Very minor spoilers. I don't know what to say of this book except that I didn't like it. Eddings sure does have a formula for his fantasy and uses every trope imaginable, but I found this series to be too derivative.OK I actually have a lot to say of this book.Firstly, the dialogue is often very forced and it reads like Eddings had an entire plot in mind and had to suffer through writing some trite conversation to fill in the gaps that nonetheless often remain glaringly deep. Interactions between characters often have no closure whatsoever save for some inane funnyman comments that are supposed to signal the end of a scene while we are left to our own speculation as to what goes on afterwards. Any significant explanation is completely glossed over in the most elementary of terms and discourses. Occasionally a character will have some mild moral quandary that prepubescent me couldn't have spent more than a few moments resolving, and it baffles me.Secondly, while I know that this fits within Edding's worldbuilding style (the Belgariad was much the same), there's this element of racial disparity that was too grating for me. Lamorks are petty in their disputes and hide cowardly behind their crossbows. Zemochs are unwashed tanned-skin masses that wouldn't be able to make heads nor tails of an often superior Elene "logic". There's much talk of this logic which for some reason is a euphemism for "thinking things through" and other races besides Elenes somehow lack the capability to do so. Rendors are silly men swayed easily by more silly fanatic leaders and drape their women in black from head to toe and so oddly resemble Muslims and portray them in the most primitive of matters. Etcetera etcetera. You may want to ascribe this feeling of mine as over-sensitivity to these matters but in fact I'm just bothered by the complete immutability of these descriptors and it's mirrored by the lack of the characters' personal development.Thirdly, what the hell is going on with Ehlana and Sparhawk? He was exiled when she was 8 and he returns 10 years later only to find himself engaged to her "by accident" by giving her a ring (an important plot device, might I add) with virtually no explanation of what it means. Not like it's an accessory to the most important element of the story right? Kurik's comment about the way Ehlana used to look at him to rationalize the inevitability of this love story comes off as lewd, since after all she was 8 at the time. Ehlana brushes off his protests with a small monologue about how she was ignored as a child and oh so bravely mingled with the lowly servant staff and gathered intelligence of her own castle and emancipated from her caretakers' negligent attentions, and this somehow made her smart and courageous and able to use her now grown-up womanly wiles as she sees fit. Namely seducing the person who basically raised her for a handful of years. It was horseshit.Fourthly, there's an incredible sense of irreverence and incompetence from the clergy. Now of course throughout history there have been a great number of times where religious leaders and the like were far from pious and used faith and their position for greed or self-interest, but it seems that the only people who actually took their faith seriously either did so to excess and were blindingly righteous to the point of short-sightedness (Bevier or Ortzel) or they took their faith not too seriously and somehow these were the most "worldly" (a commonly used word) and competent. Pragmatism has its place but organised religions are by definition dogmatic and to have the somehow glorified new archprelate be so thoroughly "wordly" as to be willfully dismissive of some of his own religion's core tenets is just annoying. I kept waiting for some placeholder "religion is there to let the masses have something to believe in" but it never came.The clergy were for the most part badly written characters. I understand the concept of the Church Knights to have extra-religious allowances to fight more extensively (magic!) for some reason they are absurdly inept at what they're supposed to be good at. (Elene) God forbid that the order know anything of sieges and siege weapons. What's a mangonel? What's a siege tower? Ah we are not "wordly" enough to understand any fine points of warfare, leave it to the Pandions to be knowledgeable about this, we're off hunting for trolls and ogres. Very little mention is made of the other orders' learning of magic, all of it is relegated to the supremely superior education courtesy of Sephrenia.Fifthly and lastly, I'm often confused about the narrative and who exactly narrates the book. At times the narrator is omniscient, at times it's Sparhawk and his thoughts, at times subjective observations are made but no one seems to be the source of these. Oftentimes these state the obvious (no one though to invite Otha and the Zemochs to the wedding hurr durr it's not like they would have had 48 hours notice to show up at their ennemies' ceremony) and oftentimes they're meant to be slightly humourous but long-winded ("one would say it would be perhaps inappropriate here to dwell upon the similarities of such a procession to the gathering of bailiffs escorting a condemned prisoner to the scaffold" HAR HAR GET IT MARRIAGE IS A PRISON).I spent most of the book being mildly annoyed at the writing style even though I had much enjoyed the Belgariad years ago. I found the writing to be so very lazy, at times rushed, and at times so tiresome as to be boring.I think I may be harsh in giving this 1 star rather than 2, but seeing other readers' ratings of the book, thinking that my trigger-happy 4-5 star serial rater persona must be really ticked off at this book to give it 2 stars, and it's perhaps the first time I stooped to such a low rating. Perhaps I'm overreacting but I'm usually to complacent and pleased at sinking my time into Fantasy books that when I find a book I dislike it's jarring to me. It's the very first time I felt that I wasted my time with a book I wanted to read for pleasure, and it's a scary thought.
