Reginas Song [Paperback]

David Eddings (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2003

A brutal serial killer stalks the Seattle nights. Regina Greenleaf was one of the victims. Her beautiful twin sister, Renata, is deeply traumatized. Renata barely knows she's alive. She talks only rarely, and then always in twin-speak, the special language she and Regina made up long before they'd learned to speak English. When there had been two of them, they used to swap names. At school, they'd swapped the ribbons in their hair that were the only way of telling them apart. They were so close to each other, they might as well have been one person. Mark, a college lecturer in English, is Renata's friend and her post-trauma protector. He's the only person Renata recognizes and will talk to. She agrees to attend his classes, and with the help of Mark's room-mates Renata seems to be coming to terms with her loss. But the number of murders in Seattle rises, and Mark has some dreadful suspicions. If he says anything, it's guaranteed to send Renata back to the hospital. But if he doesn't, there may be blood on his conscience! In Regina's Song, David and Leigh Eddings have written a tense, chilling story of a nightmare coming true.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Regina and Renata are truly identical twins. They are so strikingly alike, even their mother can't tell them apart. Since their DNA is identical and their infant footprint records were lost by the hospital, no one can be sure which is which. This doesn't bother the twins. In fact, they're inseparable--until one of the young women is murdered. The other has no memory of the event, no idea who she is. In her near-total amnesia, she can remember only family friend Mark, who has always been a surrogate big brother to the twins. And Mark finds himself fearing that the effects of the trauma don't end with amnesia, for now a series of vicious murders terrorizes Seattle, accompanied by the howl of wolves....

A perhaps-supernatural thriller, Regina's Song is also a novella-length idea padded to 400 pages of novel. It may please young-adult readers, but it won't satisfy many experienced thriller fans. The plot twists aren't all that numerous or complex, and the cutesy dialogue in this turn-of-the-millennium novel seems more suited to the 1950s. --Cynthia Ward --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In a radical departure from their previous books (bestselling fantasies like The Belgariad and The Mallorean), the Eddings focus on the mysterious bonds between identical twins in this fast-paced psychological thriller that's part ghost story. The authors skillfully weave together the threads of twins Regina and Renata's life as seen through the eyes of Mark, a family friend and the twins' surrogate big brother. With identical DNA and so similar that even their mother can't tell them apart, the twins have developed their own language. When one is viciously murdered, the other regresses into this language and is committed to an institution. No one is sure which of the twins has survived, but they come to believe it is Renata. When Mark visits, she recognizes him, starts to recover but has no memory of the past. Mark, a graduate student, helps her return to the real world through campus life in Seattle and the aid of his housemates. When Renata recovers enough to lodge with her aunt, a police officer on the graveyard shift, she suffers terrible mood swings. Meanwhile, Seattle is plagued by a series of grisly homicides suggesting a serial killer. Mark, heavily troubled, comes to the chilling realization that the killings may be connected to Renata's frenzied outbursts and resolves to watch her closely. In a climactic nocturnal vigil, he discovers that there could be a disturbing supernatural explanation and that he and his housemates must use all their skills to protect the fragile girl they have come to care for.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Pb (August 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007130325
• ISBN-13: 978-0007130320
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,836,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars MUST I give a star?, May 25, 2006

By 

Derek A. Wade "Derek A. Coach Wade" (South Prairie, Washington. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Regina's Song (Mass Market Paperback)

David And Leigh Eddings have some talent in writing together, but too much of it is wrapped up in their supposedly all-powerful "formula" for writing fiction (originally developed as a formula for writing fantasy.)

First off, if one is going to write a book about contemporary young people, one should make an effort to study their speech and manner beforehand, else one look like a fool by writing their speech in an overly stereotypical and stylized manner. (Other reviewers have commented already on the excessive "cutesy" language. I was not as offended as some, but it was still annoying. I also don't find it plausible that any number of grad students can live in the same house without one of them bringing a bong into the place or using profanity. That doesn't include at all the bizarre lack of sexual expression in the protagonists. Since when does an "agreement" to not pursue each other romantically EVER harness the libido of a twenty-five year old male?)

