Rating: 
Summary: Would be better if he hadn't written this 12 times already
Review: There is quite a bit to like about this book...if you haven't read his other books first. Longbow, Red-Beard, and Rabbit are all excellent characters. The way the Gods transport themselves over long distances is kinda cool, and All of his female characters...Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium, Tamuli, and now the Dreamers are the exact same. His theme about all things being cyclical is wearing thin. He also seems to be losing his knack for writing good dialogue. Almost all of his characters talk in the same folksy way. I don't know anything about why he's with Aspect instead of Del Rey now, but I'd say this book isn't up to Del Rey standards.
Rating: 
Summary: Eddings ripped off his own book
Review: Sad sad sad. I was a huge fan of the Sparhawk series. In this book he seems to have ripped off his own characters from that series! The little dreamer girl is a copy of Flute ( who was cute in that series) but in this one is just down right annoying. All the other characters seem to mirror ones from his past books. Its dull, repetetive and boring to read, I admit I can't even finish this one. I just skipped to the back half way through. I don't think I will buy the rest of this series when it does come out. Save your money and just read the Sparhawk series.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific book!
Review: This is another outstanding book by bestselling Eddings dou! The heroes are very cool, and the baddie was really awful! I'm already eager for the nexty one!
Rating:
Summary: I can't wait for the next one!
Review: This is the beginning of the new series by David and Leigh Eddings and it is not bad. I saw some negative reviews, but they are misleading, after all, this is just the first book and the next one will be better for sure.
I enjoyed it pretty much, even if I find other recently published books as "Eragon" and "Jarka Ruus" better.
Rating:
Summary: The Eddings spiral into the abyss
Review: The Eddings are getting worse and worse. I used to quiver with delight
when a new Eddings books came out. They were so good. The Belgarion and
Sparhawk books are built on a solid foundation of good characters. In
the last Sparhawk series, The Tamuli, they started to wander down the
path they are on now. The story had gotten away from them and it ended up
being a lot of jumps back and forth between the plot segments. On top of
that, the story was taken over by the Flute goddess character. The story
still had all of the good characters that were created in The Elenium
books, so you really didn't notice. This new book is all messed up! I only made it to page 90 before the
depression overcame my will to give the Eddings a chance. It is all
inside out. Instead of starting with a good character or two, he follows
Tolkien's example from The Silmarillion and did a top-down story
starting with the Gods creation of the world, etc. Most of the first 90
pages were spent "fleshing out" these gods. They are pretty much the
same shallow characters as the Styric gods from the Sparhawk books. The
"fleshing out" was like painting a face on a balloon. There is nothing
there but air, and the impulse to be cute has completely overwhelmed them. The idea as stated on the book cover is that there is an epic good
verses evil struggle in the future, and the gods have certain
limitations so they neded avatars in the world that can do the real
work. Nothing new there. The avatars are called Dreamers. We are
introduced to the Dreamers as an infant girl is given to one of the gods
to raise. All four gods get a dreamer to raise. I stared get some hope
that the development of the dreamers, ala the the raising of Garion by
Polgara, would be the basis of the story. It looked like the were going
to create solid characters, but my hopes were dashed in just a page or
two. The Dreamers are just painted bits of cardboard that get stood up
next to the painted baloons. So much for character development. The Eddings just sketch out a rough
outline of characters and then turn them loose on the "story". Without
giving anything away, here is what the story is like: Preface There were some gods and they created the world. Then they
were tired and went to sleep. Then there were some other gods
who took over. Then the other gods got tired and went to sleep
and the first gods woke up. Afer a long time they saw that
that one strange thing they made had become bad. They would
have to do something about it some time, but just now these gods
were tired and those gods were waking up Chapter 1 Character One was doing this for a while, but then
decided to do that instead. He was doing that when
something strange happend. Goddess A had decided that Character One was just right,
but didn't know how to get him to do anything. Hey, the
man things like gold, it is completely useless, but I have
a lot. Here Character One, here is a lot of gold, now do
what I say. So then Character One took Goddess A, and Dreamer A, and
Mr. High Priest over there and... ... and that was about page 90 and I couldn't decide whether to scream
or cry. Folks, it is really that bad. It is like going to an elementary school
play. The little kids are very cute standing there in their little
costumes even though they don't fit too well. You hope that they don't
get hurt because it looks like the scenery might fall on them. Sill they
are your kids, and of course very cute, so you don't really mind. Isn't
it cute how little Sally shouts out her lines? Little Johnny's monotone
is just so cute as the Bad Pirate. Little Jennifer is just so cute as
the Princess kissing the Frog, who is cutely played by little Ralphie.
