The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings is a standalone high fantasy novel that is heavy in dialogue and one that is a lot longer in length than it should be. I was hunting for a fantasy novel that specifically had a lot of witty chatting and banter between the characters. The Redemption of Althalus looked interesting enough and the premise o the story also got my attention. However, the book tired me out even before the halfway mark. There were some highlights but it got highly repetitive and the lack of a villain point of view made a lot of what the protagonists accomplished seem very hollow and unfulfilling.

I don’t believe I’ve ever read a novel where the band of protagonists was as overpowered as in this novel. With the help of a goddess on their side along with each character possessing specific traits and powers, I sometimes wonder why they go through what they did to drag things on forever and ever. It was ridiculous at times because the antagonists on the other end of the spectrum also had the help of a god as well as underlings with similar powers as our heroes yet they were trumped almost every single time. Here is where I thought that the authors could have added the POV of other characters to make things more interesting instead of spending the entire 900+ pages on the same group. While the banter between the characters was fun at first, it quickly grew repetitive and extremely childish as the novel went on.

Not all is bad though. I did enjoy reading the specific strategies that the characters hatched to thwart their enemies at every turn. With their combined abilities, it was fun to see how they would counter the opposing group that also had similar attributes but I think much more could have been done. The lore of the gods and world-building in general also seemed shallow for a book of this size. If this would have been improved, I think I wouldn’t have minded the novel’s length. As it is, the novel could have been trimmed to 300 to even 400 pages or less. As it stands, it would be very hard for me to recommend this novel. At this length, I could probably think of entire trilogy series that would be a better read. If for whatever reason you’re looking for protagonists in a story that are extremely overpowered and can’t possibly lose in a battle, this might make your list.