Fantasy by numbers (Tamuli Series - David Eddings in general)

Member Name: sharpy501

Product:	Tamuli Series - David Eddings in general
Date:	12/02/02 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Accessible, Easy reading, Makes very few demands on the reader

Disadvantages: See above

I greatly enjoyed the Belgariad and the Mallorean was a decent follow-up. The Elenium introduced new characters and a different plot style and was interesting. Enter, stage left, the Tamuli.

Your First Question:- Given that the Mallorean was not dissimilar to its previous series (something that was even turned into a plot element); Is it likely that this could occur again?
Yes

Your Second Question:- Will Sparhawk, Pandion Knight, Queens consort, Man untouched by fate and a generally alround decent bloke (one you'd happily buy a pint) round up the old posse consisting of a variety of different fighting stereotypes (devout but slightly psychotic knight, big less devout and fairly untroubled by morals knight, even bigger ... knight etc.) and women who give the orders go off to gain some item of power and then have a bash at evil?
Yes

Your Third Question:- Will they meet some new friends with marvellous powers which will facilitate plot twists that would otherwise be impossible?
Yes

Your Fourth Question:- Will everything turn out alright in the end?
Yes

Your Fifth Question:- Given all described above will you actually care about whether they manage? please explain your answer.
Yes, because the books are compelling, cleverly written, you get attached to the characters and want to find out how things turn out exactly.

Your Sixth Question:- Is it therefore worth reading?
Yes. It's the least of his four sequences (though still immeasurably better than the appalling Redemption of Althalus) but if you want something to kill time, take on holiday or simply some nice undemanding reading then its well worth a look.

I haven't described the plot because there's not much point, read the previous series the back of the first book and take an educated guess. Also on the whole I object to reviews that tell you the plot in depth but little about what the book is like, this is simply
an opinion about the quality of the series, to inspire (or not) people to look further.

Bonus Question (double points):- Why do all the male characters in relationships (with a very few notable exceptions) in Eddings books seem to be linked to women who are either much younger than them or simply look much younger?
Answers on a postcard; I'm guessing its probably some sort of wish fulfillment.


Addendum: My apologies to those who wished to know more about the books, obviously I cannot describe all four series here (though I may have a bash at the other three in a while) but I will try to set the scene slightly for this series.
The nominal hero of the books is Sparhawk a member of a militant religious order of knights trained in the use of magic. There are four orders of these knights in all and all four have representatives in the stories. Magic cannot be taught under their religion and so it is taught to them by a woman from another race (and religion) to whose Gods magic is acceptable. Roughly speaking the God of the knights is comparable to Christianity and that of the tutor to Hindu (in that it is a pantheonic religion).
In the previous series Sparhawk had to retrieve a jewel of power to rescue the life of his poisoned queen as only it had the power to save her before then going on to stop some political shenanigans around what was effectively the election of the new pope and then kill a fairly unpleasant God. He could do this because he is the only man who is outside of fate and therefore unpredictable. He then hid the jewel again so that it could not trouble the world.
At this point it is also worth noting that the gods of the religion in charge of the magic have a somewhat closer relationship with their worshippers and the one fulfilling his magical needs actually became for a time a member of his party in the form of a young girl.
Stage set- The Tamuli- A messanger from a far off land brings news of terror wa
lking all over the place and creatures of nightmare and history coming to life. As this is occuring in the lands of the first series too they decide to go off and investigate.
They descover the conspiracy is deeper than it appears and decide to get the jewel back. The conspiracy then becomes deeper still and old friends become enemies, dark motives are shown to be at play and eventually it all ends up with another God needing to be killed. With a full supporting cast of Trolls, Dawn Men, bad guys, good guys and glowing people (it does make sense as you read it).
I could go into more depth to explain what's going on but that would require a precis of six books, none of which could be described as small. Effectively consider a world such as Middle Earth, with very dominant religious systems and a more renaissance government structure (monarchy/theocracy). I'm sorry if this still isn't enough information but try reading about some of the preceeding books as there would be little point in reading this trilogy without at least reading the Elenium (as these books require the knowledge of the characters developed in that series). If there isn't anything available I'll try to do something in a while.

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