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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but..., December 11, 2000
This review is from: The Redemption of Althalus (Hardcover)
When I first read "The Seeress of Kell", I was so involved in it that, at one of the climactic moments, I actually exclaimed out loud in the middle of a crowded pizza parlor "Don't do it!". (I won't spoil that book for you, but if you've read it you probably know what I'm talking about) When "Cyradis was weeping" in a poetic section of the climax, I was with her. That set the bar for me with David and Leigh's work, and I've mostly been pleased with their books since then. I have to say, though, that based on that level of what I know them to be capable of, this book was a disappointment. I cannot think of a single character, outside of the poorly developed "villains" of the work, who is not a slightly altered version of a Belgariad or Elenium character. There are several catchphrases among the main characters that were pulled directly from their previous work ("Be Nice", for instance), which, in combination with the retread characters, made it seem as if the cast of the Belgariad and the Elenium were doing a community theater production called "The Redemption of Althalus". Another thing that bothered me was that too much was telegraphed. I knew *exactly* what was going to happen to Ghend, for example, about mid-way through the book. There was only one event that truly surprised me, and that was not revealed until very, very late in the game. The book also jumped from location to location and event to event much, much quicker than in their previous work. It seemed as though they were trying to cram a trilogy into one book, and the edges show. Perhaps, had they taken the time and energy to flesh this out into a trilogy or pentology, the characters would have had time to become truly themselves and the work would stand with the two "Find Blue Rock/Use Blue Rock To Kill Evil God" series (couldn't resist :-) ) as a high watermark in modern fantasy. All that said, however, I did enjoy the read... the story may not have been new or particularly inspiring, but as always they know how to keep you involved in it.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Mixture As before, But Denser, June 3, 2001
This review is from: The Redemption of Althalus (Hardcover)
If you've read the Eddings' work before, then you know if you liked or didn't like it. And whichever way you may have felt about the Belgarion books or the Sparhawk books you'll probably feel about this book. I happen to enjoy Eddings books, even though, objectively, i can see a number of flaws in them. There's a certain progression in size here, from the ten-plus-two-point-5 volumes of the Belgarion stories to the six volumes of the Sparhawk stories to this single volume. But there's really about the same amount of story from series to series -- which means that things have to happen faster and closer together to get it all in. Which means things can get a little crowded, muddled or confusing, which means periodically one of the charcters explains things to another character -- entertainingly, but it's still an expository lump. The standard Eddings characters are all here -- Althalus, the thief, recruited as a sort of disciple by Dweia, one of three sibling gods whose conflicts are the basis for the story, is amazingly similar to what you'd get if Silk had Belgarath's's sorcerous abilities. Eliar is Garion or Berit -- the eager young man who has to learn some lessons the hard way. And so on -- just as most Heinlein novels, Eddings books are stocked with pleasantly familiar characters constructed out of the Very Finest Cardboard, who make their way through various horrific but not particularly frightening (to the reader, anyway) adventures until, after some sacrifices, they arrive at the happy ending. Along the way, they exchange clever/flippant/dry/cynical badinage and make jokes about their adventures and the way in which the young girl-type people (to use this books rather arch term) pursue the young boy-type people with marriage on their minds. No previous Eddings book has ever been particularly earth-shatteringly important or ground-breaking, and certainly, this one doesn't change the pattern or break the mold. But it's good for a pleasant afternoon or two and, so long as you're not looking for Incredible Significance or Deep Meaning in your fantasy it's certainly somewhat above the average in quality. And it will certainly satisfy a carving for light fantasy for a while... As a character in the movie "Zachariah" says "[It's] what ye're lookin' for -- if that's what ye're lookin' for..." -- a remark that might well issue from the mouth of an Eddings character.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What a fantastic....load of old rubbish this book is., May 11, 2006
A greater load of treacle/molasses/syrup I have rarely read. David and Leigh Edding's book "The Redemption of Althelus" has exactly three characters throughout, though the Eddings do change the physical description and names of characters so that it appears there may be more. These characters are `good guy', `good girl' and `bad guy'. I would have included `bad girl' but the only bad girl in the book, the Queen of Night, is in fact merely `bad guy' in drag.
All the characters appear to be recycled and repackaged from Eddings's previous books. The `good girl' goddess character Dweia is Polgara, only she turns into a cat rather than an owl. The tiny temperamental princess Andine (also `good girl') in this book is actually the tiny temperamental princess of Belgariad fame Ce'nedra, with a memory wipe and a makeover. The `good guy' preist Bheid has more than a hint of the Ulgo priest Relg of the Belgariad. The main character Althelus is a mixture of Silk and Sparhawk (down to the occasional use of the manly expression "neighbour" that Sir Sparhawk was so fond of), with a pinch of Belgarath for good measure. He gets to live forever just like Belgarath as well.
On a side note, Eddings appears to be obsessed with the topic of immortality judging by his continual dwelling upon this theme. I mention this not to criticize but to suggest that perhaps he should donate some money to immortality projects such as the Methuselah mouse project (do a google search), rather than rehash old plot devices ad nauseam.
The authors continue their environmentally conscious ways, indeed they up the ante even further, by recycling all the stereotypical expressions used by characters in previous books. The girls all say things "winsomely" or "archly" or even "flatly" if they're annoyed. They do a lot of flaring and snapping and murmuring as well. They enjoy saying things sweetly when they patronize the menfolk, which they tend to do every other sentence.
The characterization of the bad guys is paper thin, and in this book they appear to be even more hopelessly inept than usual. Despite apparently possessing all the advantages of the good guys - magic, teleportation, and time travel - they somehow manage to do precisely nothing with these remarkable tools, and instead approach the good guy and gals from front on and foaming at the mouth. The bad guys do this not because they are excessively stupid, although a couple of them are, but because they just don't get along with one another and apparently would rather risk death and destruction at the hands of their enemies and of their own tyrannical boss -the evil god of the piece - than cooperate and win. What a fantastically original morality tale!
Like previous works the characters all enjoy what I call the "boast and bond", in which they congratulating one anther on how clever they have been as a device to explain various plot movements, and to bond the characters together.
Let's face it, characters aside, it is the strong plots we enjoy from David Eddings, but the use of time travel and teleportation in this book appears to have tripped the authors up plot-wise, they pick a rather arbitrary and unsatisfying path through the maze of possibilities that the introduction of such devices entails. Rather than rethink their premise, they appear to have simply applied a thin layer of retroactive plot spackle to the numerous resulting gaps and hoped for the best.
Several passages of the book are repeated from earlier sections with superficial changes, indeed the buildup to the finale is merely a rehashing of the first part of the book in which the main character Althalus meets his protagonist. The Eddings then repeat the repetition in each instance by having characters boast about each encounter, and these repetitions of repititions each occupy a couple of pages. This amazing writing device probably saved considerable work, yet somehow fails to make this a better book.
The Eddings know the value of a happy ending and they don't disappoint. Virtually everyone is married off in the end, including a somewhat gratuitous marriage between supporting characters Sergeant Khalor and a central character's mother. This marriage was presumably included under the plot device known as `throw as many bones to as many dogs as you can'. The novel ends when Althalus, having lived for several centuries after the events in the book (there's that lovely immortality dream again) finds out that his goddess wife Dweia, otherwise known as `Em' is pregnant. In justification of my initial statement about the syrupy status of this book I shall now quote directly from the final sentence of the book:
"He took her in his arms then and held her with tears of joy streaming down his face. `Oh, I do love you, Em!' was all he could say."
Awww.
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