Deja vu anyone?
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First of all, let me say that I am generally an Eddings fan. I enjoyed the Belgariad, the Mallorean, the Elenium and the Tamuli. Some of my favourite characters and sequences occur in some of those novels.
Which really should mean that I would have enjoyed this series rather more than I am doing. After all, basically they are the same characters.
The first problem with this series, which becomes even more exposed in this particular novel, comes from Eddings' appalling lack of a new idea. Pretty much every named character in this novel has exactly the same dry sense of humour, and spends much of their time making sarcastic comments at anyone who will stop to listen. It worked in previous novels because a few characters were like that, and those characters were more engaging for it. Having all of them be like this is, however, a dreadful idea.
Secondly, several of the characters are simply transplated from previous efforts, and had their names changed. Anyone with more than about three brain cells can see that Polgara the sorceress (from the Belgariad) and Ara are fundamentally the same person. Longbow, Rabbit, Sorgan and so many more all seem to be direct characters from a previous novel, or a compression of two or three characters from a previouis novel. One entire race (the Tolnedrans) seems to have been transplanted as well (the Trogites).
Third, Eddings has always liked powerful characters. Half of them have had a God in tow. He's now taken this to the extremes; four Gods (several of them rather on the dopey side, and none of them really capable of doing anything), four more masquerading as children (capable of doing something but not particularly consciously), and one bring who is rather more powerful than all of those Gods put together (who in the previous novel in this series solved the whole problem with a deus ex machina that meant none of the other characters really needed to have bothered turning up - makes you wondered why they bothered in this one when they've got that sort of power on their side).
Finally, Eddings seems to have rather overlooked the fact that he only really had about 80 pages of actual action drafted for the novel. To get around this, several entire chunks of the novel are told from the perspective of different people. At one stage, I found three entire paragraphs, less than about 20 pages apart, that were word for word exactly the same, apart from the name of the character who was viewing the scene. Still, at least events there were the same. In places it seems as if David had written one viewpoint of a scene, and Leigh another, and they hadn't bothered to check with each other that their stories tallied, because there are places where different characters have a storyline play out in different ways.
In the end, I guess I'll probably buy the last in the series at some stage. But mostly because I don't like having partial series on my shelves. I would probably have been better off if I hadn't bothered buying the first novel in this series. The characters are too uniform (and too repetitive of earlier works) to be interesting. The plots are weak in design and execution, and the writing increasingly seems to display an indifference to his work. If you don't know Eddings work, buy the early stuff and ignore the later stuff. If you do know it, you don't really need to read the new stuff because you've already come across everything in the earlier work.
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Life's too short to read another Eddings book
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This is the third tittle in the Dreamer series. The basic plot involves the 'evil' Vlagh trying to takeover the four domains of the Land of Dhrall each of which is ruled by a god. The four gods are brothers and sisters and each book in the series deals with the war in one of the lands.
Treasured One is the first in the series and the first Eddings' book I have read. It should have been the last.
Book One was OK. The overall storyline is good and some of the characters are likeable. Book Two had less to offer but some twists in the plot.
In Crystal Gorge a large portion of the book is taken up with restating what had happened in the first two books from the perspective of different characters so there is much tedious repetition often written for kindergarten age. The setting for the new war develops slowly and we are two thirds of the way through before there is a battle with tribes in the north who are being controlled by the Vlagh. This develops slowly with no real climax and the method of defeat being predicatable. By the time I had about 50 pages to go the main contingent of the Vlagh had still not been met and I thought this was going to come in the next book. However, the main conflict is quickly squeezed in to the final chapters and again there is no suspense or climax.
Am I left wondering what will happen to the poor gods in the fourth land? No! Life's too short to read another Eddings book. There are too many other good authors to get through.
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The Disapointing Crystal Gorge
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I have long been a fan of the Eddings team, but I am finding the 'Dreamers' series a very unsatisfying read. Repetative passages, from very slightly different viewpoint does swell the number of pages but adds nothing to the enjoyment or information passed on. This strikes me as a very 'Commercial' book, in the worst sense of the word.
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Comparative disappointment
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I've read all of the Eddings titles so far and found them to be jolly good enjoyable escapes. Hence I was looking forward the journey of this latest book of The Dreamers.
I was left feeling rather flat, which is sad. Far from the usual 'journey', this one concentrates on character interactions to the point of being stalled. Plus too much jumped from different points of view of the story confusing the trail at times.
The whole plot just seems to have got very tired and even though there are good character one and all, with their relationships witty, I am left thinking that the Eddings' were running out of ideas to fill out the span of the story.
Sorry but that's how I feel, saying that I look forward to the next book though not as avidly as normal.
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A cautionary tale . . .
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I hope I'm not betraying the intent of this function, but I do feel the need to post a warning for those who may read, or have read, this book. Do not judge Eddings by the contents of this series, nor by his earlier stand alone "The Redemption of Althalus". Eddings' first series, the Belgariad was not inventive, original or particularly powerful. But it did manage to be dry, witty, energising and welcoming without feeling smug or unduly tongue in cheek (well, maybe a little!). The plot is no more than a guided tour of the magic Kingdom, and the characters could not be more stereotypical. The same comments, both above and below, can be applied to the Mallorean and the Elenium (both a good pitch better than the Belgrariad) and to a lesser extent to the Tamuli, Eddings fourth series, and the final one worth reading. While I read the Elenium, a friend of mine commented that the books would be every bit as charming if the characters sat around in a room playing poker for the duration. Surprisingly, this is almost exactly what they do in the Tamuli, which all but removes the "quest" element. And yet, somehow, the books work. They won't be everyone's cup of tea, but the dynamic between the characters defined my concept of friendship for years, almost a decade before I actually found friends like that. Eddings prose is hypnotic, and can easily draw you in a rob you of all outward sensations (in sharp contrast to the inventive Feist, master of a well contrived world, who's prose is so jarring I've often felt the need to go through his books with a red pen!). I don't suggest the books should be anything other than comfort reading, and to the reader who approaches every book challenging it and demanding it prove worthy, it will probably provide only disappointment. But to the reading willing to give it a chance, to open up to it, it will become a welcome hearth to which you can return. On a final note I would like to give my heartiest praise to David for the Elenium, my favourite of his series. Never before (to my knowledge) has a fantasy writer made a democratic election the major confrontation of a series, no vote counting and arithmatic the dramatic face off. So, please, if you're considering reading this book, I would urge you first to read the Elenium, then it's sequel the Tamuli. Then the Belgariad, and it's sequel the Mallorean. If you have already read this book, I fear Eddings may have made his structures and weaknesses so obvious that you will not be able to help see them even in his best work. Still, I urge you to read them. They will give you a friendship, if not friends, that will last longer than any book can.
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