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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's better than Soul of the Fire..., November 26, 2001
This review is from: The Pillars of Creation (Sword of Truth, Book 7) (Hardcover)
I don't know quite what to make of this book overall, so I'll start simply by stating the following: Goodkind's fantasies are about people, not worldbuilding. He's made that clear both in and out of his novels. However, even with that in mind, I don't know what to make of it when the main characters we've grown to know and love over the course of six massive novels don't even show up until the last fifty pages of the seventh, and then only as a segue into the eighth. After getting over my initial shock, I was both pleased and disappointed with this work. I'm glad that Goodkind had the guts to tell the story how he wanted to tell it, instead of catering to the fanboys. He had a character that will clearly be a very important part of the rest of the series (now contracted through Book 10), knew he couldn't tell her story merely in flashbacks, and so gave her a whole novel. Unfortunately, her story just wasn't terribly compelling. Like all of Goodkind's novels, this was a quick read, but many of the chapters seemed pretty inconsequential, or possibly too sequential, just an excuse to get the characters from point A to point B. As I've said, this book focusses on new characters. The main character, Jennsen, is likeable and easy to feel for. Unfortunately, the same is not true for this book's main antagonist. Not only is he so utterly inhuman that I couldn't connect with him at all, but Goodkind seemed, as is too often the case, to downplay the power of others in a attempt to make him more powerful. Over the course of this story, we run into Zedd, Nathan, Adie, and other familiar characters...but never for long, and none of the scenes show the wit of their characters. Indeed, while many of the characters are interesting, they mostly also happen to be boring. And then when we finally get back to Richard, Kahlan, and Cara, we are given a brief and unsatisfactory resolution, a few cryptic words about some new problem which will undoubtedly be made clear in Book 8, and a new Wizard's Rule which delivery frankly sucked. So why did I give this book even three stars? Because, despite its flaws, it was a quick, fun read, and I was able to keep in mind that this is a transitionary novel. I think I would honestly have been able to tack another star on, though, if it had not been advertised as a Sword of Truth novel (the words aren't even in the book), and if Richard and Kahlan hadn't figured into the cover blurb. As it was, however, I felt that the publishers were trying to trick me into buying a book I would have been perfectly happy to buy anyway.
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47 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not his best, November 21, 2001
This review is from: The Pillars of Creation (Sword of Truth, Book 7) (Hardcover)
I have anxiously been awaiting this book to hit the shelves, and I can't tell you how many times I have reread Faith of the Fallen in preparation for Pillars of Creation coming out. Faith of the fallen is one of those rare books that really stand out amongst it's peers, but in reality has no peers due to the incredible rhetoric and imaginative writing of Terry Goodkind. But I am not reviewing that book. I fell in love with the Sword of Truth series from the start. I had been reading Jordans book feverishly until they started to become boring, and dependably dull. His series started to flag (I feel) by the 6th-7th book and it has been downhill ever since. Goodkind to me took some of the same ideas as Jordan in writing a series, but I feel as though he learned from Jordan, and didn't make the same tired mistakes. Goodking constantly kept his characters moving, growing, the plot shifting, and new wonders appeared in every book. It is for this that I have revered the series up until the last book. This new book by Goodkind is a good book. I will give him that. He is a very proficient writing, and has used the land he created almost in a selfish way I feel to explore ideas beyond the regular scope of his novels. I will explain. The book is about children of Darken Rahl that were saved from summarily being killed at birth as Rahl's are wont to do. These children by the storys beginning have grown to adulthood, and have been on the run from the ruthless minions of house Rahl their entire life. Though the lifelines of these children start out simply and independant, their stories quickly link up, and crisscross each other until the end of the novel. Their adventures with the Imperial Army, and within the land of D'Hara is sprinkled with excellent writing, yet my gripe with the story is that the main protagonist: Richard Rahl and his associates are not written about until page 450. Yes you heard correctly: the main characters of this series, Richard, Kahlan, Cara, who have fueled all of the plot thus far were not written about until the book was 4/5ths done. I respect this from Goodkind, as he probably wanted to use alternative characters to explore the world he had created, and see it from a different point of view, but I feel as though he should have written more about Kahlan and Richard, just to allow them to grow that much more in this book. So that is my gripe with this book. It was a well written book, but I wish that Goodkind had written a little more about the characters I have grown to admire greatly. Incidentally Richard does learn one more Wizards Rule, and the streak is kept alive as we are now up to 7 rules of "living life as wizards do". Good book, well written, the characters were interesting, if not who I really wanted to read about. But in the process I was able to learn a little more of the mystique of the land and some of its inherent magic, and that is always a positive thing. So I would call reading this book overall a very enjoyable experience, if slightly unexpected.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Weak Coincidences, Inconsistencies and a lack of Sense., February 26, 2004
OK, OK, it's fantasy. Earth's rules of science and physics don't matter but in many places this book fails to adhere to the rules of common sense. Also, I thought the editing was poor. There were spots where it felt like Mr Goodkind took a break then started writing again before he re-read what he had just written. One such error comes to mind where two full sentences repeated just two paragraphs apart. I don't mind letting a few nonsensical things slide, but there are so many big and little screwy things here that it was impossible to reconcile them short of turning off your brain. Here are a few examples in no particular order (a few spoilers noted with '***'): * Jennsen is selectively ignorant/knowledgeable, observant/unobservant, or strong willed/easily manipulated depending on what is convenient at the time throughout the story to maintain the weak plot. * The Emperor's key strategists are not very strategic, nor does he listen to them. * Doesn't the existence and knowledge of these "holes in the world" make places like the Wizard's Keep a whole lot less threatening? If the Emporer knew about Jennsen why didn't he use her to assault the Keep? Or, why didn't Richard use her (or someone like her) previously - wasn't one of the main themes of a previous book based around trying to get past the magical safeguards of the Keep? * The Emperor losses a million plus units of his army to an unknown force that strikes at the heart of his camp and his response is basically, "oh well, it'll take a little time to rebuild." Yeah, this guy is going to have many followers... * Tom covertly follows Jennsen (who is in the middle of this million plus unit army) in a horse drawn wagon. *** Tom is supposed to be one of the elite protectors of Lord Rahl, but idly watches while Jennsen charges Lord Rahl with a knife. *** Tom is supposed to be one of the elite protectors of Lord Rahl. Why would he be working, deep cover, in the market? Convenient coincidence. *** The idea is repeated several times that Jennsen never had the chance or right moment to tell Sebastian that she was immune to magic even though they are lovers and traveling together for months. This didn't make sense to me, but to use this as the key point in Jennsen discovering Sebastian's treachery was just plain weak. WEAK! I cringed reading Jennsen say "I never told you magic didn't effect me..." Hmmm, didn't he just see her come away unharmed after battles with wizards and sorceresses in which she saw through the illusions that nobody else did? * Jennsen's bluffs to get into the palace and free Sebastian were unbelievable and most of that sequence was silly. The list goes on but unless I missed some deeper meaning, it's not worth the mental energy it would take to go over all the inconsistent events and convenient coincidences in this book. The ending felt rushed with the main baddies conveniently killed or missing, with a few obscure references to other characters thrown in for whatever reason "Wait until we tell this to Nikki" or other such lines. In the end I was left feeling that nothing happens in the book. Homerinvests
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