A Real Let Down (The Pillars of creation - Terry Goodkind)

Member Name: andyoz

Product:	The Pillars of creation - Terry Goodkind
Date:	11/07/09 (14 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Writing Style

Disadvantages: Does Not Follow On With The Story

The Pillars of Creation is the 7th book in the epic Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind. It follows on from the previous book Faith of the fallen. This book came out back in November 2001 and was another great success for Terry Goodking. By this point the fans were well and truely hooked on Goodkind's epic fantasy writing.

I must mention that I read the first six books in this series about 5 years ago. At that point the series was not complete so at the end of book six i called it a day, for a while anyway. In the last few months I bought the final five books of the series and starting reading them again. I could not recall everything that had happened but after a brief look at the plots I thought I would soon remember what had been happening and get back involved with the characters. However....

This book takes the story in a completely different direction. The characters we are so familiar with, Richard and Kahlan for example are not even mentioned till right at the end of the book. This was bad news for me as I was not convinced I was reading the correct series for a while. Found it very confusing!

This book focuses on the story of Jennsen, she has been chased all her life by assasins sent by the Lord Rahl. She is an ungifted child of the former Lord Rahl and so must be killed off. One day Jennsen meets a stranger who tells her she must stop running and stand up for herself. The story follows Jennsen on her quest to change her life forever.

It's good that Goodkind is introducing new characters to the story, but to be honest the fact he spends an entire book focusing on one new character is just to much. I was so excited to get back into this series of books and pick up the tale where I left it. However this book didn't do that. To be honest you probably don't need to read this book, you could just skip onto the next one and there would not be that many things you would struggle with in the next.

Terry Goodkind is an excellent story teller, so in it's own right this is still a very good book. The drama is good, the description excellent and the character development is wonderfully detailed. But probably to much, Jennsen is really just a side character yet we spend an entire book learning about her. Strange really.

Overall all though this is a good book, I was very disapointed by it. It was not what the fans wanted, they had been wainting almost 18 months to follow the story, and basically they didn't get anything at the end of their wait! No real developments on what has happened to Richard and Kahlan and I just felt cheated somehow.

Usually with these books you cannot just read one, you will not be able to follow the story and it won't make much sense. However with this one you probably can read this one on its own. I don't really see why you would want to but just thought would mention it.

So if you have read the previous 6 books I am sure you will feel like you have to read this one. But to be honest you will probably just want to get through it as quickly as possible so you can resume the story!

Summary: Worst Book In The Series