Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

The Ruby Knight is the second book in David Eddings Ellenium series. As such it suffers from many of the usual problems associated with middle books in a trilogy. While the first book was all about defining the nature of the threat and setting up a potential solution and the last book is about actually solving that problem, the middle book is about…

Well in this case its about trapsing all over the countryside trying to find a missing gem. Which wouldn’t make much of a book at all, so Eddings does complicate things quite a bit with the introduction of a Seeker who turns out to be the god Azash’s hunter/killer type. Consequently our gallant band of knights are frequently set upon and have to defend themselves.

In between this action there’s lots of cutesy dialogue and some amusing moments. But it doesn’t really amount to much in the end and I was left eager for the book to end so I could get onto the third book where, if my memory is correct, the pace picks up a bit.

Its not really that its a bad book, its just sort of… pointless. It’s also full of stuff that would turn into Eddings cliches in a few years time. They were probably a lot less irritating at the time than they are now that I’ve read them a half dozen times over.

Perhaps his most annoying habit though is lazy writing. The tendency to cover up plot weaknesses simply by pointing out that “that was a bit convenient” and hinting that maybe a god fixed it.

Still I am looking forward somewhat to The Sapphire Rose as I remember it as the best book in the series and I’m now even more curious to go back and read the Belgariad and see how it stands up against time.