as she can remember and is used to living alone, far away from everybody. Now here's how things go hairy.

From being portrayed as this green girl, Jennsen's personality groundwork goes askew. The plot gets more incredulous as we bite harder, eventually losing all sense of direction. The descriptions get more lengthy and meaningless fleshing out of the actual content that you soon lose track of whatever plot you were building up to. From a shy country bumpkin secreted between corners of civilization and out of touch with reality, Jennsen climbs up in the world to even advise emperors about strategy. She handles a knife like she means business, ready to sheath it in some warm bodies. She wades through a sea of ghastly dead bodies and doesn't flinch...Facepalm!

She lifted the blade to be sure it was free in its scabbard. The steel made a pleasing metallic click as she pushed it home

Now if you have been reading Sword of Truth series from way back, you will instantly be reminded of Richard and his mannerisms. In Richard's absence, it appears Terry Goodkind channeled this rage into the other Rahl, Jennsen. It was awkward reading, seeing Jennsen keep checking her knife (A knife at that, not a sword) just like Richard is wont to do.

Let me not get into the subpar romance in Pillars of creation. It takes me back to my one-word synopsis at the beginning: Incredulous. It will leave a bad taste in your mouth. It just felt wrong, wrong, wrong! As did most chunks of Pillars of Creation. Meh! I am not sure I want to read any more Sword of Truth...

Plot holes: (This might or might not be plot spoilers)
1. Oba's journey from the New World to Old World in record time
2. Oba's fight with Nyla (Veteran warrior versus newbie and where were the guards?)
3. Oba tracking Jennsen
4. Oba's prison break
5. Jennsen's transformation(to Avenger, Strategist, Advisor, etc)
6. Jennsen's journey from the New World into the Old World
7. Jennsen's prison break scene
8. Tom's journey from the New World into the Old World

While I generally like the series, the books are not exceptional or anything. And even though Kahlan's perfection and her flawless relationship with Richard are too surreal and sort of annoying, I still think the author shouldn't write a whole book almost without any appearance by Kahlan, Richard and especially Cara. Jennsen isn't too bad a character, but she's not the main protagonist which, in my opinion, makes it hard for the author to be very original with her story. Yes, Goodkind likes to repeat the same thing at least five times for even the dimmest readers, but with Jennsen it was way over the top. And while the goat Betty, I think, was a likeable character, I can't imagine why we needed ten pages of descriptions of the way she wiggles her tail. If there was more of the actual story of how the war is going, what Richard, Zed, the Sisters and etc. are doing, it would have been better, even though the insight into Jaggang's side of the war was not too bad. Overall the book had good story which sadly was stretched way too thin into a thousand pages of repetitiveness, especially Oba's POV.

La jeune Jennsen, harcel�e depuis sa plus tendre enfance par ses d�mons int�rieurs, a trouv� le moyen de les r�duire au silence. Mais la fin de son �preuve est le d�but d'un calvaire pour le reste du monde : impliqu�e contre son gr� dans un combat dont l'enjeu est la vengeance et la conqu�te, Jennsen tombe sous la domination de forces obscures plus atroces que tout ce qu'elle aurait pu imaginer. Et si les voix de ses d�mons avaient toujours �t� r�elles ?... Pendant ce temps, Richard et Kahlan � nouveau r�unis doivent toujours compter avec la menace des troupes de l'Ordre Imp�rial. Contraints de s'aventurer dans un pays �trange et d�sol�, ils voient leur qu�te se transformer en cauchemar lorsqu'un chasseur infatigable se met � les traquer. Affaiblis et de plus en plus seuls, Richard et Kahlan combattent d�sesp�r�ment pour survivre. S'ils veulent un avenir, il leur faudra repousser la menace surnaturelle qui vient d'�merger des plus sombres profondeurs de l'�me humaine. Pour cela. le Sourcier devra lutter contre les d�mons assoiff�s de sang qui r�dent parmi les Piliers de la Cr�ation...

Well, that was....rather pointless.

I'm a series completionist, so I would have read this even if I'd seen the dark warnings in the other reviews first, that the blurb on the back of the jacket is a lie and that I would be seeing nothing of my favorite characters until the last bit of a 700+ page book. I am hoping that what seems like a bunch of wasted pages now will mean something in future installments, and I will see enough of Jennsen to justify her having an entire book (an....entire...book....) to herself.

I think there were some valuable points to what otherwise feels like a wasted volume, like establishing how someone who is naive and/or sheltered, like Jennsen, who comes across the Order and nothing else, could easily fall for their propaganda. Also, it gives us a point of view on Richard as the Lord Rahl that we haven't seen, since we've largely followed Richard's point of view for 6 books and however many thousands of pages. The few times we have been given a different point of view on the Lord Rahl, it's been from a character who was obviously meant to be evil or distrusted, so it had no impact. Oba's turns as a POV character were somewhat pointless, because obviously we weren't getting anything form him--Jennsen was at least somewhat more sympathetic. And while there were times I felt that she was not that bright for not catching on to what was so obviously happening, I had to remind myself that she didn't have the benefit of the knowledge the rest of us have had for the last 6 books. Removing that context makes her decisions a little less idiotic, at least sometimes.

And I have never felt so bad for a goat.

But, as is becoming the norm, there was a lot of talking and philosophy, some of it interspersed at some rather strange points--like, I don't think we're all going to stop and talk about the nature of evil and the purpose of the soul and individuality v. collectivism in the middle of a life or death battle. It just hit me as very strange and clunky. We all know, at this point, what all the different players stand for, and the endless rehashing is just dragging on and getting old.