The Elder Gods [Hardcover]

In the island fantasyland of Dhrall, eight gods operate in two shifts of four: 25,000 years on, 25,000 years of peaceful sleep. The fly in the ointment is an insectile Dark Lord called the Vlagh, who lurks in the central wasteland and has bred a horde of hybrid nasties with lethal fangs and stingers. These will strike during the confusion of changeover, with the new rota of gods not yet fully awake and restored to power. The human race, generally favoured by the gods, will be wiped out to make room for hive-mind swarms...

But one God has a cunning plan. The four sleepers are wakened early, manifesting as the Dreamers: terminally cute children without knowledge of their real selves and names. Visions of the dark future haunt their dreams, which are also able to reshape the present. In their innocence these children can do the one thing forbidden to the Gods. They can kill.

Despite spies, attempted betrayals, and old rivalries between the gold-crazed mercenaries, preparations for the first defence of a God's domain go very smoothly. There's much feel-good camaraderie and enjoyable invention of warlike arts such as 3-D mapmaking and the mass manufacture of bronze arrowheads. Meanwhile, benevolent forces greater than the gods are on their side and ready to do favours for them and the Dreamers: Mother Sea, Father Earth, even the Moon. What could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately, although the Vlagh's minions are individually rather stupid, their mass hive-mind is infinitely more cunning than anyone had suspected. There are nasty shocks in store and the initial too-cosy atmosphere of The Elder Gods begins to dwindle, with real darkness and danger looming as later volumes chronicle the three further assaults predicted against the remaining three domains of Dhrall. David and Leigh Eddings are experts in giving their fans what they want. --David Langford

Praise for David Edings:

'My ideal summer read… Having enjoyed the entire ten-book serial, I was delighted to be able to read this latest addition as it not only provides fantastic escapism in itself, but, being a prequel, will make my re-reading of the other books all the more fascinating.' The Irish Times

'All the verve and pace we've come to expect.'
The Dark Side

'Offers an absorbing storyline and some memorable characters as, once again, the author touches all the right fantasy bases, with warring gods, political intrigues, supernatural creatures and appealingly human magicians involved in a titanic war over the course of seven millennia. Eddings fans will no doubt snatch this novel off the shelves while readers new to the authors' world won't find a more appropriate place to begin exploring it.' Publishers Weekly

'There's no denying Eddings' offerings do entertain. This novel is for fantasy fans fed up with more fusty fare, or for anyone who likes mischief and merriment.' West Australian

New series, new world, and a glorious story destined to reach the biggest audience yet.

The Dreamers teeter on the brink of divinity. They have the power to change the world with their dreams. They look like children. They are, in fact, sleeping gods.

The Dreamers are an apparition designed to fool the Lord of the Wasteland who plans to use the moment of the divinities' waking to destroy them. At that moment, he can do it, but no other. If he gets it right, the Lord of the Wasteland can destroy both the sleepers and the other divinities that are already awake. Then the Lord of the Wasteland will be acknowledged as the god he knows himself to be.

There are eight divinities altogether, and four of them are awake while the other four sleep for alternating periods of 25,000 years. The time for a switchover is approaching fast.

There will be battle. There will be trickery and deception. Tribes of humans, creatures of the deep, the sea itself and the earth, the weather and the mood of the divinities, all will play their part in the epic struggle against the hive mentality of the Lord of the Wasteland.

But the world is out of kilter, it is being dreamed, and the awakening of gods is no simple transition.

They are called the Dreamers. They look like sleeping children. They are, in fact, Gods.

There are eight elder Gods, four awake, four asleep, by turns. When they sleep, they sleep for eons. The only time the Gods are vulnerable is when the sleepers awake.

Knowing this, the Ruler of the Wasteland, ambitious to become a God by destroying Gods, watches and waits, marshalling troops for war. So it is that the coming of the Dreamers passes unnoticed in the Wasteland. But the world is soon out of kilter, it is being dreamed, and the awakening of Gods is no simple transition.

The sleeping Gods are stirring. When they wake the battle will begin.

There will be trickery and deception. Tribes of humans, creatures of the deep, the sea itself and the earth, the weather and the divinities, all will play their part in the epic struggle against the Ruler of the Wasteland.

David Eddings was born in Washington State in 1931 and grew up near Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington and went on to serve in the US Army. Subsequently he worked as a buyer for the Boeing company and taught college-level English. His first novel was a contemporary adventure, but he soon began a spectacular career as a fantasy writer with his bestselling series The Belgariad.