What was the first book written by David & Leigh Eddings?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110692.The_Redemption_of_Althalus
The Redemption of Althalus
2000-01-01
Author
<div><div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/76688-eric"></a></section><section><p>855 reviews72 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1387525">July 11, 2013</a></section><div><p>Let me start by saying I am a huge <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/8732.David_Eddings">David Eddings</a> fan. His <b>Belgariad</b> series is one of my favorite fantasy series -- in some ways more so than even the holy <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/33.The_Lord_of_the_Rings__The_Lord_of_the_Rings___1_3_">The Lord of the Rings</a> trilogy. <p>That being said, I couldn't stand this book. He reused, recycled and regurgitated his characters and story-lines from his more successful works and threw them slapdash into this altogether uninspired and uninspiring book.</p><p>If you want to read something good -- no, fantastic -- from Eddings, read the <b>Belgariad</b>, a five-book fantasy series that begins with <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/44659.Pawn_of_Prophecy__The_Belgariad___1_">Pawn of Prophecy</a>.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/76688?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/422974-adam-reinwald"></a></section><section><p>5 reviews2 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6842174">March 30, 2016</a></section><div><p>I read fantasy stories because I like to see epic stories of love and evil played out. I like to think that evil may win, and that good sometimes doesn't have a chance against overwhelming odds. I like to read grand battles where things...you know...happen. I like the evil side to be just as intelligent as the good side; an even match so you question the ending.<p>If you like these things, don't read this book.</p><p>It's predictable from start to finish. The "bad guys" as they so often refer to them are, well, stupid. They're incompetent bumbling fools held together by an evil god who never makes an appearance. If they had some substance to them, if you knew their personal motives, if they had some kind of complexity to them that made them interesting or cool, then we would have something!</p><p>The conflict is boring, the battles are boring, the characters are boring. I suffered through 726 pages of boredom in the hopes that the Eddings' would pull something out that would at least salvage this train wreck.</p><p>And the ENDLESS amount of exposition was incredibly tedious. How bad of a writer do you need to be to spell out the story two or three times for your readers? How stupid do you think we are? I don't care to read the entire Althalas and the Wolf Tunic story all over again, dragging it out for a good five pages or so.</p><p>Some have said that this was intended for a younger audience. Can someone point out to me where it says that on the dust cover? Did I miss something? I didn't find it in the young adult section... And even if I had, I'd be disappointed.</p><p>People remark on the characters falling in love, which I'm fine with if there were reasons! Just because two kids are teenagers won't make them fall in love! And a sexy woman and a priest...well, they apparently fall in love because he has pent up lust and she has a challenge. Wow.</p><p>It could have been really cool had it not been so shallow. No one grows. Nothing changes. No surprises. Don't waste your time.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/15646648-m-j-w-harrington"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>1 book2 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/481675623">December 20, 2012</a></section><div><p>Cheesy, but fantastic.<p>The Redemption of Althalus is, to me, David Eddings summed up in a single book. His characters are witty and lovable, the plot is engaging and epic in scale whilst still being simple and easygoing. This book was one of a few that got me into fantasy when I was younger, and while it's probably not the greatest book of all time- it's still a good story well told, if slightly lacking in depth.</p><p>As a standalone novel, it's perfect for the job- everything is all tidied up and resolved by the extremely cheesy finale and the decent length means you're not left with a gaping hole in your chest that begs for more of the book. My copy's been through a lot now, and has suffered the abuse of years of rereading and being carried about in bags that were far less waterproof than anticipated, but every time I pick it back up to read it's like spending time with an old friend whose company I can still enjoy years later.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10598239-braden"></a></section><section><p>1 review1 follower</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/358695162">August 30, 2012</a></section><div><p>I wasn't really that impressed with this book, which is a shame because I love the other series that I've read by David and Leigh Eddings. This is 800 pages of everybody congratulating each other on how clever they've been. They defeat the enemy at every turn with very little effort, almost like a kid killing ants with a magnifying glass. The lack of real conflict in this book makes it feel sort of like a historical account rather than a fantasy novel. The greatest tragedy to me are the characters. There was absolutely no character progression, growth, anything. They are completely flat. I call this a tragedy because they had such potential! A thief/murderer turned father figure and savior, a mind-reader who was nearly burned at the stake by people who accused her of being a witch, a priest struggling with his faith (who falls for the "witch"), a boy genius, and a teenage queen who falls in love with the soldier who killed her father in war all gathered together to save the universe. That to me sounds like a group of characters to get excited about! But no. Nothing. They are each individually used for their abilities and then basically forgotten (except to be clever or congratulate someone else on how clever they've been...ugh). What's worse is that I know the Eddings' know how to create compelling characters. The Belgariad and The Malloreon are full of them! I honestly don't know what went wrong with this one, but I'm just going to chalk it up as a loss and try not to let it tarnish my opinion of these authors as I begin The Elenium.</p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/118409-anenko"></a></section><section><p>82 reviews2 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15656238">February 18, 2008</a></section><div><p>Redemption of Althalus is all of Eddings' worst tendencies condescend into one novel. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the book is horrible, but there's no spark to the story, and no life to the characters. <p>One of the big problems with The Redemption of Althalus--and with Eddings' novels in general--is how convenient everything is for the heroes. The heroes just happen to stumble across the very person they need to recruit; the heroes just happen to overhear the villains discussing vital military matters' everything "just happens." Althalus tells the reader how cunning and violent the villains are, but in practice, they're inept morons. There's no sense of urgency or desperation; we *know* whose going to win from the get-go. </p><p>The reader is also subjected to frequent exposition dumps; having the same information repeated to a different character every several chapters isn't especially exciting. While there are some clever lines of dialogue, the characters aren't as witty as they--and the author--believe them to be. The banter feels forced and tired, and echoes the jokes from previous series.