The Younger Gods [Eddings]
So I finally finished reading David Edding's series The Dreamers, book four being The Younger Gods. It's only taken me, what, a couple of years of having the last book laying around the house?
I have to say it didn't make that great of an impression on me. I always want to love David Edding's' books as he was one of the first fantasy authors I really enjoyed (Belgariad & Mallorean) and did enjoy one or two of his more recent books (Redemption of Althalus for one), but this series... it just fumbled and fussed about with words and fell rather flat as a result. (Many chapters were even just retelling of certain events from start to finish but from a different characters point of view.)
It was almost like he took the major plot elements of every other book/series he'd ever written (magic gems, gods, supossedly witty characters, extraodinary children, etc etc) and just pasted them haphazardly into what he hoped his readers would see and applaud as a new plot.
Also, the villians were completely two-dimensional and felt as if their only reason for being was so that for the 'heros' could get together and gallivant around, saying witty things to eachother and going through the motions of war. Seriously, you could have had a four volume series where the protaganists fought epic battles against a pile of non-sentient gravel in a wheelbarrow and it would have had a similar outcome.
And don't get me started on the cop out ending where it was written that the gods just flip time and make most of it like it never happened in the first place.
But I think the main thing that really annoyed me about this series was the fact that the gods and the parents of the gods were pretty much all powerful and yet they continually did not think to use their powers until it was convenient to the plot for them to do so. Seriously, if you've got god-powers, (flying, timetravel, immortality, etc etc) yet are bound to the rule of 'must not kill' then there is still a hell of a lot of wiggle room to get the big bad dead that doesn't include piddle-footing around for four books and having a jolly good time with the comanding officers of your hired armies while still supposedly worried about the outcome.
... that was something else too. Waaaay too many characters for the series. Those that I thought were interesting didn't have the space to be properly fleshed out (or actually do anything) and then the others that were there just felt like extra padding and often had personalities much like other characters that couldn't, for some reason, be present in the same scenes.
Erg.
Bugger, I've ranted a bit (lot) and those were definitely the worst things about the series that had me frothing quietly as I read, but I don't want to say it was a terrible series either. The Eddings's are really good story tellers and that does come through as you read. On a whole, I guess the series was not brilliant, but only just clinging to average. ;_;
Other then that, flying out to Brisbane tommorrow at early o'clock to spend time with Mel and Kat. Woo! Can't wait. XD
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I have to say it didn't make that great of an impression on me. I always want to love David Edding's' books as he was one of the first fantasy authors I really enjoyed (Belgariad & Mallorean) and did enjoy one or two of his more recent books (Redemption of Althalus for one), but this series... it just fumbled and fussed about with words and fell rather flat as a result. (Many chapters were even just retelling of certain events from start to finish but from a different characters point of view.)
It was almost like he took the major plot elements of every other book/series he'd ever written (magic gems, gods, supossedly witty characters, extraodinary children, etc etc) and just pasted them haphazardly into what he hoped his readers would see and applaud as a new plot.
Also, the villians were completely two-dimensional and felt as if their only reason for being was so that for the 'heros' could get together and gallivant around, saying witty things to eachother and going through the motions of war. Seriously, you could have had a four volume series where the protaganists fought epic battles against a pile of non-sentient gravel in a wheelbarrow and it would have had a similar outcome.
And don't get me started on the cop out ending where it was written that the gods just flip time and make most of it like it never happened in the first place.
But I think the main thing that really annoyed me about this series was the fact that the gods and the parents of the gods were pretty much all powerful and yet they continually did not think to use their powers until it was convenient to the plot for them to do so. Seriously, if you've got god-powers, (flying, timetravel, immortality, etc etc) yet are bound to the rule of 'must not kill' then there is still a hell of a lot of wiggle room to get the big bad dead that doesn't include piddle-footing around for four books and having a jolly good time with the comanding officers of your hired armies while still supposedly worried about the outcome.
... that was something else too. Waaaay too many characters for the series. Those that I thought were interesting didn't have the space to be properly fleshed out (or actually do anything) and then the others that were there just felt like extra padding and often had personalities much like other characters that couldn't, for some reason, be present in the same scenes.
Erg.
Bugger, I've ranted a bit (lot) and those were definitely the worst things about the series that had me frothing quietly as I read, but I don't want to say it was a terrible series either. The Eddings's are really good story tellers and that does come through as you read. On a whole, I guess the series was not brilliant, but only just clinging to average. ;_;
Other then that, flying out to Brisbane tommorrow at early o'clock to spend time with Mel and Kat. Woo! Can't wait. XD
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