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Avg. Rating: 4.23
Excellent fantasy book
This is my first introduction to David Eddings and I have to say that I thank my boyfriend, Alex, for introducing me to him. The book is filled with adventure, humor, chivalry, and it's very well written (D. Eddings was a college English professor in a prior career). The book is entertaining even if one is not a great fan of the fantasy genre. It reads really smoothly (no jumps in logic) and I easily got enthralled with it.The plot is rather quaint: a knight must save the world from the evil darkness that threatens to overwhelm the world in which they live while trying to save his queen. But it's thoroughly entertaining because the characters are colorful and believable and the main character is not necessarily a saint.The way Eddings brought elements of social and political allegory is really poignant! What this books editorially says of our world is provocative. I really liked the social, political, and religous comments he makes.Next, I plan to read _The Ruby knight_ and can't wait to read more of Eddings' work.
Oh Sparhawk, You're Wonderful!!!!
David Eddings can do no wrong in my eyes! Even if, when reading this book, you feel like maybe one of the characters resembles someone from Eddings' Belgariad, you get caught up in this story. The thing I loved most about this book was it's central character, Sparhawk. He's not young, he's not gorgeous (or so you're let to believe - I have my doubts!), he has a VILE temper and isn't afraid to use it and if he does a job - he does it whole-heartedly. Oh, and his horse is just as much of a character as he is!! For me though, the last half of this series, (the Tamuli) is when the people REALLY come alive for me although the journey to get there isn't a hard one, well for the reader that is! Brilliant, read it, you won't regret it.
Great characters make for a great book
Although Eddings wrote his "Belgariad" series first, the "Elenium" was the first of his series I read. Therefore, my comments will tend to be skewed in favor of the Elenium, although most readers who read the Belgariad first will be more in favor of that series. It's a direct result of the fact that Edding's major flaw is a tendency to plagiarize himself, rather obviously. Therefore, if two books or plots are all but identical, the second one will almost invariably be set in your mind as a poorer copy.Anyways. The story opens with an old and battered knight, Sparhawk, returning home to the kingdom of Elenia after ten years of exile. The old king who exiled him is dead, and the new Queen Ehlana, whom Sparhawk tutored as a child, has pardoned him. But when he gets home, he finds that Ehlana came down with a deathly illness shortly after her coronation, and that to save her life, Sparhawk's old teacher in magic, the Styric sorceress Sephrenia, has placed her in a state of suspended animation, frozen in a block of crystal. Before they can bring her out, they have to find a cure for whatever illness Ehlana has. Sparhawk, of course, immediately signs up for the quest to save his queen. Along the way, he picks up various companions, including four other knights from various kingdoms, in a sort of joint effort of unity among the many orders of knights. That's the explanation given, at least, although of course the real reason is that Eddings absolutely loves creating secondary characters, and a quest story is always better the more people there are involved. There's plenty of sword-and-sorcery, a few monsters, but not so much that you feel like you're alienated from the universe he's in. (I think he does a much better job in this respect here than with the Belgariad, but again that's just me.) Say what you will, but Eddings really is good at creating characters that you can truly like and care about. And you can never go wrong with your basic quest story, which gets wonderful treatment here. I love this series, and "Diamond Throne" is an excellent start to it.
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