The Redemption of Althalus

Rating:
Summary: Whoops i didn't call that one very well.
Review: I just got done reading The Redemtion of Althalus and i was saying to myself,"wow i can't wait to read all those 5 star reviews on amazon.com," and i was thinking how smart i was to have made a [price] impulse buy and have it turn out to be my favorite book. Then it turns out everyone hated it and boy did i feel stupid!!! I guess I'll never like The Redemtion Of Althalus again beings it is now socially unacceptable. For the review poriton of my criticly acclaimed newsletter, I used to like this book a lot, and i don't.

Rating:
Summary: What Were They Thinking Of?
Review: I was bought this as a gift. My dear wife, having no knowledge of the fantasy genre thought a book by such a well respected guy as David Eddings would be a safe bet. Not this time, sonny. My disappointment was almost immediate. But I persevered. By page 50 something I voiced my feelings to my loved one but added that, as it was a gift, I would continue to the bitter end. Sorry - I can't do it. At page 86 I've thrown the towel in. No more, please. Shouldn't a novel have tension, pace, conflict etc etc. There's none of that here. Each turn of the page is labouriously conducted with the dwindling hope that the new one will herald an improvement. It doesn't. The 86 pages I worked through (yes, 'worked' - I've spent better times watching paint dry)is a mix of pointless, going nowhere, narrative mixed with an increasing dose of banal dialogue which is, at best bizarre, but generally disturbing. Had the authorship of this piece been attributed to 'Jimmy Hargreaves, aged 11 - snotty son of Mr & Mrs Hargreaves of Bradford' I would not have been at all surprised. However, it bears the names 'David & Leigh Eddings' and I can only presume that it was that fact that allowed it to py-pass a publisher's desk without being perused. Had it been so, I'm sure the manuscript would have gone straight into the round file. I've read some poor novels in my time but this really wins hands down. Is it a ripping yarn? No. Will it be ripped up? Absolutely.

Rating:
Summary: Unfortunate Tripe
Review: Eddings' original series, the Belgariad, was the peak of his writing. Every series since then has been a paler echo, but still had satisfying elements. This "epic" is completely unsatisfying, with its chaste, two-dimensional characters much mroe suitable for a (bad) children's cartoon than a book. Overuse of certain devices are irritating and destroy any potential of a sense of urgency. The trite conversations had me wanting to slap the characters upside the head.

Rating:
Summary: A hash of his previous books
Review: As I read through the book, I repeatedly noticed compounded elements from every one of Eddings' previous books. Phrases, characters, and plot have been transplanted whole and mashed into a book which, although having its good points, overall drags. Longtime readers of Eddings will be bored silly, as they will recognize every character and half of the dialogue.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasant Tedium
Review: When I first began "The Redemption of Althalus", I was extremely optimistic. The opening line was one of the better ones which I have read recently, and the style and pacing of one of the Eddings' books was evident.

However, as I progressed through the book, my enthusiasm waned. While all of the familiar hallmarks of the Eddings' previous works were present, they were there more as window-dressing than as necessary additions to the book -- dots in a paint-by-numbers fantasy novel, as others have described it.

Because the authors decided to write Althalus as a stand-alone piece, the events of the story are necessarily condensed. While condensation is not necessarily a bad thing, the trouble comes when they pack in all of the same events of their past five book series. Hence, everything occurs in a blurry fast-forward that removes the impact of the events while also diminishing their believability: some of the romantic subplots (especially between conflicting characters) occur much to quickly to have any real punch to them.

Also, few of the events or characters represent any new step in the Eddings' writing styles. Fans of the Belgariad, the Elenium, or any of their numerous spinoffs -- and I count myself among them -- will recognize countless characters as composites of earlier ones. There's quite a bit of Aphrael and Polgara in Dweia, the goddess of "Althalus", and Althalus himself is little more of a mix of Sparhawk and Belgarath. Even their mannerisms and one-liners -- whose repetition in earlier works was endearing and added a sense of continuity between books -- are shared, but this time they seem placed their out of a sense of duty. Furthermore, a number of the nations which inhabit the world of "Althalus" are little more than thinly disguised replicas of analogous pre-modern cultures in the real world. While it is certainly a time-honored tradition in fantasy to "borrow" cultural elements to allow the reader insight into the way the fantasy culture behaves, the ones present here seem to have been lifted in their entirety.

Now this is hardly to say that the book is unreadable. Those unfamiliar with past books by the same authors, or those willing to look past the overdone cliches and mild sexism which pervades them, will indeed find "Althalus" to be an entertaining if quick read. The dialogue, always an Eddings strong point, is present here in full force, and you do empathize with some of the more well-developed characters. It's not a philosophical treatise, nor is it intended to be, and if you approach it with the appropriate attitude you will find it worth the time it takes to complete.

