Sorceress of Darshiva

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 show more 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

One of the lesser novels in this cycle, there's a lot of walking and talking and not much plot development. But its charming and well-paced and its hard to begrudge - though if I was waiting eagerly for the next book and on its release it didn't really do anything I might have been a little upset. Still, we're moving towards the Big End Scene finally!

Sorceress of Darshiva is the fourth book in The Malloreon by David Eddings. The never ending quest! Trouble and delays seem to plague Garion and the party in their efforts with Zandramas always staying one step ahead. With Demon Lords and enemy forces on one side and agents of Emperor Zakath trying to capture them on the other, the party will need to hurry if they want to make it to the Place Which Is No More in time. Assuming Belgarath can figure out what that phrase means.

This volume is all about setting the stage for the final book. It's not boring and the pacing is decent, just a lot of activity and travel happens in a short time. The constant threat to the world also feels a bit lessened in this book due to the need to rush show more everyone from one task to the next so the bad guys, while there, aren't quite as menacing as they were in previous installments. This is the book where Durnik gets a chance to shine, which is nice as he's not really had his moment. His major scene is one of my favorites in this series. Also love the addition of the she wolf and her pup. It's too bad they weren't in the series more towards the beginning.

If I were able to be more objective this might be more like a 3.5 star rating but no, I just love these books too much :) On to book 5! show less

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.

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.

The 5 book Malloreon saga continues. As we get to book 4, the ending starts to look more and more like some sort of paradox of prophecy, is it actually possible for either prophecy to actually 'win'? You'd think that would generate some suspense, but there isn't a whole lot of suspense in this series. They are well written and enjoyable, but mostly they are about the characters, not the plot. The characters are still good though, and do carry the story very well.

The quest Garion and his companions are on is coming to end. They are nearing the final meeting place in which the Child of the Dark and the Child of the Light will meet.

This story continue with just a right amount of adventure to keep the story moving along. I still love all of the characters. There is humor, friendship, philosophical discussions (Beldin), just a hint of romance (not sicken though) and action.

Although there are a great number of similarities between this and the Belgariad series, it is explained the reason for this and mixed up just enough with a new cast of companions who are on the journey in the Malloreon.

Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.