</p><p>There's something subtly off-putting about the way the female characters are written. I dislike how they are frequently "arch" or "sly;" the women come across as smugly superior when dealing with emotionally/romantically inept men. I dislike the idea that all men are morons when it comes to women, and that all women are schemers out to snare men. I hate how the lone female villain's appearance is her main characteristic; she is repeatedly referred to as a "cow" and a "hag" by the characters and within the narration itself. </p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/118409?shelf=fantasy-and-paranormal">fantasy-and-paranormal</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/14167120-venus-smurf"></a></section><section><p>166 reviews10 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/672762926">July 20, 2013</a></section><div><p>This is easily my favorite book of all time. I love David Eddings, because his characters are always so sarcastic and funny, but Althalus tops them all. After all, what's not to love about an assassin and thief who spends his time arguing with goddesses? Or a princess who just might be knife happy? This book is clever, funny, complicated, and just plain fun to read. <p>This is the book I tell everyone to get for themselves, because even though I want the world to read it, I'm much too possessive of my own copy to lend it out. </p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14167120?shelf=books-to-buy-right-now">books-to-buy-right-now</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14167120?shelf=pretty-assassin-man">pretty-assassin-man</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14167120?shelf=read-me-read-me-now">read-me-read-me-now</a> </ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/56277359-freya-marske"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>13 books1,539 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1651683656">August 27, 2016</a></section><div><p>Consider this a lesson in Not Revisiting The Problematic Faves Of Our Youth; I hadn't read this since high school, and remembered it vaguely as falling in the heist/con genre (which, vaguely, it does). It's about a thief who gets seduced into the service of a goddess and goes around collecting a ragtag bunch of misfits, you know the drill, so that they can defeat another inexplicable bunch of misfits who are SUPER EVIL and working for EVIL and they're all ugly and 'primitive' and 'insane' and sometimes coded as posh British (??) and did I mention EVIL. Fairly standard late-90s fantasy quest stuff.<p>THINGS I HAD NOT, UNFORTUNATELY, REMEMBERED ABOUT EDDINGS:<br />- heterocentrism and weird, coy gender essentialism to a truly risible degree<br />- epithets up the wazoo<br />- every single possible variant of the word 'said'. sometimes used all on the same page. I have never felt so fond of 'said' as after a chapter's worth of exclaiming, objecting, replying, asking, agreeing, chuckling, demanding, protesting, noting, hissing and explaining.<br />- sometimes they even had MULTIPLE ADVERBS ATTACHED<br />- oh god so many adverbs<br />- so. much. unnecessary. banter. it's not even bad! it's just repetitive! and, not unlike a Joss Whedon show, every single character has the exact same Banter Voice.</p><p>This is a 900 page book and a good editor could probably have shaved 1/3 of the word count off, easy.</p><p>Anyway. I reread it. I felt fondly nostalgic, and I enjoyed many parts of the plot. I will now be donating the book to a charity fair without much regret, and I will probably be even more ruthless than usual with adverbs and dialogue tags in my own current projects, because OH MY GOD. I think I now have an allergy.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/623301721">November 6, 2016</a></section><section><div><p><div><p><b>Have you ever wanted to see what it’s like for someone to go insane from listening to an audiobook? I invite you to stick around and find out.</b></p><p>First and foremost: fuck this book. It is astounding in its awfulness. I consider it a crash course on how not to write a fantasy epic. Secondly, I’d like to suggest an alternate title: "<i>The Gary Stus, the Cardboard Villain, and the Story of How the Former Repeatedly and Unerringly Curbstomped the Later at Every Turn – Hence Ruining Any Sense of Narrative Heft or Conflict in the Story.</i>" It's a little bulky and I’m Looking to trim it down some, but honestly I think the current working version is already good enough to send to the Eddings estate for whenever they reach into the depths of hell for a new print run.</p><p>I wanted to put this book behind me. I wanted to pretend that it never happened; to repress the memory of it and move on with my life, but even half a year later, I can't. The overwhelming awfulness of this 'novel' weighs on my mind, and I don't think I can move past it without doing the GLOBAL public service of leaving a review for this monstrosity.<br />What follows is an editorialized collection of the rants and messages I typed out for a friend whilst I was reading this... <i>thing</i>. Hence, it might lack coherence at some points, flitting from criticism to criticism without any overarching thread, but I assure you that it will still provide much the same horrific entertainment as watching a train crash in slow motion. If you give a flying fuck about spoilers, you are welcome to stop right here, and expose yourself to this infohazardous piece of shit without any further warning from me - and if this is so, then you are <i>welcome</i> to the brain cancer that awaits within its pages.</p><p>I loved David Eddings' Belgariad as a younger reader. You wouldn't think that would be at all relevant, but I also loved The Redemption of Althalus too. I mean, why wouldn't I have? It was a single-tome fantasy epic! It was like the Belgariad condensed into a single, sprawling novel! The issue, of course, was that it wasn't <i>like</i> the Belgariad, it basically <i>was</i> the Belgariad. The same character archetypes that I remember, following the same story arc I remember.<br />As an adult reader, I hate this book <i>so much</i> that I refuse to read the Belgariad again, for fear that I will find that I hate it just as much. I really can’t stress enough just how much I despise The Redemption of Althalus. Let’s just get started with the rant-view</p></div><p><b>At first, I was resistant to recognizing the shittiness of this book due to the sheer power of my nostalgia goggles, but even at the outset I had bones to pick. Just watch as my critique starts soft, and slowly degrades into full-blown rage-induced insanity.</b><br />It's got over-explain-and-repeat-so-younger-readers-don't-get-lost syndrome so bad that one would be forgiven for thinking it was an English translation of a manga novelization or something (I activate my pot of greed card!). And it broadcasts the character relationships so hard I'm worried a lighthouse might dive out of my earbuds and skewer my brain.<br />The characters are very trope reliant. Not two dimensional, but definitely less than three dimensional – except for one character, who is definitely 2D. All his dialogue in the story consists of either [say something priestly] or [say "that's impossible" when the character who is LITERALLY A GODDESS offhandedly mentions something that conflicts with his faith that he's pretty much turned away from anyway].