Rating: 
Summary: Another cool stuff by the old guns
Review: David Eddings and his wife Leigh created another spectacular fantasy with their new book "The Elder Gods", the beginning of the new series "The Dreamers'. again the reader will find memorable characters, interesting lands and twisted villains. I can hardly wait for the next one, thank you, Eddings team!
Rating: 
Summary: Fine opening of a new fantasy
Review: Four Gods commanding a specific directional point each control the Land of Dhrall and its people. Brothers dominate north and south while sisters rule east and west. However, in the center where the compass converges lies That-Called-The-Vlagh, a creature not under godly power with ambitions to conquer the land.The deity quartet raise children to become dreamers to fulfill the prophecy that claims one who would defeat That-Called-The-Vlagh will come. As the latest cycle comes to a close, only the Dreamers can save the day, but meanwhile as the Gods wait for the right time the foursome raises a human army to combat That-Called-The-Vlagh and his horde. The opening book of the four-novel set The Dreamers sets the stage for what could prove to be a strong series centering on the recycling of life and death. However, THE ELDER GODS spends so much time setting the table, no one dines. Instead the wide cast especially the Gods pontificate with soliloquies. Still the potential for a powerhouse has been placed in motion so that it appears the action will step forward and readers will end up with a feast. Please do as I say, not as I do or feel, by being patient. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: First Eddings Book
Review: This is the first Eddings book I have read so, unlike
other die hard fan reviewers, I can only take this book
at face value. I did find the book very enjoyable, however, mildly
irritating in its pace. Being the first book in a
four part series I have come to expect that the first book
of any series will be mainly just setting the scene
for the action in the following books. (Fingers crossed) I found the concepts interesting, but predictable
- the book is written as if for a child, so obvious and
repetative is the narrative. Perhaps with a few more twists and
turns, and a quicker pace it would be outstanding. I think if you take the book on face value you will find
it enjoyable and not too heady - unlike other sci-fi books
you wont find yourself re-reading chapters just to remember
which character is which or exactly what is going on. Overall, an enjoyable light read - obviously
not for the die hard fan, who seemingly
finds the narrative and plot derivative
from previous books.
Rating: 
Summary: Eddings, you owe me 2 hours of my life back!
Review: I have read every book the Eddings' have ever written besides "The Redemption of Athalus(sp?)" - I couldn't keep reading after a couple hours. I grew up on this stuff and that is why the "trend-of-similarities" that actually developed with the two Sparhawk series infuriates me. Every reader has biased expectations, that is to be expected - the Belgariad and even the Mallorean were very good. But its obviously not just me, everone seems to realize that all of these characters have been created on some quickie assembly line. I just want to ask the Eddings' a few questions: Why do your characters all act and sound the same in every book? Why is there always that same magic jewel? Why do all your characters have the same annoying speeches and retorts going back to the original series? Why Gods in every book? You should start writing only for Harry Potter fans - if they can stand something so patronizing and childish.
Rating:
Summary: Rotten
Review: In a book that continues the Eddings' downward slide, they have reintroduced the same stock characters that seem to be the only ones the Eddings are capable of writing. While they were endearing in the Belgariad and different enough to be tolerable in the Elenium, by "Althalus" they'd begun to pall and by now they're as rotten as year-old eggs. The precocious little girl-goddess sits in laps, kisses people, stamps her foot in delightful anger ... the quipping, dry-humored young men are brave and smart-mouthed ... everything you've come to expect from the Eddings, and not a single thing new. The book is also remarkably poorly-edited, with both basic editorial oversights (misspellings, dropped quotation marks) and stunning continuity problems. In a couple places it's clear that the Eddings (or the editor) picked up a paragraph from one chapter and deposited it in the next one, then forgot to go back and delete the first one. Nothing like reading the exact same exposition in the exact same words twice. I imagine there was some publishing deadline to get Eddings back on the bestseller lists that justifies such shoddy editing. It whiled away a hot summer day while my air conditioning was broken, and it's harmless enough as far as it goes, but don't spend money on it and don't expect much.
Rating:
Summary: u all call urself eddings fan then bag out his book...
Review: How dare u people call ur selves eddings fans then bag out his latest book?!? Sure, it is not his greatest, but it is by eddings, and that counts for something. For goodness sake, it's a book one and setting up the storey for the next book.
