Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but lacking
Review: I have read all the Eddings series. I found each exciting and myself rivited to the end. His writings are very visual. I could see each charactor and action as it is carried out. I do not feel the same with Althalus. It is an interesting story but lacking the depth of his other series. I would call it a shadow and a mirror image of his other novels. I found the plot, very Saturday morning serial, the charactors composits of previous charactors. I feel let down by one of my favorite authors.
Rating:
Summary: It's like putting on a pair of old sneakers
Review: Reading this book was like putting on a pair of comfortable old sneakers. The sneakers may have holes in the soles and the laces are broken, but you like them because they are familiar and comfortable.This book did not explore any new issues. (One reviewer mentioned the twist of time travel, but if you want time travel explored, read a good SF novel.) The characters were very similar to other characters in the Eddings' other books in that they have the same anachronistic mannerisms and ways of speaking ("That'll do." "Be nice.") and stereotypes (the people from the north are Viking barbarians, the people from the south are vapid nobles). Even so, it wasn't a terrible book because the story moved along at a good pace and reading it was like having a reunion with old pals whose company you enjoy, but whose quirks can sometimes annoy you if you spend too long with them.
Rating: 
Summary: The Redemption of Althalus
Review: I feel for those of you who could not make it through the entire novel. It is my guess that you probably prefer writers like Robert Jordan who write such complex characterizations, plotlines, and descriptive settings as to make me prefer the comfort and reading ease of my molecular genetics textbook. I will not deny that Althalus has its problems. It seems to draw characters and setting from several other Eddings novels. However, it is still and good read for pure entertainment, and that's really what we read for. If you examine the differences between the Belgariad and Mallorean series, and the Elenium and Tamuli series that followed, you will notice that there are many character similarities there as well. Perhaps when Jordan is finished with his Wheel of Time series (likely never) and he begins to develop new characters (the extreme tedium of that) we will see if he deviates from the norm or goes in a new direction not knowing if he will maintain his fan base.
Rating:
Summary: Not Their Best Work
Review: This felt very hurried to me on several different levels. I'm not sure why the Eddings felt they needed to write a complete story in one book. Was it to prove they could? There were several loose ends left, and I think character developement suffered. The last 150 or so pages made no sense to me, why was it necessary to go back and play with time at the end? As far as the charcters were concerned, most of them were rehashes of other characters. I noticed particularly that Andine became more and more like Ce'Nedra as the book went along, right down to her physical size and personality. I enjoy the Eddings' previous works and I hope to see a new fantasy world created by them in the future; but this book will be far down on my reread list.
Rating:
Summary: Why is everybody complaining?
Review: Okay, so it's not the best book Eddings have written. Okay, it has a few stereotypes. But it is still good entertainment. The Redemption of Althalus strives for Epic Proportions, but falls a few feet short. The characters are (like most of Eddings' characters) outlined with bold strokes, and you can foretell their actions after a little while. Just like most of the great legends.
Rating:
Summary: What do we do with the leftovers?
Review: My impression throughout was that David and Leigh sorted through their trash bin of discarded ideas and characters (leftover from their previous series'), and used them to cobble together one-more-book. It felt eerily familiar, almost-recognizable plots and characters that were not-quite-as-well-realized as in the Belgariad or Mallorean. I completely agree with the review of January 11. Major dissapointment. I will hesitate before purchasing any future works by David and Leigh, which I regret as I greatly enjoyed the Belgariad.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Eddings Book Ever
Review: [I can see from the other reviews that I am in a minority!] Why did I like it? - It is a complete fairy tale. It is done in one book (compare and contrast with Robert Jordan...). It is not realistic. It is canonical. - Two very difficult concepts are dealt with as well as I've ever seen: God and time travel. - God: The Gods seem credible. The reasons they hang with humans seem believable. Their omniscience and omnipotence seem believably limited. The main God is a groovy female whom you'd love to meet. ... And she's a sweetheart and babe - just what a guy would want in a God... - Time travel: I have been reading sf for 40 years, and I can count on one hand the number of believable time travel books I've read. In fact, I've given up and won't reat t.t. books anymore. But here the Eddingses (what a word!) do it just right, with limited mucking around, changing everybody's memory (handy to have a God around, eh?), and danger involved. - I loved the banter. But then I like Spider Robinson's puns, too. - The theivery is pretty intricate and well-worked out. Being a crook myself (I consult on software), I appreciated some of the scams immensely. - I don't understand the complaint about no characters. It's not Dostoyevsky, but I could tell them apart and watched them develop. - Sure it's smarmy and happy - it's a fairy tale! I liked the fact that the Good Guys get along and the Bad Guys bicker and plot. Isn't that the way it is supposed to work? Just because Robert Jordan's got it turned around doesn't mean other authors must follow suit. I guess it comes down to that you either like it or you don't. If you thought Prince Kheldar was about the coolest character that you've ever met, and you love Polgara as a woman, then you'll probably like it. If you think that the Belgariad and the Malloreon kind of dragged on, you probably won't.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of time!