However, as much as I have enjoyed their past work, the Eddings duo needs to allow itself a little more creative reach in the future, or they will find themselves typecast as light, pleasant, and substanceless.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Abysmal
Review: I was a big fan of Eddings' books when I was a kid, and while I hadn't read any of his work in a while, I returned to this one hoping to repeat some of my ealier pleasant experiences with his work.

Well, I did get to repeat some previous reading experiences. But it sure wasn't pleasant.

Other reviewers have commented on the self-plagaristic nature of the author's work, so I won't go into that here, except to say that all the good guys are completely likable (or rather, they're supposed to be, although I was irritated by all of them) and all the bad guys are stupid and deplorable. There are no distinct individuals here. Oh, sure, there are different names and different character traits; there's a priest, a thief, a boy, a woman warrior. But underneath it, everybody's pretty much the same. It gets annoying real fast.

I can't remember the last book I read that bothered me as much as this one. I finished it mostly because I refused to give up, and by the end, I was actually yelling at the pages. This is a bad novel. Eddings may not be the best fantasy writer in the world, but he's done some enjoyable work; this, however, is not enjoyable. I am still amazed that it got published. Utterly predictable, and at the same time difficult to follow, with a narrative drive that allows for no suspense because _no_one_is_ever_in_any_real_danger_- and with a climax so inane as to be insulting, this is not worth anyone's time. There are better fantasy novels out there. Trust me.

A final thought: why is it that we're supposed to be entertained when the bad guys are brutally tortured? Perhaps it's because they are so one-dimensional that they have no redeeming qualities, and as such, deserve it- but I still can't help be a little discomfited by the whole thing.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful world and an Easy read
Review: I am a big fan of the Edding's writing. I was overjoyed to see them publish another book. I started reading it and was immediately inthralled. I had trouble putting it down and enjoyed the play between the charachters. It was a very easy an enjoyable read. The Eddings truly pack a lot of bang in this novel. A truly epic story. I am sure you will end up loving Althalus and he companians as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasant but no new ground broken
Review: Vaguely pleasant read but if you've ever read any of Eddings' previous books, this one will likely bore you as you recognize the same kind of character and plot development being recycled for the umpteenth time.

I've always enjoyed Eddings' pulp fantasy style - he doesn't bog you down in vastly deep philosophical or theological debates, though he touches on these topics. Mostly, he's proven himself to be a very good storyteller. Only problem is that he tells the same story over and over again.

There's also a certain underlying chastity to his stories that starts to feel a tad sanctimonious after a while. I don't need him to get as graphic as, say, Piers Anthony does, but it'd be nice if he tried to play out some of the sexual tensions in his stories better since they gird part of his rather thin character development.

This is a much better book for someone new to Eddings rather than a long-time fan. The former will find something to enjoy in this lightweight read. The latters will likely just get bored.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Book
Review: Maybe this book isn't TRUE fantasy. It lacks the solid character development, setting, and culture that is made for the great classic fantasy worlds; ironically, these are all very prominent in David Eddings' other books. I have to say, though, that I hate the Belgariad epic. While the world created by Eddings is fun and creative, the literary content is garbage. I spend most of my time reading classics, and pulp fantasy like that is hard for me to finish. Thus, I was genuinely shocked when the most recent book by David Eddings turned out to be funny, cynical, and philosophical. The characters all talk the same way, devoid of accent, and they all have hilarious veiws of their own little world. This book is in no way realistic to its pseudo-medieval setting, but it is deep in its exploration of human thought and nature. I found the characters to be personifications of philosophical ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but get new Characters
Review: I really enjoyed the plot, the imagery, and the humor, but the Eddings really need to get some new characters. I have read all four of the other series and I did not find a single new character in this book than in the old ones. An earlier review said that Althalus was just like Silk, but that is wrong. Althalus is the spitting image of Belgarath: a thief, a master storyteller, and a magic wielding leader. Gher's parallel is Berit from the Sparhawk cycles: extremely intelligent, simple, and good with the ladies...to a degree. Andine is obviously C'Nedra: impulsive, fiery, and snobbish. Eliar most reminds me of Garion. And so on through all the characters, even Ghend is used previously as Martel in the Sparhawk books. The only thing this book really needed was new characters. The setup was great, the plot well thought out and the language was subtle and driving. I still recommend it to anyone interested in a good fantasy book, especially if you have not yet read the Eddings' earlier works.