The Redemption of Althalus

Rating:
Summary: Delightful and fun
Review: I want to start by saying I loved the book, the characters and the plot. It was fun and drew me in from the beginning until the conclusion. If you liked anything David or Leigh Eddings wrote you will like this. If you haven't then you should, they are one of the best in the genre. Just my two cents worth.

Rating:
Summary: Can we say "guilty pleasure"?
Review: I'll keep this short and simple...like the book except that it was longer....i think. Anyhow, I love Eddings. I've read just about everything that I could lay my grubby hands upon (yay!! improper english!!!!). I found the book highly entertaining. Yes, it was predictable and the good guys seemed to be extremely powerful. But that sort of thing just doesn't happen in every book. It's usually the bad guys being the more powerful and by luck or pure strength of character that the good guys prevail. This book seems to do away with that notion. This is a more lighthearted fanatasy unlike the ones you would find in Jordan or Goodkind. In the end, I don't think the type of fantasy found in Redemption of Athaltus would suit me on a regular basis but it's great to read once in a while.

Rating:
Summary: Same old, same old
Review: Once again, Eddings has taken his usual cast of characters, renamed them, repackaged them and presented them to us in the guise of a new story. The only difference this time is that instead of playing it out over a series, they put it into one book.

Now, while I did finish the book, I found that once I was finished, I felt no satisfaction for having done so, only a sort of relief that I was able to slog through the entire thing. I think that if David and Leigh Eddings wish to keep more than a few loyal fans, it's time to come up with more than cast of characters they have put before us time and time again.

Rating:
Summary: Even worse than that
Review: I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in a book I had looked so forward to. (I hope that makes sense.)

Like many people, I bought this book on the First Day. I was excited about it, had looked forward to it, had Happy Thoughts about this cool new Eddings book that I was sure I would love.

Hah! The Eddingses simply renamed characters from their earlier books, thought up some Bad Evil Guys (who seem incredibly inept, incapable, incompetent and downright stupid, although they do tend to say funny things), and put them in a kinda-sorta Quest situation. They say the same inane things to each other, over and over. As pointed out by other reviewers here, the dialog consists mainly of "Isn't he cute?", "Be nice, dear", "Yes, pet" and "I knew you'd see things my way". And that's throughout the entire book.

To be fair, the Prologue, as in other Eddings books, is excellent. The one star goes to the Prologue. The first four chapters were palatable, too. They describe the exploits of Althalus, who is a talented thief, as he decides to check out the Big City. For in the beginning, Althalus' idea of civilization was a semi-permanent mountain camp. So Althalus makes his way down to the Big City and has some entertaining (though thoroughly predictable) adventures. The Big City not quite being the Grand Opportunity that he had expected, Althalus decides to head home. When he gets home, he's hired by a Stranger to steal something. It's all downhill from there.

Even more characters from his earlier novels start turning up. Many of these characters are surprisingly acquiescent about being shanghaied into joining The Quest.

Now here I'd like to mention that just before starting Althalus, I had finished reading "A Storm of Swords" (a book I had looked forward to, and enjoyed) and was shocked at some of the deaths Martin had come up with. Anyway, I sat there, with this Eddings book in hand, hoping, praying.... that some of these horribly boring, annoying and repetitive characters would be killed off.

In closing, this is the fantasy book to give to a fantasy cherry ("newb" to some) if you want to permanently turn that person off of fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Not Eddings best, but immensely readable and fun
Review: I've seen all of the criticism thrown around in previous reviews, and it's easy to admit that this isn't the Eddings best work, though there were several redeeming factors. The thieving intricacies were a lot of fun and well thought out. And Althalus is a better story-teller than the Eddings! Some of his little anecdotes probably took a while to dream up. The banter is classic Eddings - lively and entertaining, and probably more realistic than a some of the unbelievable high-brow monologues delivered by characters created by other authors. Of course the downside is that it's repetitive at some points. The battles are pretty good, and I love Eddings view of tactics, which very few authors seem to incorporate well in this genre. Too often, it turns into line-em-up and knock-em-down strategies in other books, but never with Eddings.