Review: Ill keep this short not to waste more time. This book ...! It starts well and is interesting at the begining but the story deteriorates quickly! I am suprised it was published! Stay away from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: It hurts to give it only two and a half stars ...
Review: Throughout the entire tale, there is nothing to explain why the book is titled "Redemption of Althalus"? Althalus is supposed to be the main character of the book. Unlike Eddings' other books where the tale is told through the perspectives of more than one person, every scene uses Althalus eyes and ears. Readers are introduced to Althalus at the beginning of the novel as a burglar, thief, sometimes robber and occassional murderer. He gambles, drinks and womanises, but is also a great story-teller and comedian. Even though he was meant to be a reformed hero of the tale, the authors failed to villify him enough in character and deed to make the readers feel for any significant reformation necessary. Eddings did make Althalus different enough from the rogue characters in the previous novels - Silk (aka Prince Kheldar) and Stragen. Althalus was truly poor, and hail from rural regions rather than urban environments. In the beginning of the story, readers saw how Althalus found himself out of his depths when he tried to ply his trade in civilisations. It does raise the question however, how slick a thief can he be without ever operating in larger communities? Thiefs find it hard to stay long enough in small communities to become experts - a practicing thief in a small village will soon be discovered, if not caught, and small communities are usually wary of strangers. After being commissioned to steal a Book from the House at the End of the World, Althalus found himself shanghai-ed by the House's occupant, a talking cat who was later named Emerald. Emerald took many centuries teaching Althalus to read, and to use special Words to effect magic. Then she took him out back to the world to gather a group of special people destined to counter Daeva's (the ArchNemesis) plans to re-define Creation. After the gathering, Althalus' group began to counter the moves made by Ghend's group. Along the way, there young people falling in love, clans of highland mercenaries fighting to defend civilisations, as well as peasant insurrection. The good points about this book is the sardonic humour found in the beginning before Althalus gathered his little group. Eddings could bring in good humour in self-conversation and other secondary characters etc. However, the humour immediately dried up when Althalus began recruiting other characters. The story became plain narration of events without giving depths of the important characters. It became rather boring once Althalus acquire the Knife because there is no real sense of threat or quest. Whether it was recruiting group members or countering enemy threat, everything was plain sailing for Emerald and Althalus. They were simply too powerful with the means to do anything, everything, anytime and anywhere. Their opponents were supposed to have the same powers as them but just did not use them properly; the exception, a saving grace, was an unexpected move which cause serious injury to a member in Althalus' party, and even then, it was resolved without significant turns in the plot. There were a few half-hearted attempts with respect to introducing the theological paradigms but it fizzled because it had little relevance to the tale. Bheid, the priestly member of Althalus group, talked like a half brain-washed drone rather than someone who had human intelligence. Religious people aren't brainless, they see things (very) differently and are differently motivated. Their talking may sound nonsensical to others but not themselves. Even when they encounter doctrines or events they are uncomfortable with, they don't immediately fall apart speechless. Althalus' countering of Ghend's moves in three different areas - a pasture land region, cities and peasant insurrection, were okay - a bit boring 'cos he's got just the right troops for everything, but the story went wild with the introduction of time-travel. In changing the past, Eddings seemed to forget that they would change the things to come, even though it was supposed to be minor changes. SPOILER ALERT - if Althalus was not known as the thief who robbed Gosti, his name (and infamy) would not have been passed down the generations, something which he had used extensively in the story. The introduction of Gher as someone who offers unusual perspective is brilliant - Gher seems to offer a voice for the readers to the possibilities available to people with amazing powers. Unfortunately, it all fell apart with changing the past. The enemies are never fleshed out, a weakness of Eddings taken to the extreme in this story. Annoying as Eddings' male-female conversation can be sometimes ('cos they are mainly rehash of previous works), those aren't the novel's real weakness. The real weakness of the novel is the failure to convey an epic sense of adventure, danger, threat, thrill, grandeur, sacrifice, and ultimate victory.
Rating:
Summary: OK but I doubt I'll finish it
Review: I got this book among 5 others for christmas and I was taken in by the "#1 International Bestseller" on the cover. I started to read it, and it seemed pretty good, and I kept reading, and it still seemed just pretty good. So I put it down and picked up something else. The character of Althalus is interesting, but something just doesn't click here. I'm just not interested in what happens, and the lovey-dovey talk between him and his pet "cat" get annoying.
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