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

Absolutely Brilliant!

I am a big fan of Terry Goodkind's works in general. The narrator does an amazing job here as well!

Ruined by the Narrator

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I think anyone that really enjoys a robotic style voice with improper inflections would really enjoy listening to this book.

What did you like best about this story?

Due to the narrator I liked the story being over best.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jim Bond?

I think Stephen Hawkings could have read this book for us and sounded less mechanical than Jim Bond did. However, if I could have my way in the matter I would have cast almost any of the other narrators from this series...preferably Sam Tsoutsouvas, but Buck Schirner or John Kenneth would also have made it much better.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Pillars of Creation?

The scenes where Jim Bond is reading are the ones I would have cut...sadly that is the whole book.

Any additional comments?

Please Audible, I'm begging here, as a fan of audio books (many different genres) and a fan of Goodkind, please re-do the books narrated by Jim Bond, the man has no business narrating any books, but especially this series! I love the series, have read them all and was so looking forward to hearing them read, but it is more a torture, having to struggle through listening to Bond, than anything resembling a relaxing time listening to a beloved series.

Long and drawn out, but the ending made up for it

First of all, the summary for the book is way off. There is no long drawn out cat and mouse change between Jensen and Richard. Other than that, this is typical of Goodkind's latest books in the series. There is a long drawn out middle that is sometimes boring to sit through, but the ending ties it together and makes it worth it. I'll move on to the next book.

Loved it!

Another great addition to the sword of truth series! I look forward to the next book!

An interesting side quest

This book is an interesting one in the series because Kaelyn and Richard are not the main characters. I enjoyed meeting Jensen, Sebastian and Tom. I thought it was really interesting to see the main characters in a story, with (relatively) good intentions that think that they have everything all figured out but really they’re totally incorrect and as the reader you are aware of how wrong they are. So often main characters will brilliantly piece together elaborate plans of the enemy and somehow thwart them. In this case, Jensen is putting together logical conclusions based on incorrect information. It also shows another side of the story and how people might be opposing Richard without necessarily being an evil character themselves, they might just be misguided. On the whole I would say that it’s a pretty happy ending, however it’s a little laughably implausible to me how the author scrapes together all these unlikely events at the very end and smashes them together to try and create a cohesive narrative. I would read it again, but the ending still makes me a bit dizzy.

Good story,ended quickly, reading lacking.

I have really liked all of the Sword of Truth books, and I enjoyed this one, but everything came to a head really quickly toward the end, so much so that I thought I had accidentally skipped a bunch of chapters. I wonder if Goodkind was getting bored with the characters of this book and was just eager to continue the story of Richard and Kahlan. All that aside, I've never really liked Jim Bond as a narrator, because he reads everything so robotically, every word pronounced very precisely and with no conveyance of the emotions of the situation or, really, even the characters. All the really intense, emotional scenes have their effect dramatically muted by Bond's calm and steady reading. If a character is crying, or shouting, or whispering, you would be hard put to imagine it without the author actually telling you. It's not always so bad, but more often than not, in my recollection, which is a problem, as a bad reading can really ruin an audio book. I would still recommend the book to others, but be prepared for Bond's rather too calm reading. If you've listened to the books this far, however, you probably already know what to expect from this narrator.

Repetitive but fresh breath of air comparatively

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the book to a fantasy reader, but only if they truly care about the series. It's not worth picking up outside of the story.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Less repetition of useless details, and much less about Oba, the Oaf. His character is terrible, and the story drives a stake in itself. I got very tired of hearing invincible.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Simple and kind voice. A little monotone, but it was fine.

Did The Pillars of Creation inspire you to do anything?

No.

Any additional comments?

No.

Richard and Kahlen barely made this book.

it was a tough listen. I was waiting for Richard and Kahlen to make the story. They barely had a role in this book.

Storyline not as exciting

I like the intro of new characters but wasn't a fan of the storyline overall. This book focuses mainly on new characters.

Still a good addition to the overall Sword of Truth set.

great book

absolutely loved it, although as the series has gone on, it seems like the main characters are in it less, and less.