I've never been a fan of time travel concepts in books, because inevitably, there are too many chances for a story to conflict itself. I guess that's why this one seems to work, as the characters are learning to use the mechanisms available to them, though it still creates the inevitable question of "why not just do that to start with?", or why the bad guys didn't do something else...

So, all in all, it's lively and a quick read, but probably worth waiting for the paperback unless you are a big Eddings fan.

Rating:
Summary: Tripe
Review: Lazy, childish, a complete waste of my time. While it's easy to say Althalus is not as good as Belgarian etc, Eddings has almost lost me as a fan - The next book will have to deliver the goods. Enough of the cute/naughty/pouting Gods and kiddy humour. If I hear 'yes dear' or 'yes pet' one more time I'll scream. Stay away from this book. Rubbish, how could his editors let this one through?

Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's that bad.
Review: I was brought up on Belgariad. I loved Mallorean. I've since graduated to more complex fantasy but still hold a special place in my heart for these series. Unfortunately, I don't think there will be any more special books from David Eddings. (I refuse to acknowledge the other 'author'.)

I don't know that I can say anything that hasn't already been said, but I'll hit my major disappointments. The phrases, "I thought you'd like it," and "We kinda like it" are uttered dozens and dozens of times in response to lame jokes. "Be nice" is another too oft repeated saying. Each character is barely differentiated from one another in dialogue and the 'bad guys' are laughably impotent. Here's a summary of one scene. Althalus is walking along with his goddess and she warns him an Extremely Dangerous man is lurking nearby and that Althalus should Be Very Careful because the Bad Guy is Frighteningly Evil. What does Althalus do? He says a magic word and levitates the bad guy off the ground leaving him to scream incoherently and futilely. Thats how he beats the dangerous, evil terror of a bad guy. And this basically gets repeated a few times.

The only reason this gets 2 stars is because I reserve 1 star for the most horrible books ever read, and since I managed to choke down all 600+ pages of this one, I can't say it was quite bad enough for that rating. But still, I'd avoid this one. Read a couple hundred pages, and if you're not entertained, put it down because it doesn't get any better. If you are entertained, mazel tov, you've got very low expectations, no discernable literary palatte, and/or have been brainwashed by someone.

Rating:
Summary: I could only get about half way through
Review: I'm new to the world of fantasy literature. I am sorry that this book was the first one that I picked up. I read through the first chapter in the book store and decided to buy it. After a while, I found myself struggling to stay interested. There are too many underdeveloped characters. The Eddings seem to throw them at you all at once. Before you know it, you have no idea as to what is going on. I got as far as part two, then moved on to something else. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: The Redemption of Althalus
Review: David Eddings tells a good story which is good because his characterizations stink. He has a total of three different characters - the earnest everyman, i.e., Durnik, Bheid, Garion; the scoundrel, i.e., Belgarath, Silk, Althalus, et al.; and the women who are identical in traits. I like the way Eddings writes, but the way he characterizes (or I might say DOESN'T characterize) people drives me nuts.

How many women would traipse the world wearing DRESSES for pete's sake??? And if a woman was the type to be in a war, she certainly wouldn't be the type to sit around talking about hairstyles and fashion on the eve of the battle. And contrary to Edding's belief, women all do not have motherhood as their ultimate goal nor do we even want to be married. I just wish he'd figure out that there are as many different types of people as there are people, but as it is, any of his characters could say something and it wouldn't make any difference at all which it was because they're all the same.

So if you liked his earlier books, you'll like this one - it's the same story retold anyway, but someone with enough talent to spin a good yarn should be able to come up with more than a one plot book.

Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: As a big fan of the Edding's various books , I snapped this newest offering up as soon as I heard about it. Unfortunately, I found it to be a huge disappointment. The writing is lazy and repetitive. There is nothing new or novel or exciting in the drawn-out story. The characters are all basically the same person; sardonic, sarcastic, and not at all interesting. I feel cheated by this story, like David and Leigh Eddings just threw some lackluster effort on paper.