And enjoyable read for eddings fans, (if u dare call ur self that) and enjoyable read for those how are starting eddings, but this would not be the best book to start on. Sure, he repeats himself a little with storey line and all, but the characters are likeable and for goodness sake........IT'S BY EDDINGS WHICH MAKES IT A DAMN FINE BOOK!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment
Review: Perhaps it's just too difficult to forget the brilliance of Eddings' masterful Belgariad/Malloreon series, the prequels and all those fantastic characters. Or perhaps it's just that The Dreamers seems to be written exactly like the Belgariad but with a sub-par plot and characters that seem to be second-rate versions of Belgariad characters. For example, take the character of Zelana. Sometimes I just couldn't help but imagining Polgara, and that kinda gets in the way when trying to visualize the story! She talks like her, has the same sarcasm as her and commands like her. Rabbit and Keselo (together) end up being like Silk. The Maags are rehashes of the Chereks, the Trogites are Malloreans or Tolnedrans. The Dhralls and the Gods themselves (except Zelana) are the only original element in the book. Anyways, here's a brief synopsis.
The Land of Dhrall is about to be attacked by a horde of insect/reptile hybrids led by a being known as That-Called-The-Vlagh. The gods of Dhrall must stop this, so one of them presents his brother and sisters with baby humans known as The Dreamers, who will have the ability to deal with the impending attack. But more help is needed, so two of the gods go out into the surrounding countries to recruit an army. Thus begins the story.
The start of the book is very promising, but about halfway through, it totally starts to drag. In fact the only reason to keep reading it is because it's such an easy book to read. It's not a page-turner, but it is somewhat interesting. Eventually, you get to finish and when you do, it's a bit disappointing. The book sets up for this big war, but the resolution is just stupid. I won't give it away in this review. However, the Eddingses make sure that we buy the next book because the best part of this story is left unfinished.
As great a writer as the Eddingses are, I am still baffled as to why this book seems to be so poorly written. It's as if the conceived plot is too big for what the authors want to write. The characters repeat the same things over and over and over throughout the book, which gets very annoying. Parts of the plot that would take a chapter or two to resolve seem to suddenly resolve themselves in some lazy fashion in two sentences. The characters are not developed too much, so you really have no attachment to them. Not to mention one of the main characters, Eleria, who is meant to be cute and cuddly but comes off as so annoying it makes you gag.
One thing I must add. Many of the reviews on here are blaming Leigh Eddings for the poor quality of the books. She is not to blame. Leigh has been writing with David since The Belgariad, but was not credited. See the first few pages of Belgarath The Sorcerer (the first book where she was given credit).
Still, once I start a series, I must finish it. I'll buy book 2 and see if it's any better. If you read this book expecting a great epic, you'll be sorely disappointed. If you haven't read the Belgariad, you might enjoy it, but I'd just recommend you read that instead!
Rating:
Summary: Pure and Utter Rubbish
Review: The title of the review succinctly states my feelings. The most annoying thing about this book (and their last several) is that they are slowly grinding their earlier works of genius into insignificance.
As brilliant as the Belgariad was, it simply cannot outweigh the tripe that these two have been subjecting us to. I was always slightly amused by Eddings note about the Belgariad - that it was sort of a project to "test out" and "refine" certain ideas about the fantasy genre.
Well Dave - I'd recommend scrapping your "real" work, and get back to some serious testing. Please.
Rating:
Summary: Can't believe i tried again
Review: If there was a rating less than 1 star i would have given it for this book. I am definitely a fan of Eddings, the belgariad, mallorean, and tamuli were all great series and worthy of reading and re-reading. When the redemption of althalus came out i thought, good another great read by a great author, i could not have been more wrong.That book is extremely long and before i was halfway through, i realized the plot was overly simplified, the characters extremely flat and the dialogue very trite. For example we need to travel quickly, suprise they suddenly have a door that will lead them anywhere, just an atrocious book that i couldnt even finish. So when The elder gods came out i was very hesitant about trying it out, but i had a christmas gift certificate and figured i would give Eddings another try. What a colossal error on my part, 1/3 of the way through, it was the same trite dialogue with characters repeatedly repeating the same things over and over again. The plot was extremely juvenile and made me feel that they are writing for a really slow 8 year old. I once read a quote by a famous author that said," When a reader lays down their hard earned money for a writers work, they are entering into a contract with each other, the buyer is agreeing to pay for entertainment and the writer is supposed to entertain" Well the eddings have failed too many times, i can only imagine how bad the rest of the trilogy will be, because i will never buy any more of their books.
Rating:
Summary: Small story repeated over and over and over and over
Review: This is the first book i have read by this author and it frustrated me enough to write this. (Deep breath) The characters are too simple and are poorly developed. They all think, talk and act same regardless of whether they are a pirate or a god. Events that happen in this book are retold by the characters over and over. It is enough to say "Rabbit told Red-Beard about the harrowing night time fight aboard the ship." We don't need a play-by-play description of what we just read 3 pages ago. What is worse is that these events were not all that impressive to begin with. Nearly everything turns out as the character expects and when it doesn't turn out just as the character expects, it is all solved rather easily anyways. I realise that i myself couldn't have done any better and that i'm just ranting but how could someone who has sooo many books write sooooo poorly.
Chris
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