Rating: 
Summary: The Scenic Route
Review: Terry Goodkind is an excellent author, and this book was quite interesting as possibly an insert or something, since except for the last thirty pages its protaganists had little to no interaction with Richard and the lot. I understand trying to get at it from a new angle, but this was a complete sidetrack, and for those of us who want to hear the ongoing story of Richard and Kahlan and the rest, it was frankly disappointing. I've waited over a year now to hear what they'll do next, and instead I heard of Jennsenn and Oba's adventures. Honestly I never really even liked either of the characters, and I spent most of the book waiting for Richard and Kahlan to come in. But they didn't. Overall, Goodkind needs to keep the series moving, instead of trying to leech more money out of his readers by taking the scenic route.
Rating:
Summary: Well Written, But Disappointing Story & Plot
Review: I have been an avid Sword of Truth reader since Wizard's First Rule was published, and have read each of the previous six books numerous times, as they have magnificent characters & plots, and I love his writing style. I have been looking forward to Pillars for over a year, and sadly, I am very disappointed. Though Goodkind continues to impress with his story-telling ability through his detailed character development, I felt the plot was unrelated completely to the rest of the books, Richard/Kahlan/Cara/Chase don't exist until the end, and it seems most of us, judging from previous reviews, enjoy reading about these characters the most. It seems Goodkind wanted to re-create Drefan, from Temple of the Winds, in an extended, prolonged, and boring fashion. This is not worth buying in hardcover, probably in soft cover just to have the book and complete the series. I sincerely hope Terry remembers the characters that made this series so successful in the next edition...Though his writing style is magnificent and unchanged, he forgot the characters, ideas, and story-line that caught everyone's attention and made this an amazing series.
Rating: 
Summary: It Came Up Short
Review: As a reader I came to this series late. I discovered it in January of this year and read all the books by May. I was eargerly awaiting this latest volume since that time. Although it is a good book, I believe that people like me who have read all the previous volumes will be disappointed in this one. The bottom line is that there is simply not enough of the charecters that we have become so involved with. Richard abd Kahlan do not appear for more than 4/5ths of the book. you just can't have enough of them. Barely any of Zedd and Cara. None of Verna and Ann. While I will be egerly awaiting his next book and will purchase immediatly upon publication, I hope to see more of my old friends at that time.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and misleading, but still Goodkind.
Review: Let me begin by saying that I award 3 stars because that is the average of how I feel about Pillars of Creation. While I was thrilled to have a new book by Goodkind (5), I was extremely disappointed (1) by the fact that the characters from the rest of the series didn't come in at all until the very end, and then as almost a side note to the story. In addition, I feel the cover blurb was misleading, and really implied that we'd see more of Richard and Kahlan.If I can give one bit of important advice to people considering buying the book now, it would be this: if you are considering buying this book because you're dying to know what happens next with Richard and Kahlan and Nicci et al, I have to tell you that nothing happens to them, and that the story line was really not continued from the previous books to this one. Now, with that said, let's look at the book from another angle. Had this been billed as another book set in the Sword of Truth universe, rather than a continuation of the first SoT books, I would have enjoyed reading it for its own sake. Truth be told, I found the characters as charming as any, and the writing as good as in any other Goodkind books, and I would have bought it regardless. Still, I can't help but feel somewhat betrayed by the author and/or the publisher, since my addiction to tales of Richard and Kahlan has been by no means assuaged by this most recent offering. Will I stop buying Goodkind's books? Of course not. I'll still be holding out for the next drop of information about our heroes, like any good little addict. I only pray that as some other reviewers have implied, Goodkind is not producing "filler" to fulfil his contract obligations, and that the blurbs on this book were only a horrible mistake.
Rating:
Summary: Filler
Review: Although not a bad book, it didn't really have a whole lot to do with the main story line in the series. After about 100 pages, I found myself flipping forward to try and see when Goodkind would get on with it. Unfortunately, he didn't until the last couple of chapters, and then it was a bit of a forced tie-in. This is more of a side story instead of a continuation of a series, which is disappointing as the description of it makes it sound like the main story line will be continued in this one. If he's going to write a side story, he should at least be honest about it. After the last book, Faith of the Fallen, which I felt was an incredible book, this was a real let down. There were a lot of threads left open at the end of that one which were just ignored and now we have to wait another year to find out what happens.
