Book Review: The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings
(Four Stars)
“I don’t want to contaminate a good story with truth. That’d be a violation of my artistic integrity.”
A fun read. Sort of a tongue-in-cheek parody of epic fantasy. World’s great thief (he thinks), competitive divine siblings, threats to end reality. Faint echoes of Star Wars. Didn’t notice much redemption of Althalus, but who cares?
“It’s not the writing that changes, pet. It’s the reading.” “Wait a minute. Doesn’t the writing mean the same to everybody?” “Of course it doesn’t. Everybody reads any writing gets a different meaning from it.”
Reads like a first draft—wordy and repetitious, but fun. Many modern writers would have published this as three (at least) books.
“Can you pretend to be stupid?” “Ma’am, I’m a country boy from the highlands of Arum. We invented stupid.”
Laced with colloquialisms: “I’m getting a little too old for this.” “Am I starting to hear rumblings of mutiny here?” “Rumble-rumble-rumble. Satisfied?” “You have a nice war now, you hear?” “You’ve got that right.” “Trying to bamboozle me.” “It’s sending them right up the wall.” “Let’s get cracking.” “Moving right along here.” “Have a nice day, hear?”
“Powerful men can command the actions of weaker men, but not their thoughts or beliefs.”
Enjoy.
“Do men ever grow up?” “Not if we can avoid it, no.”
As a Matter of Fancy 