En het verhaal dendert lekker door. Eddings heeft een vrij constante kwaliteit in deze serie. ( )

This will be the same review for all the books in ‘The Belgariad’ and ‘The Mallorean’.

These books changed me.
I started reading them as an 11 year old who was kind of floating around in this thing called life. I had friends at school, but no meaningful connections. This I didn’t understand until I was older. By reading these books I was drawn into an incredible world filled with characters that I knew and loved, and in some cases wanted to be (come on people, I can’t be the only kid that put a streak of white paint in their hair). The story is Garion’s ‘hero’s journey’ but I felt that the adventure belonged to me too. It was my ‘Neverending story’ if you will and it gave me the confidence to be more present in my own life. I own all the copies of both series set in this marvellous world and most of the extras too. They are a pretty tired looking collection of books because I bought them as a university student from second book shops all over Christchurch and Auckland. I love that they have been released again relatively recently with a fresh new look so that they can appeal to the younger generation. I thoroughly recommend these books for lovers of high fantasy, action, and relatable characters. It is the quintessential hero’s journey. ( )

Many people think David Eddings is overly formulaic which he is a bit but since I enjoy the tale he tells I do not mind reading it over again. His characters always have great humor at their core and you cannot beat a good epic tale for entertainment value. This particular book is one of my favorites by him.
( )

The Malloreon books are, let's be honest, not incredibly well written. All the main characters have started to sound the same, they all use the same idioms and expressions, and things got far too well for them. It's like a band of Pollyannas.

Having said that, it's not war and peace, but I still love this book. ( )

You can kind of feel the Eddingses get tired of writing these characters, you know? Not the settings or questing, but a great many of these characters disappear until their beats are needed except for Silk, Beldin, Zakath (well, he disappears literally for a while, but you can tell they like him) and the wolf/Poledra. Even Garion is mostly there to be the POV. And you can tell that's even wearing, given the switches to "other places in the world" places, including some Zakath bits and the Vella & Porenn bits along with bringing Barak and co back to the 'verse.

It still works, but you can almost feel the dream of "The Adventures of Prince Kheldar, King of Mercantilism and Spying" fade up and down in the narrative. ( )