The Diamond Throne by David Eddings

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Summary A very honest and enjoyable book.

The Elenium consists of six books and The Diamond Throne is the first book in this series. David Eddings is an author who is both loved and criticized in seemingly equal measure but no-one can deny that he writes enjoyable fantasy tales. The Elenium continues in the next volume, The Ruby Knight.

The Pandion Knight Sparhawk embarks on a quest to find a magical jewel than can save his queen, Ehlana. Returning from exile, Sparhawk finds his homeland overrun with evil and intrigue and his Queen fataly ill. The Queen is entombed within a block of crystal and will die unless a cure can be found within a year. Sparhawk, Sephrenia, Flute and further allies seek to save Ehlana and their land.

The Diamond Throne introduces us to Sparhawk, the seminal character of the series. Sparhawk is a gruff, no nonsense knight and is a very loveable character. Once you add Kalten, Sephrenia, Flute and the many other colourful characters into the mix you are left with an excellent core of characters that help to make this a magical read.

I have heard people describe these works as “comfort books” and I think that this is an excellent way on describing them. The narrative is strong and sufficiently detailed to create a realistic world in which the characters can move. A criticism of Eddings’ is that he uses stereotypes on the various races within his books. In my opinion so does Tolkien and Erikson and that this simply is the fantasy genre written through western-eyes. There is humour aplenty within the book and this is all based around a classic good versus evil struggle with the fate of the world at stake.

Eddings is very honest when he states that he follows a formula in his writing. This is not necessarily a bad thing and it does create a very comfortable reading environment. Eddings is not the best fantasy author alive but he is very good at what he does and that is writing appealing and entertaining fantasy books for reader of all ages.