Rating: 
Summary: It doesn¿t get any worse than this, does it?
Review: I would have to say that this is one of the poorest attempts at writing I have had the misfortune of being punished with. Its hard to know where to begin. Shallow characters, rehash of old story lines and no imagination would sum up this non-epic. I wished I had read the reviews before buying this book. I could not read all of Althalus as the level of language is aimed at people under ten and I kept falling asleep.
Rating:
Summary: Worst Book I've Ever Read
Review: Just to preface, this is the first review I have ever written on Amazon... but I felt so strongly about this book that I had to join in. Like a lot of people on this forum, I was a big fan of David Eddings' work when I was younger. While I had misgivings about this book after being disappointed with his last few, I decided to check it out from the library and give it a chance. At least I didn't have to pay for the bloody thing... thank goodness for small favors. At any rate, the book was simply unreadable... the witless, irritating banter of the characters and the utter lack of tension in the storyline sap this book of any merit it might otherwise have.
Other reviewers have spoken quite eloquently about the flaws of this book, so I won't elaborate too much on those. I would like to add, though, that this book is ridiculously self-indulgent (kinda like this review, I suppose... oh well, I just gotta vent). It's the literary equivalent of empty calories, but without the satisfying sugar rush. Eddings is a writer who sometimes has interesting ideas, but in his recent work those ideas are overshadowed by so many negatives that they are completely cancelled out. The most frustrating thing about this book is the dialogue. Like Regina's Song, another recent (and equally terrible) Eddings book, it makes me wonder if David and Leigh Eddings ever actually LISTEN to how people talk. Because they sure as heck don't talk like the characters in these books do, in long expositionary passages peppered with idiotic sarcastic endearments. The sad thing about this book is that reading it actually made me dislike Eddings' older work (which I had previously loved), because even in that earlier work you can see the beginnings of the annoying writing style that he has adopted of late. Lord knows why I even took the time to finish the Redemption of Althalus.... upon reading the last page, I felt a strong desire to hurl it across the room.
Don't waste your time on this book, honestly. It's not worth satisfying your curiousity.
Rating:
Summary: Time to rest on your laurels
Review: Unfortunately I found this book extremely poor. In comparison to the Belgariad which first influenced my enjoyment of reading, to the Mallorean which I enjoyed almost as much, it seems that David Eddings is trying to rehash a succesful formula and pass it on without much thought. A number of the above reviewers feel that it may appeal to the die hard Eddings fan. I hope that this is precisely the people that it will not appeal to, it certainly caused me to struggle all the way through. Additionally people mention the humour and one liners. Good luck to finding a single element of humour in the book not already tried a hundred times in the preceeding stories
Rating: 
Summary: No Good
Review: This was my first David and Leigh Eddings book and it will be my last. I bought this book about two or three years ago when it first came out in the stores in hardback. I bought it for two reasons: 1). Because I thought that the Eddings would give me a good story (after seeing how many 'Bestsellers' they had), and 2). Because it was 40% off (it had a subtle nick on the front cover). I took it home expecting to be engrossed into an awesome new fantasy novel only to read something, I feel, as an aspiring author, that I can spin circles around. I was glad to see all the honest bad reviews, because I was wondering if it was just me who did not enjoy it. I couldn't even finish the book. It was flat and unchallenging. I pressed through the story for the first three hundred or so pages, hoping that the story would erupt, but I couldn't press on for another five hundred pages'I couldn't take it any more. Now I got this big hardback book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for the past two years, taking up space. I might just donate it to the local library. I give the book two stars, because there were things in the book that drew my interest (for a little while).
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the time
Review: This book is a far cry from Eddings' previous works. As incredible as the Belgariad and Mallorean were, this book was bad. With relentless stereotypes and hackneyed phrases, he creates some of the worst dialogue I have ever read. To top it all off, the plot is full of unmistakable holes. It is, to say the least, a frustrating read.
Rating:
Summary: You read it before......
