Welcome to my second installment of In the Spotlight. Tonight I'm featuring the newest series from one of my all-time favorite authors: David Eddings. With three books already released in this series, it is definitely worth picking up to read. Want to hear a little bit more? Excellent!

This all begins with the book titled The Elder Gods, and it did not take me long to get hooked. Perhaps the pink dolphins had something to do with that, but regardless of the reason why I was motivated to continue onward. There are ten divinities total: Mother Sea and Father Earth, along with two cycles of four Gods. The first of them are known as the Elder Gods, and it is coming upon the time where the Elder Gods take up their long sleep while the younger Gods wake up to moniter the planet. In the midst of this all is a creature known as the Vlagh, who has existed for millions of years. She's basically an insect queen of sorts, and wants to overrun the world so her "hatchlings" can have endless food and land for reproduction. The Vlagh chooses the time right before the transition of the Gods to attack, when the Elder Gods are getting "sleepy" and are capable of mistakes.

In comes the fabled "Dreamers", four children who are capable of not only seeing into the future to know the locations of the next invasions, but can also "force" Mother Sea and Father Earth to do things with their dreams, such as have a dormant volcano spew lava for months on end. I know, this isn't that great of a story, but it works.

The thing I love most about this series isn't the story. The characters are fantastic. Longbow, the tribal archer who never misses. Sorgan Hook-Beak, Narissan, Rabbit, Keselo, Red-Beard, Eleria...the cast of characters is large. This brushes the surface. What is even better is that each book is divided into "sections" of sorts. Each section is written from the perspective of a different character. A few repeat toward the end, but in all this book will have you get in the minds of everyone involved who plays a major role.

While this is sometimes tedious, to the point every so often that three or four chapters rehash what has already happened event-wise, just from a new perspective, the change in POV is refreshing. If you've read Eddings before, you know that his characters are usually the best part of his books. This series is no exception. Pick them all up today, enjoy a good lesson in character creation, and walk away a better writer because of it. ^^;;

The Elder Gods, The Treasured One, Crystal Gorge



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