Rating: 
Summary: Emmy, Althie, Daddy....for the love of Pete stop the torture
Review: Avoid this book like the plague! I love the Belgariad and the Mallorean. This time, however, Eddingses (their spelling not mine) have really elevated regurgitation to a new level. By compacting all of their previous epics into a 700 page snore fest, the duo may have finally alienated me from their works.
Be especially cognizant of the fact that the same bad joke is repeated every 15 pages by any number of characters. Several characters are written completely inconsitently (Gher can't remember people's names, but can calculate supposedly complex temporal theories). Take the advice of other reviewers and reread the Belgariad. Stay away from this manure pile. I'll thank the Eddings to put more effort and inteligence into their future works if they want to continue selling novels on the value their good name.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrid
Review: I gave him another chance. I really did. The first few pages weren't bad. But it didn't get better and soon I was slogging through the completely predictable plot, groaning at the cardboard characters and their cookie-cutter dialog (the same lame jokes, arguments, and coy teasing over and over again) until I finished and reswore my vow to never read another word of Eddings again.This book is a waste of money and trees.
Rating: 
Summary: All of you previous eddings readers!! How unfaithful you are
Review: I was REALLY surpised at the bad reviews from Edding's lovers! I LOVE Eddings and have read them all, and I can tell you this book was GREAT!! I just don't understand why a lot of readers didn't like it :(. Anyway, its different but it is a good differance. I really like how the book was done. Don't let the other reviews discourage you! I remember this book making me cry, it was one of those books that when your done you just let out a sigh of pleasure and wish it didn't have to end. If your a fan or even not one, this is a great book, trust me! Read it all! Don't ever stop reading a book they usally get better :P.
Rating:
Summary: Nice introduction to Eddings
Review: It's nice to find a fantasy novel that's not too self important (read, Jordan). This novel had a nice combination of fantasy, science, and humor. It's difficult to find books of this caliber within a larger series. Jordan's series and even classics like the Dune series are almost moody in their self importance. In Jordan's case, the plot development is too slow. Eddings has a very good mix of character and plot development that is impressive. This book was a wonderful introduction to the authors and I look forward to reading their other works.
Rating:
Summary: The worst Eddings to date
Review: It's obvious that David had very little or nothing at all to do with this book. After the first couple of chapters, the characters are indistinguishable from each other, and the bad guys so stupid that there's no reason to keep reading. The group of protagonists isn't even concerned about them, and with reason. If you've ever been annoyed by the cutesy, smarmy "yes dear" language in any of the latter Eddings books, you'll absolutely hate this one. It starts almost immediately, and only gets more prevalant. Don't waste your money on this book.
Rating: 
Summary: another great Eddings masterpiece
Review: I'm in the process of reading every book that David and Leigh Eddings have ever written
I read this book when i first came out and truly enjoyed it .
Like most of Edding's books, The Redemption of Althalus uses strong humor and its writing will win most readers over. The book is written lightly, but the villians are as evil as they come. If you are looking for a light, in terms of reading not weight, then I suggest this book.
Rating:
Summary: A good rainy day read
Review: I read all the "bad" reviews and decided it couldn't be that bad. It wasn't. I enjoyed the book. I too have read all of the other Edding's books, and found this one entertaining. True, it had the same basic story line that most of the Eddings novels and serie's have, but the characters were just enough differant to hold my interest. You do get the feeling that the author was working on a deadline and did rush somewhat thru the plot, but they were trying to get the whole story in one book instead of five, so that is understandable. I read these type of books for entertainment, not enlightenment, so if I get several grins, and a few laughs out of the novel, its a winner. I have not enjoyed an author so much since Robert A. Heinlein, whose many books I have read many, many times. I hope the Edding's will come out with a new serie's soon. Meanwhile, I think I will reread the Belgarid.
Rating:
Summary: Not a good book
Review: Like many of the other reviews I've read I too have been an Eddings fan since the beginning of the Belgariad. During the passage of time I have seen the work devolve from being new, creative and interesting to being repetitive, hackneyed and irritating. As many others have said this book simply reuses old plot devices in a been-there, done-that, not-fun-any-more way. (For example the main character refers to strangers he meets by using the word "neighbor", just like the main character in the Elenium.) What bothers me most though with the devolution of the Eddings' books is the actual writing itself. The way the characters converse with each other no longer has the ring of an actual conversation. In the last three books or so how many times as one character admonished another to "Be nice." Each time I come to that phrase I want to scream because it seems it happens about every other page. And there are several lines that are used that way. When I read the newer books (but this one in particular) I feel such a disassociation from the characters that I frankly do not care what is going to happen on the next page. For that reason I gave up on this one about half way though. I have better ways to spend my time. Before I buy another Eddings book I will make sure to read these reviews first. I could have saved some money.
Rating:
Summary: Same thing over again
Review: Being a very big fan of David and Leigh Eddings I was disappointed with this latest novel. I've grown up with the characters of the Belgariad, the Mallorean then the Sparhawk novels. I admired the characters, cheered them on when they won and even cried when some of my favourites like Rhodar and Kurik died. But when I read the Tamuli series, then The Redemption of Althalus I found something that Eddings himself pointed out in the Mallorean. I think it is Belgarath who makes a observation about "events repeating themselves". This is what I first noticed in the Elenium and the Tamuli, then even more obviously in the Althalus novel. The authors have taken the same plot and same characters and just given them new names and a new world. Then crammed them into a shortened version of their previous works. The climax in both the Elenium and the Tamuli novels were similar to the final battle between Garion and Torak. The hero and the villan both increase in size to do battle and at the crucial moment the hero discovers the villan's weakness. Very disappointingly repetitive. I enjoyed the Belgariad then the Mallorean, then found the first Elenium series refreshing and new except for the repeated climax but I was willing to overlook that due to the wonderfully rich characters. I had tears of laughter in my eyes as I pictured one particular scene with all the church knights grinning smugly at Primate Annias after cornering him in a political move. These characters did have depth that was sorely lacking in the Althalus novel. It was as if they had simply donned the personalities of those characters before them. And as one other reviewer stated, some of the characters are so obviously paired off and married. In a word this latest Eddings novel was predictable. I greatly admire the writer and I guess all writers are entitled to a mistake or two. Let's just hope that in the Eddings'next work they bring us something new and don't just re-hash the old characters and plots.
Rating:
Summary: 1 Star & let me tell you why...
Review: The one star is NOT for the way it was written, The Eddings know HOW to write; unfortunately they forgot WHAT to write...
I've bought this book expecting something new (I don't why I was expecting it, but I was).
But no, yet again, no. The same old story, the same old characters, the same old plot.
One person is chosen by the good deities, this person is endowed with amazing powers (which as usual, the person don't know how to utilize those powers)
That person meets all the other characters we've met in any other book by the Eddings, they go on the same adventures, meet the same villains, they defeat the evil (oh so evil) underlings of the evil deity, and of course at the end, everybody's hitching up with everybody else.
Sometimes I get the feelings that the Eddings are running a literary marriage agency...
Anybody who read any other of their books, we'll know what will happen BEFORE actually reaching the occurrence.
I think that the "I once had this idea, let's repeat it in several (not so varying) variations several more times" is getting kind of tired (although the words that spring to mine are "way over done, beaten to death & pulped").
My final words are directed at the Eddings:
"Dear Eddings, just describing a character as witty, charming & humorous does NOT make it so... it should ACT & TALK in character. And no, it does NOT help it if the character spews some lame sentence & then you write how everybody burst out laughing, books are NOT sitcoms"
Thanks & good night
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