Mar 6, 2025
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Could Sir Sparhawk solve the Kira murders?
Could catch Kira, would survive
Could not catch Kira, would survive
Could catch Kira, would not survive
Could not catch Kira, would not survive
'The Sapphire Rose' --A Review
I have no idea how to feel about this book. For some reason, this book is the only one of the original trilogy that we had when I was growing up, so it's the one I'm the most familiar with, but reading back through it. Wow. Let's just say that we've got some slightly awkward things to discuss.
Picking up where The Ruby Knight left off, Sparhawk, Kurik, and Sephrenia are in Ghwerig's cave and they've got the Bhelliom. Sparhawk uses the two rings-- both his family's ring and the ring of the Elenian Monarchs that he was given by the ghost of King Aldreas at the end of the first book-- to control the Bhelliom and tucks it safely away to make his way back to Cimmura- with Thalesian Thief Stragen along for the ride. Once there, they cure Queen Ehlana and Sparhawk, being a stand-up guy, returns her father's ring to her. She thinks he's proposing marriage and that's where it all gets a bit awkward.
Ehlana is 18. Sparhawk is decidedly not.
To be fair, Sparhawk does his best to dissuade her of this notion. He's way too old, too broken and she deserves a younger guy to keep her happy and keep up with her. Ehlana is having none of that, however, and he spends the first third of the book fighting a valiant rearguard action against her marital intentions. He gets a reprieve by riding with the Church Knights to Chyrellos to prevent Annias from becoming Archprelate. Cluvonus finally dies and after a mourning period, the election begins-- but quickly goes sideways when a huge army shows up to lay siege to the city. A 'Crisis of Faith' is declared for the duration of the crisis and eventually, King Wargun's armies show up to relieve the siege and drive the attacking army away. The Kings of Eosia-- and the Queen, who also shows up much to Sparhawk's displeasure also arrive and an election is held.
Ehlana gives a passionate speech and while not naming any names, generally points the Hierocracy in the direction she would like them to go. (Because heaven forbid they listen to a woman!) She faints at the end of her speech and is carried to safety where it's revealed that she's just fine and the Hierocracy turns around and elects Dolmant Archprelate.
Newly elected, attention then turns to Otha and the mass of Zemochs on their borders. They all agree that a mission to Zemoch to destroy Azash is the best chance at a permanent solution- but Ehlana balks at the thought of Sparhawk potentially being killed and refuses to give up her ring. Dolmant strikes a bargain with her: the ring, in exchange for marriage with Sparhawk.
His fate sealed, Sparhawk marries Ehlana and becomes Prince Sparhawk and then the companions all set out for Zemoch and the final showdown with Azash. They make their way into Zemoch and break into Azash's palace/temple complex and all accounts are settled- but it costs Kurik, Sparhawk's friend and squire, his life. Sparhawk and Martel duel and Sparhawk wins. He destroys Azash himself, who takes Annias and Otha with him.
They make their way home to find Ehlana is with child and they settle into their lives as a family. The world seems a little gloomier, which they put down to theological problems amongst the world's various deities-- after all, a God did die and that made them all a little uncomfortable, but eventually, Sparhawk figures out that his daughter, Danae is none other than Aphrael. She gathers the companions again and breaks the gloom, bringing in spring once more.
Overall: The age gap thing is awkward and maybe even sketchy, but I will give credit to Eddings for at least having Sparhawk acknowledge just how awkward it is. Ehlana is Queen, so it stands to reason that if her childhood was a lonely one where she had to learn how to survive in her father's court- especially after Sparhawk was exiled, I'm okay with making her be more mature than you'd imagine your average 18 year old to be. (Also worth noting that in past history, with lower life expectancies, people got married much younger than that, so it's not... entirely out of the realm of possibilities.) It's just awkward.
I will say this: I have read this book many, many times, but man, when Kurik dies and Talen rushes to his body and says, "My father's dead" oh, that got me right in the feels. Was not expecting that reaction this time out- and I've read this enough to know what was coming.
But other than that, this works. It's Kraft Mac N'Cheese. Comfort food. No overly complicated world-building or mythology, just a very no-muss, no-fuss fantasy trilogy here. There's a problem, they gotta find a thingy-ma bobber to fix the problem. Then they've got to use the thingy-ma bobber to go and solve an even bigger problem. Then they all go home. It's really hard to argue with any of it.
How do I feel about the Eddings of it all? I still don't know. I enjoyed reading these books again. I enjoyed the characters. They're still good, easy reads and there are only three of them, as a posed to the ever-expanding number of works in things like The Cosmere or the fourteen volumes of The Wheel of Time. Part of me thinks, hey, they were found guilty and did the time in jail and then they got on with their lives. Does it seem fair that when they moved on with their lives they did so by becoming best-selling authors and making a boatload of money? Not really. But, life isn't fair. I feel like you can separate art from artist though-- I read these books. Maybe I'll read more of his work and see how I feel about it then. My Grade: *** out of ****
'The Diamond Throne' --A Review
Can you separate the art from the artist? The question is a little heavier picking up these books again because The Belgariad was my childhood. I devoured The Mallorean. I read this trilogy and its follow-up, The Tamuli more times than I could count. (Underrated one-volume work of his/theirs: The Redemption of Althalus.) But then, a few years ago, old reports surfaced: both David and Leigh Eddings adopted two children and then lost custody of both of them and served a year in jail after pleading guilty to 11 counts of physical child abuse.
