The Treasured One
By David & Leigh Eddings

     Following on from The Elder Gods (also reviewed on this site) this second volume takes up the story of a world where the deities take it in turns to rule. While they are not ruling they dream, and control the world through these special dreams. But all is not well, for the Lord of the Wasteland, a being named That Called The Vlagh is causing chaos and wants the world for himself and his monstrous creatures. The four awake immortals have to destroy the Vlagh, and to do so the Dreamers as well as plenty of humans aid them.

    This is essentially quite a cozy read, with not all that much action, but plenty of banter and good humor. If lots of thrilling battles and excitement are what you look for in a fantasy, then you won't find too much of that here (some of course), but if you are a fan of these authors then you will know what to expect. This is typical David & Leigh Eddings fare, a unique style of fantasy that has proved vastly popular. If you are unfamiliar with their work, then what can you expect? Some rather loveable deities, nasty religious extremists (a topical tone here), pirates, strange beasties and something of a boardroom style of plotting, as the characters spend much time working out their plan of campaign. More time doing this than they actually do fighting the campaign, it is true, but we do get to find out quite a lot about the small cast of characters. This book even tells the story from several different perspectives, which is a novel idea, although it can get a bit repetitive at times. This is probably more a book for the girls than the boys, but still a million seller.