Well, to say this book surprised me would be the understatement of the year. When I cracked the spine of this baby, I fully expected to pick up where the sixth book had left me. That would be with Richard and Kahlan in the Old World.Instead I found myself with a girl named Jennsen, and later on with a brute called Oba, about whom the previous books didn't breathe a word and who, if I may be honest, didn't interest me one bit (in the beginning at least). But this doesn't mean that the book didn't provide a nice read. Goodkind somehow always manages to build such strong characters. I didn't give a damn about Jennsen and Oba at the beginning of the book, but nonetheless I was cheering and shouting for Jennsen to make the correct choice at the end of it all.Nevertheless, I would have liked to have read more about Richard and Kahlan. And Cara too, of course. Which is a first for me. I find it quite a challenge to read book after book about the same characters. But somehow Goodkind always manages to drag me back into Richard and Kahlan's world. Anyway, back to the missing trio... I was psyched when they finally showed up. In between the lines it was made clear that they had been on quite a moving journey themselves (there is even this sort of bantering between the 3 of them about something that didn't turn out well because Cara "touched it") but Goodkind never explains where they have been and what they have been up to. Maybe he'll include this in the next book? I do hope so. I'm curious!In short: I liked the book, though it will probably never be my favourite book of the entire series. Goodkind managed to capture me with new characters (even though some of them were evil enough to make you want to strangle them... or at least make you recoil in disgust) but most importantly, he gave us a look at the war between Jagang and Richard from Jagang's perspective. I loved the chapter where quite a bit of Jagang's army was slaughtered by Zedd and Adie. And I loved Betty! You should definitely read the book, if only to meet the ever adorable Betty!
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.
What do You think about The Pillars Of Creation (2002)?
The book became acceptable around page 532. Yes, its viewing the events in the other sides through the propaganda of the Imperial Order. But did it have to do so with a sledgehammer, over and over again, with no real movement other than 'oh, she has to figure it out *this* time' or 'wait, she's having a twinge that something isn't right' but then those twinges never develop, nor does the character. Until the very end when magic happens and all is right. As a way to introduce a new character or two, it would have worked as a short story, under 40 pages.
—Mf
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. Jen
—Tracey
I dug up an old review I wrote on Amazon for this in 2004, when I was 16 and had just finished reading it: This book... had a very evil feel to it. The characters weren't as well-defined as in the other books, or perhaps just not as appealing. I thought Jennsen was quite determined to be stupid throughout her journeys, but her character was saved in the end. The scene with Oba and the Mord-sith is not one easily forgettable, it's enjoyable in the most sadistic of ways. You definitely could not read this book and get everything out of it if you hadn't read a few of the others preceeding it, so you had a feel of what was going on with the Order and Richard. I did find myself greedily awaiting appearances from Richard and Kahlan, because those two characters are the kind one can read about forever and identify with... Jennsen, I wanted to hurt; although that does say something about how brought alive the characters were. Still, definitely an evil feel to it. I love the terms "hole in the world" and "pillars of creation", such chilling thoughts. The kind that remind you of something, far off and long ago that you just can't place but it made you scared perhaps without cause. This is a book that will make you think and wonder and probably leave you more confused than you were at the beginning, and wanting to write a review about just how much you disliked it. The fact is, you will probably dislike it as you're reading it, and want to put it down but you will not be able to. You'll read it through till the end and then perhaps think it a waste of time, and you should have stopped reading when you felt like it... but of course you couldn't. This is a page-turner if I ever heard of one. Maybe you're better off not wasting hours on it but I still recommend it.
—Nadia Scrieva