<br />Oh, and the narrator kinda bugs me. He voices one female character who I always imagined to have a kinda sultry voice with a... crone-ish voice instead. Every other woman in the story is voiced like a caricature of an overdramatic housewife<br />Well, the weird thing is that I'm still enjoying it, for the bare most-part, but I wonder if I would hate it if I wasn't wearing nostalgia goggles.</p><div><p><b>For the next few chapters, that was the extent of my dislike for the novel, but oh, just watch how it changed. Watch how mere words managed to reduce a man to a subhuman beast.</b><br />bTW the nostalgia vision has worn off for Redemption of Althalus - or should I say: "The Unchanging Characterization of Gary Stu" - and I fucking hate it now. I'm like 3/4 through, and I'll be able to power through to the end with my shift tomorrow. I Consider it the audiobook equivalent of hate fucking. It's horrible and it'll end up leaving your day exponentially worse, but you're gonna do it anyway.<br />Every plot point in this book (EVERY FUCKING ONE) can be condensed to either "A thing happened, and then it turned out not to be a big deal" or "A thing happened, and then it kinda just resolved itself."</p><p>"<i>Oh no! We burnt all of the cropfields to gimp the arm we were fighting, but now that we've totally curbstomped them for the second time - without the absence of crops playing into it at all - out subjects are all going to starve when winter comes in a few weeks! We'll have to bankrupt ourselves importing grain!</i>"<br />-three chapters later-<br />"<i>Well, it turns out that the southerners had the best harvest they've had in years, so the grain is going very cheap! I also buy in unconnected bulk purchases so that nobody realizes how dire things are and skin me for it.</i> (This part's a literal quote up next:) <i>I've moved forty tonnes of grain, but I've only paid for 30!</i>" What’s even more ridiculous is that the time of year and price of gold means literally nothing anyway, because one character constantly manipulates time and can organize time travel freely, while another has an effectively limitless supply of gold for no real reason. Hence, there was no reason to contrive grain being senselessly cheap at all, except to assure the reader that "LOOK EVERYTHING IS FINE AND ALWAYS WILL BE" Oh, and nevermind how fucking illogical it is that the harvest was somehow perfect that year, when the inciting incident for the plot involves growing glaciers locking up the world's water and causing global droughts.</p><p>"<i>Oh no, the illusion million-strong army outside we were pretending to surrender to in an elaborate ruse to draw the enemy leaders close to us has suddenly been replaced by a REAL million-strong army because FANTASY MAGIC. Looks like things are actually not going to go perfectly our way for once and this is actually a real surrender. Oh, wait. One of the bad guys just got stabbed and died, which made the entire army disappear and instantly turned it into another hero-wins curbstomp. YAY.</i>” Seriously, fuck this book.</p></div><div><p>By the end, I hated every fucking character and wanted to physically wrench them from the book and Make them understand just how much pain they were causing me. I'm honest to Christ not kidding. Every piece of dialogue involved over-explaining something and repeating it at least once, if not twice, for no fucking reason at all – normally capped off by a round of multiple "are you sure this is a good idea?"<br />Laytha was the worst for this. Throughout the entire book, she existed to basically support ANY IDEA that was uttered. Almost every time, with a simple "it's an interesting idea" or "sounds like it's worth a try". That was all she ever contributed to anything at all, unless the scene was focusing on her<br />And then there’s Gher. <i>Motherfucking Gher.</i> That little fuck. I hate him the most. I despise him as Satan despises God. Every fibre of my being is dedicated to loathing him. Part of it was helped by the FUCKING AIGOUABEGAIBGAEG BECAUSE THERE IS NO WORD TO DESCRIBE IT voice the narrator gave him, but the rest of it is just because of how he exists in the story. He shits out literally every idea for the middle two quarters of the story, bar one. Over explains it, of course, and then everyone spends ten lines musing over it the exact same way every fucking time and then congratulating him on how clever he is.<br />There is so much more wrong with Gher but I literally lack the capacity to articulate it. It's like a giant mush of hatred balled up in my head, with individual details bubbling to the surface and then diving back to the core before I can render the concept as words. I hate Gher <i>so fucking much</i> that I’m actually going to just stop talking about him because it pains me to think of him.</p><p>But on the note of characters praising one-another: half the dialogue in the story is everyone congratulating each other on how fucking clever they are. The other 50% is divided roughly as so:<br />10% Althalus retelling the same stories multiple times throughout the story with sometimes no changes.<br />10% Althalus convincing everyone ever to do everything he says within seconds<br />10% Dweia revealing something offhandedly about the details of their seemingly limitless magical capabilities, and either Bheid or Gher immediately telling her with absolute certainty what the "truth" is even though she is LITERALLY AN OMNISCIENT GOD AND YOU HAVE AN EXCHANGE LIKE THIS EVERY FUCKING CHAPTER.<br />10% inexplicably repeated jokes and lines that are either really shitty callbacks or really shitty attempts at running jokes. (You wouldn't think this is worth mentioning, but part of what broke me while reading this book was how, with this point combined with all the other things I've written, it felt like I was reading the same general thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER)<br />And finally, 10% conveniently or magically overheard enemy planning, always discussed in breadth, and detail by two people who both already know the full details, and hence would never, EVER have reason to talk about the entirety of their immediate plans in excruciating detail to each other – especially as if they are both explaining it to each other for the first time</p></div><p>
 <b>And it’s about here that I petered out. Even half a year later, I can't bring myself to elaborate any further. Hopefully, I’ve managed to impress on you how fundamentally bad this book is. If I develop cancer in my life time, I don’t care if it’s because I just went swimming in a pool of nuclear waste; I will attribute it singularly to having read this book.</b></p><p><b>David and Leigh Eddings: what the fuck happened?</b></p>
