The Dreamers The Elder Gods A fantasy written by David Eddings in 2003 Other visitors rate this book as very bad. Click to rate this book from worst 1 2 3 4 5 to best. The Treasured One A fantasy written by David Eddings in 2004 Click to rate this book from worst 1 2 3 4 5 to best. Crystal Gorge A fantasy written by David Eddings in 2005 Click to rate this book from worst 1 2 3 4 5 to best. The Younger Gods A fantasy written by David Eddings in 2006 Click to rate this book from worst 1 2 3 4 5 to best.

What would a fantasy book be without a fantasy world. And what would a fantasy world be without a fantasy map. The Dreamers also provide this indispensable guide to the geographically inquisitive readers, a map of four continents separated by an anonymous sea. Three of the continents host the Maag pirates, the Malavi horsemen, and the Trogite empire. Fourth is the land of Dhrall, a continent that is little more than a legend to the people of the other three. The natives of Dhrall have the luck of being neighbors to four gods that rule the land. The western part of Dhrall is the domain of Zelana, a reclusive goddess with a penchant for poetry. The south and the north go to Veltan and Dahlaine, brothers with modern ideas about social order and a thunderbolt for a pet. In the east, Aracia works on instilling religious fervor in her subjects. That of course leaves out the middle of Dhrall: an empty wasteland where the evil Vlagh weaves her plans to take over the world. With the scene as is, the plot can only really take one direction. In each volume of the series, the Vlagh invades one of the four domains of Dhrall, and the gods face it with the help of mercenaries brought over from other continents. Which proves to be a fairly difficult task, for the gods of Dhrall are forbidden from using their power to cause destruction, and besides, their regular period of activity draws to an end and their attention wanders ...

I vaguely recall liking some of the earlier books from David Eddings. It was not the plot that stuck in my mind, but rather the ever present light banter between the main characters, which transformed the standard plot into an entertaining read. Well, that feeling is definitely gone. So much so that when I look at the book cover proudly naming David Eddings "one of the best fantasy writers publishing today", I wonder which day it must have been that no other fantasy writer was publishing.

To start off the list of things gone wrong with the series, I would pick the tiresome explanatory tone. The reader is never left to think about what is happening, everything is spelled out. If one character were to bang his shin, another standing nearby would have to remark on how his leg must hurt, lest the reader fails to make the connection. In fact, most of the dialogues consist of everybody explaining to everybody else what is happening and what everybody must be thinking. When the characters took turns lecturing each other about the physics of the tides or the growth of the stalactites and stalagmites, I was almost ready to throw the book away.

To make things worse, the series attempts to describe many events from multiple points of view. All of the Kurosawa fans should forget Rashomon though, for the views are almost identical. Not only is everything explained in laborious detail, many things are even explained multiple times in practically the same words !

The plot is almost not worth mentioning. No subtlety, no unexpected twists, no interesting complications. Whenever a problem pops up, it is resolved in a few pages, making the entire story about as suspenseful as a cookbook recipe. To defeat your enemy, hire mercenaries, proceed to conflict zone, kill the enemy. Should the enemy come from an unexpected direction, turn in that direction and continue as planned. Should the enemy use an unexpected weapon, deal with the weapon and continue as planned. There.

The series also markedly fails where the divine powers are concerned. It is not easy to explain why a quartet of omnipotent gods would not simply wish their enemies away. Even with the vague prohibition on destruction in place, it is baffling why a god that is capable of altering the flow of time and the scale of things on a whim would have his armies walk and his messengers ride. Forgetful and confused ? Give me a break ...

Ahh, and yes, the characters. Everybody is instant friends with everybody (and it gets duly explained in case the reader would fail to notice). Except for nobody being friends with Aracia: when she is continuously poisoned by one of the minions of Vlagh, which are treated as insects and simply killed on sight elsewhere in the books, everybody just observes.

Rated as bad by Ceres on 2010-01-17

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