I enjoyed this book the least out of the Sword of Truth/Chainfire series, I couldn't wait to be done with it in order to get to the rest of the story. I felt that although some of the characters were interesting they could have been developed more quickly. I didn't feel that an entire book completely void of Richard and Kahlan was necessary for us to learn to like/dislike these characters. I also felt at times even the individual paths of the characters were extremely slow to develop while the ending was extremely abrupt and even in the realm of fantasy felt forced and unrealistic compared to the rest of the books.

I have finished the series and really do appreciate Jennsen being in the stories but she could have been introduced without some of the other characters.

For those of you who started following me because of my reviews of this series, I apologize in advance. I finished this book over three months ago now, so my initial impression of the book has faded. Also, despite this being overall not great, I have very little ire for it. These two stars aren't a result of outrage or ickiness like usual; they're more the result of this book seemingly have very little relevance to the main plot of the series.

But, good news for you if this review disappoints, I'm starting book eight tomorrow! (Which is why I'm finally writing this review.)

I suppose your basic enjoyment of The Pillars of Creation hinges upon whether or not you think it's a good idea for Goodkind to sideline his two main characters, Richard and Kahlan, in favor of Richard's previously unheard of half-sister, Jennsen Rahl, for an entire full-length book in this series. I don't necessarily think it was a bad impulse for Jennsen to get her own story. Maybe it's just my lingering good feelings about her from the TV show, but I rather like Jennsen as a character, despite how very long it takes her to catch on to certain things in this book. But perhaps this all could have been done in a side novel or novella instead of a full doorstopper length main-series tome? I'm talking, like, Robert Jordan's New Spring, here: four hundred pages, in and out.

But, aside from it being a puzzling choice story-wise, I'm not all that mad about it. The story itself, which is more of an internal character journey for Jennsen, wasn't bad. It certainly moved faster than many of Goodkind's plots have in the past, and I wasn't ever bored with it. The main thrust here is that Jennsen and her mother have been on the run for most of Jennsen's life, as if he ever found them, Darken Rahl would kill them. Jennsen, as is the case with many of Darken Rahl's offspring, is pristinely ungifted, meaning that not only does she have no ability with magic, it doesn't affect her at all. This is dangerous to Darken Rahl for obvious reasons. The book opens with her mother being murdered by a team supposedly sent from Darken Rahl (even though we as readers know Darken Rahl is dead, and Richard is now the new Lord Rahl), and she goes off with Sebastian, the man who helps her escape.

Turns out, though, that Sebastian is a spy from the Imperial Order, which he willingly tells Jennsen. He immediately begins trying to turn her away from the Midlands and to admire the Emperor and the Order. The result of this is that we spend most of the book with a Jennsen who thinks the Order is benevolent, that her brother Richard is evil and trying to kill her, and the Midlands he rules are corrupt. One of the only things that actively annoyed me about this book is how long it took Jennsen to catch on to Sebastian's ploy. On the one hand, it was sort of fascinating to see the series and its characters from this new angle, especially since Jennsen is so sheltered and rather an easy target. On the other, because this is Terry Goodkind, this premise (which I'm sure he engineered for expressly this purpose) also leads to a lot of very unsubtle political ideology often taking the place of actual character development or plot. This is, of course, becoming an increasingly bigger problem as the series goes on. Often it seems more important for Goodkind to use his characters as avatars of objectivism than to make sure they're behaving like actual people.

I haven't even talked about Oba yet! Let's talk about Oba. Oba is Richard and Jennsen's other half brother. Oba is a psychopath. Raised by an abusive mother, he manages to kill her and the local sorceress, and set off for his own parallel adventure that brings him into orbit with his siblings. Oba is the main villain in this book, with baddie Jagang taking a secondary role as villain. Oba is actually not all at that interesting. Your standard violent misogynist, only very big and strong, and like Jennsen, immune to magic. I wanted to talk about Oba because of something he does in the second half of the book.

There is this very strange sequence where Jennsen has to cross a magical swamp that kills everybody who enters it, only it doesn't kill her because she's immune. In that swamp, she encounters a very large boa constrictor, and basically communes with it spiritually, convincing it not to kill her by just like, looking at it or whatever. They bond. It's very weird but sort of sweet. Then, later, Oba enters the same swamp, also doesn't die, and when he encounters the snake, he straight up murders it. Y'all, I got SO MAD. He was murdering everyone this whole book; his mom, the sorceress, a BUNCH of people. But the snake made me about 5,000 times madder than any of the rest of it. It was very graphically described, and I can't figure out what Goodkind was going for. There is an obvious parallel between Jennsen and Oba there, how one treats the snake versus the other, but it also felt gratuitous, and like a slap in the face. The snake murder comes way after most of Oba's other murders/rapes/other horrible things. We already know he's a very bad dude. It was just such a weird moment and I don't know how to feel about it, especially since it was the only thing in the book that really engaged me emotionally. Maybe I'm just overthinking it, and I just really like animals (yes, even snakes--we demonize them, and I hate it).

Lastly, I wrote in a status update the following regarding the last chapter: "This last scene is a real turd.

Although a lot of people recommend I give up this series when I mentioned I was coming up on this installment, I actually quite enjoyed it. Terry has finally written a character that is, although somewhat cliche, not marred by the constant threat of rape or enslavement, who thinks fast, but isnt over powered or beyond imagination. I did feel Oba was a recycled Drefen, but Jennsen was actually endearing and in my opinion quite a good addition to the cast, I loved her girlish and simple views throughout the book. I also really enjoyed Fredric, his love for Althea is so pure and I actually really liked how the character build played out. Plus, I have to admit, it was nice to have a break from Richard and Kahlan. I missed Cara, but the break was needed and I think this book really added to the series and was a lot more successful than Blood of the Fold and Temple of the Winds. Plus, I really think Terry finally took a leap and breached his ever so dear shock value to actually create a torn and driven opponet with Sabastian.

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