Absolutely Addictive! In his sequel to The Diamond Throne, Eddings spends more time developing the characters as well as taking the reader on a whirlwind quest for Bhelliom. This book was one that I couldn't put down. I took it everywhere with me and read it until it was DONE. It left me wanting more. I recommend it to all you fantasy readers out there. I liked it much more than The Diamond Throne!
Awesome! The Best Book I Have Ever Read!!! I thought this book was beyond words. I hated books and hadn't picked one up since I was 7! But when i hit 8th grade, my English teacher forced us to read and I'm glad he did because this book is spectacular. The characters are so real! The adjectives the author uses almost lets you see the Knights! The plot keeps you guessing till the very end! If you love sci-fi or knights then i immensely recommend this book! Thanks David Eddings!"Middle-child syndrome" Unfortunately, the "middle child" syndrome continues its time-honored tradition here. Although there is some action, for the most part "Ruby Knight" is a place-keeper, marking the time between when Sparhawk figures out what he has to do and finally does it. At the end of "Diamond Throne", it was revealed that the only thing that would save Queen Ehlana was the Bhelliom, a legendary sapphire of enormous power. Once it was a part of the Royal Crown of Thalesia, but was lost during the monumental Zemoch War several centuries earlier. Now Sparhawk has to track it down, dig it up, learn how to control it, and get it back to Ehlana, before the spell preserving her life fails, and those of his friends who are supporting the spell die with it. So Sparhawk and Co. trek across the continent, fighting a few battles, meeting a few characters (some of whom will become important later, so pay attention), avoiding the Bad Guys (as led by Annias, the churchman who's seized control of Ehlana's kingdom and is looking to take over the Church as well, and Martel, Sparhawk's nemesis) and learning much more than they planned about the REAL history of their world. We finally find out what the heck is the deal with Flute, the Styric orphan Sephrenia adopts, but as I said, this book mostly exists to keep Books 1 and 3 from bumping into each other.
