I read a ton of fantasy as a kid, and David Eddings was probably my absolute favorite author at the time. So like a lot of you, I dove back into this one out of nostalgia. 
 Now, I was aware back then that that some of my friends treated Eddings with a bit of derision, even compared to other authors like Terry Goodkind or Terry Brooks, whose works also haven't aged well. But then, his characters and story struck such a chord with me that I could overlook any flaws. 
 The bad news to present-day me is that the flaws are nearly overwhelming. While I still enjoy a lot of Eddings' characters, the story itself, at least in this first book, is incredibly tiresome. The band of adventurers basically ping-pongs between cities in the country, accomplishing nothing and explaining little. Only in the book's final act does the action heat up a little, but it still didn't manage to scratch my epic-fantasy itch. 
 The other major problem is Eddings' writing itself. I have never seen so many adverbs per sentence or such mechanical sentence structure! Nearly every line of dialogue ends with: [character's name] said [adverb]. Which might be forgivable if the reader weren't saddled with so many clumsy or vague words like guiltily, moodily, sulkily, acidly, or blandly. The tone and vocabulary comes across as amateurish, even for a fantasy author. 
 So, I kind of regret revisiting this one. Not only because the prose didn't hold up to my adult sensibilities, but also because this thin slice of the five-book arc didn't contain enough of the world or characters. Few villains make their appearance, major protagonists (like Ce'Nedra) aren't even introduced yet, and the overall epic conflict to come is only hinted at. If the prose weren't such a slog, I wouldn't mind digging up the other four books to get the rest of this, but I don't think I can manage it.