This series is the fantasy I recommend for people who don't like fantasy. I particularly like that the characters change over time, something which happens too rarely in most high fantasy. ( )

En zo eindigt het verhaal van Belgarion. Gelukkig gaat het gewoon verder in de Mallorea serie, want ik ben er nog niet klaar mee. Heerlijk leesvoer! ( )

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. ( )

{Fifth of 5 in Belgariad series; fantasy, high fantasy, quest fantasy, young adult} (1985)

The final book in the Belgariad pentology. Everything Eddings has told us without telling us, such as Garion's true identity, has come to fruition and now all bets are off. We know that the Child of the Light is destined to face the Child of the Dark as the representatives of the two opposing prophecies that have existed almost since the dawn of time and finally cancel out one prophecy but no-one, not even those entities themselves, knows which will win. Garion, Mister Wolf and Silk trek towards that momentous meeting while Aunt Pol, Ce'Nedra and the armies of the West try to distract the hordes of the East, which have been steadily amassing, from intercepting them and preventing the meeting. And so we get to meet several of the rulers of the East - who may not have a vested interest in their god waking for the proscribed event or even in cooperating with each other.

Garion's character continues to evolve as he comes to term with his destiny.

If he had consciously sought any of this, he could have accepted the duty which lay on him with a certain amount of resignation. He had been given no choice in the matter, though, and he found himself wanting to demand of the uncaring sky, 'Why me?'
He rode on beside his dozing grandfather with only the murmuring song of the Orb of Aldur for company, and even that was a source of irritation. The Orb, which stood on the pommel of the great sword strapped to his back, sang to him endlessly with a kind of silly enthusiasm. It might be all very well for the Orb to exult about the impending meeting with Torak, but it was Garion who was going to have to face the Dragon-God of Angarak, and it was Garion who was going to have to do all the bleeding. He felt that the unrelieved cheerfulness of the Orb was - all things considered - in very poor taste, to say the least.

He's not in a good mood as he and his two companions trek through the fens of Drasnia and cross the mountains into the eastern kingdoms under leaden winter skies as the book opens.

Ce'Nedra too, while not changing in essence, matures and uses all her wiles and charms to recruit ordinary people, including peasants and serfs, to the army of the West but her compassion has also developed.

As the kings lead their peoples to war, the ladies are left in charge of their kingdoms and come into their own each in their own unique way. Shrewd Queen Layla, for instance, pretends to be clueless and organises her children to run interference to exasperate the persistent Tolnedran ambassador who thinks he can push through treaties favouring his empire while King Fulrach is away. I confess; I may have used this technique myself - maybe this was where I discovered it?

There is more of the banter that I love about this series and which keeps things light despite it being about an all-encompassing world war and the loss of life that comes with battles.

'Instead of letting Sir Mandorallen annihilate these thousand Murgos all by himself, why not select a contingent from each part of the army to deal with them? Not only will that give us some experience in tactical coordination, but it'll give all the men a sense of pride. An easy victory now will stiffen their backs when we run into more ditficult times later.'
'Fulrach, sometimes you positively amaze me,' Rhodar declared, 'I think the whole trouble is that you don't look that clever.'

(Although I'm not entirely sure that that's a compliment.)

The ending wraps up everything neatly - but there is a second series which follows on and which has been set up by events in this book though it doesn't leave you feeling that the story is unfinished.

And, right at the end, I found the discomfited Orb very amusing.

The Orb continued to ignore him, its attention obviously elsewhere.
"What are you concentrating on so hard?' the old man asked curiously.
The Orb, which had glowed with a bright blue radiance, flickered again, and its blue became suddenly infused with a pale pink which steadily grew more and more pronounced until the stone was actually blushing.
Belgarath cast one twinkling glance in the general direction of the royal apartment. 'Oh,' he said, understanding. Then he began to chuckle.
The Orb blushed even brighter.

June 2022
4.5-5 stars ( )

As I continue on my journey to re-read all my favorite novels and possibly re-judge them, Eddings first sword & sorcery series holds up to current cultural mores. The enmity between peoples has nothing to do with race, color, or even politics, but all to do with what we once called creed. On one side, we have several races (each complete with their own god) and they are the 'good guys'. The black hats consist of a few nations worshiping the evil god. Amongst the bad guys, the majority consists of people terrified of said evil god, and slaves. Even today, we still get to root for good over evil - it was just a lot easier to tell the difference in these simple books.

As to it's actual literary merit (which I wish was the only criteria for judging a book), it's okay. Not great; I doubt even the Eddings would have classed it with, say, Lord of the Ring, but it is a pleasant quick read - my version of a beach book. If this was the first book you'd read of theirs, you would probably enjoy the characters, but they do go on to reuse them in the rest of their books. The same with the gentle humor. It's lovely in this first set, but the repetition goes on to become slightly tedious in later series.

That said, it continues to be a favorite because it is warm, inviting and comfortable in a time that, to me, isn't. ( )