The Dreamers by David Eddings

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Submitted by Debbie Smith 
(Aug 10, 2006)

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.

Having read this new series of eddings, am i the only one who feels this may be more of leigh's work than Davids own. Although proving himself a rich and varied storyteller, i see that talent being diluted by aspects which were only a part of and added to his original series' e.g the sardonic cajoling and sarcastic female humour. These aspects now seem to be taking over and leaving no room for character development. The characters in this series you never get to know in the same way you knew Silk, or Talen or other characters from his previous books. You don't care about them in the same way , they seem to have no differencies in their dialouge or their personalities. So i'm afraid that however much i wanted to like this, i'm afraid it didn't hold my interest, although i still read it all just to make sure.

To sum up i was looking forward to another Belgaraid masterpiece, but instead was left with cardboard characters, limp dialouge and not much else. Sorry David and Leigh but i think we need more of David's character development and storytelling leaving, Leigh to do what she's good at which is delivering a female (all be it sarcastic) perspective on it all.

This series was pretty solid. The plot was very predictable and, in all honesty, pretty much any reader could predict what would happen after reading the first book. I enjoy the humor in Eddings's books, but to me it seems like they are slightly over-sarcastic considering I was able to predict when a sarcastic line was coming almost every time. However, I enjoy the books and the idea of a goddess like Aracia who is very different from the other gods certainly makes the series slightly less redundant. Overall, this series was not bad but I prefer the Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium, and Tamuli.

I was disappointed with this series. I have been a huge fan of everything that Eddings has written in the past and had anticipated the same from this series. The plot of this series (which I won't give away) is just very simplistic with very little twists and turns to it. The writing seems sometimes to show that there ARE 2 authors and there is a "feminism" at times in the writing that creates a major shift in tone and the writing seems disjointed at times. The "humor" (i.e. Rabbit is called "bunny") borders on juvenile and I was just expecting more from this author. It seems like the timing of the drop in quality has occured when Leigh Eddings started to be included in the billing - is this what is going on? I guess the sole efforts of David seemed to be true "classics" while these latest efforts are "ok".