Rating: Summary: A good start for the Elenium series! Review: As always at the beginning of a longer series, you need time to get to know protagonists and settings. If you take this time, however, you will soon fall in love with Eddings witty style and dialogues. Eddings is the perfect author for anybody who likes traditional fantasy.
Rating: Summary: Fun series Review: The hero Sparhawk is great and noble and invincable like a knight should be. I realy liked his cohorts, who are more praticle than their noble leader, as their solutions provide fun humor releif as the story progresses. Not a huge deep metaphor to be found, but an enjoyable read!
Rating: Summary: As Good As The Rest? Maybe Review: Although i like Eddings, and the plot lines are interesting, and the characters very believable and even more rarely, not down right irritating, i don't particularly like reading (more or less) the same storyline, and hearing about the same characters, i mean who does Sephrenia remind you of?
So although i enjoyed it, i always had a sense of deja vu whilst reading it. I also found that Edding's need to pair everybody up a bit strange, and it could readlike a bit of a soap opera. This comes out more a bit later, and especially in The Tamuli.
So although no where near as good as The Belgariad, it is still entertaining and well realized, with a good set of characters and a new world that is easy to get into. So quite good, though not particularly memorable.
Rating: Summary: Great epic fantasy Review: Sparhawk is the most memorable fantasy character since Edding's own Silk from the Belgariad. This book really just introduces the story that will unfold in the latter 2 books, but you get a feel for the new characters in this series and it's a fun read.
Rating: Summary: Fine Story Review: David Eddings knows how to tell a story. The Diamond Throne spins a tale of an occasionally sarcastic Church knight who must protect both his Order and his Queen from evil plots. The story moves across a continent which, fortunately, does not contain the mock-antiquity cultures we saw in the Belgariad. This is pretty much straight up Middle-Ages land, fleshed out just enough to keep the plot moving.As with the Belgariad, there is nothing original here - a rehash of other fantasy stories. Eddings' style requires some forgiveness by older readers. It seems like every time the main character speaks, Eddings rolls a die to see which other character gets to say, "Well spoken, Sparhawk!" Eddings also expects the reader to instantly have tremendous affection for each of the heroes, but his forced banter between them doesn't cut it. Arguably the biggest shortfall is the lack of true depth. The world of The Elenium is dominated by a Church whose theology is only vaguely discussed. What an opportunity to explore issues of spirituality, piety in an organized religion, devotion and hypocrisy - an opportunity completely wasted. But then one has to expect that from David Eddings. His books are always Fantasy Lite. There's no effort to explore deep issues, thus avoiding the pretentiousness of a Robert Jordan. There's no melodrama, either. The Diamond Throne is light entertainment, a fun read that taxes the brain cells not at all. It's rather like watching television, only without the commercials.
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