This is actually a compilation CD of lots of David's best stuff. If you plan to get all his stuff anyway, it's best to skip this one, since it'll become obsolete when you have all his other CDs.

That said, it's a still a very GOOD compilation, and you could always give it away later once you have all of its songs on other CDs.

This isn't just music for music's sake. It has a theme and a message, even without lyrics, if you'll really listen. You're free to create your own theme and message. Just listen and go with it. If you're a fan of video game music, particularly in Japanese RPGs like the Final Fantasy series, David's stuff is MUST-HAVE. Heck, it's must-have anyway! :-) If I could give it 6 stars, I would. If you have an open mind and like pretty, instumental music, you'll love this guy. Honestly.

I took a chance on this having never heard anything by Arkenstone, and now I want more. I'm not the standard listener to New Age, though I was collecting Berber folk music albums and 'Tibetan Bells' back in the LP days. Still, I've always enjoyed instrumental soundtrack music for background when I write fiction, and these fill the bill without attaching any images except the ones in my head. Some cuts like "Explorers" are very symphonic, some like "From the Forge to the Field" or "The Palace" are distinctly jazzy. Take a chance on this: it's good stuff.

I first discovered David Arkenstone by getting one of his albums from the library: Citizen of the World. I enjoyed it so well that I bought it, and at the same time Eternal Champion - on a hunch that I would like it too. It immediately became my favorite: and even though I have quite a few of Arkenstone's albums now, I still play Eternal Champion more than any other. I think the selections for this CD collection actually place the music in a better setting than the original albums from which they are taken.

This is the only c.d. I have of David Arkenstone, buying it only because one day a jazz station (believe it or not) played the tune "Firestix". It is a great tune, but is one of only two songs I like off this c.d., the other being the tune just before it, "Under the Canopy". Although I have listened to the rest of the tracks (or atleast parts of them) several times to see if I can get into them, I just can't. They sound too cinematic, a bit commercial, and contrived, as if he is trying too hard to capture a mystical and dramatic mood. In the end, the c.d. has an overall "heroic", "we have defeated the enemy" sound. If this is a true cross section of Arkenstone's music that gives him justice, I have no desire to purchase anything else from him. The two tunes I do like off this c.d. seem uncharacteristic of the rest of the tracks, having a more sophistocated sound with some purpose.