GAAAAGG!!!(.) mostly I am depressed over the loss of the $(.). It am running short of
toilet paper, and it would have been better used as such. It is so
depressing to see such a great author(s) die on the vine. Save you money
....
Rating:
Summary: Wow. this book was simply not any good.
Review: I am extremely disappointed in this book, as I have been in the Eddings' last few books. David Eddings was once an Epic Writer (note caps) who had a gift for adding the more mundane things, such as eating or bathing, that really make a book seem real. his characters were well developed, and he usually avoided "cut-out characters" whithout any real personality. however, in recent years, that gift for little details has become a major flaw, with monotony on every page. also, his characters and their interactions have become painfully cutesey, with lots of love and kisses and little girls throwing tantrums; all of it is generally sickening drivel. now, it seems to me that Eddings is writing the kind of books that give "fantasy" a bad name: escapist novels that show little talent and have no grounding in reality. and this is a terrinble thing indeed, since, to the contrary, the Eddings' are one of the most talented writing teams I have ever found, and their early work (credited solely to David Eddings) contains some of my favorite and most "real" characters ever.
in this book, the first section is about an airheaded goddess' disdain for humanity and her subsequent retreat to the land of pink dolphins. another god spent millenia contemplating the color blue. (what is up with Eddings and the colors blue and red?) neither of these is interesting. and relationships between people are playful, even when they hate each other: you know that if they just got to know each other, they could be the best of friends. it almost hurts to read.
in the end, reading this book and comparing it to the Eddings' earlier work is like comparing Mother goose stories to those of the brothers grimm: latter is the TRUE stuff, with all the details that, later, so offended the modern sensibilities that someone felt the need to cut out all the interesting bits and water them down to a story where everyone vaguely ends up happy. even evil is not Really punished, but instead it just sort of goes away and doesn't come back. if you want my advice, read eddings' earlier work, like the belgariad. you wont be disappionted. otherwise, read another book, perhaps one by George R.R. Martin. and hey, there's always Tolkien, right?
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't finish it
Review: There is an evil entity in the Wastelands. It is creating minions to overrun the land of Dhrall. The four elder Gods of Dhrall attempt to comabt this by creating young children known as dreamers (although these people aren't really young children and this is revealed fairly early on it the book). But the dreamers aren't enough and there aren't enough people in the land of the Dhrall to combat all the minions of the Vlagh. So the Elder Gods go out to recruit mercenaries from other lands and thus the beginnings of an epic is born. I probably shouldn't be writing a review of a book I haven't finished, but...oh,well. I must preface this by saying that I've read and adored the Belgariad and The Elenium. So I was happy to see that Eddings has put out the beginning of a new book. However, I was quickly overcome with disappointment. The writing seemed overly simplistic and I the characters are boring. The good guys so very intuitive with good ideas and great skills and they all become the bestest of best friends. They are simply too good to be true. I've gotten very used to reading fantasy series where the characters are flawed and emotional and aren't always "good". I found myself disinterestedly flipping the pages. I simply wasn't engaged in the story. And I was just fed up with the character of Eleria who was just too, too precious for words. She seemed to embody the worst characteristics of Flute, one of Edding's earlier characters. If I want to read a story that includes the character of Flute I'll go back and re-read the much better written and more interesting Elenium.
Rating:
Summary: A watered down version of the usual Eddings
Review: When I hear a new Eddings book is due to arrive, I count the days. However with this book, I admit to being disappointed. The characters are pale immitations of the great Eddings books of the past. I was looking for a great story plot with characters that I could connect with and a story that I could get lost in. This book ruined a perfect rainy day for me. What went wrong??