Second, while the storyline was an interesting departure from the Eddingses fantasy works, elements of the "Eddings Formula" still cropped up-- INCESSANTLY. It is now apparent that the Eddingses are under contract to have at least one all-wise and ageless, beautiful woman in a platonic advisorial role to the main protaganist. They give her different names, and sometimes break her up into multiple characters, but she's still there. Usually I simply mentally replace whatever they named this woman with "Polgara" and it seems to work just fine. (They also must apparently use the phrase, "Be nice," in every published work. I think they need a new agent to get that out of their contract, because I am SICK AND TIRED OF READING IT!)

Third, David Eddings should really know better than this, since he used to teach college English, but the assignment of a one hundred word essay on "What I did for my summer vacation" would N-E-V-E-R elicit groans in an undergraduate. One hundred words is child's play. College papers are traditionally assigned by PAGE NUMBER, and during my Bachelor's Degree I would have fallen to my knees and kissed the feet of any professor assigning me a mere one hundred words. (I think I've hit that limit in this review already.) Worse, the paper was so poorly written as to be laughable for a junior high student. No college-level English department head would read it and demand that the writer become an English major. More likely they would read it and demand that the writer be moved to remedial English.

Fourth, The ending. Oh. My. God. The Ending. Was there a time constraint? Did the original idea not fit in the submission envelope? Wasn't there supposed to be a surprising twist somewhere? I was on page 70 when I figured out how the book was going to end (It was, after all, printed on the DUST JACKET.) The only surprises were learning the names of the new characters. (Their personalities, sadly, are never a surprise any more. You can go through every Eddings book published after 1999 and scribble out the character names, to be replaced with "Garion," "Silk," "Durnik," and most especially, the ubiquitous "Polgara.")

Having said all this, the book was interesting. It had an extraordinary premise that was botched by the clumsy writing of the once-great authors. There were funny moments. There were poignant moments. Nothing gripped like Kurik's death in the Tamuli, or cracked one up like Silk's description of Brill's attempt to learn how to fly in the Belgariad ("Does bouncing count?"), but there were flashes of the talent the authors used to display.

Ultimately, "Regina's Song" is the only book published by the Eddingses since 1999 that is worth the cover price. It will not surprise you, but it may intrigue you, even though, sadly, you simply won't CARE which twin was murdered because the Eddingses did a poor job of making you think about about them at all.

I have to wonder, though. As a published author myself (non-fiction), I routinely check Amazon.com to see where my readers are rating my books. This is important feedback for me, and the comments they offer help shape new books (or in my case, revisions of the current ones.)

Is David Eddings completely unaware that no book with Leigh's name on the cover has garnered more than a two and a half star average--EVER? Has he not noticed the comments from readers that his plots are "incessently repetitive," "boring," and "good in idea, miserable in execution?" Has no one pointed out to him that readers are sick and tired of his six stock characters?

In the Belgariad and Mallorean there was a definable reason for the repetition of the plot devices: the universe couldn't continue until the Great Mistake was repaired. In the Elenium and Tamuli there was enough (JUST enough) alteration to keep things interesting, but since then, the combination of stock, flat, unoriginal and unexciting characters coupled with repetitive plot ideas (and the rather insulting idea that the reader isn't smart enough to follow the plot, so it has to be rehashed again and again and AGAIN) has resulted in a group of books that I mentally declaim to be "AL" or "After-Leigh."

These books are incredible in idea, execreble, miserable, implausible, pathetic, trite, and NAUSEATING in their execution. "Regina's Song," sadly, is one of these.

