This book was at a library book sale. It wasn’t explicitly clear if it was part of a series or a stand-alone. Though the summary on the back did sound too broad and big to be in one book. I decided if it was good, I would go back to the beginning of the series. This book was the beginning of a mini-arc within the series, staring a side character, Jennsen Rahl. She is the half-sister of Richard Rahl, the main character of the series. This book seemed to be an in-depth introduction of Jennsen and a continuation of Richard’s story through experiences by Jennsen and the people in her life. Richard doesn’t appear until the last couple of chapters.
—- I couldn’t bring myself to delete the spoiling I did in this post, so if you want to avoid that, be careful. —-
Interestingly, the Pillars of Creation, through Jennsen, explored the psychology of denial. She grew up with her mother and was constantly on the run from her father, Darkan Rahl. Darkan was of a line of powerful wizards. In order to have a male heir that was as powerful as he with the gift of magic, he seduced and raped women in his kingdom, hoping one of the children would be born with it. And hunting down and killing all the children who weren’t. The counter to this line of wizards’ strong gift is that some are born without the gift. Naturally, everyone is born with a small amount, just not enough to do anything with it. The gift is, they believe, the power of the Creator in humans. Thus, those born without it are suspectable and can be possessed by the Keeper (think Hades), if they let him in.
Jennsen is one of these without the gift, considered a “hole” in the world. The absence of the gift, it turns out, means they can’t be affected by it either. This is what draws Jennsen into the heart of the story. The Keeper and his followers try to use Jennsen to kill Richard Rahl. And even though her father was killed by her brother Richard, the Keeper’s followers feed her belief that the Rahl’s are hunting her down. Throughout the book, she finds discrepancies in that belief. For example, at one point she enters Richard’s palace and learns from many there that Richard is a good person and brought many needed reforms to the empire. But, having grown up watching her back and running, hearing from her mother of Darkan Rahl’s corrupt ways, and believing that it was a squad of Rahl’s men who killed her mother in front of her, she refused to see what was in front of her.
Instead, she only reasoned with herself that the people in the palace must be evil too or they are all deceived. This progresses up until the very end when the Keeper places Jennsen in a position to kill Richard. The discrepancies have only multiplied, and now faced with actually taking a life, she hesitates long enough for Richard to succeed in defeating the Keeper’s followers and freeing his wife (who they had captured and used as bait). After, Richard has the time to meet Jennson and explain.
Since The Pillars of Creation was so interesting, I bought the first three books of the series. I’m currently three-quarters done with the Stone of Tears, book two. Wizard’s First Rule introduces Richard to the world of magic. He meets his wife, learns who his real father is, and becomes the Seeker, a position granted by a wizard and the Sword of Truth. This position is granted by two requirements, a desire and the ability to uncover truths and use them to bring change for the good. The book is called the Wizard’s First Rule after the first rule of wizards, “People are stupid. They believe things mainly because they either want them to be true or fear them to be true.” This rule, as part of the magic of the world, if used on a wizard, indicates that somebody has a powerful enough gift to become a wizard. This is one indicator that the wizard Zedd uses to try to convince Richard he has it. It is also the title because Richard uses this rule to defeat Darkan Rahl. He performs a lie very well and uses the fact that Darkan Rahl wanted it to be true, to trick him into incorrectly using magic and condemning himself to the underworld.
And book two continues the fun.
——————————————– Thu, January 6th, 2022 Update
A few weeks ago I finished reading Temple of the Winds, book 4 of the series. Truly, I wish to talk about the books with someone, but to write it down satisfactorily seems quite tedious. There is no dry space in this book, it is filled with events, twists, choices, and prophecies. It is so good, everyone really should give the series a try. After book 1 and the defeat to Darkan Rahl, Richard went to the Mud Village to be wedded to Kahlen, but before preparations could be finished, he begin experiencing the harsh mental pain caused by his gift of magic. The gift is active and responsive, since he doesn’t know to control it, it kind of “runs free” in him. The longer it goes on the worse the pain, eventually leading to death.
Just before he may die of his gift, these three sorceresses called Sisters of the Light try to convince him to come to the Palace of the Prophets where they will train him to use his gift. The catch is, they want him to put on a collar that will block his gift from killing him but will give the Sisters the ability to hurt or restrain him with the power contained within. Richard is strongly hostile to the idea because of the torture he endured by the hand of the Mord Sith who made him will a collar. He knows a collar means servitude, and would prefer to die over enduring it again. Only by the convincing of Kahlen, by abusing his past experience, PDST who might say, does he put it on and leave with the sister (sister, because the other two died to… a ritual, I guess, of killing themselves if the person denied their “aid.” Using a weapon called a drachma, they will kill a sister in order, and draw in her power. So, if he denies the third sister, she will have the power of all three, and use it to force him to comply).