</p></div><div><p>This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.</p></div></section><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/20653869?shelf=a-special-kind-of-trash">a-special-kind-of-trash</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/915167743">April 20, 2014</a></section><div><p>I love this book, I find it a refreshing read in which cinematic battles are not the method of fixing the problem.<p>I do however acknowledge the complaints of those who have given this book one and two stars. It is the same tropes Eddings used in all of his series, simply condensed down into one book.</p><p>Personally I enjoy the characters, the setting and the reality of their situation. I also enjoyed the fact that their conflict is one of many in the universe, and it would only be important for the time they were living it. Once their conflict was done, it was no longer important, a refreshing take on the importance of a hero.</p><p>Althalus is simply one of my all time favorite characters in existence and will continue to be so, his habit of looking at everything through the lens of humor is one that I find interesting, when many modern hero's are rather intense. He is more laid back and relaxed about things, though even he has his limits. </p><p>This may be my favorite book, but that doesn't mean that it is perfect, yes it does have it's flaws. Still, for the unconventional read, the character growth and multitudes of likable characters, it is hard to trump. I would have to say nearly all of it's flaws come into play because it is one book, but with enough ideas to last for two or three. Personally I think that would have ruined the pacing, but that is just me.</p><p>I highly recommend this book, I highly recommend Eddings, and I personally feel that if one has never read Eddings material, this would make for a great entry piece if they do not want to manage a six or twelve book series respectively.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/38705025-johanna-karlsson"></a></section><section><p>77 reviews1 follower</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3181768302">April 7, 2020</a></section><div><p>Eddings was once my favorite author (though The Redemption of Althalus was never a favorite), but I think I've grown apart from his writing. This book has several problems, but I'll focus on the two main reasons I did not like this book:<p>First: there is no tension in the entire book. Or maybe there's one at page 630 and that gets resolved within two pages. I like when it goes well for the good guys, but the bad guys in this book is so stupid you never feel like anything is at stake.</p><p>Second: even though the female characters in this book has agency (somewhat, at least), they're stereotypical written and does a lot of talking of clothes (alas "of screen", otherwise it might have been more okay) and scolding and doting over the male characters. Additional to this the world described in this book is sexist. It gets really tiresome after a while.</p><p>But apparently I read all 913 pages, so it was not totally bad: some of the characters are fun and sometimes the interaction between them is fun to read.</p><p>(But mostly I got through it because I'm stubborn and this is probably the last time I read a book by Eddings)</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31700559-tove-selenius"></a></section><section><p>137 reviews22 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2549149395">November 26, 2018</a></section><div><p>Ah, well. Somewhere in some private dimension, a sad twelve-year-old that was once me is content. It was worth it for that, I guess.</p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9611342-geoffery-crescent"></a></section><section><p>150 reviews5 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/957724190">February 21, 2017</a></section><div><p>Whenever anyone asks me who my favourite author is, I'll normally trot out the answer David Eddings without a second thought. Sure, the Lord of the Rings is my favourite book but David, and his lesser acknowledged wife Leigh, wrote almost twenty books that I happily count among my favourites. This includes the five book series The Belgariad and its sequel series The Malloreon, trilogy The Elenium and its companion series The Tamuli, as well as a bunch of prequel and stand-alone novels. Of course, they also wrote the high-concept but slightly ropey The Dreamers series, the cliched but weirdly enjoyable Regina's Song and two non-genre novels that we'll forgive because almost everyone's first few novels are a bit shitey. And then we get to the subject of my review, 2000's stand alone fantasy novel The Redemption of Althalus, which has literally no excuses for being badly written, riddled with poorly executed tropes and in so many ways an inferior copy of Eddings' previous stories that I've started to wonder if he was really just a two-trick pony.<p>There are two basic types of fantasy series, that is they tend to be either character driven or plot driven. Of course, there are plenty of examples where an author has managed to do both, although these often tend to be enormous, rambling, unwieldy and, in George R R Martin's case, unfinished.</p><p>Sorry George.</p><p>Eddings' books normally stick firmly on the side of the characters, with his plots being mostly arbitrary quests to save the universe from one evil god or another, with a couple of prophecies, enchanted crystals and chosen ones thrown in for good measure. Redemption is no different. Here the evil God Daeva wants to rule the world and revert it back to a pre-historic state, which has interesting archaeological implications but probably wouldn't do much good in the long run. His sister Dweia is out to stop him. They have a brother as well, Deiwos, but he basically does sweet fuck all. Naturally both Daeva and Dweia have a selection of prophesied chosen ones at hand to help them out, and this is where things turn sour. See, even though the plots in The Belgariad and The Elenium are fairly tropey and flimsy, they have both have fantastic casts of characters that make the books worth reading. What Redemption has is a bunch of expies. In other words, they're just recycled characters from Eddings' previous novels.</p><p>Dweia is the beautiful, whimsical goddess, equal parts Polgara and Aphrael. Sadly she lacks the former's character development and maternal strength and unlike the latter without childhood to explain some of her more irritating tendencies, she comes across across as bland, infallible and annoying. She's too perfect, and no-one likes a perfect character. She also has "limbs rounded with such perfection it made his (Althalus') heart ache." I'm not sure why having rounded limbs is that important, but Eddings goes on about it a hell of a lot so it must be. She also spends a good deal of the time as a cat called Emerald which is...okay I guess, but it makes her relationship with Althalus downright creepy. In The Belgariad, Belgarath and Poledra spent time as wolves as well but they were either wolf lovers, or people lovers. In Redemption we just have scenes of a bloke flirting with a talking cat. It's weird.</p><p>Althalus is equally problematic. He's clearly supposed to be a lovable rogue of the sort Eddings normally does so well but again he feels like he's been cobbled together from spare parts. He has none of Belgarath's likability or charm, none of Silk's vulnerability or quick wit and none of Stragen's complexity or back story. He's just sort of...there! He's far too keen on murdering to be in any way sympathetic and several of the traits ascribed to him in the story's opening are never shown in the actual novel. Eddings completely ignores the rule of "show, don't tell," instead having numerous characters remind us that Althalus likes to act in a certain way, but never actually shows him doing it. Case in point: when Leitha points out that "trust me," is Althalus' favourite phrase despite the fact that he has never once used it in the novel. Except...that's Silk's favourite phrase. The only phrases that Althalus seems to enjoy using are calling people, "old boy," and "neighbour." Which are Martel and Sparhawk's favourite phrases respectively. Getting the picture? Oh, and the redemption of the novel's title? It never really happens. Sure, Althalus gives up his life as a thief to live with Dweia, but his last act in the book is too criticise her for getting fat because her abdomen was ever so slightly rounded. Sheesh, what a jerk. It's okay though, because she's actually pregnant. Not fat. The very thought... Still, he feels slight remorse at having to trick a man he respects, not enough remorse not to trick him but still. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.</p><p>The secondary characters don't fare much better either. Ghend is an expy of Talen, a cute kid with a penchant for theft, but with none of the sass. It probably din't help that I pictured him looking exactly like Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menance, for some reason. Leitha is just Xanetia, the pale beauty with a gift that's more of a curse, only with added rape as a back story, because who doesn't love that? She's also supposed to have a "twisted sense of humour," although once again this is only ever talked about and not shown, and she has a bizarre habit of calling Althalus "Daddy," which was blamed on the rape for some reason, either way it's just kind of odd. Eliar is Kalten, the dumb blonde muscle with a big appetite, which leads onto a very peculiar feeder/feedee relationship, in other words, he has a lady who feeds him all the time, but this is okay because Eliar miraculously isn't a fatty. That wouldn't be okay. I'll get on to that in a minute if it feels like I'm labouring the point. Which I am. Anyway. Eliar's *cough* feeder *cough* is Andine, only she's really just a less adorable version of Ce'Nedra, a tiny, beautiful princess, sorry "Arya" (Game of Thrones was first published in 1998 by the way, I'll let you work that one out for yourself) with a flair for dramatics and a loud voice. She also spends a ridiculous amount of time away from her kingdom but unh...no-one seems particularly bothered by this. It's almost like we don't even need a monarchy... So far, so similar. The only really original character in there is Bheid, although he's a monk and you loose serious imagination points if you have a monk and you just call him Bheid.</p><p>The bad guys are a little better, but only because they're bland, rather than copied. In fact, looking back over their names again I can't even remember which was which, except for Khnom and Gelta. I felt sorry for Khnom because he didn't really do anything that evil but he still got sucked into oblivion. Gelta sticks out because she's a chunky, acne scarred lady and as a chunky, acne scarred lady myself I obviously thought hurrah, at last someone I can cosplay as!</p><p>Except...she's never called a woman. She's a bitch, or a cow, or a whore or any other derogatory female slur you care to come up with. This is due in part to the fact she's evil, but note that none of the male baddies ever come in for this sort of language, and in part because she's a warrior and women can't possibly be warriors. Way to break down the barriers there, Eddings. Actually, way to backtrack on all the female warrior characters in your previous four series. Mirtai would be spinning in her grave. Furthermore an extraordinary amount of time is given over to discussing how hideously ugly Gelta is. Notice how I mentioned how attractive all the nice ladies are? You can't be ugly and good in the Redemption universe. I know that's pretty much a fantasy staple but do they really have to go on about Gelta's pock-marked face every time she appears on the fricking page? There's only one other character that comes under this much scrutiny for their appearance and his name is Gosti. Gosti Big-Belly.</p><p>Gosti is the secondary antagonist of the novel, a clan chief with a reputation for being rich but actually has very little to his name. He gets swindled by Althalus, once in the past and once in an alternate time-line because Eddings, much like Stephen Moffat, tries to get away with being cleverer than he is by going timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly. Gosti has two defining attributes, one is obviously his enormous fatness and the other is his stupidity; the two naturally go hand-in-hand. In all honesty the bad guys and the good guys could start a little club together called the No Fatties where they all go to bitch about gross fat guys are because this is essentially what happens every time Gosti appears. And, get this, Gosti is actually proud and happy to be fat! The name Big-Belly is self ascribed. And everyone thinks this is pretty much the worst thing to have ever happened. I mean, sure, Althalus killed a man because he liked the look of his jacket but Gosti is fat and happy what a terrible fucking example of humanity. </p><p>So that's the characters dealt with. The plot? Well, like the rest of Eddings' novels, it's fairly nothingy. There's a long drawn out war in which a lovable, but minor, character dies, all of the bad guys get obliterated and then all the adults pair up nicely together at the end because women love marriage, men love sex, but won't do it outside of marriage, and absolutely no-one is gay. Duh. This might sound harsh and to be fair similar criticisms could be levelled at the amount of neat, hetero couples in The Tamuli but at least in that they hung a lampshade on it! Redemption is just a limp war/space-time travel/prophecy yarn with a bunch of expies milling around waiting to be injected with character. It never happens. The whole thing reads like Eddings' fan-fiction. It's over-long, glacially paced and predictable and it's the one damn thing that makes me think twice about listing David Eddings as my favourite author. Now, if anyone needs me, I'll be in down at Faldor's Farm. Trust me.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/19884369-karl-stark-di-grande-inverno"></a></section><section><p>502 reviews17 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1457871011">March 31, 2016</a></section><div><p>Ridondante.<br />Sarebbe potuto durare la metà delle pagine, e gli avrei dato una stella in più.<br />Così è noioso, noioso, noioso.<br />Il problema più grande è che i personaggi continuano a ripetere gli stessi dialoghi più volte, raccontando un mucchio di volte le stesse cose.<br />Questo all'inizio non si nota molto, ma dopo la metà questo difetto assume proporzioni gigantesche.<br />Gli stessi personaggi poi, sono caratterizzati veramente poco, sia psicologicamente sia fisicamente: quelli principali avrebbero delle potenzialità, ma le loro azioni spesso sono guidate in modo illogico; in più non hanno particolari approfondimenti psicologici. Quelli secondari si dividono in militari tutti uguali fra loro, anche nei nomi, e "nemici al servizio del Dio del Male", senza qualità particolari se non il fatto di essere brutti, sporchi &amp; cattivi.<br />Ah, tra l'altro il Dio del Male, che viene chiamato in causa ogni cinque pagine, non si vede nemmeno.<br />La trama è di una banalità allucinante: piatta, lineare, prevedibile... nessun sussulto, nessun colpo di scena. L'unica trovata decente, e cioè le porte magiche che dal quartier generale dei buoni permettono di raggiungere qualsiasi punto dello spazio e del tempo per fregare i nemici, viene usata a sproposito. Invece di dosare bene questa idea, gli autori ne abusano, rendendo virtualmente invincibili ed onnipotenti i buoni, e facendo fare ai cattivi la figura dei fessi, sempre.</p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/19884369?