Belgarath the Sorcerer was my first, and at the time of my writing this, only experience of the writing of the Eddings'.

If you've read my other reviews, you'd know that I am one of those people who hold the writings of Tolkien to be sacrosanct, and any imitation of his work, flattering as it may be, is about as genuine as a Rolex purchased in Central Park.

Eddings is one of those authors I like to refer to as "tolkienoid," a term I believe was coined by Moorcock. Tolkienoid is to Tolkien as humanoid is to human. That is: Similar, though not necessarily exact, to Tolkien.

After reading BtS, I must agree that this is most definitely the case. We have a wise old man, who could clearly fall under the Gandalf category, who helps the armies of man prevent some fallen god, who could represent Sauron, from using a stone of power, which could represent the One Ring, to destroy mankind. Essentially.

If you've read the Belgariad, a sort of diluted simulacrum of the Legendarium, you'll already know the plot of BtS, well, most of it, I'm speculating. It's just a several-thousand year span of time as narrated by the guy who was there to see it.

Sure, it has its interesting parts, but I must say that I am quick to judgment when I read stuff that's too close to Tolkien, and I'm too busy thinking, "is that the best you could do?" instead of enjoying the prose like I would imagine most people would. I guess the appeal is that it's like Tolkien, only easier to read.

You may enjoy this book if you like tolkienoid authors like Brooks, or other fantasy authors that use tried and true fantasy motifs. No guarantees if you like Donaldson. And the warranty on this one is voided if you've even mentioned liking Tolkien. ( )

This entire series is wonderful. One of the earlier "young boy discovers that he's more than he was led to believe" stories. A classic in the fantasy genre that pulls you into a great read. ( )

Well, just about everything that can be said about this book, both positive and negative, has been said here, and I must say said over and over again. I suppose I will join in with my two cents worth. As you can see by the reviews, people either like this work and the series that spawned it, or they are less than thrilled. For the new reader: You must read both The Belgariad, which consists of five books, and The Malloreon, which consists of yet another five books to understand the book that is being reviewed here. All these ten previous books are one continuous story and must be read in order. Now that being said, the rest of the review will be addressed to those that have read the entire series.

Belgarath The Sorcerer is more or less Belgarath’s view and explanation of events which led up to the start of The Belgariad, which began with the book Pawn of Prophecy. The reader will find most of this story quite familiar in that Eddings has rehashed much of the information which was presented in the previously mentioned series. Granted, there are new twists and new detailed information, but the story is the same. Many of the characters in this new book are the very same characters we find with our original reading of the series. Now some have found this to be a bad thing. I personally rather enjoyed it. I make no bones about it, nor to I apologize for being a big fan of Eddings (and as we now know, Leigh Eddings, his wife). As I have mentioned in my previous reviews, these are comfort books for me. I read them for relaxation. The author has even used many of the tired old jokes, which are actually sort of funny, in this work as well as most of the settings and situations we have come to expect.

As mentioned before, with the first ten books I have been able to identify 233 errors the author made. With this work, I am able to add even more errors! While this may seem a bit compulsive/obsessive (which indeed, it probably is, well too bad…I enjoy it and plan to continue the hobby). We are not talking typos, punctuation and such; we are talking major errors in plot and facts. This is a wonderful game and I love it. For me it does not distract from the story one bit, and in fact makes it sort of charming.

This work, like the previous works from which it was taken, moves right along, and while quite predictable, for the most part, is still a very interesting read and great fun to just enjoy. The author can tell a good story and he does hold my interest. Again, this is not for every one. If you did not enjoy the first ten books of the series, then you will probably not enjoy this one. Actually, I cannot for the life of me figure out why someone who hated the previous books, forked out good money for more of the same…go figure.

If you are a fan of Belgarath and crew, then you will quite likely enjoy this read, if you are not……..

Don Blankenship
www.booksforkids-reviews-com/ ( )

This book is a follow on from The Belgariad and The Malloreon written from the perspective of one of the protagonists in those two series -- Belgarath the Sorcerer. This book has quite a different style from the others. It is written in the first person as Belgarath's personal memoir. The book is really long at over 700 pages, and covers a 6,000 year (ish) period. That means that the book tends to skip around and over some things at a very high level. That's probably a good thing, as it stops you from getting bogged down in boring detail you don't care about.

One problem with this book is that to people who have read the previous series, this is all old territory. You totally know what is about to happen, and that makes it a lot less fun to read. I'm also not sure I'm a big fan of the first person style either. However, I did enjoy this book more than some of the others I have read recently, despite it not being Eddings' best work.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/David_Edd... ( )

Simply put, this is the best book David Eddings has ever written (and if the current trend continues the he will ever write). It tells the backstory of Belgarath from child criminal to oldest and most powerful man on the planet. It is better than the original two series and vastly superior to the followup about Belgarath's daughter Polgara. Truly epic. ( )