Pillars of Creation
I just finished the 7th book in the Sword of Truth series. Great book. This one takes off on a tangent, and you are introduced to other illegitimate off-spring of Darken Rahl…and by necessity brothers and sisters to Richard. Much better twists and plot turns in this book than in previous books. I won’t put any spoilers in this post, but I will say there is a badass scene in the book with Richard kicking some major ass (And that is why dudes read these books right? To read about bad ass ass whippings). If you are looking for more of the Kahlan and Richard saga, you’ll be let down, they play a very small role in the book. A lot of attention is focused on characters that you have not met until this book.
The only let down, and it wasn’t even as bad in this book as it is in others, is the heavy handed approach to Objectivism throughout the book. I get it, you’re an Objectivist Goodkind, enough already. Get back to the ass kicking! :)
Again, he makes the same mistake Rand makes. His reactionary politics stem from a blatant distaste for Communism, which comes through loud and clear in his writing. Fair enough. However both he and Rand, by employing fiction to layout their philosophy make the opponents arguments absurd by their extremism. Even I could win an argument using that device.
Don’t get me wrong, they are good books, I just wish he wasn’t so heavy handed about it.
I always thought that using fiction as argument (a la Rand) was pretty lame. A story can be very persuasive. But if you write a story to persuade, it’ll probably end up being very heavy handed.
I much prefer the arguments Tolkein makes against industrialisation in LOTR (even though I think I disagree) to the arguments Objectivists make in their stories. But maybe that is just because I find Objectivism so completely distasteful.