Althalus was just a thief, and only a good thief by the standards of the backwoods and hick towns where he spent most of his career; a trip to the big cities of the lowlands almost proved disastrous for him, because he could recognise neither real threats nor even more sophisticated forms of wealth. Hired to steal a magic book, he finds himself imprisoned by a talking cat and subjected to the extensive education that will make him leader of humanity's fight back against a death god and his cadre of thugs. Much of what is best in The Redemption of Althalus has to do with the process whereby he recruits his team--a spoiled princess, a witch rescued from the stake, a barbarian warrior and a street urchin with the brain of a great strategist; once the team is in place and their fight back against conquest and sinister magic begins, victory is more or less assured and a matter of watching a thoroughly entertaining process. It is interesting to see Eddings working on a smaller canvas than usual--there is a fundamental niceness to his books that entirely gets its head here, along with an attractive sense of humour.--Roz Kaveney