hotsake's review
3.0
3.25/5
This book seems to get a lot of hate and I'm not sure why. This might be my lowest rated of his books but it was by no means a bad book. Is this book like Eddings' two Fantasy series? No, but it is quite similar to his novels High Hunt and The Losers. This was a slice-of-life, coming-of-age, suspense novel closer in style to Dean Koontz than to Stephen King but with the kind of blunt blandness of James Patterson. The book has four distinct parts to it and there are things to enjoy about each of them. The first part is the story background giving us a summary detail of the three main players of the story, this was my favorite part. 4/5. The second part was the present-day introduction of the rest of the cast and that was decent as well. 3/5. The third part was maybe the most disappointing just because I thought that the potential was wasted. 2.75/5. The final part was quite interesting, I just wish they would've had a better payoff to the twist of the story but oh well. 3.5/5.
David Eddings is still one of my favorite authors and I only need to read The Dreamers series and his standalone The Redemption of Althalus to finish his published bibliography.
The Losers is my favorite single book and two trilogies in the Sparhawk series are tied for my favorite of his Fantasy stories.
This book seems to get a lot of hate and I'm not sure why. This might be my lowest rated of his books but it was by no means a bad book. Is this book like Eddings' two Fantasy series? No, but it is quite similar to his novels High Hunt and The Losers. This was a slice-of-life, coming-of-age, suspense novel closer in style to Dean Koontz than to Stephen King but with the kind of blunt blandness of James Patterson. The book has four distinct parts to it and there are things to enjoy about each of them. The first part is the story background giving us a summary detail of the three main players of the story, this was my favorite part. 4/5. The second part was the present-day introduction of the rest of the cast and that was decent as well. 3/5. The third part was maybe the most disappointing just because I thought that the potential was wasted. 2.75/5. The final part was quite interesting, I just wish they would've had a better payoff to the twist of the story but oh well. 3.5/5.
David Eddings is still one of my favorite authors and I only need to read The Dreamers series and his standalone The Redemption of Althalus to finish his published bibliography.
The Losers is my favorite single book and two trilogies in the Sparhawk series are tied for my favorite of his Fantasy stories.
bowienerd_82's review against another edition
2.0
Definitely not Eddings usual fare. Dark and disturbing, and I promise you this- reading this book alone at night on the Underground.
This is much more straightforward reality for Eddings, with only a hit of the supernatural, and it is also lacking in the humor that so defines most of his books.
This is much more straightforward reality for Eddings, with only a hit of the supernatural, and it is also lacking in the humor that so defines most of his books.
mischa3's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
jeniboo2's review
1.0
Do not waste your time. This is a terrible book. I found it at my local library for $1.00 and I feel I overpaid. The authors drag out the building of a bookcase for 80+ pages. It's the same few bits of information over and over with slightly different delivery methods. The use of "baby talk" is also just TOO much. "Markie-poo, dockie-poo, I'm a big girl now", etc...
This is all saddening because the inner jacket blurb made me think this was a great thriller/mystery story. No....it's not. I put the book down before completely finishing it and it's the best thing I could have done. I googled the ending, which proved to be exactly what I thought would happen. Very predictable.
Reading a phone book would be more interesting.....do they even still print phone books???
This is all saddening because the inner jacket blurb made me think this was a great thriller/mystery story. No....it's not. I put the book down before completely finishing it and it's the best thing I could have done. I googled the ending, which proved to be exactly what I thought would happen. Very predictable.
Reading a phone book would be more interesting.....do they even still print phone books???
smcleish's review
3.0
Originally published on my blog here in June 2003.
Most people are fascinated by the intimate relationship which exists between identical twins, and this forms the basis of the most recent novel from David and Leigh Eddings, one which edges into the horror genre - a new departure for the pair.
Regina and Renata Greenleaf were identical twins, who continued to use a private language between themselves long after most pairs have given it up - right through high school. (I was surprised not to find any references to this cryptolalia - use of a secret language - online; may be it's not as common a practice as the Eddings imply.) Then, on the point of graduation, their car broke down returning from a party and when one of them went to find a phone, she was attacked, raped and viciously murdered. The surviving twin is so traumatised by this, that she reverts to their secret language, and it is only following six months in an asylum that she recognises anyone or returns to speaking English. Even so, she cannot remember the past, making it impossible to tell even which twin she is (or even to tell her that she had a twin sister).
