The Pillars of Creation - Sword of Truth Book 7 by Terry Goodkind

The Pillars of Creation is the 7th book in the Sword of Truth fantasy series by Terry Goodkind and the hardback version is a mere 557 pages long.

It has an interesting non-Richard Rahl / Kahlan Amnell start and is probably not what you'd expect, after having read the previous books. It is, however, still a good book with a couple of interesting developments. It is probably also one of the books you could read, without recourse to the previous books in the serie, as a standalone story in itself.

As the jacket blurb says, “Ever since she was six someone has been trying to kill Jennsen. Now she is twenty. He just found her.”

Jennsen is also tormented by voices in her head and must find a way to silence them. After she escapes from her hunter (of course she has to as otherwise there would be no story) with the help of a new found ally Sebastian she tells him who is trying to kill her. Lord Rahl. Together they begin their flight.

We also learn that Jennsen is linked with a person of a similar age in the Old World, Oba, who also hears voices in his head. So what is the link? Well, we find out that both of them are immune to magic attacks, which makes them quite formaidable.

Jennsen and Oba both learn that they must travel to D’hara to seek answers and from there they have to continue their journey. And she learns that either she may be a pillar of creation or that the pillars of creation is a place. So she has to find out more.

During this time her friend Sebastian, who has been helping her, tells her that she will never be safe until she eliminates Lord Rahl, who has sent people to kill her, adding another strand to the story.

Richard and Kahlan do not appear in this book until the later stages at Aydindril and later in a confrontation with Oba and Jensen at the Devils furnace.

If anything, the end of the book seemed a bit rushed, telescoped, compared to the story to that point, and came together perhaps a bit too perfectly and a bit too quickly. But overall, I thought Jennsen and Oba were good characters in their own right. It was definitely interesting to see things from a different perspective, and once again gives the impression that this 'world' exists outside of just the main characters, as as I have mentioned before.

Goodkind has also done an excellent job of building up the suspense for the next book in the series, Naked Empire.

This book reveals the Wizard's seventh rule: Life is the future, not the past. It is explained in the book as: 'But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to its fullest, each day must be created anew.

UK readers can buy the Sword of Truth books here.