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Submitted by Jack McRoberts 
(Jan 16, 2008)

Having read the final volume of this series, my response is -- Terrible! The only good thing was that there were not gods to be disposed of or mysterious purposes to be dealt with. I am glad that I read the books via the library and did not pay any good money for volumes 2-4.

The concept of alternating sets of gods was a good one that was not handled well. The unknown friend was just too deus ex machina (see below). If written correctly (and well), the unknown friend(s) should not have been necessary.

There is a certain similarity of characters with those of other series, but with enough differences that I generally enjoyed them. The all tended to be a bit too clever as needed, although most of that was reserved for Rabbit, Keselo, and Longbow. In that regard, the characters were less consistent and more vanilla than in the Belgariad/Mallorean and Elenium/Tamuli series, which is too bad since that was the strongest point of the Eddings' works.

The books seemed padded through the use of rehashing the story through different characters' eyes. Although some of it was interesting, much of it was too redundant.

[Warning-- spoilers follow].

I view this series as the science fiction equivalent of the "Dallas" TV show's dream season that ended up with a suddenly living Bobby Ewing emerging from a shower.

First, every book has a lot of blood, sweat and tears that accomplishnothing until some overgod/overgoddess must step in to save the day. Why couldn't the mysterious friend have done so at the beginning.

Second, one of the Eddings' strengths are the characters and their personalities and interrelationships. Not only are these relationships far more simplistic but suddenly all of the friendships and personal achievements are gone... poof! with one possible exception (there

is a promise of Trenicia and Narasan getting together). I do not view the Longbow/Misty Waters resolution in the category since it never happened before. In any case, I felt cheated.

Which brings up point number three. None of the Maags, Trogites, Maalavi, etc, get to keep their promised rewards. The Amarite church does not get to keep its just desserts. There is no indication that Narasan's nephew will survive his war, which would imply Narasan ending up in the gutter again. So how will he and Trenicia meet?

Fourth, even the theology was inconsistent. In the early part, there was quite a bit written about Mother Sea and Father Earth, to the extent that Mother Sea exiled Veltan the the moon. Yet, in the final theology concerning Ara and Omago, they do not appear. There is no explanation where they came from nor how the moon could be sentient either.

I hope that the Eddings' are not planning on a new series showing what happens to these same characters in the new alternate history. That would keep them on a par with the Dallas soap opera. Instead, I would like to see some solid fantasy that does not involve gods in such an intimate way as has been done with his previous series. I think the Eddings' have pushed this shtick about at as far as they can for a while.

I was extremely disappointed by the latest Eddings series. Having been a huge fan of the Garion and Sparhawk series of the past, as well as being fascinated with the Althalus stand-alone novel, I was expecting another captivating series.
The plot is repeated many, many (many!) times throughout the series and within the same book, and worst of all, it is re-told from perspectives of different characters. You'd think that these different perspectives would add to the plot, but it's nothing more than re-telling the exact same thing. There are times when you could seriously skip 40-50 pages and not missed anything. I felt that at times, Eddings was repeating the plot to simply add more pages to these books and complete the four book deal. The plot was horribly weak, yet it could have been told in two books at the most.
There is no character development because there's too many characters that share essentially the same characteristics. You don't get a chance (unlike his previous works) to see a character's dreams, fears, and quirks that made characters like Silk so memorable. Conversations are childish at best, humorous only to perhaps second graders. And why does it seem like everyone is so powerful and intelligent that they could have sat around and defeated the Vlagh on their own?
His idea to make the enemy (by the way, the word "enemies" is so overused that you'll begin to gag every time you see it as you read) into superbugs was an interesting experiment, but ultimately it killed any plot since we never get to learn about the villains. The Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium, and Tamuli all had human villains and the reader was thus able to better understand their motives and appreciate their plots. This villain would scare only those aforementioned second graders.
Ultimately, this is the worst piece of writing by Eddings, and I was sorely disappointed and upset that I spent money to purchase the entire series (in paperback only, thankfully). I'm not sure what went wrong, whether he decided to re-use old plots and characters to put out another series for the money, or he tried to be clever with "new" elements that horribly failed, or if he actually was so daring to think that readers would enjoy a sophomoric fantasy novel based on his reputation in the past. I hope he can bounce back with his next work, whenever that may be.

The series started out promisingly enough, with characters gathered from around the world at the behest of the gods to combat a menace threatening the existence of mankind. Fair enough.

However, the plot gradually lost steam the heroes gained gained more and more power to the point where the evil bug-like Vlaugh was little more than a nuisance to be squashed.

As things wore on, there was little for the non-godlike characters to do but exchange witty banter and exalt their own cleverness, whilst the godlike one did the same, only at the very end doing what they could've done at the beginning: win the war.

This series is very much a case study in what can go wrong when heroes have too much power available: there's nothing for them to do.

This has to be one of the worst fantasy series I have read since I began collecting fantasy books. I have read all the previous books and series and was looking forward to another excellent saga on the same level. I was sorely disappointed. The style and plot are very simplistic, there is no meat on any of the bones, the characters are flat and, mostly, unbelievable or unlikeable. There is nothing in the books to hold your attention and make you want to keep reading. The writing style is so 'babyish' at times that after 50 or so pages of the first book I actually had to check the front and back covers of all four books to see if they were written as childrens/young fiction. But apparently not! My guide to an excellent book is when I have to make myself stop reading at 2am in the morning - with these books I had to make myself read more than a few pages at a time, they were very hard work.
I don't know what has happened to change the writing style so drastically. I don't believe it's the collaboration of his wife Leigh as she has been involved with other books which have still been very good. But whatever it is it's a mistake. Having read well over a thousand fantasy novels I've never felt the need to complain about any of them if they weren't very good. In this case I make an exception - they are truly terrible. Be warned!

This is some of the worst writing that I have ever come across. The series is based upon an interesting and unique premise and my initial high expectations (based upon the intriguing back cover and Eddings' history of excellence) led me to believe I was about to be transported once more into a realm of fantasy delight.
Unfortunately however it all turns out to be pure drivle within pages of the first book. Storylines are repeated from previous series' and even repeated within the same series and within the same book! Poor attempts at humour are recycled by numerous characters, numerous times. I think I even spotted a few of the weaker jokes from the Belgariad making a re-appearance here! The characters are 2-dimensional and lack variety. They all merge into a similar personality and have no tension or true spark between them. The plot itself is repetitive and boring scenes are rehashed from numerous different points of view, making it a perfect presecrption for those with sleeping problems. This series has no redeeming features. You would be better off spending the money else where (Sara Douglass for example) or re-reading the Belgariad.

You've been warned.