From: jhpace1@eos.ncsu.edu (Technoknight)
Subject: NEW Eddings book!!!
Originator: jhpace1@c00498-118rd.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jhpace1@eos.ncsu.edu
Organization: Secret_NCSU_group
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 20:56:48 GMT


David Eddings has a new book out - "The Losers".  It's about the life of
Raphael, an All-American type oy who falls under the influence of Jake Daemon
(something).  Daemon introduces Raphael first to Isabel, a lusty painter, and 
then further tries to mess up Raphael's life.

But Raphael has an accident that severs a leg and castrates him.  He escapes 
Daemon, college, and Isabel to a hospital.  There he finds that due to a rich
uncle he will remain financially independent, but his life is over.  Raphael 
learns that he must trick the social workers to get out of the hospital, and
then he starts observing welfare people in Spoanoke, somewhere in the North-
west.  Raphael gets a simple job to pass the time and meets people.

Daemon is not finished with Raphael, however (Jake sometimes calls Raphael 
"Gabriel" and "Archangel" for some reason).  Finding Raphael cataloging his 
neighbors, Jake first adds data to Raphael's theory on social workers and
people on welfare ( "the Losers" in the world, and their masters), and then
tries to destroy Raphael's new life.  But then Daemon befriends a motorcycle
gang down the road from Raphael's house, becomes their "war chief", and gets in
fights with a rival gang that drives Jake Daemon ______ to murder, killing
himself in the process.  Daemon was trying to ruin Raphael's life permanently
because Rafe was similar to Jake's cousin that had Jake thrown out of his 
family back East.

Having learned how to escape the social workers' traps, Raphael and a handicap-
ped girlfriend (one arm is withered) leave town and their past behind.  In the
process, Raphael has helped a pregnant girl, changed a social worker into a 
woman, and made his girlfriend fall in love with him.  The last pages has
Raphael being a witness in court telling of Daemon's life so that the motorcycle
gang's members will not be institutionalized by the social workers.


This book was nothing of what I thought it would from the cover.  The outside
cover has the face of an Indian with two angels, one in white, the other in
black, fighting in the Indian's black patched eye.  A neighborhood is at the
bottom of the picture.  I was expecting a John Perttei (sp?) type book of a 
struggle between angel-like Raphael and Satan-sent Daemon.  Instead it's about
a boy with everything who has a cripping (and castrating) accident that finds
a little meaning in his life, helping people, but has an enemy from his past
interrupting his projects.  Isabel was interesting, but obviously a snare to 
Raphael, not his killer.  Daemon at times was sometimes portrayed as a man,
sometimes as a demon in human form the way he talked to Raphael.  Raphael him-
self has almost everything taken away from him, and is sometimes scared of 
Jake, sometimes only concerned.  A very puzzling book, a one-timer.

I'd give this book about a 5 on a scale of one-to-ten.  David Eddings usually
writes a 7 or 8, why did he write this book so poorly?  How is it true to real
life?  Where did he get the story from?  Eddings wrote the first three chapters
in his "summary" form, discribing Raphael's life from conception to high school,
then twists the story into Raphael's perspective.  I could tell something was
wrong from the first few chapters of Raphael's life in college - why did a
superb athete go to a non-athetic college, then be so "innocent" to fall to an
older woman's charms?  The story read like a (new) Twilight Zone episode from
there.

Has anybody else read this story yet?  It's not in any of his book lists in the
front covers of his other books.

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Generic disclaimer:  These thoughts and writings are my own unless otherwise
                     noted - although Jerrold my twin may think them too.

Jeremy H. Pace        |  The Vindicator          Eph. 6:12
jhpace1@eos.ncsu.edu  |  Technoknight
NC State, Raleigh     |  Electrical Engineering

"Peace, through superior firepower." -  Minos V motto, ST:TNG "The Arsenal
                                        of Freedom"
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