Well, yay textbook mediaeval warfare! Jane-Rhea caught me laughing out loud when I got to the point where (not really a spoiler, this) they were being right well besieged in Rome that warm-temperate city with all the basillicas and popes and things and thinking themselves very clever to have manned the walls against the inept enemies...I was thinking 'ang on, even if they don't need a Roman sewer system because of the cleaning wizards, if the Vatican citadel doesn't have overground water supply it'll have lined irrigation tunnels separate from but linked to all those crypts you're sitting on... when one of the characters rushed in the next line I read going "Sparhawk! Sparhawk! Martel's going to lead an army up the aqueduct that links to the old crypt tunnels!" ecksdeeAnyway, apparently Martel's pet shogg (did I miss that getting killed, or did it just vanish?) ate the bit of his brain that knew all the interesting tricks of siege warfare and gave him an irrational aversion to trebuchets. I mean, if you're going to forest-build rather than flatpack, why build mangonels when you could have a trebuchet? (mute the sound on that one.) On that note, a tip: if you have a fair amount of wood, it's dry, you have a good supply of flour from many captured mills and the enemy are being all oblivious to the fact that their cellars are leaky in a leaking-dudes-in-chainmail kind of way, blow them the hell up.There was also the most bemusing attempt to bring a human interest/sympathy to a siege, wherein a local soldier watches a civilian dragged into an alleyway by a mercenary. Presumably he thinks the mercenary meant to feed her tea and cakes back there, because despite being encouraged to use the roving mercs outside the citadel walls for target practice he leaves the guy well alone until he twigs that the screams must mean the guy's bad at baking or something and shoots him as soon as he leaves the alleyway, abruptly all worked up. The hell, Eddings?All in all some very odd ideas about women expressed in this book in general, and the creepiest, creepiest hero-gets-the-girl ever. Seriously. That aside, worth reading for the return of the only horse character that isn't mechanical/presumably stupefied on plotoles, Bevier's crowning moment of psychotic Awesome (in hindsight, whilst it'd be a far more interesting story to give the poor boy a complete trial of faith by fire, no Albigensian similie intended, sending him off for coffee at all the moments where other gods turned up rather undeniably was a good idea for the lighthearted adventure story Eddings PBUH was trying to tell), redundant zombies and spectacular lack of planning, death by retirement and the most *adorable* True Form of an Elder God ever. The teeny little tentacles! [squee:]Verily a worthwhile experiment. Like those pink wafer biscuits, a bit dry and less novel after the second one, but I wouldn't say no to another.
What do You think about The Sapphire Rose (1992)?
It was excelent until the last few chapters. When Kurik died, it was a heart-wrenching moment for me. (I spent the next 20 minutes crying and saying "Why, why, why did Kurik half to die?" Kurik was my favorite.)
—Kylia
This entire series is pretty one dimensional, in a science fiction/fantasy sort of way. There are good and bad guys, and some people that are supposed to be "bad guys", but they just had rough lives and are really good at heart. There are castles, knights, some limited magic that the author never attempts to explain, and heavy religious overtones. The knights in the books are bloody and vicious, but everyone just shakes their heads, lightly punches them on their iron clad shoulders and say "aw, should probably shouldn't have done that, you rascle". The few women you encounter are supposed to be strong characters...when it doesn't interfere with the male characters interests i.e. the queen Ehlana can convince the entire Church body, but isn't stong enough to comprehend minut changes...cause she's a woman. I can't tell if the author is mysogianistic or just a bad writer.It's an okay book, but honestly, there are much better fantasty series out there.
—Sarah
giving up on this book. For good.Srsly, what is wrong with male (fantasy) authors?Women are only portrayed as virgins, mothers, bitches or whores/temptress? Nothing else?And this was the final straw, where I gave up on this specific book (by David Eddings, written in the late 80s, early 90s.) Mind you, the girl was 8 years old:"I saw some of the looks she used to throw your way when she was a little girl. You're in for an interesting time."graaaaaaawr. Sure, 8 year old trying to seduce 25y olds. SURE. SURE. FUCK THIS BOOK. Why do men have to suggest that little girls are temptresses (like in the book Lolita - pedophile, nothing else, no excuses)? This is so wrong and I want to burn this book.Narf narf narf, over and out. Reading Jacqueline Carey now because her books are the best.
—Auris
