Cheap The Golden Band of Eddris (Book) (Ellen Kindt McKenzie) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Golden Band of Eddris

A disappointing book
I finished this book only because I kept hoping it would get better. The plot was rather muddled, the characters mostly two-dimensional (if that), their motivations a mystery, the plot twist at the end not much of a twist, and the time rather squishy. Months or weeks or mere days may have passed during the action of the book, but I have absolutely no idea how long the action took.

The characters went willy-nilly from place to place, without any apparent rhyme or reason. Once aligned with a higher power, the two main characters (a 14-year-old and an 8-year-old sent off into the world by their mother) still had very little direction to their journeys. The ending was unsatisfying, and I finished the book with a bad taste in my mouth.

As the other reviewer pointed out, the background for this book is intriguing, as is the world in which it is set. Unfortunately, this book read as if it were about 200 pages too short, as if all the character and plot development hadn't been given the attention the world development had. The richness of the setting, which led me to hope for a good read, actually made me feel the disappointment more keenly.

I really don't recommend this book (though the cover art is very nice).

Fairly average juvenile fantasy
The Golden Band of Eddris is by no means a book without merit; it simply fails to stand out from the hundreds of other mediocre books written in the genre. I find that these books have several common faults, not the least of which is that they take themselves far too seriously. The plot in GBoE is unmemorable-- two young children on a quest with many cliches (see Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to Fantasyland, especially sections on Rings, Maps and Mysterious Benefactors), and Keld and Elylden join the numerous other undistinguishable characters of mediocre fantasies. On the up side, there is some very potentially interesting background, particularly concerning Anna, the settings are well done, and the plot moves along. The climax, however, is too ambiguous to have as much impact as it really needs.

If you enjoy this type of YA quest-type fantasy, you might give this one a try. As opposed to the implication of the cover art, the Sword Swinging Hero is not one of the cliches contained herein. For more in a similar vein, you might try Edith Pattou's Hero's Song. Personally, I'm going to go back to Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain.