Hidden City

Rating:
Summary: Great ending to a good series.
Review: What can I say? I liked the Hidden City. The Eddings' style of storytelling draws me into their books. The characters' conversations and relationships keep me fascinated, like stepping into a room and listening to people talk as if they didn't know you were there. While some readers apparently find this style boring, I find that I fall into it comfortably. Rather than a lull between the all-out action parts of the books, the discussions and witty fencing of the characters offer the reader a chance to analyse these people by what they say and do to one another, so that when something happens to disturb their lives, you feel for them. Although some of the characters are near cliches (the cultured,misunderstood thief, the Amazon, the wise teacher), Eddings breathes life into them with little details and light words. Read the series. (Plus, I got 50 points playing Scrabble with a group of friends using the word "defenestrate." Thanks Stragen!)

Rating:
Summary: Good Reading
Review: Whether the book is trash or excellent reading material is very much dependant on individuality. The Elenium and the Tamuli series have been captivating and I look forward to another series, if any.

Rating:
Summary: Why?!
Review: Why does David Eddings do this? Meaning, why does he start with a decent "let's find the blue rock" story (the Elenium, the Belgariad), and then follow it up with what seems like an exercise in being as farfetched as possible (the Tamuli, the Malloreon)?! He just tries to pull more ideas out and they're just TOO fanciful, even for fantasy. And, of course, all the characters have to deliver their dialogue as one-liners that really aren't that funny. In particular I would LOVE to have Caalador killed off to get rid of that ridiculous dialect (and all the characters who decide to imitate it). And the ending just wasn't that convincing. Stick with the Elenium - the best series Eddings has written, in my opinion. The one-liners are there, but not as many of them, and there are some serious characters to balance the overly witty ones. Plus the story is fantasy, yet not the totally farfetched stuff of the Tamuli.

Rating:
Summary: Yawn.
Review: Why does Eddings bother? His first few books were entertaining in a bubble-gum sort of way, but they kept getting duller and duller. I got this book because I hadn't read his work in a while, and thought maybe I judged it too harshly. I found out I judged it too kindly. The characters are the worst; rather than make people who actually have to struggle and feel pain, he makes a bunch of overpowered idiots who violently massacre anyone in their way, then chuckle at the blood and violence. You never feel that any of the characters are in any danger whatsoever, and it's a pity; most of them would benefit from an arrow in the throat, if you get my meaning.