Rating: 
Summary: Can the Center Be Held?
Review: The Elder Gods is the first novel in The Dreamers series. The world is ruled by Mother Sea and Father Earth. In the center of the world is the land of Dhrall, a continent divided into five areas: four Domains along the coast and the barren wasteland in the center. Each Domain is ruled by a god or goddess, sometimes by the elder gods and sometimes by the younger. In this cycle, the younger gods are coming to the end of their long reign and are looking forward to relinquishing rule to their elder god replacements. However, That-Called-The-Vlagh is stirring in the wastelands and sending scouts into the surrounding Domains. Apparently it is the time of the Dreamers, as foretold by a mad prophet long ago. In this novel, the younger god Dahlaine creates the Dreamers by transforming the elder gods into human infants, temporarily blanking their memories, and he arranges for them to be raised by himself and the other younger gods. He places Eleria (who is really the elder goddess Balacenia) with the younger goddess Zelana. Eleria is nursed by pink dolphins, learns to speak dolphinese, and cavorts in and under the water with them. The other three elder gods grow up elsewhere in a similar manner according to the whims of their patrons. The gods per se don't sleep, so they cannot dream. However, the Dreamers are gods who do sleep and dream, but the transformation only allows them to exert power in the real world through their dreams. Moreover, the gods cannot kill despite their great powers, but the transformed Dreamers can do so via their dreams. Since the servants of That-Called-The-Vlagh have started intruding into the Domains of the Gods, the younger gods go out into the surrounding world and arrange for fighting men (and women) to come to defend Dhrall for gold. Zalena brings the Maag pirates to defend her Domain and her brother Veltan hires a Trogite army. Since the Maags mostly prey on Trogite ships, there is no love lost between the two, leading to some interesting complications when they have to work together. This novel is simpler in format and approach than prior works by this author. It starts off very simply with a group of four gods who are very naive, almost innocent, and subject to all sorts of human foibles; they are basically rustic divinities. While they have been vegetating, the outside world has left them behind, producing several instances of future shock among the gods. The social and technological aspects of this novel are a mixture of several societies and eras. The people within Zelana's Domain are much like the American Indians. However, the Maag are similar to Vikings in their naval technology and habits, but have towns more like the British or French of that time. In the same way, the Trogites most resemble the Imperial Romans, but their armies are much like the condottieri of 19th century Italy and their ships are more like medieval cogs. But the Maag raiding of the Trogite gold shipments is much like the English attacking the Spanish galleons. This novel leaves some doubt as to whether That-Called-The-Vlagh is the overmind of its servants or a separate entity within the overmind. In any case, it (or she) lays eggs and is able to change the genetic code to induce various changes in the hatched servants. She produces various standard types of creature, much like the queen of an ant or bee colony, but more intelligently and with greater flexibility. It is capable of producing huge numbers of servants in a very short time. Most appear to have poisonous fangs and stings. The dialogue is pure Eddings, full of sass and repartee. This novel, however, seems to have more emphasis on humor and satire. The gods arrange for automatic language translation, so the various characters have no trouble communicating, usually in the typical, and cynical, wording of soldiers of any country. Since the Domains of the Gods basically have a barter economy, the commentary by the gods about the overwhelming desire of the civilized outsiders for gold becomes very sharp wit indeed. Apparently there will be four volumes within this series. This novel covers the introduction and the Domain of Zelana. Now, there are three more Domains and the wasteland still to go. Recommended for Eddings fans and anyone else who enjoys exciting adventures against hideous creatures from the barren wastes.
Rating: 
Summary: Drab book but interesting concept
Review: I read David Eddings for his interesting story lines and great character development. In this book, the 'younger' gods are bland and the mortals even blander. I also find characters retelling the same part of the story over and over again tedious. The first battle comes much too late and too much goes right. Duex ex machina seems to rule in this book. Writing style is still crisp and an interesting world. The characters need to be brougnt to life.
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