To the chagrin of her parents, the person she recognises is a family friend, Mark Austin - also the narrator of the novel. His is a graduate student at Washington University (the whole novel, like all of the Eddings' non-fantasy, takes place in Washington State). A major part of the novel is about Mark's attempts to help the surviving twin (now insisting on being known, rather nauseatingly, as Twink) rehabilitate to the real world by auditing some of the courses at the university, including the basic English one he teaches. This means that Twink moves away from her parental home to stay with an aunt, who has a job which means that she is out a large proportion of the time - surely a situation which a psychiatrist would be unhappy about for someone only recently released from a mental ward. And then strange things begin to happen...
The main idea is strong, though it could be the basis of a far more bleak novel offering more insight into how it feels to be a twin and the nature of mental illness. (This could be done most easily by improving the essays that Twink hands in, which Mark somewhat bizarrely thinks are brilliant - they're nothing like that good.) Such a tale would be a radical departure for the Eddings, and the impression I got was that his was something they kept moving towards and then shying away from to produce something more lightweight. (After all, they don't want to alienate all their fans.) This desire makes the second half of the novel poorer than the first, and also means that some of the cute phrases and ideas which fill so much of the Eddings' recent writing appear once more. It may also explain an interesting change of attitude: all of the Eddings' fantasy involves the killing or disabling of a god, but here the role of religion as represented by a Roman Catholic priest is overwhelmingly positive.
Regina's Song contains a crime investigation and a (rather unconvincing) courtroom drama as well as the twin psychology and horror elements, and this is something of a mistake from a structural point of view, as it makes the novel seem somewhat overcrowded with strands from different genres. Nevertheless, Regina's Song is consistently entertaining (if you can ignore the cute turns of phrase) and the use of identical twins at the centre of this kind of story is fascinating.
Most people are fascinated by the intimate relationship which exists between identical twins, and this forms the basis of the most recent novel from David and Leigh Eddings, one which edges into the horror genre - a new departure for the pair.
Regina and Renata Greenleaf were identical twins, who continued to use a private language between themselves long after most pairs have given it up - right through high school. (I was surprised not to find any references to this cryptolalia - use of a secret language - online; may be it's not as common a practice as the Eddings imply.) Then, on the point of graduation, their car broke down returning from a party and when one of them went to find a phone, she was attacked, raped and viciously murdered. The surviving twin is so traumatised by this, that she reverts to their secret language, and it is only following six months in an asylum that she recognises anyone or returns to speaking English. Even so, she cannot remember the past, making it impossible to tell even which twin she is (or even to tell her that she had a twin sister).
To the chagrin of her parents, the person she recognises is a family friend, Mark Austin - also the narrator of the novel. His is a graduate student at Washington University (the whole novel, like all of the Eddings' non-fantasy, takes place in Washington State). A major part of the novel is about Mark's attempts to help the surviving twin (now insisting on being known, rather nauseatingly, as Twink) rehabilitate to the real world by auditing some of the courses at the university, including the basic English one he teaches. This means that Twink moves away from her parental home to stay with an aunt, who has a job which means that she is out a large proportion of the time - surely a situation which a psychiatrist would be unhappy about for someone only recently released from a mental ward. And then strange things begin to happen...
The main idea is strong, though it could be the basis of a far more bleak novel offering more insight into how it feels to be a twin and the nature of mental illness. (This could be done most easily by improving the essays that Twink hands in, which Mark somewhat bizarrely thinks are brilliant - they're nothing like that good.) Such a tale would be a radical departure for the Eddings, and the impression I got was that his was something they kept moving towards and then shying away from to produce something more lightweight. (After all, they don't want to alienate all their fans.) This desire makes the second half of the novel poorer than the first, and also means that some of the cute phrases and ideas which fill so much of the Eddings' recent writing appear once more. It may also explain an interesting change of attitude: all of the Eddings' fantasy involves the killing or disabling of a god, but here the role of religion as represented by a Roman Catholic priest is overwhelmingly positive.
Regina's Song contains a crime investigation and a (rather unconvincing) courtroom drama as well as the twin psychology and horror elements, and this is something of a mistake from a structural point of view, as it makes the novel seem somewhat overcrowded with strands from different genres. Nevertheless, Regina's Song is consistently entertaining (if you can ignore the cute turns of phrase) and the use of identical twins at the centre of this kind of story is fascinating.
jambery's review
1.0
Ugh. This book is, unfortunately, a waste of a really interesting idea for a novel. The heavy handed, smugly superior male privilege exhibited by all the male characters made me want to hurl. The conversations were often stilted, and characters went on pointless rambles filled with information we didn't need. The supernatural elements were too little, too late, and felt out of place with the rest of the novel. Disappointing.
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