The Ruby Knight (The Elenium #2) ★★★✬☆

~ Bookstooge

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Title: The Ruby Knight
Series: The Elenium #2
Author: David Eddings
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 338
Words: 122K



Synopsis:

From Fandom.com

Sir Sparhawk and his companions seek the Bhelliom, a powerful magical artifact in the form of a sapphire carved in the shape of a rose, the only object with enough power to cure the rare poison administered to Queen Ehlana. The Bhelliom was last known to have been mounted on the Crown of the Thalasian King Sarak.The characters travel to the house of Count Ghasek whose sister is ill, as her soul was stolen by Azash, an Elder God of Styricum, whose spirit was confined in a clay idol.

Sephrenia and the others manage to cure Lady Belina, though she has been rendered hopelessly mad by destroying the idol which was controlling her power. The Count then tells them about the giant’s mound where King Sarak was buried.After finding King Sarak’s grave they learn that the crown had not been buried with him. They encounter a serf who tells them about the great battle which killed the King and how the Earl of Heid retrieved the fallen King’s crown and cast it into the dark murky waters of Lake Randera.

The search for Bhelliom suffers a set back when Ghwerig, the deformed dwarf troll who originally carved the gem into the shape of a rose, retrieves the Bhelliom first after his own centuries-long search to reclaim his beloved gem.Sparhawk and his companions follow Ghwerig to his secret cave hidden in the mountains of Thalasia. The book ends with Sparhawk and his squire Kurik killing Ghwerig by throwing him into a bottomless chasm, Bhelliom still clutched in his hand. The girl Flute dives into the chasm only to rise out again with the Bhelliom and depositing it into Sparhawk’s hands, thereby revealing her true identity as Aphrael, Child-Goddess of Styricum.

My Thoughts:

Man, I had forgotten that this was a Quest story and so Eddings throws everything but the kitchen sink at the characters to slow the story down. In the first book the cure for the Queen isn’t discovered until the end of the book and here it isn’t actually recovered until the end. Makes me wonder if actually saving the queen is going to happen at the end of book 3? /snark I could really feels Sparhawk’s frustration as one situation after another came up to delay or sidetrack the group.

Unfortunately, Eddings two biggest weaknesses were on full display here. His shallow one line banter between characters and his lazy use of “religion” as a plot crutch. The Elenium religion has as much impact on the lives of the knights as a caffeine free diet cola does on me. It is used so loosely that I can almost feel Eddings skidding around plot corners with it “just because”. The banter is still fun but they’re not genuinely clever like how I remembered.

As much as I seem to be bashing this trilogy, I still enjoyed my time. However, I don’t think I’d be having the same reaction if this was my first time reading this. Teen memories and nostalgia are definitely playing a part in my enjoyment on this read through.

I probably wouldn’t recommend this to 9/10th’s of you, but if you happen to know a teen boy who you’re trying to get into reading, this just might be the hook that catches him.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

71 thoughts on “The Ruby Knight (The Elenium #2) ★★★✬☆”

            1. ♪Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold.
              Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old.
              Some like it hot, some like it cold.
              Some like it in the pot – nine days old.♪

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                    6. Don’t need jams or jellies, maybe some hot croissants, a continental breakfast, and a hot buffet of sausages, bacon, haggis and scrambled eggs. Toast as well, some fresh bread, and some orange and grapefruit juice, please.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    9. Hey, stop horning in on MY breakfast duties. You fight the monster, I make the breakfast.

                      Makes me wonder if you’ve got some sort of side deal going on with the monster….

                      Liked by 1 person

                    17. You’re not the boss of me. You’re getting pease porridge, only now it is definitely going to be cold.
                      And I’m not seeing any dead monsters lying around either. That spear is not for show you know….

                      Liked by 1 person

                    19. The only chop-chop I want to see around here is monster chopping.
                      I’ll be in my hammock sipping an energy drink when you finish up this one. There’s plenty more monsters for you to chop-chop after that.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    27. Oh please, who made the pease porridge, with raisins too I might add? Fine, you can fight the next monster on an empty stomach.

                      Man, wear my fingers to the bone and this is the thanks I get…

                      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’ll name a few from the bookshelf I’m looking at right now. In Cold Blood. The Goldfinch. The Secret History (do like a bit of Donna Tartt). American Tabloid. Kidnapped. A Fairwell to Arms. The Martian. Good Omens. Vernon God Little. Saint Death. Do Android Dream Of Electric Sheep? And The Beano Annual 2013. So a mixed bag.

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                    2. It’s cartoons, mainly for kids, Minnie the Minx, Desperate Dan, The Bash Street Kids. Come on, we have to deal with all your US muppetry, you can deal with some proper British children’s entertainment. Beside, I imagine you’re a lot like Plug.

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  3. While I never read Eddings, I’m aware of his works: they were much discussed in the fantasy Usenet group I frequented oh-so-many years ago. From your description, though, it would seem that his narrative style belongs to a… different age, and I wonder if I would enjoy his works in light of my present tastes for the genre…
    Thanks for sharing! 🙂

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    1. Eddings is firmly for the 12-20 year old generation. he would be a great introduction to fantasy, as he has all the tropes, in spades I might add and so a youngling could easily digest what “fantasy” is from his books.

      I am having a very hard time reading these now. If it weren’t for my previous reads and how they affected me, I doubt I’d be rating these so highly.

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    1. I had never thought of them like that, but you know, it really is true. A whole generation from the 80’s and 90’s grew up on Eddings and now a whole generation is growing up on Sanderson.
      For his sake I hope his stuff ages better than Eddings has 😀

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  6. I think you’ve hit on the target audience pretty closely, though I’d say it might extend all the way up to early 30-sometimes. I know nowadays we want our fantasy to be action packed, dark and racy and that’s not Eddings, but there’s still a place for this type of book in fantasy literature.

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    1. I concur on the age part for sure.

      Personally, I’m rejecting more and more of the recent fantasy books/series/authors because of the prevalence of a love of darkness. But my tastes in character and plot are maturing and becoming more demanding, so Eddings can’t fill that spot any more.

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  7. Throwing everything but the kitchen sink to slow a quest down reminds me of the Cycle of Arawn and the subsequent series that follow it. Oddly enough, despite knowing that will happen every time, I keep coming back 🤷‍♂️

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      1. I don’t, no. I binge listened to the audio books before blogging and, when the last couple came out I didn’t review them. Rated them on goodreads, though.

        I enjoy them. Filled with witty banter, decent world creation etc … but very much ‘go to Point B to complete your quest. But when the characters get to point B, they need to do something for someone before they will help them and so on and so forth’

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  9. Pingback: April ’21 Roundup & Ramblings – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

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