The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings
The Sapphire Rose is the final book in the David Eddings fantasy trilogy The Elenium, and overall it provides a satisfactory conclusion. There were even a few twists I wasn’t expecting. Rather than summarize the book and give away some of the events of the earlier two books, I will simply say that The Sapphire Rose continues to tell the story of Sparhawk’s quest to save his queen from death, while at the same time trying to prevent the evil god Azash from getting loose and wreaking havoc on the land. Fans of traditional epic fantasy will likely enjoy this final book, especially if they liked the first two books in the series.
I didn’t like the dark, disturbing scenes in the series, nor did I care for the its treatment of the religion of Elenes. The Elenic religion is a thinly-veiled caricature of Catholicism, and I found it shallow and disingenuous.
Overall, The Elenium is a decent fantasy series, but not one to which I will likely return.
The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings.
First edition New York: Del Rey, 1992
Print length: 512 pages
