Rating: 
Summary: Shallow, Shallow, Shallow
Review: If plots were lakes, this story would be like skipping a stone across it. The heroes are annoying and childish. Character depth consists of people becoming totally different at the drop of a hat, and with no good explanation. Villians are weak, stupid, and never have even the slightest chance of winning. Major events are handled with all the care of a bulldozer, only not nearly as effective. If I thought the book would fit down my toilet, I would have flushed it months ago.
Rating: 
Summary: A Thouroghly Enjoyable Romp!
Review: Yes, I know that the book was panned by the critics! SO WHAT! I've always enjoyed David and Leigh Edding's style of verbal and mental games! The stories are good, the prose, enjoyable! What's not to like? The theology?
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to their standards
Review: I'm sorry, but the Eddings' latest is not up to their usual standards. It starts out very nicely but then becomes bogged down in a very long and rather boring war. I was very, very dissappointed since they are among my favorite writers.
Rating: 
Summary: an OK book, despite the bad reviews
Review: I dont believe it is fair to call this a bad book, and I am surprised that some avid Eddings fans have done so. Perhaps it is just that it is all in one volume that some readers dont like it. The fact that previous books have been in saga's (ie, Mallorean and Belgariad etc) maybe puts them off for readin the whole thing as there is nothing to look forward to afterward. Ill admit that the book is somewhat unneventful, but the fact that it captures you imagination and includes you in the story, as eddings always does, is just fantastic. I wish that he would write more often, as the end of both Tamuli etc left me wanting and waiting to read more of Eddings stuff. If you are a true Eddings/SCi fi fan, then I suggest you get the book. Its a good read, and the characters are not the same. Hence why it is a different book. One of the disadvantages of writing is that sometimes you tend to include some aspects you may have used before, and readers think you cant come up with anything knew. Its the downfall of creative skill.
Rating:
Summary: If you like Eddings, don't read this book.
Review: I have read the vast majority of Eddings' books and his stregths have always been character development, character interaction and great story lines. This was lacking in all three. You hardly find out anything about any of the characters. The character interaction is shallow. People that rightfully hate each other, quickly fall in love. Everyone you meet ends up quickly married. And for the story line, it has 3 endings and has to restart the story each time. The good guys and bad guys are trite and have no history with each other.
Rating:
Summary: Same story, just different names and poor execution.
Review: The only reason I ate this book up (finished it in about 5 hours) was that I had been in Japan for four months, completely deprived of any entertaining English-language books and needed something to read on the plane home. I've been reading Eddings since I was in middle school, and while I knew that he/they tended to repeat themes and characters, I wasn't expecting it to be quite so bad.The saddest part was that this story had potential, but fell into utter predictability. The characters were maddeningly underdeveloped - I wanted to know more about their pasts. (Not that it would have mattered, I guess, since they were all recycled anyway.) Instead I saw them get paired off in painfully obvious couples and marched off toward a beyond cliched happy ending. Blech. Just when I was hoping the priest (Bheid, was it?) would do something unpriestlike - without the "months" of guilt. *sigh* And how about them villains? Motivations? No. Developed? No. Disposed of in an utterly lame manner? You bet. The ending of this book is equivalent to the classicly bad "and then he woke up and found out it was all a dream." Why bother with 700+ pages if the villain is going to be flushed... for no apparent reason and everyone's going to live happily ever after? May as well have started with the weddings. And really, who didn't know that Althalus was going to end up marrying Dweia? Come ON. Hoping that the next book, whatever it is, will be better...
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the other books
Review: I've read both the Belgariad and Mallorean series, and those are some of my favorite books. When I heard that the Eddings were publishing a new book, I thought it would surely be great. But I was wrong. There is no character developement; things just happen. You get the feeling that things are rushed. And everything's too perfect for the characters with the "doors," allowing them to escape any dangerous situation at any time. I might be repeating this from other reviews, but there really is no suspense. Some of the ideas are thought-provoking like the doors and Gher. But some of the good characters really do annoy me when they explain things in such a childish manner. Things are too simple. Definitely not the authors' best work. It was a good plot overall, but not very compelling nor very exciting. I would stick to the Mallorean and Belgariad. Those are worth reading and buying.
Rating:
Summary: Never Again!
Review: This is the second book in my life that I've not been able to finish (the first was an overly academic biography). I am the sort who ploughs my way through the most dire books just because I feel compelled to finish them once I've started. But "The Redemption of Althalus" defeated me. It is, quite simply, the worst book I've ever read. I actually enjoyed the first quarter of the book - I mistook it for a tale of a parallel world of the 'dark ages' seen through the eyes of a simple and foolish 'everyman' who saw all but understood nothing. But after a while, as the book sank into tedious, repetitive stupidity, I realised it was the authors who were simple and foolish and understood nothing.
This is lazy writing - the Eddings obviously have no knowledge of the way class and hierarchy should function in a feudal society and they've made no attempt to make up for that lack with a bit of research. Instead they write from their limited life experiences which seem to consist, judging by the quality of the dialogue, in watching TV soap. They're not the only ones - so many authors think they're writing fantasy when they plonk modern Americans into the middle of some imaginary medieval/feudal world. It doesn't work!
Oh well, the Eddings have a large readership so I don't suppose they're at all concerned about the realism or believability of their books. But I've learnt my lesson - in future I'll be avoiding anything with the name 'Eddings' on the cover like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: Even good authors can turn out bad books
Review: I have enjoyed every one of David Eddings books until I bought this one. I have also been able to read almost every book that I have came across from cover to cover (which is well over 200) and beside one other (Weasel's Luck part of the DragonLance Saga), I was unable to finish "Redemption." I felt as though this book is geared more toward children. Eddings failed to create a world that is imprinted into your mind along with forgetting to make an interesting plot as well. I was only able to struggle through 300 pages of the book, before putting it down for good. It usually takes me less then a week to read a book, I quit this one after a month. So, if you are looking for a novel as good as those in the Belgariad series, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: A different kind of Eddings
Review: As a longtime fan of both of the Eddings, I was somewhat surprised at this book. Although it was wordy and not too interesting at first, I soon found myself quite caught up in the story. I found the "doors" and "windows" especially thought provoking and could see how they could lead to additional stories, perhaps with different, later characters (based of course, on the progeny of the current ones). All in all, I think the book was a different twist for the Eddings and a throughly enjoyable one for the reader after all.
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