David Eddings has earned himself a very strong reputation as a great fantasy writer. I am familiar with his earlier work simply because I have heard of it, but have not had the opportunity to read it. I imagine, though, that for those that are a fan of his work, this particular novel will read as less than amazing.The four god siblings--Zelana, Veltan, Dahlaine, and Aracia--are on their way to going back to 'sleep' so that their counterparts can return to run the world for a while. But things have gone haywire when a long told event begins to take place. That-Called-the-Vlagh has begun assembling its armies and now wishes to control the world. But That-Called-the-Vlagh has begun in Zelana's domain first, where her people are nothing more than Native American-esque people who possess no technology whatsoever. Zelena finds she must convince her siblings and the people of their domains to help aid in the oncoming war.(That is a severely diluted synopsis...quite frankly there is way too much going on for me to post an accurate synopsis without giving everything away).The Elder Gods is not necessarily a terrible novel, but it is a severely lacking novel. The story begins much like a mythological tale would, which essentially is information the reader doesn't necessarily need at first. We generally can grasp the concept of multiple gods without need of explanation, and again we don't need an explanation of who the bad guys are from the start. Such information should be learned by the main characters.The characters in this novel are varied. Some of the best characters should have remained the main human characters, but unfortunately Eddings goes off on some characters that really aren't all that important at all. Characters of note are: Captain Sorgan Hook-beak, Longbow, and Rabbit. There are secondary characters I liked too--Eleria especially. Now, Eddings runs into a problem I've mentioned before in reference to other books: he has way too many character viewpoints going on. Three would have sufficed, but Eddings switching POV not only in the beginning half, but in the second half as well. There is no clearly defined main character. Zelena, who starts as the main character, suddenly falls off into no-man's land and doesn't even get the benefit of being important towards the end of the book. Hook-beak, who should have had a greater presence, has the same issue towards the end as well. Rabbit, who we know about for a while and suddenly are thrown into his head, gains a presence half way through the book rather than having one earlier. I liked Rabbit, but the problem was that he wasn't really introduced until Longbow speaks to him. This POV jumping and what not really hurts the pace of the novel.Another issue was that Eddings constantly has characters retell the same information to other characters. Rather than just saying "He told Hook-beak what Eleria had mentioned to him" or something of that nature, he goes on for huge paragraphs having the characters tell the information. This happens over and over until the last 30 pages when characters stop doing that and he simply does what I mentioned in the quotes. Why all of a sudden? I don't get it. But it wastes valuable time and space to have the characters do this over and over.One thing I did notice about this book is that it is written almost as if it were intended for a younger audience. The language indicates this very much. That isn't a bad thing, but it does play out in how the individual characters speak, which comes off as somewhat unbelievable. Characters with huge reputations likely would not speak like 10 year olds.Last of my issues was with the battles. I'm going to spoil this for everyone because I want to. Towards the end all these people from other continents have been paid to come out and fight the battle. Nothing bad happens to the army as it travels across a wide ocean. Then again, when they begin to fight the enemy, which is supposed to be somewhat of a hive mind, first a massive flood takes place that kills the first wave. Then a volcano explodes and kills the rest of the Vlagh army. Very few good guys actually die, which is disturbing because Eddings tries to make it seem like the Vlagh is actually rather sneaky, which would make for a rather prolonged and arduous battle. Needless to say, EVERYTHING GOES RIGHT FOR THE GOOD GUYS. Where's the conflict? Shouldn't something go wrong? Shouldn't something be hard?Now, I've rambled on and on about this book. I personally would not recommend this to anyone unless you are a die hard Eddings fan. It is probably not even close to his best work. So, read at your own risk.
