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Books : Science Fiction & Fantasy : Authors, A-Z : E : Eddings, David
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David Eddings' fantasy career began with Pawn of Prophecy in 1982, opening his massive Belgariad sequence. This omnibus collects the 1992-4 Tamuli trilogy: Domes of Fire, The Shining Ones and The Hidden City, totting up to 1,429 pages of slick storytelling. Following from the Elenium trio (1989-91), this takes hardbitten knight Sparhawk, his feisty queen and wife and various companions--including a terminally cute Child Goddess--to the hard-pressed Tamul Empire. Here a revolutionary movement is reanimating ancient warriors and horrors, while treason runs riot in the civil service, and at least one of this world's many gods is secretly behind it all.Sparhawk must recover that all-powerful talisman the Bhelliom, which at the end of the Elenium was hurled into the depths of the sea. Quirky political manoeuvres and plausible battles abound. Eddings is a fluent storyteller whose humour, banter and unfaltering narrative flow conjure entertainment from highly familiar plot devices. The sense of danger is muted, though: spear-carriers may perish in their thousands while villains are sentenced to burn eternally, but major goodies bounce back from fatal injuries (even a stab in the heart) thanks to epic mercy dashes and healing magic. This is cheerful comfort reading and is a long, and undemanding, enjoyable fantasy. --David Langford
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The Treasured One is another lightweight, feelgood fantasy epic from David and Leigh Eddings. As book two of their sequence The Dreamers, it continues the story that opened in The Elder Gods.The idyllic land of Dhrall, home of this fantasy world's gods, is still threatened by an unpleasantness lurking in its inland wastes. The Vlagh is an insect-like hive mind which in the great tradition of Dark Lords is constantly experimenting with magic genetic engineering, to spawn ever nastier and more venomous hordes of cannon fodder.
Although the forces of light are led by four somewhat naive gods, with elemental support from Father Earth, Mother Sea, and others, there is a snag. The gods are unable to kill. So the other four gods (whose 25,000-year shift hasn't yet begun) have been brought back early in the form of excessively cute kids whose dreams are not only prophetic but can unleash cataclysms like floods and volcanoes. Take that, Vlagh!
Further backup comes from overseas human mercenaries whose traditional enmities are cured by promises of much gold, and whose conversations are full of jolly military and nautical camaraderie. Unfortunately the southern homeland's utterly corrupt, repulsive Church--which has no redeeming features at all--hears about this gold and sends its own invasion fleet to Dhrall…
The narrative has a somewhat padded feel, with frequent flashbacks and recaps which explore the past lives of significant characters (farmer, treacherous churchman, military commander, pirates), retell events in the previous book, and even retell events in this book. We hear many times what happens when the Church invaders arrive, as character after character after character is told the story. Meanwhile, despite all the forces arrayed against the next Vlagh attack, a secret ally with more than godlike power is weaving her own cunning if slightly unscrupulous plan to help.
The Treasured One reads smoothly, raises the occasional smile with passages of friendly banter, contains no huge surprises, and is destined to sell very well indeed. For the Eddings' legions of fans, this is essential comfort reading to pass the long holiday hours.--David Langford