Rating: 
Summary: Eddings has done better...
Review: I was very eager to read this book when it first came out, but after my wife read it first and told me that its just like the Belgariad series, except condensed into one novel -- my enthusiasm waned. A year later, I finally read it, and was disappointed.The novel begins very engagingly, with the introduction to Althalus and Emmy. Unfortunately, as the other characters are introduced, a slight nagging feeling started to creep into my mind -- that things are occuring too easily for our group. By the middle of the novel, things are definitely too easy. By the end of the novel, disappointment set in. Eddings seems to have forgotten that readers want suspenseful situations that drive the plot forward. There needs to be danger, mystery, and a sense that the reader is eager to get to the end of the story to find out the conclusion. Unfortunately, this book has none of that. Maybe Eddings' shining moment will always be the Belgariad series - one of the best fantasy series ever written!
Rating:
Summary: Same old story, different names
Review: I had been scouring my local bookstore quite often for something to read, and kept coming across this one. I resisted at first, since I expected that this would be some drawn-out fantasy series for which I would have to wait years before I got to read the end of it (much like Robert Jordon's Wheel of Time series). Finally, I succumbed and picked it up. The book isn't bad, though to readers of the Belgeriad, or any other the other Eddings' books, you will immediately see that this is hardly uncharted territory. The dry wit and sarcasm that pervades "The Redemption of Althalus" more than echoed the husband and wife team's previous books. One flaw with the Eddings is that the heroes are not grey. Even Athalus - it was hardly redemption, he really wasn't that bad to begin with. Their heroes are flawed only in the comical sense and immediately take to being "good guys" without missing a beat. This novel would have been better served with less humour and more grit. All in all, not bad, but not worth "bestseller" status.
Rating: 
Summary: GIVE DAVID ANOTHER CHANCE
Review: If this is your first David Eddings book to read, please please please don't count him out for good. This book was bad, yes. Horrible, probably. Vile putrid filth, probably not. I did manage to struggle through the book with some fleeting hope that it would pull out of its downward plummet and save Eddings' good name. It didn't, nose dived, and left a big ugly crater. The characters all have the same personality and the only humor in this book is dry sarcasm that gets old by the tenth page. But what annoyed me the most was the way he kept retelling the first part of the book to each new character that comes along. And the ending was so poorly thought through that the Author could not have possibly understood what was going on. My Hypothesis: I have never read any of the other books co-authored by Mrs. Eddings, but I think this book is mostly her doing, and David agreed to put his name on it without really reading it first. READ PAWN OF PROPHESY. Just that one, and you'll get hooked on one of the best fantasy series of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: It deserves an international bestseller
Review: I found this book to be very enjoyable. I thought, and still think, that the Eddingses know how to make characters believable. They're probably one of the best couple authors out there. The book itself was fun, but kind of unbelievable. The mythology the Eddingses put into it was very nice, but the protege of Althalus in thievery was too...easy? In the first few chapters, his skill seemed to be too genius, and that was probably the one point where I wanted to put the book down. I recommend it, but there are better reads out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Better and better with every book...
Review: The Eddings team has outdone itself in this stand-alone world-builder. The smile starts at page one and widens into a grin along the way, lingering long after the last page has been read. Myself, I turned right back to the beginning and read it again... Uncomplicated fantasy for those who like a fun read but don't want farce or comedy, the story of Althalus is a tale of living, breathing characters who each have their (quite enjoyable) faults. I won't spoil the fun by telling you the story; just read it, but make sure you have time to read it all - I couldn't put it down, and spent most of the night reading.
Rating: 
Summary: I've read this before, but I still like it....
