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A review by mal_eficent
The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings
5.0
Siege warfare: the novel.
A lot of this book is dedicated to siege tactics and fiddling with numbers during an election - which is very entertaining if you like that sort of thing, and I do, but it’s a very sudden departure from the ‘roving band of adventurers on a quest’ narrative of the previous books. It gets back to that, but if you go into this expecting an ‘us against the world’ tone you will be disappointed.
It’s still the best book of the series, without a doubt. Eddings finally gives up shoving the world building down our throats and constantly iterating racial traits. The characters are allowed to steal the show and actual event become the main focus rather than the setting.
I’d forgotten how sad an end this is, too. The tone of the last few chapters is very Tolkien-esque - it’s the end of an era, both for the characters and the world, and has a gravitas deserving of that. No matter how hopeful the end is, or how good an ending characters get, it’s still sad. I appreciate that Eddings allows it to be, too, when other fantasies I’ve read since I first found these like to tie everything up neatly.
A lot of this book is dedicated to siege tactics and fiddling with numbers during an election - which is very entertaining if you like that sort of thing, and I do, but it’s a very sudden departure from the ‘roving band of adventurers on a quest’ narrative of the previous books. It gets back to that, but if you go into this expecting an ‘us against the world’ tone you will be disappointed.
It’s still the best book of the series, without a doubt. Eddings finally gives up shoving the world building down our throats and constantly iterating racial traits. The characters are allowed to steal the show and actual event become the main focus rather than the setting.
I’d forgotten how sad an end this is, too. The tone of the last few chapters is very Tolkien-esque - it’s the end of an era, both for the characters and the world, and has a gravitas deserving of that. No matter how hopeful the end is, or how good an ending characters get, it’s still sad. I appreciate that Eddings allows it to be, too, when other fantasies I’ve read since I first found these like to tie everything up neatly.