Leigh Eddings (1931–2007)

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 show more 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. show less

The Rivan Codex is actually quite entertaining, for what it is - a collection of notes and reference materials used in the creation of the Garion books, bookended by Eddings's firmly-stated opinions about how to go about writing a fantasy series. This was pure 'nip to me when I was a teenager - I am fascinated by the process of worldbuilding, and while large chunks of this are fairly dry, they're interesting, at least to me. (And the bits that aren't purely notes are largely written in the show more more formal style that I think Eddings does reasonably well - the prose ends up being tighter and less digressive, and actually has some rhythm. Compare the origin of Belgarath here with the version in his eponymous book.)

It was a little ironic that I felt this held up fairly well, when one of my big complaints of all of Eddings's work that I've bothered to reread is the sloppiness and shallowness of the worldbuilding. I think he did too much of the wrong kind of worldbuilding to lead to the sort of books I like - there's too much history and geography, and not enough character of any kind. So, for example, when we meet a secondary character, he ends up being a shallow collection of racial characteristics, because Eddings had a nice detailed list of what all the races were like - but no particular thought seems to have been given as to what individual people were like, outside of the main characters. And so we end up with a world that feels very shallow overall. And there are all sorts of minor bits of worldbuilding that end up getting retconned, because they were invented separately from the needs of the actual story.

This is actually a book I would recommend to aspiring fantasists who are familiar with the Garion books, because I think it highlights many of the series's strengths and weaknesses. I don't necessarily think Eddings's advice should be followed without question, but that's true of all writing advice. show less

This review is for the entire series, because all four books suffer from the same flaws.

Ye gods, this was a pile of rubbish. The Eddingses must have been writing on autopilot, because all the elements from previous series were here, but none of the enjoyment. The one-trick "races", the "precocious" child-goddess, the "warfare" between the "races" whose individual representatives all get along famously, the "clever" plans after a "setback" that always work, the "witty" sardonic sense of show more captain-obvious-humour that everyone defaults to, ... it goes on. The previous series by this duo had all of these -- but in moderation! They worked because there were different characters, plans and plot devices strewn in between the Eddingses' favourite tropes. Here, the clichés are all that's left, and the text is just filler, inserted to move the readers soullessly from one eddingsian trope to the next. It's as if no prior thought or planning went into this series, and these books are really a first draft with minimal editing.

The trick of following one (set of) character(s) for a couple of chapters before turning to another set is another reason why these books are so godawfully boring! It could have worked as a way of creating tension (it did for Robert Jordan), but the technique is not put to any use -- say, switching between fast-moving and slow-moving storylines, or heightening the tension by cutting between several climaxes. None of this works because the groups reunite every so often, and then the Eddingses treat us to painful sequences where the characters retell everything that happened to them to the others, and it goes on for a couple of pages. And what's worse, they do so in the most annoying way possible: faux-humble and pretend-cool, with only one sense of humour and one voice to go around a fairly large cast. Entire sequences of these books are dull repetition of events that happened two or three chapters ago, where characters stand around congratulating each other on how clever and brave and witty they are.

At this point most other reviewers here have warned you not to buy these books and to spend your time and money on something else. I can only agree with that sentiment, because I couldn't recommend this lazy excuse for a book to anyone. show less

This review is for the entire series, because all four books suffer from the same flaws.

Ye gods, this was a pile of rubbish. The Eddingses must have been writing on autopilot, because all the elements from previous series were here, but none of the enjoyment. The one-trick "races", the "precocious" child-goddess, the "warfare" between the "races" whose individual representatives all get along famously, the "clever" plans after a "setback" that always work, the "witty" sardonic sense of show more captain-obvious-humour that everyone defaults to, ... it goes on. The previous series by this duo had all of these -- but in moderation! They worked because there were different characters, plans and plot devices strewn in between the Eddingses' favourite tropes. Here, the clichés are all that's left, and the text is just filler, inserted to move the readers soullessly from one eddingsian trope to the next. It's as if no prior thought or planning went into this series, and these books are really a first draft with minimal editing.

The trick of following one (set of) character(s) for a couple of chapters before turning to another set is another reason why these books are so godawfully boring! It could have worked as a way of creating tension (it did for Robert Jordan), but the technique is not put to any use -- say, switching between fast-moving and slow-moving storylines, or heightening the tension by cutting between several climaxes. None of this works because the groups reunite every so often, and then the Eddingses treat us to painful sequences where the characters retell everything that happened to them to the others, and it goes on for a couple of pages. And what's worse, they do so in the most annoying way possible: faux-humble and pretend-cool, with only one sense of humour and one voice to go around a fairly large cast. Entire sequences of these books are dull repetition of events that happened two or three chapters ago, where characters stand around congratulating each other on how clever and brave and witty they are.

At this point most other reviewers here have warned you not to buy these books and to spend your time and money on something else. I can only agree with that sentiment, because I couldn't recommend this lazy excuse for a book to anyone. show less