The Treasured One (The Dreamers, Book 2)

Rating:
Summary: a continued disappointment
Review: "The Treasured One" is the second book of David Eddings' new series "The Dreamers". The first book in this series, "The Elder Gods", was a complete disappointment and it is only my fondness and nostalgia for Eddings' earlier work that keeps me reading this series. After the Domain of the God Zelana was saved in "The Elder Gods", the enemy, the creature the Vlagh, has targeted another Domain for invasion: that of the God Veltan. As the Gods cannot actually act directly to harm another or protect their people and Domain, they must use good willed men and women to help protect the land of Dhrall.

Veltan has discovered that the Vlagh and the bug like minions of the Vlagh are going to invade his Domain. He is able to get his peaceful citizens to form and army and also hire out the mercenary army which helped save Zelana's Domain. Most of the characters from "The Elder Gods" only play minor, supporting roles here. Instead we are introduced to Omago, a favorite of Veltan. Omago, like any good hero is incredibly provincial but intelligent and quick witted. For example, Omago invented the spear. Perhaps this doesn't seem like much, but in Veltan's Domain nobody had ever seen or heard of a spear. So, while the rest of the world has had a spear for centuries (if not longer), Omago invented the spear. Omago is one of the leaders finding a way to defend Veltan's Domain. Meanwhile a former priest turned soldier, turned traitor has betrayed the Domains with the intent of acquiring all of the gold which was promised the mercenary soldiers for fighting.

If this all sounds kind of dumb, it is. But it gets worse. "The Treasured One" is told through the perspective of several characters: Omago, Jeltan (the traitor), and a couple of other characters. The trouble is that "The Treasured One" is more background than it is story. Eddings tells us the individual background stories which have nothing to do with the conflict at hand and all of this background leads up to the same place: the Vlagh is about to invade Veltan's Domain. But when we get back to the "present" time, we are then in another Section of the book dealing with another character's background. By the end we are brought up to the present a good four or five times with very little actual progress in the novel. Besides which, the writing here isn't very good, either. The characters are still variations on the classic Eddings characters of Polgara, Silk, Sparhawk, Talon, Barak, and Flute (and others). There is just nothing original here. The action is described the same, though with somewhat less detail. The characters all sound the same and act the same, and the old jokes are still repeated. I hate that I have to admit that with this series it appears that David (and Leigh) Eddings has lost whatever craft they had with their earlier series, and this is very disappointing because I grew up reading The Belgariad and I loved those characters, and I enjoyed his other three series and there should have been no reason why this series couldn't have been as good as his earlier work, except that it is so much work. If you must read this book, borrow it from the library. It's just not very good and right now I would be very surprised if the series gets better.

-Joe Sherry

Rating:
Summary: The Dreamers...A Nightmare, At Best
Review: Do yourself a favor, borrow a friends copy of this book. If unavailable, go to the local library(yes, they still exist).

This is surely not Eddings at his/her finest.
Endless flashbacks, that ultimately lead to a sudden ending. The Dreamers basically disappear, and a being, more powerful than the idiotic gods now exists. The story rambles on and on and on and on........ and then all has to be tied together at the end with the re-appearance of a Dreamer.

What a total waste of time, energy and money. Unfortunately, I love Eddings' work and I can almost guarantee that I will read # 3, I just wont buy it.

PLEASE D/L Eddings, Don't disappoint me again, I want to be able to fall into your work, not have to struggle my way through it.

Rating:
Summary: This can't be written by David Eddings
Review: I own just about every single book that David Eddings has written. This book was a Christmas gift, and I was so excited to see it under the tree.

Unfortunately, I am incredibly disappointed by the caliber of the writing. I am convinced that this book was *NOT* written by David Eddings. Mr. Eddings has been called one of the best authors due to the quality of his writing by Western Mail:

"What separates the grown-up authors from the boys is the quality of the writing and David Eddings is one of the best" -
Western Mail

I don't know who wrote this book but as another reviewer noted, it seems a bad parody of Mr. Eddings' previous material. I am struggling to finish it, and will write to both author and publisher to let them know my feelings.


