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Submitted by Cody Anders 
(Apr 15, 2002)

I think POC was quite good in a way..if you're looking for it to focus on other characters other than Richard and Kahlan.
If you think it's a bit long on other people then read till the end...the part where Cara, Richard, and Kahlan coming in is worth the read.
I was a bit disappointed at the beginning but as you read on its actually very good a book....I cant wait for the next book....make it fast Terry!

How to describe this book...hmmm...almost a complete waste of time would do it I think. I am very quickly losing faith in Mr. Goodkind to deliver a satisfying story. Beyond a few entertaining moments with Zedd and Adie in Adyndril and a rather anti-climatic ending the book was, well, a complete waste of time.

I had heard this installment in the SOT series as a breath of fresh air so I went into reading it with an open mind, having begun to lose interest in the series as a whole. Mr. Goodkind seems stuck in a rut. By the end of Soul of the Fire, I had almost given up hope in this series ever getting anywhere. I am extremely frustrated that Richard, a great and powerfull War Wizard, knows next to nothing of his powers. "It works through need," says Richard. So apparently this means he can only use his powers when he is really really angry or something. This doesn't follow with what we saw in Temple of The Winds however, when Richard is in the Underworld and can make rose petals appear and create a new sword of truth from thin air. He wasn't angry or in danger then but he had no trouble using his powers just because he can. From reading this I assume he can use his powers like any other normal wizard, he just needs to learn, but Mr. Goodkind has apparently given up on this line of thought. This book does nothing to further his knowledge, in fact he isn't even in the book until around the last third of the book.

This book actually centers around something I thought we were well and done with in The Stone of Tears, in that the Keeper is trying to swallow the world again. I won't spoil it with how, exactly, incase you want to read it because it is a rather original idea. One original idea however, is not enough to breathe life back into this floundering series. It seems Mr. Goodkind intends to drag this series on to Dune proportions. At this rate it will never end. It's almost like he is racing Robert Jordan in seeing who can write the longer series. The Wheel of Time series, while incredibly long, is a far greater read then The Sword of Truth.

Maybe Mr. Goodkind has some grand scheme in mind to tie this book into all the others and it actually served a purpose, like Return of the Jedi in the Star Wars series. A sort of middle chapter that doesn't resolve much but ties into the whole. If so I would love to see it. Until then this book is a rather boring read that doesn't make much sense.

In The Pillars of Creation (TPOC), the series takes on a subtle new twist in that where Faith of the Fallen (FOTF) asks does blind obediance make mandkind less evil than depending on the man's free will to make the right choices, TPOC asks if true love can ever surface in a society where blind faith dominates. Goodkind almost completely leaves the central characters out of the story, though their shadow remains as a backdrop until the end. The funny thing is that they don't figure in the realization. Instead, they become the focus of Jenn, the central character who deliniates the book's theme. She is without the gift but at the same time just as powerful being its mirror-image.

Most of FOTF main characters realize that magic is just a tool like a sword or any other. When Richard rediscovers that he can succeed without magic as a quasi-capitolist, he manages to change the world of the Order, by showing the "slaves" of the Order that true beauty.. TRUTH, not money, overcomes blind faith. This touches off the revolution in the people of the Old World because they needed a spark to reignite their lost or "fallen" faith in mankind's ability to trust itself to make the right choices.

In the TPOC, the focus is narrowed from the needs of a society to make free choices to the needs of the one. Evil will always be with us, but as with magic, we need to try to make the best choice for ourselves in our lives because that is the essance of life!

Goodkind leaves you guessing until the dramatic ending. The story continues to be an enjoyable and fanciful journey through the worlds he's created in the prior novels.