Before this, nobody knew about these sisters or their home, since it is in the Old World. As you later learn, during the great wizard war centuries before, the wizards of the New World, which comprise D’Hara, the Midlands, and Westland, created a long chain of powerful and destructive towers that nearly make it impossible to cross between the new and old world sections of the continent by land (its energy is drawn to the gift, everyone has a bit of it, but the stronger it is, the more it targets the individual). So, neither side remembers much of the other, only in records.
On his way to the palace, he forms a relationship with a short-tailed Gar, overthrows a sick tradition in a city they pass through, and frees the prisoner they were going to sacrifice. This lady, Du Chaillu, and her tribe in the jungle turn out to be destined, or really, created by the wizards of the war, to push Richard into discovering and forming the ability to draw on the skill of all the previous owners of the sword contained within. But, he kills two dozen warriors of the tribe, who have been training ritually from generation to generation just for him, and earns the titles of “the bringer of death,” partly, and the “the bringer of souls.” For he called about the skill of the previous owners and brought death. This is part of a prophecy that named Richard with three titles. The third one was “the bringer of the underworld,” which is because when he condemned Darkan Rahl to the underworld using the power of Ordon, it caused a tear in the “vail” dividing the underworld from the land of the living.
Now, skipping a bit for sake of time, Richard uncovers and fights Sisters of the Dark, sisters who pledged themselves to the Keeper, and destroyed the towers dividing the land, using Du Chaillu. After this, does he find out of these created beings called “Spirit Walkers.” They were created by the wizards of the Old World during the war as a weapon, and it turns out, was a big reason the towers were initially put up. The Spirit Walker ability was gone for some time but resurfaced in Jagang, who used it to conquer and enslave most of the Old World. So, Richard set him free to enter the New World.
This then leads into book 4, after he defeats servants of the Keeper and the Blood of the Fold, and destroys the Palace of the Prophets to keep it from Jagang (since the palace has a field of effect that greatly extends the lifetime of people). Jagang wanted to make it his home and conquer the world, then have centuries to enjoy his conquest, plus, it would mean he could take his time about taking over the New World. What the Spirit Walker ability does is allow Jagang to enter the minds of people and control them. He can stop the use of the gift, cause unimaginable pain, talk to people, and affect dreams all through the mind. The Old World wizards created a vicious power without realizing just what they were doing.
Later, it turns out the bond between Lord Rahl and the D’Hararian people is a magical bond created by a previous Lord Rahl that prohibits the Spirit Walker from entering his mind or those of his followers. This becomes the major key in their fight, in order for the New World to fight Jagang, they must unite and dedicate themselves to Richard for the bond to work.
So, really good, really really good. Book 4 was amazing and horribly twisting (in that you are not sure what is going to happen and horrible things sometimes seem inevitable to the end). I have the next few books, I just need to get back to my dorm and get them.
——————————————– Sat, May 21st, 2022 Update
Book 5 of the series, Soul of the Fire, begins right from where book 4 ended. It started well, but as the story shifted over to events in Aderith it got kind of muggy with negativity. Of course, the earlier books had horrible things happen, but it was never so stretched out and focused upon. Fitch, a servant in the palace and a member of a subjugated race in the providence, is brainwashed and used and is led along with false hopes of importance to commit harmful deeds. Dalton, the aide to the Minister of Culture, has powerful connections and political ability and used it to help raise the minister to the highest position in their society. He hopes that it will be another step to raising himself and his beloved wife Teresa to a higher position. But, the minister is selfish and lecherous, early on he rapes a servant girl, and throughout this section, women are giving themselves up to him in hope of gaining and for his power.
It almost seemed that the light in all of this was the endearing and faithful relationship between Dalton and Teresa, but after Dalton succeeds in raising the minister to the position of Sovereign (similar to the position of the pope when they were at their most powerful), Teresa sleeps with him.
It was just too much negativity for too long and I got tired of it, so I stopped reading the book. I decided that I saw most of the new and fascinating parts of the series and that although there’d be more interesting things and the continuation of Richard and Kahlan’s story, it would be at the cost of trying to ignore negativity and discussions of evil if I continued the book. Therefore, I stopped reading the series, and went online to spoil it all and just see roughly what happens up until the happy ending at the end of book 9.