Saturday 26 January 2002

David Eddings: The Sapphire Rose (1991)

Edition: Grafton, 1992
Review number: 1053

The concluding part of the Elenium trilogy has three stories which are related only by events in the earlier novels and by the protagonists involved. The first is the return to Elenia with the recovered sapphire, Bhelliom, to cure the poisoned queen; the second is the opposition to the attempt of the corrupt Annias to gain the Archprelacy and become the head of the Elene church; and the third is the journey to confront the evil god Azash in his temple. It is in the third that Eddings' debt to The Lord of the Rings is most apparent, and it is the second that is the most interesting. The Sapphire Rose is competent, enjoyable fantasy, and it ties up the loose ends of the trilogy satisfyingly.

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