The Belgariad: The Complete Five Volume Epic

Returning to Pawn of Prophecy after many years, I am struck by how by-the-numbers it is, how it reflects a tired set of tropes, and how many misogynist statements are thrown out there. This should make it a bad book, but fortunately David Eddings is a talented writer who brings charm, humour, and relatability to his work. I enjoyed this book, and even if Eddings' motivations writing it were cynical his delivery isn't. Fantasy often suffers from overlong volumes and poor editing but here the work is exactly right - nothing is missing, but it is well paced and moves comfortably between scenes of calm and scenes of action. Pleasing!

Queen of Sorcery is less problematic on the whole, though there are still some tired sexist tropes. The show more adventure really gets going here, and we're taken on a trek through Arendia and Tolnedra and down to Nyissa to see the world and give Eddings a chance to show us what he's made. Garion remains a wet git, sorry, a naive narrator, which was definitely the best way to do it. Belgarath and Polgara are maybe just too powerful though, so we're starting to lose any sense of peril or risk. Nevertheless, it remains a charming and readable series!

Magician's Gambit is a great work, the whole Ulgo and Cthol Murgus bits are lovely and dramatic but I don't really understand Ctuchik's death, it seems like he would be smart enough to avoid that action, even if he was panicking. I would have had him distracted long enough for Belgarath to make his head explode or something, but I'm not a clever writer or owt, just a mad old git.

Castle of Wizardry is a bit of a weak point. Not a lot of overall plot action here, so what there is is stretched out. Its all essential, and couldn't really have gone into Gambit, but the lack of action leaves this book mostly people going places and saying stuff. Eddings' poor use of character language comes to the fore, with most of the characters sounding the same and using the same linguistic style despite being from different cultures, and it makes this probably the least pleasurable of the series.

Enchanters' End Game continues the problems from Castle, but adds lots of action to make up for it, and shifts the action regularly between multiple viewpoints. The actual battle with Torak is pretty crap, and I didn't understand why, if Polgara and some others were due to be in Cthol Mishrak for the big fight somehow, why didn't Garion and Belgarath just hang around with them and be taken there as well. Still I think that Eddings' way was better, as it got some good scenes with the Morindim and with Drosta lek Thun. All in all a decent finale. show less

I fell in love with this whole series one summer when I was about 16 I think. It was the first fantasy I ever read that really created an elaborate world with that went beyond unusual creatures with unusual powers, to different socialstructures, a mythology, social customs, and unusual species. I identified with the boldest female character Polgara who became a sort of role model for me I suppose. I tried reading David Eddings after this series but it seemed like his whole writing style change and was dumbed down. The sentence structure in this series is full, descriptive and I thought it was beautifully written prose. There is a love story embedded in this (several)and a sense of urgency tha will keep you turning the pages. Read it and show more escape somewhere else for awhile! show less

This was a great refreshing read for me, a lover of ancient fictional kingdoms, heroic charachters and plots, David Eddings is the creator of the fantasy Novel. The novels stay consistantly great to read and the anticipation grows greater each book.

Pre09: Maybe I'll try it again, but I just couldn't handle it the first time. Sooooo trite. So contrived. So predictable. The characters just weren't dynamic enough to be enjoyable.

Characters: Cookie cutter except for Polgara.
Plot: Boooring. Save the world crap.
Style: Flat, no twists; all romanticist.

Read all of them many times, started when I was about 14 and was hooked on fantasy!