This is Eddings's "Great Mistake" that has divided his universe and destiny: allowing his wife to collaborate with him. Time and the publication of six "AL" books that are all uniformly [...] have proven that David Eddings is, at age 75, a dog too old to learn new tricks.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed the Belgariad, but this was ridiculous!, November 2, 2002

By 

N. Wolfe (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Regina's Song (Hardcover)

I feel like I wasted my time. A whole bunch of hours of reading that I'll never get back, wasted on reading this book.

Now, I'm not a person who bashes books lightly - books that other people look down thier noses at I'll often find SOME redeeming value. In this book I find none. What's wrong with it? Plenty. The characters are unnapealling - does Eddings really think women are like that? Honestly, the portrayal of women in this book is worse than Robert Jordan's, and that's saying a lot. The focus of the book, the disturbed twin Renata (or Regina), or as she's commonly known, "Twinkie", is not written so as anyone could think of her as a real person, with a real character. She's a plot twist, nothing more. She has less personality than an empty eggshell. The main character, Mark, has all the likeability of a pair of old, unwashed gym socks. The man is obnoxious and unlikeably irritating, and the assignments he gives his freshman english class are ridiculous. Eddings tries to build an interesting, well-rounded character in him - and fails miserably.

The comraderie between the boardinghouse crew is frighteningly reminiscent of that of the group in the Redemption of Althalus, and there already Eddings was pushing it - but here it's worse. Each member of the group has a token job - the law student, the med student, the philosopher, the psychologist - and absolutely no other personality at all.

Furthermore, Eddings is fond of repeating himself - he gives the reader the same information over and over again through the mouths of different characters, when the reader is desperate for new information, for anything interesting. The book is long, drawn out, and takes forever for anything intriguing to actually happen - and when it does, it lasts for less than a page, and is barely mentioned or explained for the rest of the book.

This book is a failure. I can't remember the last time I so thoroughly disenjoyed reading something - I'm even mildly enjoying the Dickens I'm reading, and Moby Dick, for goodness sake! This is the first time I ever gave a book one star, but I'd give it no stars if that were an option.

Don't waste your time. Read the Belgariad, even the Mallorean - but stay away from Regina's Song, far away. Trust me, this is one book you don't want to waste your time on.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother. Seriously., October 7, 2003

By 

Marissa C Bond (Denver, North Carolina United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Regina's Song (Hardcover)

I would like to open with a protest of having to give a star at all.

No, I take that back, I admire the lack of glaring grammatical errors.

That being said, I'm quite disgusted that I wasted my money on the hardcover edition. The plot was vapid and obvious, with no spectacular surprises, but I can sometimes even forgive that if the character development is strong and the dialogue witty. Sadly, this book failed on both counts. There are many prominent characters in this novel, but only one (yes, ONE) actual character type. This is a completely static character type, I should point out. All characters tend to use the same dialogue in the same literary tone, and fit into the all-too-similar mold of being intelligent, slightly quirky, and possessing a good sense of humor while remaining well-grounded in their work. Yet, the thing that got to me the most was the constant "cutesy" speak and attitude. Almost everything seemed to have gained the suffix "-y," "-ie," or "-poo" (eg - "Dockie-Poo" rather than "doctor"). This is not something I want to read now that I am past the age of three. Heck, I doubt I could have stomached the consistency of the cute-speak even at that age.
I was also quite bothered by the general chauvinistic attitude that was found in some basic assumptions throughout the book. The female characters fell into only two categories: the mother figure or the cute girly type. The older female characters all spent their time cooking and serving the males coffee, while the men worked on the plumbing, carpentry, or the automobiles. The men all had an innate presumption of protecting the women, and the women allowed them to do so, particularly when reverting to "cutsey-girly" mode. It all just seemed ridiculously archaic in its gender presumptions.
I will, however, speak well of the ideas presented (in what hardly deserves to be called subplot) by the main character's search for a masters and doctoral thesis. That, at least, got me interested in real works of literature, rather than what I suffered through with this.

Don't read it. Really, simple as that.