The Elder Gods (The Dreamers, Book 1) by David Eddings, a Review
I’ve just finished reading The Elder Gods, which is subtitled as The Dreamers, Book 1 by David Eddings and all I can say is what the hell happened? Okay, lets back up a step. The Dreamers is projected as a four book cycle, but if The Elder Gods is a sample of what is in store I can’t see many people reading to the end.
The story (such as it is) of The Elder Gods is that the Land of Dhrall is under the protection of four gods, each conveniently covering one of north, south, east or west. The center of Dhrall however is some sort of wasteland ruled over by the Vlagh who controls some sort of bug/mammal/serpent hybrid creatures.
There’s also a phrophecy which speaks of the Dreamers, children who will help defeat the Vlagh. When the Dreamers are born and the Vlagh finally moves to conquer Dhrall, the elder gods hire human mercenaries from other lands to help in the fight.
Sounds promising enough in a very Eddings sort of way right?
Oh god, where do I start. Its talky, very talky. The action is talked about, but rarely actually experienced. People make plans, tell people about their plans and they afterwords tell other people how their plans went.
The characters in the book are pale, pale shadows of the characters in earlier Eddings books. They all sound the same and they lack distinction. If you don’t check the name of the character you wouldn’t know who you were reading about. Quite simply, it’s boring.
So what happened. Once upon a time I loved David Eddings books. They were always cutesy, but the characters were appealing and interesting, if broadly drawn. The Belgariad and the Elenium were some of my favorite fantasy books when they came out. Perhaps I should go back and re-read them to see if they stand up or Eddings has always been weaker than I realized.
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Renee Nunamaker
AMEN! I don’t think Eddings wrote this book (Elder Gods, The Dreamers).
Somebody pretending to be him must have sneaked in and used his word processor.
I am forcing myself to finish it but will not spend a dime on anything
more in this series.
Nov 12th, 2005
Lore
God this series was a dissapointment. Like you said, the characters sucked, the action was almost non-existing and worst of all, the endless repetition. It felt like Eddings only had enough story for one book, and his editors told him he had to make four books out of it.
After the third time the same scene got retold from a new viepoint, (which rarely if ever added anything to the story), I just started skipping the retelling…
The only good that came from reading this, was getting an urge to reread previous series, to check if Eddings were really as good as I remembered, or that I just imagined liking him as much as I did.
Lores last blog post..
May 29th, 2008
Reply to “The Elder Gods (The Dreamers, Book 1) by David Eddings, a Review”