Ah, yes, an Eddings book. Nice. The Eddings, best known for the most interminable fantasy series this side of The Wheel of Time, the famed Belgariad and its hangers-on, also produced this whole different world. The world of a different unlikely hero, his assorted band of merry world-savers, and a few, seemingly obligatory, deity types. There are also prophecies, of course. The Eddings’ are good at prophecies. They're all "And it came to pass," and "Yea, so it shall be"... and, actually, they really make it work for them.

In this particular set of prognostications, there is a guy, named Althalus, who needs redeeming. He's a thief, you see, and a particularly clever one, and his fame has made him cocky. He feels he can't lose, so he heads into the Big Smoke to try his hand at getting rich quick off the fat merchants and princelings that dwell there. Little does Althalus know that his luck is conspiring against him and when, a year later, he finds himself back where he started in his mountain home, things begin to take a disturbingly, yet familiarly, prophesied turn.

He is approached by one Master Ghend, who you pretty much have to finger for the bad guy right off, with a commission to steal a book. Not just any book, but a book that contains all the knowledge of the great god Deiwos. Y'know, God. Althalus, who believes in nothing so much as the gold he is being offered, takes the job, and thus begin his travels to the House at the End of the World.

And he stays there for a couple thousand years.

For company he has only a cat, the book -- which he learns to read -- and his own thoughts. When he emerges from the house it is because he knows what he has to do... he has to save reality. Of course.

But first, as we all know, he must go about recruiting his ill-assorted sidekicks. For what is a fantasy hero without a few poor, be-destinied souls to help him along the way? So he finds Eliar, a young warrior, then Bheid, a young priest. Andine, a queen, and Gher, a precocious child, follow. Leitha, the essential psychic, rounds out the sextet -- uh, seven-tet, including the cat -- and suddenly they're all ready to shame the devil Daeva and kick him the hell out of Dodge.

But to begin with they must needs be acquainted with their enemy. For just as Ghend is the baddie that Althalus shall be redeemed by defeating, each of the other happy few have a Bizarro World version of themselves whose asses they must kick on their own. And so the battles commence...

Of course, VampAndine is defeated, as is AlternaBheid, Eliarus, Mirror Universe Gher, and LeithaRat. Mighty, pre-industrial armies clash, people die and others are avenged, and there is blood and triumph, delight and suffering, and all other kinds of fantastical goings on. Battle, retreat, battle, retreat, a little group-bonding, a little flirting, a little sex, drugs and rock and roll -- well, there are rocks at any rate -- and, at last, there comes the conclusion you pretty much had to be expecting by now.

I could tell you what that is of course, but I really don't think that's necessary, do you? I mean, you already know it, right? But, that's okay. I, too, knew what the conclusion would be, even when I picked up the book, yet I saw it through almost seven hundred pages just for the satisfaction of another fantasy tale well told.

And well-told it is. Sure, it lingers at times, founders occasionally, and is certainly and without question an Eddings book, with all the attendant teeth-grating, hard-to-put-your-finger-on Eddings sexism that implies, but it's still an enjoyable, even irresistible, read, and a harmless, mindless way to experience stuff that is virtually unexperiencable in this mundane, mage-less world.

But the tale is done now, and I can only hope that the Eddings will continue to hold to the promise in the front cover: "A Single Volume Epic.” This book was already big enough to be an entire trilogy just on its own, and we really don't need any companion novels or further exploits to contradict this claim. Having read all thirteen books associated with their Belgariad, I was skeptical, I confess, but ten years on, there is no sign of an Althalus sequel, or even an Althalus companion, despite the fact that it was a worldwide best-seller.

Well, those Eddings do have a gift for prophecy, after all. Looks like one finally came true.

  -- Rachel Hyland

Portions of this review first appeared in The 11th Hour Web Magazine.