David Eddings is one of the greatest Fantasy writers. He was neither original nor ground breaking, but he was fun, witty and his characters had worlds of depth in them. His nations were alive, his cities engaging and his plots, while formulatic the second time (Malloreon) were not boring.
But this Book is bad. Is badly written, is badly paced and it's a waste of 800 pages. Why? Because it's shallow, so terrible shallow. The dialogs are trite and repetitive (Be nice! Yes Dear! Boy people-girl people, you scoundrel, Snark-snark), the romantic plots are absurd (Andine decided that Elial was innocent because he was a mercenary and while he stabbed his father-defending his city- dozens of times, it was his contractor the true monster and he was in fact the love of his life.
Character development occurs off-stage, there is never a sense of suspense because the characters are never defeated in any instance and the Villains are so unidimensional and stupid (they are literal Neanderthals) that their Military tactics are pathetic at best.
But it's addictive, like playing roulette in las Vegas. I ended the book after all. Yet that doesn't mean is worth the time or the effort.
As an introduction to fantasy, it's a harmless book that would be enjoyed by first timers quite a lot (if a bit daunting for it's massive size); for people with more experience or who had read Eddings previous books, it's flavorless and full of beige prose that goes on an on for hundreds of pages were nothing happens.
It's a good Introduction to Fantasy, like ABC
David Eddings is one of the greatest Fantasy writers. He was neither original nor ground breaking, but he was fun, witty and his characters had worlds of depth in them. His nations were alive, his cities engaging and his plots, while formulatic the second time (Malloreon) were not boring.
But this Book is bad. Is badly written, is badly paced and it's a waste of 800 pages. Why? Because it's shallow, so terrible shallow. The dialogs are trite and repetitive (Be nice! Yes Dear! Boy people-girl people, you scoundrel, Snark-snark), the romantic plots are absurd (Andine decided that Elial was innocent because he was a mercenary and while he stabbed his father-defending his city- dozens of times, it was his contractor the true monster and he was in fact the love of his life.
Character development occurs off-stage, there is never a sense of suspense because the characters are never defeated in any instance and the Villains are so unidimensional and stupid (they are literal Neanderthals) that their Military tactics are pathetic at best.
But it's addictive, like playing roulette in las Vegas. I ended the book after all. Yet that doesn't mean is worth the time or the effort.
As an introduction to fantasy, it's a harmless book that would be enjoyed by first timers quite a lot (if a bit daunting for it's massive size); for people with more experience or who had read Eddings previous books, it's flavorless and full of beige prose that goes on an on for hundreds of pages were nothing happens.
5/10