This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Sapphire Rose
Series: The Elenium #3
Author: David Eddings
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 479
Words: 181.5K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia & Me

Sparhawk now has possession of the Bhelliom, so he returns to Cimmura and uses it to cure Queen Ehlana. Unfortunately, when returning the symbolic ring of the monarchy to her, she, perhaps deliberately, mistakes his action for a marriage proposal. The engagement has been publicly announced before he has had time to clarify this – although it seems unlikely that Ehlana would have been willing to break the engagement anyway. After curing the Queen of her illness, the knights ride for Chyrellos to prevent the Primate of Cimmura from ascending the throne of Archprelate. An enormous army lays siege to the Holy City.

Meanwhile, the evil God Azash and his servant, Otha, have been massing their forces along the eastern border of Eosia in preparation for an invasion of the west. Sparhawk decides, after consultation with his superiors in the Church, to take Bhelliom and travel to Zemoch with several others, with the intention of destroying Azash.

They reach the city of Zemoch, and find the temple which contains the mud idol to which Azash is confined. By a slightly odd mixture of subtlety and brute force, they gain access to the inner room – but not without the loss of Kurik, Sparhawk’s squire and friend. Sparhawk duels with Martel, another of Azash’s accomplices, and kills him; he then goes on to destroy Azash himself, who takes Otha and Annias with him.

The end of the series comes to a close with the birth of Sparhawk’s daughter Danae, who reveals herself to be Aphrael. Aphrael reveals that Sparhawk is the Man without a Fate and helps him lose Bhelliom so it won’t fall into the wrong hands.

My Thoughts:

This was a good ending to the trilogy. I had forgotten that so much happens. It was like Eddings realized he had dragged things out too long in the previous books and so had to cram everything in here. This was also quite a bit longer in terms of pages too.

In the previous book it felt like Eddings did everything he could to slow down our protagonists whereas in this book it was full steam ahead, damn the torpedoes and the jolly roger on the high seas. Sparhawk heals Ehlana, marries her, races across a continent to face down a god, defeats him, deliberately loses Bhelliom, has a kid who is actually a goddess and then helps heal the world. It was just a bit much.

Oh, the biggest reason for keeping it below a 4star was that Ehlana wasn’t supposed to be able to get pregnant after being poisoned and it’s a whole plot point between Danae/Aphrael and Sparhawk. The thing is, Bhelliom healed Ehlana from the poison, so why didn’t it heal her from that particular side affect? It just made no sense.

Overall, I was happy to re-read this trilogy but I think this is it. Eddings has a big place in my history of reading but not a future.

• All My “Elenium” Reviews

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Ruby Knight
Series: The Elenium #2
Author: David Eddings
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 338
Words: 122K

Synopsis:

From Fandom.com

Sir Sparhawk and his companions seek the Bhelliom, a powerful magical artifact in the form of a sapphire carved in the shape of a rose, the only object with enough power to cure the rare poison administered to Queen Ehlana. The Bhelliom was last known to have been mounted on the Crown of the Thalasian King Sarak.The characters travel to the house of Count Ghasek whose sister is ill, as her soul was stolen by Azash, an Elder God of Styricum, whose spirit was confined in a clay idol.

Sephrenia and the others manage to cure Lady Belina, though she has been rendered hopelessly mad by destroying the idol which was controlling her power. The Count then tells them about the giant’s mound where King Sarak was buried.After finding King Sarak’s grave they learn that the crown had not been buried with him. They encounter a serf who tells them about the great battle which killed the King and how the Earl of Heid retrieved the fallen King’s crown and cast it into the dark murky waters of Lake Randera.

The search for Bhelliom suffers a set back when Ghwerig, the deformed dwarf troll who originally carved the gem into the shape of a rose, retrieves the Bhelliom first after his own centuries-long search to reclaim his beloved gem.Sparhawk and his companions follow Ghwerig to his secret cave hidden in the mountains of Thalasia. The book ends with Sparhawk and his squire Kurik killing Ghwerig by throwing him into a bottomless chasm, Bhelliom still clutched in his hand. The girl Flute dives into the chasm only to rise out again with the Bhelliom and depositing it into Sparhawk’s hands, thereby revealing her true identity as Aphrael, Child-Goddess of Styricum.

My Thoughts:

Man, I had forgotten that this was a Quest story and so Eddings throws everything but the kitchen sink at the characters to slow the story down. In the first book the cure for the Queen isn’t discovered until the end of the book and here it isn’t actually recovered until the end. Makes me wonder if actually saving the queen is going to happen at the end of book 3? /snark I could really feels Sparhawk’s frustration as one situation after another came up to delay or sidetrack the group.

Unfortunately, Eddings two biggest weaknesses were on full display here. His shallow one line banter between characters and his lazy use of “religion” as a plot crutch. The Elenium religion has as much impact on the lives of the knights as a caffeine free diet cola does on me. It is used so loosely that I can almost feel Eddings skidding around plot corners with it “just because”. The banter is still fun but they’re not genuinely clever like how I remembered.

As much as I seem to be bashing this trilogy, I still enjoyed my time. However, I don’t think I’d be having the same reaction if this was my first time reading this. Teen memories and nostalgia are definitely playing a part in my enjoyment on this read through.

I probably wouldn’t recommend this to 9/10th’s of you, but if you happen to know a teen boy who you’re trying to get into reading, this just might be the hook that catches him.

• The Diamond Throne (Book 1)
• The Ruby Knight (2002 Review)