Review: In all honesty, I enjoyed reading this book but to be equally honest, I read it all before. This book seem to be written in the exact same prose, style and concept as most of David Eddings' works that came before it. I was almost expecting Belgarath or Sparhawk to pop out somewhere but too bad they didn't show up. The plot, the story or the characters were not very original. It seem that David Eddings have lost his creative genius and seem to be recycling his earlier works all over again. Instead of taking several books, he does it all in one this time around. If he was in such a rut, maybe he should write another Belgarath novel or something since he seem unable start sometime totally new.
Rating:
Summary: eddings has lost his magic
Review: Although i really enjoyed eddings's style and story in belgariad,mallorean, elenium and tamuli, redemption is a huge disappointment. success seems to have turned his head. he tries to use his winning formula of witty dialogue and essentially mono-dimensional characters (for example, Belgarath is irritable, Garion is heroic, etc.) to exaggerated porportions here. After about a hundred pages i got sick of the repetitive one-liners and was grinding my teeth everytime i came to the phrase "when you get right down to it". the plot was also thin and seemed hastily thought out. the characters can read minds, travel ANYWHERE in time and space, have all the mercenary soldiers in the world to themselves, have infinte gold; i mean what was eddings thinking?! the ending is hardly a surprise given all the power the good people have. The only character i really liked was althalus because of his wit and since the story is told from his perspective, he seems much more realistic then say, Eliar. Who has ever heard of an ultra-polite medieval soldier?? My overall impression was that Eddings should now stop with giving characters and races one (and only one) outstanding attribute. it was endearing in the earlier series but is now merely wearisome. only those who really like eddings's style should bother to read this book
Rating: 
Summary: A Door into the Book
Review: Many people on this page seem to think this is a bad book, but others a good one. I seem to be right in the middle. I like the characters, and I think that the idea of a goddess as a main character is an interesting idea, but I think that the House itself ruins the story. Through the House (and more specifically the Doors), the characters gain too much power over the plot. Instead of dealing with the problem of the main villain, Ghend, the characters just go back in time and cause the problem to have never happened. They can pop in and out of the world when and where they please because of the doors, so they can never lose. Even though the villains have the same power, they never really use it to an extent to balance out what the good characters do. The Doors just make the characters too powerful and take away severely from the story.
Rating:
Summary: lousy
Review: Oh my god. This is one of the worst books I have read. And this is with me being an Eddings fan - I bought the belgariad series _after_ reading my friend's copy (at a week's allowance per book). I own a copy of the belgariad, the mallorean, the elenium, the tamuli, the losers, high hunt, everything up to belgarath the sorcerer. After that, he seemed to have lost it. I was at the airport, and my choices was this, or a Neil Gaiman. I should have stuck with Gaiman. I thought I would give Eddings one more time after swearing off him when polgara came out. Should have left it alone. The only reason I read it all the way to the end was to see how it ended. I don't even get the time travel thing at the end. Things happen (or not happen) in a very disjointed way. Also spends a lot of time antrophomizing a god(dess). Why? I don't really mind some of the parts, but eddings really tries to club you over the head with the obvious. If you want to read some brain candy, go for the earlier works. Any one of the ones I've listed above is good. High Hunt and Losers are not fantasy based, but still good. Anything after Polgara - yucks. All those 5 star reviews - review my books when it comes out eh? I must get at least 10, based on your standards.
Rating:
Summary: maybe if you've never read eddings before...
Review: i found this book incredibly disappointing (and fairly boring... the only reason i finished it is because i was on a plane with nothing else to read)... perhaps if you've never read any of eddings' books before, you might be entertained, but for fans, this book is simply a (very long) retread of previous books. plot has never been the focus of eddings' work; it's the characters and the interaction between them that is the most interesting. unfortunately, every one of the characters in this book is a direct ripoff from a character from previous books, or, at best, an easily recognizable combination... even to the extent where the *dialogue* is identical and some recognizable character traits from previous books are reused. not worth your time.
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