The Pillars of Creation

Sword of Truth, Book 7

By: Terry Goodkind

Narrated by: Jim Bond

Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Tormented her entire life by inhuman voices, Jennsen seeks to end her intolerable agony. She at last discovers a way to silence the voices. For everyone else, the torment is about to begin.

Richard Rahl and his wife, Kahlan, have been reunited after their long separation, but with winter descending and the paralyzing dread of an army of annihilation occupying their homeland, they must venture deep into a strange and desolate land. Their quest turns to terror when they find themselves the helpless prey of a tireless hunter.

Exploited by those intent on domination, Jennsen finds herself drawn into the center of a violent struggle for conquest and revenge. Worse yet, she finds her will seized by dark forces more abhorrent than anything she ever envisioned. Only then does she come to realize that the voices were real.

Staggered by loss and increasingly isolated, Richard and Kahlan desperately struggle to survive. But if they are to live, they must stop the relentless, unearthly threat that comes out of the darkest night of the human soul. To do so, Richard will be called upon to face the demons stalking among the Pillars of Creation.

Epic edge: listen to more in the Sword of Truth series.

©2001 Terry Goodkind (P)2001 Brilliance Audio

Detour!

If you know up front that the Richard,Kahlan, and the usual cast are not the main characters in "The PIllars of Creation" then the story is not dissapointing. They serve as the background story for most of the book until the last several chapters. This book centers around 2 other offspring of Darken Rahl, Jennsen and Oba. Rather then distracting from the series, these new characters expand and inrich the story. It starts off a liitle slow but worth listening to the end.

I would give 0 stars for the narration if I could

Jim Bond is a TERRIBLE narrator! The story is fine but this version of it is ruined. Eeuchh

too little too late

too much ado about nothing big build up little payoff. leaves you with just two new characters and no real story advancement

Don’t let negative reviews influence you

After reading the negative reviews on this book I was reluctant to purchase but I am so glad that idea. I feel that it is one of the better books released. At least this speaker knows how to pronounce the names of all the characters. I didn’t feel that it drug on as much as some of the previous boo did and I was never bored as I was in some of the other books. Great job Mr. Bond of Narrating This book.

It’s not about Richard

The book focuses on Richards half sister Jensen. 50 chapters roughly. It talks about the Rahl heritage and fills in gaps.

story is good, narrator detracts

Narrator has many, monotonous parts. Occasional well read parts followed by parts that seem as if it was difficult for the Narrator to read/ follow through. Either that or the Narrator is extremely effective at bringing to life 'Oba' and couldn't prevent him from bleeding into the other characters.

The rough parts far outweigh the smooth ones - followed through just to go on with the series.

Uncomfortable story, repetitive ending.

(Don't worry, no spoilers!)
I love the idea of another back story to help flesh out the SOT universe, but 90% of this story is just either grotesque or uncomfortable, with very little emotional respite for the reader. If you have read the rest of the series, you'll spend a lot of time *wanting* to care about some of these newer characters, but being unable to because they are on the "wrong side." So, I didn't really get attached to anyone and thus my "personal investment" was low for such a long book.

Then, the last 90 minutes or so feel like Goodkind realized he needed to tie things up before his deadline, and all the characters are suddenly in exposition mode. The big climax happens, reason and rationality wins out as always, and in an instant, characters who had technically been at odds for their entire lives are suddenly best buds. Also, one very important character's death really feels like an afterthought in order to clear the way for another thread to begin.

One of the main characters is highly traumatized and mentally ill from lifelong abuse, and had become dangerous for reasons explained in the book. This tragedy is not addressed properly by the end and frankly is a gaping hole in the "reason and rationality" thread of SOT.

I'm glad for the purpose of the story, but not so much in how it was done.

not enough lord Rahul

the story is suppose to be about Richard and Kaylan but not. I would have rather skipped it. just my opinion

Good book but....

All right guys I would give this book a 5 star if I was not screaming up a storm in my head with how all the actions could be taken in a wrong way. not to mention how little all the characters I came to love were in this book. however I will grudgingly admit the the new character Jenson has grown on me. this book was a great building block for her character. I just hope after this one she keeps on appearing otherwise this book will be just a filler in my opinion. anyways happy reading!

Bravo!

After The Soul of the Fire, I was dismayed to learn that Richard and Kahlan weren't in The Pillars of Creation until the very end. TSOTF was so boring with all its side-characters, that I feared the same with TPOC. Boy, I was wrong! This book, in one word, ROCKS! I loved it! And it's nice to hear Jim Bond again; let the haters hate on him!