I'm still not sure how to feel about it. So many of their works deal with family and children and growing up and becoming adults, it's hard to wrap my head around this news. Plus, it happened in 1970, so you know it had to be pretty goddamn bad if they both landed in jail for a year for it. But after that, it seemed like they moved to Denver and started writing and must have drawn some kind of short straw, because despite the fact their jail time was not at all a secret (there was plenty of coverage in South Dakota newspapers at the time), none of this resurfaced until after both of them had died.
I'm still not sure how to feel about it. When the news resurfaced, I had kids. My siblings are adopted and our Eldest Spawn is adopted and I know plenty of people who have been adopted so the fact that these kids were adopted also was an extra twist of the knife. I haven't touched my copy of The Belgariad since. I'm really not sure I'm ready too.
I don't want to say 'Hey, other people have done worse' and have it seem like some kind of an excuse. I don't know the full extent of the abuse-- I haven't dug that deeply into it, but the fact that they were both punished for it helps and it doesn't appear that they got custody of their children back or adopted any more of them. Was justice done? More so than other cases-- like Alice Munro or Marion Zimmer Bradley. Do I think they should have just been able to turn a page and write a whole new chapter which involved them churning out bestsellers and making a ton of money doing it? I genuinely don't know. My childhood would have been very different without these books, I know that much.
So, I'm picking The Elenium up again just to see how I feel about this, and believe me, I'm looking at it with a far more critical eye than I used to.
But all that being said, let's talk about The Diamond Throne:
Sparhawk, a Pandion Knight returns home to the capital city of Elenia, Cimmura after ten years of exile in the desert nation of Rendor. The Queen's Champion, his queen, Ehlana has fallen ill due to poison. She would have died, but twelve Pandion Knights along with their tutor of magic, Sephrenia cast a spell to encase the Queen on a throne of diamond. This buys them time-- a year exactly, to find a cure.
Setting out to find a cure, they head to the holy city Chyrellos, where they meet with the other orders of the Knights of the Church. They send their champions along: Sir Ulath of the Genidians, Sir Tynian of the Alciones, and Sir Bevier of the Cyrinics. Kalten, Sparhawk's childhood friend and fellow Pandion joins them along with Sparhawk's squire Kurik, a young thief they've picked along the way, Talen, and a mysterious little girl, whom they name Flute.
They make their way first to the University of Borrata in the Kingdom of Cammoria but their journey then takes them back to Rendor and there they discover that the only way to cure Queen Ehlana is with magic-- specifically, the mysterious jewel, Bhelliom.
Oh, Eddings... if you've read The Belgariad, parts of the map of Eosia are going to feel very familiar to you. (Pelosia is obviously Algaria, Thalesia is Cherek, etc.) And Eddings does have a particular rhythm to his dialogue that's pretty hard not to recognize if you've read any of his stuff before. All that being said:
I've forgotten how good these books are. Despite the fact that I already know that Eddings is going to do another trilogy where we go to the referenced but unseen continent and find out there's an evil jewel to fight the good jewel, just The Elenium itself feels like a departure from The Belgariad. For one, world-building is a lot better: nations/people aren't built around characteristics like they are in The Belgariad. (Sendarians= Farmers, Arends= stupid, but chivalrous, Tolnedrans= greedy, but love money, etc.) here, everyone's an Elene but there are also Styrics.
Styrics have their own religion and deities and are portrayed as having dark hair and can do the magic. The Elenes have one deity and no magic- though interestingly, the Church Knights get a special dispensation to learn. (Relationships between Styrics and Elenes also have some overtones of how a lot of Jewish communities were treated over the years, with Styrics being subjected to pogroms.) The Church is also interesting: there's a Holy See analog (Chryellos) and a Papacy that people are maneuvering to get once the old guy in place finally dies, which people assume will be soon.
Eventually, the story gets to Rendor, which features the Eshandist movement, which believes that the Church has been taken by heresy and they want to reclaim it. (It's not quite an Islamic analog, but it's a desert culture and has some overtones to it. You could also pick probably any number of gnostic Christian sects that were eventually declared heretical in the early Church and be just as close-- but it's also the first time we see Eddings bring in a culture/nation like this.
It's a little grittier and grimier than The Belgariad in many ways. There are thieves and whores, there are depraved people who sell their souls to evil and diddle children to boot. Sparhawk and his Knights do a lot of killing and they're not particularly shy about doing so if the situation demands it.
Overall: I like that it takes time to get the quest going-- it's not an immediate, "Oh go find the magic MacGuffin." I love the politics, the maneuverings, the threat of invasion-- there's so much to like about this series. It feels different and feels... more mature might not be the right word, it feels like an advance from the world of The Belgariad and The Mallorean. My Grade: *** out of ****
broke: sparhawk asks a lot of questions as a narrative device for eddings to explain stuff. And also he is stupid.
woke: sparhawk asks a lot of questions because he is a curious and intelligent man that likes to know how things work and has realized that letting his subordinates call him stupid and explain stuff to him releases a lot of aggression that might build up otherwise. And also he is stupid.
ok guys I finished the Sapphire Rose I’m about to go crazy
rip sparhawk you would have loved peanut butter
making a list of character traits for sparhawk to help with my writing:
Calls people neighbor a lot
likes to threaten people
Also likes acting, and he’s very good at it! This man is a true theatre kid
more observant than he pretends to be
completely unflappable. When he is surprised, (which almost never happens; he usually just takes things at face value) it usually only lasts one (1) second
total and complete wife guy!!!
also more intelligent than he likes people to think he is
always wears his mail shirt no matter what; even if he’s wearing a disguise
prefers to use magic for nonviolent means: illusions, information gathering, and the like. If he’s trying to hurt someone he’ll just use his sword
Lmk if y’all think of more 👍💯💯