Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery/Heroic
Mailyn says...
From Amazon:
"A young queen's life and a country's future lie in the balance as an exiled Pandion knight, a Styric "witch," an aging squire, and a mysterious child begin a long and arduous trek through foreign lands in search of an elusive cure for an unknown disease."
I was very excited to read this, my fist David Eddings book, for a while, as I've heard nothing but good things about the man and his writing. I must say I was disappointed. So much so that I didn't even finish it. I am planning to go back and read it at a later date but, having just finished that glorious book The Gilded Chain, I guess it's hard to get into this. Mr. Eddings' writing, judging from this book, is nothing to write home about.
He isn't as engaging or as good as painting his picture as Mr. Duncan is. Despite the interesting plot about an adventure to save a young queen and the kingdom, I found myself having to read sentences over and over as I just could not concentrate on the book.
For lack of a better word, it was just too plain. I do think it's unfair for me to judge one author against the other but I found Eddings' writing lacking. My breaking point was when the good guys were just about to engage the enemy in a battle that was setting up for some time and we get to see none of it.
One minute the good guys are yelling "charge" and the very next they are taking care of the dead and talking about how some of the bad guys got away.
I had to put the book down after that. The characters were not interesting and came off a bit childish at times. The plot and the action crawled and I honestly couldn't feel any danger to the main characters no matter how much they suggested that the villain was truly evil. Everything was either too simple or too complicated. One example would be the good guys needing to disguise themselves and, instead of resorting to magic which they all know, they actually find horse hair which they glue on to make a fake beard. They even paint scars on their faces, curl their hair and put on rouge [for one was trying to pass on as a noble].
I guess their magic is good for all sorts of powerful things but simple stuff like this is not possible?
As I said, I do plan to finish this off at a later date but, as it is, I can't give it no higher rating than a 3 out of 5.
Posted by
Mailyn
3 comments:
I liked Eddings back when I read him, but this definitely isn't his best series. I liked the Belgariad and Mallorean series more.
I still need to read Duncan though. A customer at work the other week was waxing poetically about his writing. :-)
I have been meaning to give the Belgariad a try. I'll probably end up sneaking a few peeks in Barnes & Nobles just to see if I like it. LOL.
Honestly I found his wording very lacking after finishing Gilded Chain. That one I still have to review and it was just wow!
I have some Duncan novels I should read one of these days. I have some Eddings, too, but not this series. Hopefully what I have will be better when I get around to reading it.
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