The Redeption of Althalus is a standalone fantasy adventure, telling the story of a thief named Althalus. Hired for a simple job involving stealing a book, he is drawn into an far bigger adventure and a war of good verses evil.
I have to admit I approached this book with some trepidation; David Eddings is an author that I feel is fairly one dimensional - pretty much every book I've read of his is what I'd describe as akin to a Dungeons and Dragons adventure - you have a disparate group of characters who go on a long journey and save the world by working together. It's not to say that they're bad books, per se, they are a fun read, but they are a bit predictable.
I was pleasantly surprised at the start of the book; I quite like the character of Althalus, and while it was clearly the tale of an adventure, it felt a bit better than the previous ones. It also seemed a bit more personal than his other books - less about a war between good and evil, and more about a personal journey. Even the title hinted at this.
Unfortunately, this didn't last. Pretty much as soon as the initial part ended, we descended into the formulaic story - the hero spends some time gathering gifted individuals in the first part, then each of them fights their corresponding villain, then the world is saved. So really, this is very similar to what I expected. Now, before I give too bad an impression; this book isn't awful, it's just predictable and simple. It's a nice story, it passes the time, there's the odd small twist that privides a little excitement, but it's not worth actually thinking about too hard (the plot towards the end makes no sense - if they can do what they did at the end, they may as well have done that at the start and saved 600 pages).
However, it does get worse. Not only is the overriding plot generic and uninspiring, the romance stories that litter it are sickly to the point of being unreadable. Pretty much as soon as any character turns up, an appropriate partner comes along and falls in love with them. It's not even particularly interesting stories - they're idealistic and naive love-at-first-sight stories. And personally I find it quite derogatory and stereotypical - they all between a man who need support and a woman who wants to look after him.
So, this is a generic fantasy with a thin, hole ridden plot, stereotypical characters and terrible love stories.
The problem here is that I'm not going to say that I didn't actually enjoy the book. I think overall I did, but I enjoyed it like I'd enjoy watching a kid's cartoon - it's a bit silly and a bit simple but its a bit of fun and it does pass the time if you don't take it seriously. I just can't help thinking there's better books with which to pass my time!
Buy The Redemption of Althalus from Amazon.com
No comments:
Post a Comment