Rating:
Summary: it's good enough
Review: well i have been waiting the entire year since the last book for this one and although terry goodkind seems to have yet left out the element of magic again, this is a good enough book. it shows us a different perspective of this world that the book is set in and the last part shows a glimmer of what is to come, jennsen is suppossed to touch something and i think it has to do with the wizard's keep. i don't know but somehow the books have become less intense, in WFR, i remember speeding through the pages at the intensity of the situations and the new things that were revealed each page, but i think that this book was just there to give us a breather and hopefully the next book would build up to something more!
Rating:
Summary: Um, what happened? Terry? Are you still there?
Review: This is a horribly hard thing for me to do...Don't get me wrong, I, like you, love all of Goodkind's books. Faith of the Fallen was probably (actually), no, it IS my favorite book of all time, period. I work at (a book store), so you can imagine my glee when a huge carboard box arrived on the 15th gloriously displaying the words "Pillars of Creation" on the side in red lettering.
You can also imagine my dissapointment after getting to the 500th page and still not really enjoying it. I'm sorry but I cannot identify and have concern or empathy for characters who are stupid and annoy me. Where did Goodkind go? I remember the great author putting in extremly intelligent conversation, nail biting situations that would have you thinking, "how in the (...) is he or she was going to get out of this?" Jennsen? Give me a break, I kept thinking, "why don't you just die and leave my beautiful story alone so Terry can get back to Richard and Kahlan and Zedd and the rest!" Ok, it must be said, Oba is pretty cool. He is an interesting character that has some interesting pyscological possibilities. But there was just TOO FRIGGING MUCH OF HIM!!!
This book should be called, "Travelling: A Book About Not Too Much, Other Then Three Characters Camping, Buying Horses, Loosing Money and Goats, Gaining Money, and Genrally Being Annoying"
I remember the profound philosophy, that absolute and total uplifting feeling after finishing Faith of the Fallen. Than I think Jennsen, and the words, "lame, obvious, redundant" come leaping into my head. Sorry folks but I cannot give this book five stars just because it's Terry Goodkind. Infact you are doing an injustice to yourself and fellow readers if you give this book four or five stars. We must, as Goodkind would want, be truthful to ourselves and our civilization, and even though I would so like to give this book a five, I must be honest, and give it a two.
Yes, I have read all Terry's interviews, heard him interviewed on the radio, went to a book sighning etc...I'm not reading his series for DragonLance cartoon style "World Building Books" I am reading it for the intensity, the passion and the intelligence in which he writes. That is of course, up until this book. The only reason this book gets a two is because of the brief flare of wit and skill that sometimes shows itself. Why Terry? Why must you now make me wait another year??? (sob) (sniffle) (sob)
Rating:
Summary: Episodic, repetitive and, at times, bad
Review: I will not preface my review with caveats regarding how much I've enjoyed this series. If I'm reviewing book 7, that should be enough to know that I'm a fan. And since I know most of you who are reading this are already "in the series" I won't say not to buy it, because even if you believed me that the book is pretty awful, you would probably still go out and get it, if only to find out what happens to the characters you've been reading about. Well, you don't really find out anything and this series is looking more like a season of Three's Company: episodic, bad writing, and plots that revolve around miscommunication. Terry has lost me as a reader and, to be honest, he should lose you too. He shouldn't profit from such obvious profiteering. Which is way too bad because the series started out about as strong as one that I can remember.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointed!
Review: I can't understand what Goodkind was doing in this book. Why write #7 in a series and then leave out the main characters from the previous novels for 90% of the book. Goodkind is perhaps my favorite author, but this book makes no sense. Everyone I have talked to about this book feels the same. What was he AND his editor thinking? Read the last 50 pages, and cross your fingers for book #8. Maybe it will actually have some characters that we want to read about.
Rating:
Summary: It's better than Soul of the Fire...
Review: 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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