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40817199">December 24, 2008</a></section><div><p>Probably my favorite book from David and Leigh Eddings. It is a one book epic about a thief. Althalus has been having a run of bad luck when he is hired to steal a book (whatever that is) from the House at the End of the World. He thinks he has died or gone mad when he enters a room, hears a cat speak to him and notices the door no longer exists.<p>I don't really know what to say other than I really love this book.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/41604249-charlton"></a></section><section><p>133 reviews</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3342091451">May 15, 2022</a></section><div><p>The book was good, it wasn't what I expected from Eddings. It was a light hearted read but with some great characters. There was thievery, cunning, war, and the one thing that might be the switch for a lot of people. It deals with gods, and time leaps, and space jumps.</p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/41604249?shelf=adventure">adventure</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/41604249?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/41604249?shelf=fiction">fiction</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/69041363-betawolf"></a></section><section><p>372 reviews1,473 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2661518200">January 10, 2019</a></section><div><p>Eddings was always a comfort-read for me in my teens. It was something about the epic scope, the moral pragmatism and the supportive, close-knit team of friends and family -- the recurring tropes of his books are just easy, familiar tones. <i>Althalus</i> is the one-book Eddings experience, which I pick up again now after having several times used it as the poster for Eddings' other work. Enough time has passed that I've forgotten most of the plot detail, so it's about as close to a fresh read as I can get.<p>It's strange what you don't notice. The plot is of the calibre I expected, with the many different locations, the high-level magic-infused war-planning and the varied (but somewhat passive) supporting cast. The younger me apparently got caught by this and couldn't see the sometimes painfully simple writing, or the very troublesome morality of the `good guys'. According to this last, all means are justified, all harm permissible, all prior desires or beliefs must be cast aside, because a mind-altering deity tells you so after having abducted you against your will. There is a lot of objectively bad behaviour that gets okayed in here on very flimsy grounds. In a way, this is realistic -- we are good because we are Us and not Them -- but I'm not sure Eddings or his readers take the story in those bleak terms.</p><p>Still readable, but probably less so than it was for the younger me. Sometimes soppy, sometimes annoying (those dream sequences), often a little too twee. But there are some fun uses of magic, and some nice military campaigns, and if you can quiet the critical voice pointing out what is wrong with it, there's a sense of purpose and belonging on offer. </p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/69041363?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/69041363?shelf=fiction">fiction</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/88002916">August 8, 2010</a></section><div><p>Redemption of Althalus is not something I can compare to other fantasy books. This is because, generally speaking, I don't read these kind of books. The epic fantasies.<p>For the pure and simple reason that I have nothing to compare it to, I'm going to say that Redemption of Althalus is a good, clean, fun book. There are a sea of characters for readers to choose from, including the self-proclaimed best thief in the world, Althalus, and Gher, the eight-year-old with the brightest ideas on the planet.</p><p>Many don't seem to realise this, but this book was written by David and his wife, who as well as having a slightly darker sense of humour brings in a whole host of kickass female characters to enjoy.</p><p>As I have read in other reviews, this book's plot leaves much to be desired. I understand. It is hardly thrilling from a tactics point of view. The villains are notorious, but idiotic. I get it. But if you are the kind of person who doesn't usually read epic fantasies and enjoys to chuckle at the small pieces of dialogue that make books like these fun, then this is for you.</p><p>The books intimidating size daunts them, but I believe this book would be a fantastic read for 10-12 year olds.</p><p>From a girl who can't read Tolkien (the shame of it!), I think that Redemption of Althalus is epic enough and fantasical enough for me.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1256262-ron"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>1 book134 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2827389360">May 29, 2019</a></section><div><p>“I don’t want to contaminate a good story with truth. That’d be a violation of my artistic integrity.”<p>A fun read. Sort of a tongue-in-cheek parody of epic fantasy. World’s great thief (he thinks), competitive divine siblings, threats to end reality. Faint echoes of Star Wars. Didn’t notice much redemption of Althalus, but who cares?</p><p>“It’s not the writing that changes, pet. It’s the reading.” “Wait a minute. Doesn’t the writing mean the same to everybody?” “Of course it doesn’t. Everybody reads any writing gets a different meaning from it.”</p><p>Reads like a first draft—wordy and repetitious, but fun. Many modern writers would have published this as three (at least) books.</p><p>“Can you pretend to be stupid?” “Ma’am, I’m a country boy from the highlands of Arum. We invented stupid.”</p><p> Laced with colloquialisms: “I’m getting a little too old for this.” “Am I starting to hear rumblings of mutiny here?” “Rumble-rumble-rumble. Satisfied?” “You have a nice war now, you hear?” “You’ve got that right.” “Trying to bamboozle me.” “It’s sending them right up the wall.” “Let’s get cracking.” “Moving right along here.” “Have a nice day, hear?”</p><p>“Powerful men can command the actions of weaker men, but not their thoughts or beliefs.”</p><p>Enjoy.</p><p>“Do men ever grow up?” “Not if we can avoid it, no.”</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1256262?shelf=ebook">ebook</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1256262?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1256262?shelf=humor">humor</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/40999539-marsha-ramnanan"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>5 books12 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2288030319">February 17, 2018</a></section><div><p>This was such a strange little traipse through a world in which 3 Gods fought (or passively sat by) over the future of reality. Characters were quirky and original and the story itself was a good one.<br />To be fair - I don't know why it didn't appeal to me more. <br />Maybe it was because Althalus himself went from being such a rogue to being an extension of Dweia - even while trying to have his own voice, or maybe it was the neat pairings off that was a little too...well - neat. Or it could be that evil was too clearly evil and I don't feel like that's ever really the case.<br />It was a good read and I would recommend it for a nice rainy evening - but it won't be one of those books that I re-read when I have that 'want to visit with all friends' feeling, if you know what I mean?