The Redemption of Althalus (Mass Market Paperback)

by David Eddings (Author), Leigh Eddings (Author) "Althalus the thief spent ten days on the road down out of the mountains of Kagwher to reach the imperial city of Deika..." (more)
Key Phrases: mind leech, rich mead, throbbing voice, Sergeant Khalor, Chief Albron, Brother Bheid (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
As the first stand-alone one-volume epic fantasy by the popular Eddings team (whose series include The Belgariad; The Malloreon and The Elenium), this hefty saga about Good trouncing Evil plumps an engaging young reprobate hero into the arms of aDliterallyDdivine feline heroine. A professional thief and occasional murderer, Althalus accepts a commission to steal a supernatural tome known as the Book. When he arrives at the mysterious House at the End of the World, a lissome black cat with emerald eyes turns out to be the fertility goddess Dweia. Together they enlist a Mission Improbable team to out-sorcel the assorted villains marshaled by the sorcerer Ghend, who is bent on converting this medieval-like world from the worship of Dweia's good god-brother, Deiwos, to awful servitude under their wicked sibling Daeva. Plenty of derring-do spices up the first two-thirds of this jolly romp, and some zingy flashes of wit home in neatly on stuffy human institutions like overorganized religion and landed aristocracies. Unfortunately, the Eddingses can't resist a lengthy time-traveling reprise, which drags the story down into so-so conventionality. Though the Eddingses' multitudinous fans will likely feel right at home here in their safely magical realm of good-natured fun, this circle of would-be faerie has been trodden so often that here it yields very little deep-rooted literary greenery to munch on or to savor, still less to ruminate upon.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
The Eddings, whose fantasies usually sprawl for several volumes, had to cram to get their latest adventure into a mere 700 pages (768 in galley form). The first section, covering more than 2,000 years, sets up the premise: a talented thief, Althalus, is hired to steal the Book from the House at the End of the World. Althalus, who doesn't know a book when he sees one, gamely enters the house, is trapped there by a talking cat, and remains for 2,500 years, learning to harness the Book's powers. The talking cat, Emmy, is in fact Dweia, one of three sibling gods who rule the world. Her brothers, Dewois (the creator) and Daeva (the destroyer), are choosing up sides and preparing for battle. Dweia enlists Althalus' aid to obtain a knife covered with runes that can be read only by those companions chosen to join the fight on the side of good. Althalus, traveling with Dewois as the cat Emmy, seeks and enlists the help of several unlikely accomplices, including a young boy, a priest, a witch, a warrior, and a princess. Once the companions are gathered, the Eddings hit their stride, and the story takes off. The interactions between characters, straightforward plotting, and doses of wry humor keep the tale humming. Judging by the popularity of their other books, this is a sure purchase for fantasy collections. Candace Smith
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 791 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc.; 1st edition (October 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345440781
• ISBN-13: 978-0345440785
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (390 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #156,559 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but..., December 11, 2000

By	Aeirould "aeirould" (San Diego, California United States) - See all my reviews

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.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor substitute for Eddings at his best., December 8, 2000

By	J. M. Moore "jen" (Redmond, Wa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Redemption of Althalus (Hardcover)

This is an epic novel - but hardly up to the past standards of characterization that the Eddings have had in the past. I found Althalus a poor stand in for the complexity of Eddings most famous thief - Silk. He does not capture your sense of humor, nor does he exude the urbane humanity that Eddings has done with such skill in the past. Because I came to this novel with the expectations of their first novels, I was sadly disappointed and as a reader remained aloof from what transpired during the story. The plot itself gets muddled down by Eddings most famous theme - Fate. The characters are once again drawn together by a means other than their own and the final relationships are finished up with neat little wedding bows. (Events that were predictable from the first moment you meet each character.) While the time plot is interesting, it gets lost underneath the simplistic use of magic. The world that Eddings creates is actually devoid of magic users (with the exception of a witch or two.) and when Althalus starts throwing people up in the air - his talents are simply accepted by those around him. Within moments of revealing his powers, his companions are "lulled" into a type of obedience that might make the plot simpler to move along - but hardly gives the characters a chance to be individuals. In essence, this creates a certain one dimensional simplicity that flaws all the characters. Even Althalus' love for Em is hardly more than a child expressing affection for it's mother. Yes, for me, certain elements were lacking that left the characters and their relationships flat. This was Eddings greatest gift, but it is not captured within this "stand-alone epic" at all.

10 of 10 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

By	John Sullivan (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.