Rating: 
Summary: Repetitive, cook-book fantasy
Review: ...This work of fantasy is not fantasy at all. No imagination was needed to put it together. It consists of the mentioned recipie, the standard stereotype characters (thief, warrior, poor little boy who's got a knack for xyz, etc), and a lot of riding around collecting armies, which are then loosened on the evil armies in battles that take pages and pages to describe. The work is repetitive, as well. There's this story Althalus thinks is funny, and he tells it over and over and over again, to just about every character he meets in the book. The first time it's sort of funny, but when he tells it the second time it just becomes a nuisance, taking up pages. After that, it gets worse. The attempts at humor are cheap. There's some things that are funny, but mostly it's just humor at somebody else's expense, usually at the expense of the evil soon-to-be-dead or already-dead guys. Like, "you were so stupid to get killed, we're having a really good laugh at you". Having a god as just another character who banters with the rest (fairly badly, I hasten to add) may have worked once, but here it's just another major story killer. And isn't she supposed to be the goddess of love or something? Ha. Good joke. Watch her order the death of thousands and laugh about it. As said before, battles go on and on. Enemy soldiers can get slaughtered without much afterthought. Casual death, casual killing. It's awful to read. I don't understand why the book is called "Redemption of Althalus". It should be called "The Creation of the blood-thirsty monster Althalus and his minions". It's hard to understand how Althalus and his party can be considered the good guys. If you haven't understood what's going on in the first hundred and fifty pages, thats okay, because you're treated to it again and again and again, until the limit of 700 pages is up and you reach the last page, at which point you wonder why you bothered with it at all.
Rating:
Summary: Great disappointment - what was he doing!
Review: I have read all of his books - some twice they were so good - what happened!! this book was terrible; no story , no characters, no suspense, no depth. It read like 5 different people had stuck it together in an afternoon with no care or attention. and what were all those battle scenes about - it just seemed to be lots of sarcastic remarks about killing masses of people. Then all the female characters were the same; devious and self centred.
I was thoroughly disappointed - I had to force myself to keep reading it to the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Mind numbingly verbose
Review: Hard as I tried, I just couldn't get through the entire story. However, this book is perfect for anyone with memory problems. The story is so repetitious, if you forget anything from one chapter, no worries, it'll be reiterated in any number of other chapters. In an attempt to stop the brain rot from that was setting in, I finally did something I rarely do... I skipped to the last chapter. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Different to the 4 epics
Review: This one-off book clearly comes across as a single volume paraphrase of any of the Belgariad, Elenium, Mallorean or Tamuli. Given the style of the Eddings' narrative, with its flowing sense of the epic and excellent characterisations, it is no wonder that this 'short story' (for them) comes across as cramped.
The immediate thought is (with Leigh's name on it), is how much did Leigh Edding's write? Then you invariable wonder exactly what her input to the four series was.
Irrespective, the Redemption of Athalus, manages to shrink any of the four series into one book and shrink each of those characters' traits into fewer people. No mean feat, even if you don't like it.
The novel displays all of Eddings style, wit and charm. Yes, it is like reading the Belgariad in fewer pages, and perhaps this proves that their style is better suited to five-book grandiose epics. But, without a doubt, it is the Eddings, it is as brilliant as ever compared to the rest of the current offerings.
So four stars because it is no Elenium (or the others), but it is still a good offering from one of the best fantasy authors out there.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I picked this book up, thinking, great, for once I can sit down a read a good high fantasy with an ending in one volume. I'm so sick of "the series that never ends" and yeah Jordan, I'm talking to you. I was wrong. Redemption of Althalus is boring and I'll leave it at that.
Rating:
Summary: horrible
Review: I have read The belgariad and malloreon series, also his elenium and tamuli series and those books were fantastic, so when I bought this book I was thinking I was buying another great David Eddings book..wrong!! This book was just so horrible, I couldn't understand how he could write such a book..I think from now on he should just stick to writing books by himself and NOT team up with his wife! If you want a good read, try his other series.
Rating:
Summary: Waste of good trees
Review: Like many here, I am a big fan of Eddings' earlier books, which made reading this all the more painful. The characters, especially the females, are unbelievably flat. There is absolutely no suspense, as the villians never have a chance in hell of winning. The dialog is horribly repetitive and cloying, to the point at which you dislike the 'good' guys. Eddings needs to find some new schtick and explore other thematic areas. And for Heaven's sake LOSE THE CUTSIE NICKNAMES!! AAAGGHH! /Rant
Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: This has to be the most boring 700 pages I ever read. I regret devoting the time to reading it. I've read worse books, but this one was definitely boring. I hope their other books are better (for their sakes), but I won't read them! The characters are dull and one-dimensional, the dialogue is weak, the plot is boring, and there is never any sense of danger for the characters. The villains are easily defeated in a sometimes far-fetched manner. Althalus is in no way the exciting and dangerous rogue that the book-cover claims. In fact, the picture on the cover is his enemy, not him. I'm totally lost by the time travel sequence at the end - it doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Rating:
Summary: Belgariad & Mallorean in one 700 page book
Review: If you were looking for a Cliff's Notes version of the Belgariad & the Mallorean series's, here ya go. The names are a little different, and the lands are a little re-arranged, but it's the same story. More of a womanly touch though, I'm wondering if Leigh had a bigger part in this book whereas the Belgariad & Mallorean were primarily Dave's. Read the other 10 books and get a much better story than this sliced down version. Dweia = Polgara, Althalus = Belgarath, Eliar = Garion, Gher = Erriond, etc. etc. Grrr!
Rating:
Summary: More David, Less Leigh Please
Review: This book didn't strike me as anything close to David Eddings works. I hugely enjoyed The Belgariad and The Mallorean but this seemed more along the lines of mediocre fanfiction. If I had to make a guess, I'd say this was written more by Leigh, riding on the coattails of famous husband, David. Some slight David Eddings flavors here and there, but overall I thought it amaturish. How sad.
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