The Redemption of Althalus

Rating:
Summary: So bad it left me hostile
Review: Other reviews have really said it all. Horrible writing. Stereotyped characters that have the most trite and repetitive of dialog. Boring. Offensively stupid. Glaring plot holes. Ridiculously overpowered, unchallenged heroes. The list goes on and on. I'm ashamed that I read the whole thing. The last line made me throw the book, first against the wall and then away.

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.

Rating:
Summary: Better review than some of the garbage others post
Review: Simply put, if you are a David Eddings fan then you will of course enjoy his book. It is a good story, just like all his others. I don't see why people are complaining so much. The old saying goes: "If it ain't broke don't fix it." I don't see why so many people complain about his books. If they don't like it, then don't read it. But fans of the genre will find everything to like here in this story.

Rating:
Summary: Bad start here...
Review: Well, most of the people who have made comments on this book happen to be old-Edding's afficionados who either have lost their faith on the author or still continue to like his work.So I guessed that I should put my opinion more to the use of the reader who,like me, has no connection with the writer and will begin his contact with him from here ignoring his previous works.
The basic problem of the book is that it has no imminent threats for the heroes.Why can we state for example that Tolkin so thrilling? Because the heroes are not just wandering around they are facing a big threat which is imminent.Putting it down to our dimention telling a man that something might cause a death today is more threatening for him than a comet that could hit the earth in a billion years.Althalus spends 2500 before begining to set into action and the threat of the evil is not presented untill we reach the end of the book.The heroes have indeed more time than anyone could wish to face the threat.
Also,the heroes do not fail.The failure of a hero is what fascinates us while facing threats all the time and winning easily tends to make things cold.Even Arsen Lupin or Sherlock Holms heroes noted for their mental qualities fail.Here the heroes just speak themselves out of trouble and the suspence is over.
Moreover they are stereotypes that lack motivation.Althalus for instance.What is so great about this man who gets all the luck and has even the right to argue with the Goddess he worships?He is nothing but a show-off anyway...
So why the 2 stars?Mostly because I liked the motivation of evil to fix what is wrong (reminded me of the late Green Lantern series)and because of some rather well put dialogue sequences.But having a great experience in fantasy I expect that Belgariad to be much better than this hard to read book.A great pitty since a stand-alone book should be the place to start liking a writer before you start reading his works more regularly...

If however you come to enjoy the book I suggest to read the Elminister saga.For the rest of us there is still Moorcock or Tad Williams anyway...