Review: Book Review The Redemption of Althalus Rating (If you haven't read any other Eddings books) 4/5 --- Great story with a good assortment of characters Rating 3.5/5 points ----- Excellent story, but haven't we read this before? Edding's newest book weighs in at a massive 792 pages, and is a huge story with characters that have a distinct personality, and add flavor to an otherwise cliched plot. The story begins with Althalus, whom is an "unrepentant rogue and scoundrel" according to the book's plot on the back... [a]review I read on Amazon just hit a little close to home. It's EXACTLY the way I felt as I was reading. The characters are all the same. I put a small post it on each page that plagiarized Edding's earlier works. The book looks like a yellow forest of paper. There were that many "unintentional" references to other characters. Example..pg 173 : [About the Book] Seen it? I lived with it for 25 hundred years. I can recite it from end to end, forward or backward, and from side to side, if you'd care to hear it that way. I could even recite it upside down if I put my mind to it. This quote is almost verbatim to what Belgarath said about the Mrin Codex in the Belgariad and Malloreon. All the characters in the book are derived from other characters that Mr. Eddings have already created in his other 2 series ( I count all 10 Garion books as one and all 6 Sparhawk books as one) and I find this lack of originality disturbing for someone of Edding's caliber. EXPECIALLY since he already released three spin off books to the Garion series (Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the Sorceress, and the Rivan Codex) which are just retellings of an already established story and world history. Don't get me wrong, the book is really written great, but the similarities to the other series he wrote is so obvious, that it's hard to focus on the story itself. I'm really hoping that Edding can get an original idea out so that people will think he CAN....but I'm afraid he soured too many people with trying to write another Garion or Sparhawk story, that people will be much more cautious in the future. Now with that said, The Redemption of Althalus is a good read, and I recommend anyone who hasn't read an Eddings book to pick it up and really enjoy it. It may be the gateway to his other great series like the one's mentioned above. If you have read his other books, just know what to expect and it will go fine. Like the ratings suggest, I really liked it.
Rating:
Summary: I put it down half way through, and left it there
Review: I bought this book because I was impressed by the nice cover and the decent introduction to the plot from the blurb... but this is a book that is undeserving of it's title "No 1 best seller". It is extremely tedious and boring. It's not like reading a book either... it's all dialogue, with little descriptive language. It's like reading a play, not a book. The characters are undeveloped, and at times I forget who is who, because none of them have any background and they all talk the same. Dweia (supposedly God's sister) is more like an Imp than a Goddess. Her stupid domineering attitude which I assume is meant to make her seem powerful just irritates the hell out of me. And the concepts of the book are just twisted. They are confusing, and described piecemeal, spread out through the novel until by the time we get to the next concept, I've forgotten how it all works. But don't worry, because each time a new character is introduced, we get a recount of the whole entire story. Even more irritating! This storyline had potential, and I feel that Althalus and Ghend could have produced interesting characters... but they didn't. The story DID start off okay, but the humour fizzled out, and that was the only thing keeping my eyes on the pages of endless dialogue. If you want a good fantasy read, without the grandure of Lord of the Rings, try Magician and it's counterparts, by Raymond E. Feist, or some of R.A. Salvatore's books, like the Icewind Dale Trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: Don't judge a book by it's cover, this one's brilliant.
Review: This book is one of the best books I have ever read. I loved to read as a child and got through more books than my parents put together, my mum being a librarian. I am only 14 but as I read this book I knew is was going to be the best book I would ever read. I can relate to the characters in so many ways, and found that I could relate it to life. It was the first book I had ever read by David and Leigh Eddings, and intend to read alot more. I was upset to see that so many people didn't enjoy it, but if you read what the story's telling you then you see it is not the same as any other books by Eddings. Please don't judge the book by what other people have said until you have read it yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Long and Bleak
Review: One of the bad books that I read in my life unfortunately. Although I read Fantasy & sci-fi a lot, i never tried David Eddings before. This book made me happy about not trying him at all. Plot is weak, characters are weak, jokes are repetitive, far from giving a hint of smile and there is simply to many of them. Characters are acting like they are running a stand-up comedy show. i hope somebody WILL NOT make a movie of this book. I'll stick with LOTR.
I'll read the comments next time before I buy a book.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Eddings' books!
Review: I was really upset when I saw that this book had only received 31/2 stars. It totally deserves 5 or more! It was my favorite of all the fantasy books that the Eddings and many others have written. I loved the main character - not the usual perfect person, but a witty and likeable thief. Somehow he gets involved with a dispute between powerful gods, and must help the goddess Dweia find a group of people, and lead them against her evil brother. I don't want to give too much away, but I just wanted to say that I loved this book and everyone who loves fantasy should definetly read it!
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