Rating:
Summary: Slow moving
Review: I used to be a huge fan of Eddings. This books is so slow moving, I keep skip ahead to see where the book is going to pick up steam. Most of the books are using various characters to rehash their points of view of the same event, most of the character are not that interesting.
There are few good lines here and there, but it is not worth the money to purchase a Hardback.
I probably will read the next book(in PAPERBACK). If you like the old Eddings. I highly recommend Jim Butcher's new novel Furies of Calderon.

Rating:
Summary: ................ohhh huh Sorry I was sleeping
Review: I'm afraid to admit that since they wrote, "The Redemption of Athalus," the Eddings duo has done nothing but dissapoint me (albeit I have yet to read "Regina's Song"). I've read, "The Belgariad," and "The Mellorean," (not to mention his other two series that are almost the same but not exactly) countless of numbers of times. It's these books that keep me reading the stuff that keeps coming out by the Eddings duo and I keep hoping that they're going to strike gold again but they just keep striking out.
I was insulted when I read the begining of the book. It didn't get much better when I realized that the Gods in the land of Dhrall are all idiots. For the first half of the book I couldn't read more then two pages before I fell asleep. I did enjoy the segments when they gave insights into some of (okay most of if not all of) the mortal characters lifes, because while they were doing this they left out the sniveling idiotic Gods from the land of drool.
After Eddings beats it into you that these things had to happen and the many different point of views of them happening, it turns out that they didn't have to happen and now everyone is in the way. During a short anti-climatic war between the "churchies" and the minions of "the vlagh," who your never really sure which side is winning it seems like Eddings remembered that he had a dreamer and why not put him to use making a river that seperates "The Bla," from Veltans domain.
Please Eddings I put up with Flute in the Elenium and the Tamuli with nary a complaint but I think if I have to endear another kiss-kiss I'm going to yak-yak.

Rating:
Summary: Eddings Stuck On Repeat
Review: I'm sorry, but weren't David & Leigh supposed to be two of the best writers in the entire fantasy genre? Weren't they the same duo who brought us grand, sweeping epics i.e. The Belgariad/Malloreon and The Elenium/Tamuli?

Clearly the Eddingses have gone downhill with age. I had set high standards for their fantasies, and rightly so, because their first four serieses (serii?) inspired my own writing and probably the writing of scores of other aspiring fantasy novelists. Their characters were lifelike, sympathetic (even the villains!) and had personalities that reminded you of someone you know. (We all know a Ce'Nedra. Admit it.)

The Dreamers series thus far is a travesty and an insult to the name of Eddings. There are no standout characters, and even if there are, they are recycled from the leftover personality traits that their old heroes threw away twenty-odd years ago.

Most of the Eddings' novels are classic and impossible to put down. The Treasured One is not only boring, it's almost disposable. "Tedious" is not a strong enough word. It's as if David & Leigh wrote the first few chapters several times over. The bulk of the book consists of the same events repeated over and over, differing only in the point of view. It can be confusing to keep track of what's actually going on, since the plot (what little there is) is dragged down by repititious and superfluous backstory.

You want a good fantasy novel? Go back and re-read The Elenium for the fifteenth time, because it will still be less repetitive than The Treasured One and still manage to be ten times as entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Oh the pain, the pain...
Review: Like other reviewers of this book, I relish the chance to read David Eddings' latest offerings. The Belgariad / Malloreon series introduced me to the world of Fantasy, and I've lost count at how many times I've re-read them. The Riven Codex had some interesting bits, but it was only a cash-in.

Then along came the Elenium / Tamuli series and things started to go downhill. Lightweight and cheesy, I came to hate some of the characters along with all the hugging, kissing and cuteness. Maybe Leigh was getting clucky and longing for a child.

I'm not even going to describe The Redemption of Althalus - rubbish from start to finish. I endured it. It was trash; I wonder how the thing even got published.

