22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I still love Eddings, but..., June 8, 2005
AmazonFox: For assistance in this review, I'm joined by my esteemed colleague, Bhelliom.
Bhelliom: It hath always been mine pleasure to lend mine opinion to any literary criticism.
AF: Uh, yeah. We're here today to review "The Hidden City", the conclusion to David Eddings' Tamuli series. Here's my assessment: It's a mess.
B: It doth displease me that thou hath dismissed this tome so curtly.
AF: Suck it up, Big Blue. I stick by my opinion. This book is literally a mess, cluttered with extraneous subplots, nonsensical plot twists, deus ex machinas, and irrelevant characters. Including you, buddy.
B: Be nice.
AF: No, I don't think I will. See, I LOVED the Elenium, the first trilogy in this series. I was so excited when the second trilogy, the Tamuli, came out. And then what does Eddings do? He proceeds to spend the next three books systematically undermining, negating, or otherwise rewriting the events of the Elenium
B: Yet doth not the plot, which doth pit the very forces of good against the wicked and foul forces of evil, somewhat redeem this over-complicated tale?
AF: Don't I wish. There's no real suspense! It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that Sparhawk and his friends will win this battle, and not only do we know it, but they all know it too. It's very, very boring to read about people saving the world when they're not even worried about it. And part of the reason they're not worried about it is that Eddings is frantically rewriting the rules in their favor at every turn. There's almost no struggle that's not solved by someone - or something - producing some mysterious new power or ability. Let's see, Xanetia glows, kills people with a touch, and reads minds. Hey, why not give her invisibility and the ability to turn into mist and float through windows, too? Why? *Because we can!* It reaches the point where you almost start to feel sorry for the bad guys. Come on, couldn't we at least give them *one* cool power that doesn't have a counter-spell or a solution Khalad can figure out in his sleep?
B: Thy simple speech and uncouth manner disturbeth me.
AF: Hey, let's not even get into how annoying all those `thees' and `thous' of yours are! I fell asleep every time you piped up for more than a paragraph. I mean, for the love of God...!
[Aphrael pops into existence]
Aphrael: Yes? You rang?
AF: Aaagh! STOP IT! Stop being cutesy! Stop the God puns! We get it, OK? It's not funny anymore!
[Aphrael vanishes in a huff.]
B: Ahem. It seemeth to me that a more deliberate examination of yon plot would serve better than this continued stylistic quibbling.
AF: Oh, you want to know about the plot? Fair enough - but which one? Here's Sparhawk desperately trying to save the kidnapped Ehlana - no, wait, he's plotting strategy with the Atans - no, hang on, he's talking philosophy with Bhelliom - wait, now he's battling other-worldly monster soldiers summoned by Bhelliom's archrival, Klael. You didn't know about Klael? Silly, of course Bhelliom has an opposite! Didn't you read the Mallorean?
B: Well, really!
AF: Oh, stop it, we all know you're just a prettier Orb of Aldur, enough with the vain protests.
B: Then it is thy contention then that Eddings hath, as they say, jumped the shark with this volume?
AF: You could say that. You could also say that he grabbed the shark by the nose and tail and proceeded to skip rope with it, and you wouldn't hear any argument from me.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Running Out Of Steam, May 13, 2005
The entirety of the Tamuli series is basically a rehash of its predecessor, which is generally regarded as being the far superior of the two. This is especially true of The Hidden City, which performs the incredible feat of being both glacially slow and pathetically rushed at various points in the novel. Cyrgon also fails miserably to make a credible enemy. He is arrogant, reviles intelligence, lacks subtly, and is, indeed, a blob of goop, at least most of the time. Klael is slightly more intimidating, but the god-rock still renders him rather unimportant. Indeed, Eddings struggles to come up with a credible reason disallowing Sparhawk from simply zapping around and annihilating most of his enemies with Bhelliom. Aside from these serious issues, the trademark banter between Eddings hero's (and I use this term loosely) is decidedly average, such that those who have extensively read his books before will be able to predict the use of certain popular one-liners far in advance. All in all, your time would be better spent reading (or re-reading) some of David's earlier books.
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