Soul of the Fire is the fifth book in Terry Goodkind's wildly popular Sword of Truth saga. The previous books are: Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, and Temple of the Winds.

When last we saw our heroes—Richard Cypher (Lord Rahl) and Kahlan Amnell—they each had made enormous sacrifices to save one another from certain doom. To save her beloved, Khalan, Mother Confessor of the Midlands, had spoken the three chimes, summoning these chaotic beings from the world beyond and unwittingly releasing incredibly destructive power. Now the chimes are stealing souls, and malevolent forces are reshaping the world itself. To save everything from almost certain doom, Richard, Kahlan, and the wizard Zedd must hunt the elusive chimes and reharness them before it's too late.

Although comparisons to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series are inevitable, there's obviously enough room in the world for more than one blockbuster swords and sorcery series. With Soul of the Fire, fans of epic sagas will get their fill of adventure, magic, strange beings, and struggles for power as Goodkind delivers another thrilling episode of the Sword of Truth, with all the complexity and taut characterization we've come to expect from this master of fantasy. —Adam Fisher

In the sixth volume Faith of the Fallen of Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series, things have, as usual, gone from bad to worse. Richard Rahl, understanding that the sanctimonious Imperial Order of Jagang is too vast for him to defeat by military might, has retreated into the wilderness to think things through, and to allow his beloved Kahlan to heal from nearly fatal injuries, and left his supporters to fight for their own freedom. Part of the point of Goodkind's series has been that people need to work out their own salvation ; Jagang, with his creed of universal mutual support and habit of committing atrocity to bring it closer, is just as sincere a messiah, after all, as Richard. And then Richard is kidnapped by Nicci, a Sister of Darkness, who has Kahlan magically hostage and is determined to persuade him that Jagang is right by taking him to the heart of the Empire and showing him how it works. Goodkind's tic of aphorism, and some laboured Libertarian satire on the welfare state, do not prevent this being an effective continuation of this popular series. Battles, revolts and the creation of art are things Goodkind does well—and there are plenty of them here. —Roz Kaveney

Seven books into his Sword of Truth series, author Terry Goodkind continues to expand and enlarge the fantasy realm D'Hara. But with the Pillars of Creation he takes a detour from his usual approach, leaving his primary protagonists in the background to spin a story of one woman's battle to discover the truth of her heritage.

Told in vivid and often gruesome detail, Goodkind's fable grabs the reader with a familiar archetypal theme: a young woman, Darken Rahl's illegitimate daughter Jennsen, flees her home in the wake of murderous forces rising from her lineage. She runs in the shadows of Lord Richard Rahl's domain with a spy sent by Emperor Jagang, the enemy of D'Hara. With his help, she journeys across the entire realm, chasing rumor and misinformation to ultimately discover the truth of her heritage.

Loyal readers, who know the truth that Jennsen seeks, may find this book tedious as they wonder when Lord Richard Rahl and Mother Confessor Kahlan are going to swoop in and save the day. But Goodkind appears to be challenging readers, and perhaps himself, to see the benevolent administration of Richard Rahl from its underside and from an opposition perspective. The change in perspective works up to a point. Goodkind has created a fast-paced adventure story that might be appreciated by diehard fans if they can leave their longing for the status quo at the door. —Jeremy Pugh