<br /></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5020492-carry"></a></section><section><p>71 reviews12 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/149865894">March 16, 2011</a></section><div><p>A really good book! I like the "doors" and I loved every follower of Althalus and "Emmy". I liked the dream concept, the the old english was getting on my nerves sometime... especially when it lasted long!<br />Very good book though, I'm going to look for other books by these authors when I'm out of reading material.<p>If you want to read a refreshing fantasy novel, pick this one!</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/14495279-allison-hurd"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>3 books679 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1799065220">March 28, 2017</a></section><div><p>I dunno. This story was great the first two times I read it in the Belgariad and the Mallorean. But somehow, I didn't like it as much with the third set of the same but renamed characters.</p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14495279?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14495279?shelf=man-author">man-author</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/27715535-william"></a></section><section><p>112 reviews9 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2125787166">January 7, 2023</a></section><div><p>It's a little awkward when a book is recommended to you and you find yourself coming out of it seething. Eddings has some wit and fun with his world, which is more than I can say for many fantasy authors who are so hell-bent on mimicking Tolkien that any sort of levity is a sin. Unfortunately, that's about where my positives for the book end. <p>Beyond this, every character was lackluster and confusing in their motivations. The seven main characters are reductive to the point of parody (Eliar likes food &amp; soldiering, Gher is an original thinker and resident expositionist, Bheid has a sense of righteous justice and cannot for the life of him accept reality, etc.) This works passably with some like Andine, but makes the others fall horribly flat. Entire character arcs are introduced and then never resolved. Althalus, our titular hero, doesn't even have an arc - he's still the same sneaky, okay-with-murdering, money-loving "rogue" by the end as he was at the beginning, only now he likes a cat-goddess. Okay. That's not really worthy of a title like <i>The Redemption of Althalus</i>, but surely that was just a misstep, right? A really big, glaring, giant-font mistake... oh dear. But the most egregious example to me was Bheid's despair after taking his first kill, in which he essentially mopes for a bit and is just told to get over it and does - showing no shift in perspective or lesson learned. They even set up a scene where he is going to officiate a wedding, where I thought perhaps Eddings would give him a moment in his speech where he addressed death and life and his newfound perspective in order to let us understand it - but they just cut right past the wedding altogether. </p><p>And the weddings... oh, the weddings. Everyone had to pair up, which is one of my least favorite things a novelist can do. Some, like Eliar and Andine, were admittedly alright; they're teenagers, so their romance made sense, but Bheid and Leitha are so tired as standalone characters that their pointless hook up was exasperating. I don't know about his other works, but Eddings comes off here as profoundly misunderstanding romance, and women, really - I was especially turned off with his tendency to make women smugly do figure 8's around their idiotic men, as if we as an audience are supposed to laugh along and say, "Oh, <i>men</i>!" Eddings concept of a 'good' woman is nagging, manipulative pedant. Meanwhile, the only female villain is singularly and repeatedly characterized only by how ugly she is - a line of insult that is not ever pointed toward our male antagonists. Gelta is ugly beyond all reason, because that's what makes women bad, I guess; they're all pimply and bulbous and stinky and just ugly ugly ugly, huh? Not to mention how often she is referred to as a bitch, cow, whore, and another host of expletives never raised to her male counterparts. It was legitimately gross to read. </p><p>All of the above mentioned points had already dropped this book's potential rating. But the final straw was the amount of exposition in this book. It actually killed me a little inside. Eddings needs like, three more editors to go through and tell him to cut stuff out. Remember that wedding scene with Bheid I mentioned earlier that could have been good for resolving an emotional arc but was instead skipped? Well, Eddings definitely felt that was too much to write about, and yet doesn't waste a second to tirelessly repeat exposition that we as readers have already been made aware of to other characters. This guy is the king of useless exposition; I cannot count the amount of times the characters lengthy explanations of the in-universe magic or their next move were completely hashed out to us as readers, only to be told to us <i>again</i> whenever a new character arrives and says "wait, so what are you guys doing?" It was quite literally exhausting. Gher explains the concepts of their space and time-hopping not once, not twice, but on <i>eight separate occasions</i>, each time being as lengthy and repetitive as the first. Eddings is also the worst offender of the "show, don't tell" rule that I've read in a long time. We are told Althalus is an awesome thief all the time, although we never see it; we are told Leitha is a jokester, although her "jokes" consist of two occasions where she makes Bheid a little uncomfortable and teases Althalus by awkwardly calling him "daddy" (a thing that is already cringey but even more so when put against her rape-backstory). We're told the evil god wants to rule the world or something, but we never quite get an idea of what it is he wants to do with it. There is so little ever shown that by the end of the book I was still left unsure as to exactly what the god's books were - did they house the respective god's power or essence? Would destroying them destroy the god? Did they each contain different magical powers? Who knows. </p><p>In short, everything about this was hopelessly contrived. This is the type of book I would give to a creative writing class to read to learn how NOT to write a story - if it weren't a laborous, excruciating 800 pages. It really fails on that many fronts. What little possible potential the set-up for this story had was squandered by horrific pacing, endless repetitiveness, bad characterization, cringey depictions of women &amp; outright misogyny, fat-shaming, and a strange penchant for setting up religious straw-man through which Eddings seemed to angrily scream at the audience that religion was stupid and limited and anyone who believed in anything other than what was right in front of them is obviously being conned. I gotta rate this 1/5. I sort of feel bad since a friend offered it to me as an example of the type of story he liked. We're... gonna have to have some words.