David and Leigh Eddings, The Younger Gods (Warner Books, 2006)
The Younger Gods is most definitely the best of the series The Dreamers. This isn't quite vintage Eddings, but it's much better than the first three books, The Elder Gods, The Treasured One and Crystal Gorge.
In The Younger Gods, the action moves to the fourth Domain, where Aracia rules the East. Aracia has always been the wild card among the gods, the one who was never totally on-side with the rest, the one who wasn't sure this war was necessary because it didn't seem to affect her. Soon she will have to choose between what she thinks is best for her and the needs of the rest of the world, and the book centres around her choice and its consequences (with some rip-roaring battle scenes thrown in).
The main characteristic of this series has always been repetition. The same episode is retold from several points of view. Unimportant things have to be explained repeatedly, while the important ones remain obscure. I have held from the beginning that the Eddings should have trimmed the story into at most a two book series instead of four. The four-volume structure makes sense, of course. This is the epic of the Land of Dhrall, ruled by four Elder and four Younger gods, divided into four cardinal Domains, each of which in turn is to be attacked by That-Called-the-Vlagh. The problem is that there isn't enough story for four books.
Now David and Leigh Eddings are no strangers to long series. The Belgariad and The Mallorean are massive five-volume series. On the other hand, there is enough story in them to fill all ten volumes, plus Belgarath the Sorrcerer, Polgara the Sorceress and The Rivan Codex . Not only that, but even at the end of Polgara there are still things you want to know about the main characters. This isn't really true with The Dreamers. Enough of the loose ends are tied up to make a satisfactory ending, and I don't really care what happens to everybody when they go back home. Sure, in a general sort of way I hope they're all happy and all that, but the details? No, thank you, I've had far too many details about them already.
What really bothers me is that these aren't bad books. If almost anyone else had written them I'd be much kinder to them. They just aren't the Eddings' best, and the contrast is pitiful.
And as I said, The Younger Gods is far and away the best of the lot. It moves faster. There is less philosophizing and explaining. Best of all, we get answers. Abruptly, a little over half way through the book, we come to the section "The Dream of Omago" and boy, does everything fall into place. The cosmic mysteries are revealed, and it's all clean-up from there on in.
David and Leigh Eddings have no Web presence of their own. However, there are many Web sites devoted to their work, and The Isle of the Winds is as good a place to start looking as any.
