The Redemption of Althalus

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment?
Review: I've been sitting reading all of these past reviews stating that Althalus isn't nearly as good as The Belgariad or The Mallorean series. For those that have read the Preface in the Rivan Codex, Eddings states how he has made the basic "bare bones" for every one of his books. And if anyone has paid any attention whatsoever to the other "epic" fantasies of our time, the story lines are THE SAME. This in no way hints at plagarism.
Anyway, I'm disappointed that so many people think this book was not good. I've read it over and over. The world is different and there is a diverse character base that adds whole new dimensions to the story. For all of the die hard Eddings fans out there, this is a must read, along with Regina's Song which was also excellent.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books I've ever read!
Review: PTEWWW! (Sorry, had to get the taste of this book out of my mouth.) Amazon forces me to give it at least one star, so I can't give it no stars, or anti-stars.

I hope David and Leigh Eddings are okay. I'm worried about their safety. After reading 4/5 of "The Redemption of Althalus" (all I could stomach) it's clear they've been kidnapped and some 12 year-old is submitting his own stories in their name. Stories that were rejected by his junior high school literary magazine because they didn't meet the magazine's standards.

Before they were kidnapped, I enjoyed the Belgariad series, although it suffered from simplistic characters, weak dialogue (if you covered over the speakers' names, you could not tell who was speaking--a bad sign) and a recycled plot in the Mallorean series. Still, it was essentially a comic book and I accepted it on those terms and it was a good lunch time read.

Such cannot be said for "The Redemption of Althalus." It's as if the Eddings' read all of Gene Wolfe, and then decided to write an epic like his, only without character depth, quality dialogue, richness of imagery and a believable plot. What's left? In "TRoA," what's left is dreck.

I found it shallow, bland, inane and uninvolving. The characters were entirely unconvincing, uninvolving, and while forcing myself to continue reading in desperate hope for some relief from this swamp of bad writing and poor editing, I often wished I could beat some sense into them with a clue-by-four.

What the heck was the editor thinking who green-lighted this nonsense? If it crossed my desk, I'd bleed all over it with a red pen: "Burn this crap. Never submit anything this atrocious to me again."

Save your time, save your money and skip this offal. If you want a fantasy epic, buy "The Book of the New Sun" series by Gene Wolfe.