Not having learnt any lessons, I purchased the hardcover of The Elder Gods. Halfway through I gave up, placed it along with my "Eddings" collection never to be read again. Shortly after, I saw it at my local bookstore for $5 - enough said. The Treasured One was only released here in Australia in softcover; the publishers were probably hoping that someone might be stupid enough to buy it. I browsed through it and soon realised it was more of the same bad writing and childish humour. I think I'll wait for it to drop to $5 before I add it to my collection.

Things were better before Leigh's name was added to any of the books. Maybe their next series will be credited with "David, Leigh and 11-year-old Aphrael Eddings". The more they write, the more they erode the praise for their earlier works.

Rating:
Summary: Where oh Where Has David Eddings Gone?
Review: The Treasured One is the only book by David Eddings I don't own. That should tell you something about how much I've enjoyed his work. While not great literature, every book reads like an old, entertaining friend.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of buying the first book in The Dreamers series in hardback. Ouch--what a loss. It's the only Eddings book I didn't reread over and over again. And this book, I took out from the library. Let me tell you, it is a VERY BADLY WRITTEN book.
The dry wit that is typical Eddings has gone too far. Every character speaks in the same humerous voice--exactly the same voice. There is no difference between any character in this story. We are informed by the author if they are stupid, clever, quiet, funny, loud, young, or old. If we weren't constantly being reminded of the names and personalities of every single one of the cast of thousands, this book could be a monologue.
The manner of telling is also poor. There is about fifty pages of action. The rest of the book is spent giving a ten page life story of each one of the cast of thousands. The ten page lifestories always end in an account of the events that just happened in the current story.
There is no character depth. Eddings spends several pages of one of these backstories telling about the guilt and inner turmoil of a commander who pushes his nephew into a conflict that ends in the nephew's death. Then the commander happily forgets about the whole thing, it is never mentioned again, and the commander can be as painfully generic as every other person in this story.
Why do I give it two stars? The story, about four gods fighting a war against a "super-bad bug-villain" is actually interesting. There are interesting ideas about cycles of gods, and powers of gods. It would be more interesting if the story had progressed at all in the first two books of this series.

Rating:
Summary: I have to agree it's a let-down...
Review: This series is just a re-hash of Edding's ideas from the Belgariad and Elenium sequences--without the originality that made those good. Read the negative reviews below for specifics. The same can be said of "Redemption of Althalus." More of the same. I recommend avoiding them and looking to the duo's non-fantasy work, which shows real promise! "Regina's Song" was an EXCELLENT thriller with an a-typical plot and supernatural element. Original, with well-developed characters. The Eddings' should focus their effort to writing more books outside the traditional "epic fantasy" vein, as that well has evidently run dry.

Rating:
Summary: What a let down!
Review: When i saw this book on the shelfs i thought "Wow, THIS is going to be a good book". The name of the book was Alluring "The Elder Gods: Book one of the Dreamers". The descriptions of four elders gods and thier creations fighting an evil abomination in a wasteland, with mysterious god-children who dreamt and killed. The whole thing sounded like it was going to be filled with grand battles, exotic magicks, wise and powerfull gods, and many interesting lessons about magic, power, and life: as was the case with his pervious epic fantasy the belgariad & mallorean.

Instead i found myself only sustained to keep reading the books because i had spent money on both at the same time, because i was so sure it would be worth all that money (one hardcover and one soft, only cause they didnt have two in hardcover!). The only interesting parts is when we get to learn about the gods, but then immediatly he strays into mundane repetitive commentary.

Anyone whose read it, or read the other reviews, knows what to expect. By the time i was halfway done with the second book, i simply skimmed over entire chapters, knowing exactly what to expect- another predictable and mundane life story of a highly underdeveloped charecter making bland and sarcastic jokes which stop being funny after the 17 millionth time. I read the second half of the second book in an hour because i just went to the places where something worthwhile was happening. The "Charecter Development" was like listening to white-noise on a television. It was tolorable for about 10 seconds.