Saturday, June 21, 2008

The Elder Gods


The Elder Gods written by David and Leigh Eddings starts off with two sets of Gods. One set sleeps while the other works. The story starts with the creation of the world and upon completion, the two groups switch. As mankind and the world develops, the gods take little interest and pursue their own selfish interests. In one part of the world there exists a hidden evil that grows stronger over time.

As the evil force (sorry, can't remember their names) begins to strengthen, the gods develop a plan. They reincarnate the sleeping gods into human children which they raise for their own purposes. Their hope is these human/god children will be able to fight the evil.

At least this is my understanding of the story. I only got about 5 chapters into the book.

The book was juvenile. I don't mean that the book was written for a juvenile audience. The book clearly belongs on the adult fiction shelf. The problem was the dialogue. Not one adult character spoke like an adult. The dialogue went like:

"So, um, here's a child to raise."

"Yeah, ok. Whatever..."

"We have to fight the bad guys."

"Yeah, we probably should."

I know I am being extreme in my example, but I found the dialogue annoying. On top of that, some of the characters, particularly the gods, were immature and stupid.

Maybe that was the point. I don't know.

The book went back to the library. Maybe other books by David Eddings are better, but I don't know when I will try him again.

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