Books

The Treasured One (The Dreamers, Book 2)

Average customer rating:

Groundhog Day - Absurdity without Humor
Book 2 of the Dreamers is more like Book 1.5
Just not the same...
Nothing New Here
A clear no-no .

The Treasured One (The Dreamers, Book 2)
David Eddings , and Leigh Eddings
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature & Fiction | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Crystal Gorge (The Dreamers, Book 3)
The Elder Gods (The Dreamers, Book 1)
The Younger Gods (The Dreamers, Book 4)
Hidden City (The Tamuli Book, No 3)
Polgara the Sorceress (Malloreon (Paperback Random House))

ASIN: B000FL8966

Book Description

DESCRIPTION: New York Times bestselling authors David and Leigh Eddings continue their nationally bestselling The Dreamers series with this brand new epic fantasy.

The Vlagh has turned its attention from the lands of the goddess Zelana (The Elder Gods) to her brother, Veltan, ruler of the peaceful farming land around the Falls of Vash. These gentle villagers are Vlaghís obstacles as it breeds a hideous army to annihilate the world. Determined to protect his people and his lands, Omago, Veltanís human friend, works with the heroes from Zelanaís domain to raise a defense. But the gods and the humans have overlooked one person: Jalkan, an outlander, who is unleashing soldiers to corral innocent villagers and convert them to his ìreligionî of the Amar--ìthe one true god.î He covets the gold that Zelena and Veltan promised their mercenaries. And what are a few innocent deaths if they result in more gold for Jalkan and the rest of his empire?

Customer Reviews:

Groundhog Day - Absurdity without Humor.......2007-06-08

Book 1 (The Elder Gods) left me with enough interest to read more in the series. That has now been vanquished.

Book Two repeats itself over and over again as the author introduces each new character. Did the editor, publisher, or anyone at Warner Books bother to read the manuscript?

Hundreds of pages go by and the story crawls forward (like a snail, on Valium, traveling through molasses...). I kept reading, hoping against hope, that plot would gain some energy. It didn't.

When the key moment of the listless battle finally arrives, an 'unknown' god intervenes and creates a natural disaster that exterminates all the invading critters sent from Vlagh (along with some greedy church folk). The first book ended the same way. Yawn.

And according to all the experts in the story the Vlagh has now been permanently blocked from ever attacking those two regions again. That leaves the Vlagh with only two options left for expansion, the North and the East -- the domain of the remaining two gods.

What will the family of 4 gods do now?
1) They will keep the mercenary armies together. Please ignore the fact that the Trogs and Maags have a long history of robbing and killing each other. Amazing, all of that history is lost when some gold is waved under their noses.
2) New armies will be added to the mix adding even more paper thin characters to the story.
3) The battle lines will be drawn... the pivotal moment will arrive and I assume... a "natural disaster" will bring the battle to end.

Book 2 of the Dreamers is more like Book 1.5.......2007-04-04

David and Leigh Edding's second book of the Dreamers series, The Treasured One, will be better known as book 1.5 rather than book 2. Easily, two-thirds of the book goes back to the events in book one, The Elder Gods, but through different characters perspectives.

Much like the first book of the series, there is a lot of backtracking to help develop and introduce characters into the story. Normally, this would be perfectly fine. In this book, though, it is not. Readers will probably not want to spend nearly 300 or more pages reading about the previous book in the series. There is simply too much going over the events of the first war that took place in book one. If you are patient and are able to trudge through this boring large segment of the second book, then you will be happy to know that things do pick up and get interesting again.

The last small portion of The Treasured One brings out the second war with man against the man-bugs. Some of the newer creatures which the Vlagh conjures up are particularly interesting, but not completely original--you could think of a few other stories where similar enemies exist. Most readers will want more detailed action sequences of the war as the battle scenes are cut rather short and things seems to end the exact way as the war did in the first book.

Unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good in this second book of the Dreamers series. It's still an interesting story, but it looks like with a little editing, this four book series could be cut down to three, if not two, books. Hopefully, the rest of the series (two more books) will pick up and get better.

Just not the same..........2007-02-03

Like many of those providing comments, I have been a follower of the Eddings books from the start. The Belgariad and Malloreon series were books that were hard to put down, even reading them for a second time.

All of the "cute" banter between characters that used to be amusing is now just irritating. And the multiple viewpoints from different characters allow the plot to progress extremely slowly.

This series continues to be disappointing, which seemed to start with the Redemption of Althalus. What I have noticed is that there just doesn't seem to be any sense of danger in these books... Something that makes you keep reading to find out how the "good guys" will get out of an impossible situation. Good always seems to have the upper hand and there's never any doubt that they'll come out ahead. If even the slightest advantage seems to come to the other side, "something" will happen to completely erase that within a few pages. None of the main characters get into any kind of trouble, the battles seem to be mentioned as an afterthought... Just hearing "This war might end up being easier than we thought" for the tenth time doesn't provide any kind of concern about the outcome. Any time a new enemy appears, someone will instantly discover a brilliant way to keep them away and they'll be a non-factor for the rest of the book.

It is still an okay story, but just doesn't compare to the previous books and gets drawn out much further than it needs to be. I may read the rest of the series, probably just because I've gotten this far already. I'd suggest waiting until they hit the bargain bin, where I coincidentally found the first two books. Hard to say, but maybe the authors are just getting too old to put an exciting story together...

Nothing New Here.......2007-01-04

This book continues another Eddings series that is eerily like all his others. You have to wonder if Eddings has had an original idea for characters and storyline since The Belgariad. How many times do we have to have the same bantering dialogue with the same or similar characters? How many times do we have to have cute child god/goddesses who want to be hugged and kissed? How many times do we have to methodically plod from country to country on a mythical continent with the same group of characters spouting the same old tired dialogues?
I have read every Eddings series (Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium, and Tamuli) and this one is pretty much the same. In fact, it is not even as good as those. I could barely make it through this book and I would not recommend it or this series to anyone who hasn't read those other superior series I mentioned above and is just starving for more of the same.

A clear no-no ........2006-08-07

Eddings was readable a very long time ago when there was precious little to be read in the fantasy genre.
I don't say good but readable.
Already the very first "Pawn of the prophecy" in the Belgariad was shallow and suffered from an exceptionnaly poor characterisation.

Well, in the meantime the Donaldsons , G.R.R Martins , Eriksons , Williams and Bakkers came and showed how an original and complex fantasy with believable characters could be written.
All the while Eddings kept pouring out his stereotypical books copying more or less what he did centuries ago.

Nobody should waste time on Eddings in general and this ... book (?) in particular now when there is much, much better in the market.

Books:

Books