The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings

As ever, a perfectly readable book; however, I have one gripe which dogs my enjoyment of the complete series. The problem comes about when you have characters who are gods and, therefore, have some very capable powers. There were a number of occasions when Aphrael, in particular, did something and I found myself thinking back to a previous scenario in this book, or a previous one, and wondering why that power hadn't been used then, as it would have made everyone's lives a whole lot easier. The obvious one is the power to create large scale illusions, which seems to have been terribly under used. I can't help but think that Mr. Eddings could be accused of using some convenient plot devices without considering their context in the book and series as a whole.

This book is amazing. I'm only 12 years old and I've never been so interested in a book. David Eddings' books braught me into reading and ever since i picked up Pawn of Prophecy, I haven't put one of his books down. This book is one of my favorites, Eddings really put work into these books, he not only made these incredible setting or characters but he even put work as to make it realistic. The Archprelates election drove me crazy, its amazing how he created an entire election system basically. I hope you guys out there enjoyed this book as much as I did, please dont stop writing Mr. Eddings, your the only thing that gets me through me book reports.

This was an absolutely fantastic conclusion to a compelling series. This book develops the characters beautifully and adds some interesting plot twists. The political defeat of Annias in Chyrellos was almost as compelling as the final confrontation between Sparhawk and Azash which is beautifully written. There are some truly sad momments as well as some jokes that really make you laugh out loud. My only criticism is that once they set out from Chyrellos the plot did loose some of its intrigue until they reached Zemoch. They could have done with a few more confrontations with vile deamons and monsters etc.