I'm a huge fan of Eddings work and of the man himself. I probably come at this from a slightly emotional place because I remember him coming into a bookstore where I worked to pick up our order of his book, Regina's Song, to take them home so he and his bride could sign them. This was a perk, I suppose, of living/working near such an amazing, kind, and talented man. He would sign all copies of his books and he would order a book of poetry every Valentine's Day for "his bride" as he always called Leigh. I will be honest that this is not my favorite of his works, but at the time that Regina's Song came out I had started to wonder if he would ever put out more fantasy. Having been forewarned by our store owners and the manager that he would probably stop by and that he was a reserved man during his visits I curbed my excitement, helped him, and quietly told him that I had not read any of his fiction or joint works, but that I was a huge fan of his fantasy writing that I had read. At that point he thanked me and told me that he had several thousand words of a new fantasy work completed. After he left I went bouncing to the back office of our store where the store manager just shook her head and laughed at my enthusiasm. I never mentioned the new work to Mr. Eddings again, but when this book came out he remembered and he offered to personalize a signed copy. So I guess you can say that I was a fan who then grew a soft spot for one of my favorite authors. As for this book specifically...at times it moved a little slow, but I liked a number of the characters. Longbow dedicating his life to eradicating the object of his anger is somewhat trite, but it develops him for a larger purpose. He is that crusty character that you root for other, more easily likable, characters to succeed in cracking. Rabbit has many talents, but lives life dialing it back until his skills are leveraged for the cause. I've heard others say that these are recycled versions of older Eddings tales and I guess it's been long enough since I read them that I don't feel that way, but I also love each story for what it offers individually and I find that with each author I read there is a certain amount of carryover...themes that ring with them as they write and new twists as their own life experiences influence them and the way they write. I enjoy the developing interaction between the Maags and the Trogites as they are brought to help Zelana's people in Dhrall fight against the Vlagh. It's not perfect and the beginnings of their willingness to interact are tenuous and based in greed, but the bonds that grow as each side finds that their preconceived notions are not as solid as they thought add depth to what would otherwise be a straight, boring, they're paying us lets get it over with tale.
What do You think about The Elder Gods (2004)?
I hate myself for saying this, but here goes. Boo! Boo, boo, boo. I am one of many, many long-time Eddings fans and maybe that's the problem. I was thrilled to pick up a minty fresh Eddings saga, but by halfway through this first book I felt like I could recite it before I'd even read it. Far past just being stylistically recognizable, it's nearly an exact replica of every other Eddings series without any of their creative surprise goodness.The plot is beyond familiar: good gods with basically good followers prepare to battle their bad brother god and his nasty, barely human (or non-human) horde. Of course there are mysterious objects and fantastical journeys. Hijinks ensue.The characters: wow, do you know these people. This group has a Barak and a Silk and child-god/ess, a Sparhawk and a Polgara and all the rest. They are snarky and clever and say things like, "Oh, I hadn't thought of that" and "Does bouncing count?" and they repeat themselves constantly. I mean, whole sections of story are retold from one character to the next, down to the editorial embellishments. What was awesome charaterization in previous books comes across as tired and unimaginative here.I pushed through the first two books out of nothing more than good faith and genuine loyalty to the author(s). I can't bear to continue, though.I'm really sorry. Like I said: I hate myself for feeling this way. But it's awful. Go back and read The Mallorean again if you need a fix. Save yourself the emotional conflict.
—Sara
There is an evil entity in the Wastelands. It is creating minions to overrun the land of Dhrall. The four elder Gods of Dhrall attempt to combat this by creating young children known as dreamers (although these people aren't really young children and this is revealed fairly early on it the book). But the dreamers aren't enough and there aren't enough people in the land of the Dhrall to combat all the minions of the Vlagh. So the Elder Gods go out to recruit mercenaries from other lands and thus the beginnings of an epic is born.I probably shouldn't be writing a review of a book I haven't finished, but...oh,well. I must preface this by saying that I've read and adored the Belgariad and The Elenium. So I was happy to see that Eddings has put out the beginning of a new book. However, I was quickly overcome with disappointment. The writing seemed overly simplistic and I the characters are boring. The good guys so very intuitive with good ideas and great skills and they all become the bestest of best friends. They are simply too good to be true. I've gotten very used to reading fantasy series where the characters are flawed and emotional and aren't always "good". I found myself disinterestedly flipping the pages. I simply wasn't engaged in the story. And I was just fed up with the character of Eleria who was just too, too precious for words. She seemed to embody the worst characteristics of Flute, one of Edding's earlier characters. If I want to read a story that includes the character of Flute I'll go back and re-read the much better written and more interesting Elenium.
—Tina
I will say this is not one of Eddings'(David and Leigh) best works. I've not ready my beloved Belgariad/Malloran series in awhile, so I get to see this with fresh eyes. So, if I had never read an Eddings book previously, this would be a fun and fanciful read, in a standard fantasy world with epic battles between good and evil; fighting done with swords; people in mail; etc. However, if you HAVE read previous works by the Eddings duo, so many of the characters seemed to be phoned in and just remakes of their previous characters. Yet that does not take away from the fact that it WAS fun and easy to read. My major issue with the book is the characters from the land of Dhrall, just something seemed, I'm not sure of the right words, but wrong there and kind of wish the authors has wend in a different direction with them. There is a reason why they ARE successful and why I've read their other books so many times. I'm compelled to read the next book in the series and enjoy the romp through the land of Dhrall.
—Becomingme