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/27715535?shelf=fiction">fiction</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/27715535?shelf=recommended">recommended</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/27715535?shelf=tossed-aside">tossed-aside</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/11308439-rachel-langton"></a></section><section><p>107 reviews</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4461720392">January 17, 2022</a></section><div><p>2.5/5. My uncle gave this to me to read, not typically something I would choose for myself. It started off interesting, but it was a long build up for not a big enough ending. </p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8925316-gareth-otton"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>5 books68 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/650928900">June 25, 2013</a></section><div><p>As it was with the Belgariad and the Malloreon, so it shall be with the Redemption of Althalus as well...<p>I read the Rivan Codex some time ago and in it David Eddings admitted that he got into writing fantasy not out of a love of fantasy but because he found a tested formula from reading other fantasy novels that would allow him to write a good book of his own. When most of my fellow fantasy readers stumble across one of Edding's books it is obvious that his formula allows him to do just that, the problem arises however when you read a second novel by the same author. </p><p>David &amp; Leigh Eddings don't just reuse their formula for their novels, they almost duplicate it time and again. So similar are their novels that the Redemption of Althalus was basically the same characters from the Belgariad only with different names. </p><p>In this novel Althalus (or Belgarath) is a thief who catches the attention of the goddess Dweia (or Polgara mixed with Aludr). She teaches him to use the magic of a book by imagining what he wants and saying a magic word from the book which causes his will to become reality (or the will and the word). Once he has mastered this which takes him a few thousand years he goes out into the world to gather to him a rag tag crew of various characters to help them save the world from his evil counterpart Ghend (who is basically Zedar, Ctuchick or Asharak from the the Belgariad). </p><p>This group all have been given certain tasks and they go about them in order to save the world. Amongst this group we find a young arum soldier called Eliah (bascially an alorn like Barak), a spoiled young princess named Andine (Ce'Nedra), a priest named Bheid (Relg) a witch named Lietha (this one is kind of original) and finally a young boy named Ghend who is really young but incredibly intelligent (sound much like Eriond?).</p><p>They proceed through the story at a steady pace enjoying relatively danger free jobs that are never too hard and the outcome which is obvious from the start. Whilst they are about their business, huge portions of the book are given to repeating things we already know as every time a new character is introduced one of the other characters sums up everything that has happened in the book up until that point. I am surprised this book made it past the editors desk as there are whole parts of the story that are literally repeated up to three times (I am talking about Althalus's tale of his time with Gosti Big Belly which is very tiresome by the end of the novel).</p><p>So why then with all these faults do I rate this book 4 stars?</p><p>Simply because I love it. Whilst it holds all of those repetitions and copied elements from Eddings other novels it is still a hugely enjoyable book to read. It is easy to follow, laugh out loud funny at times and like all of Eddings other work it makes you smile and leaves you with a happy feeling inside. </p><p>Like the Belgariad and the Malloreon before it this sits comfortably on my guilty pleasures shelf and being as it was amongst the first fantasy novels I ever read it is a nostalgic favourite of mine. </p><p>Personally I think it lacks the epic scope of the Belgariad but it is still a hugely enjoyable book so I recommend it to all. </p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8925316?shelf=david-eddings">david-eddings</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8925316?shelf=fantasy-read">fantasy-read</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6156573-seth-swanson"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>3 books30 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/249688488">July 5, 2016</a></section><div><p>I just read this again after getting the Kindle edition. Full of fond memories I tried to get back into it making it close to my forth or fifth reading of this book. In the end though, I ended up giving up. I'm not quite sure what it was, that made me take another look at this but I started getting annoyed by the characters and the plot line.<p>My main complaint the last time around was that it was becoming difficult to tell one character from another. All the women were given to say just about the same thing when talking to about or too the men and the same conversation happened in pretty much the same way between multiple characters.</p><p>Granted, there are still things I like about the Redemption of Althalus, but I'm thinking this is where Eddings might have started going downhill. I just could not get into the Dreamers series.</p><p>If you're a fan of Eddings and haven't read it yet, go ahead and check it out from your library. Chances are, it'll be a good enough read, but you'll not a lot of similarities between the characters here and those in the Belgariad or the Mallorean.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/6156573?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/126598-andy"></a></section><section><p>24 reviews</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/105219488">June 1, 2010</a></section><div><p>Wow, this was a big disappointment. I read it several years ago and remembered enjoying it quite a lot. Apparently my tastes have changed. But this was just painful to read. Between the terrible (and repetitive, and explain-y) dialogue, the lack of any sort of tension, the lack of internal plot coherence, ridiculous situations which were supposed to seem severe but were solved within a page or two, and the supposed 'god' who couldn't be bothered to think up the most simplistic ideas until after someone suggested them, this was bordering on painful to read.<p>I liked (and still like) Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series. But there was absolutely no involvement from an editor here. I could have killed 50-100 pages easily just by eliminating repetitive dialogue, over-used catch phrases, or the annoying habit of everyone saying the name of the person to whom they're speaking. Oh, and the over-use of the adverb was awful. Seriously, I knew that things like '"I wonder why that is," Steve said musingly.' just sound bad when I was in middle school.</p><p>If you appreciate good writing style, don't read this.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/126598?shelf=2010">2010</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/138398252">January 4, 2011</a></section><div><p>In my defense, I first read this book when I was twelve, so the sense of wonderment and excitement still stay with me till today,and seeing that I still remember the title of the book, as well as most of the plot, I'd say it made a pretty good impression on me when I first read it. And it's the experience of immersing myself in the story rather than the fancy language and vague visuals. When I finished the book I remember an especially vivid dream I had the same night, set in the world Althalus walked through and watched over. <p>So, in that context, I'd say it is a pretty damned good book.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/69759056-knijenzadnik"></a></section><section><p>134 reviews48 followers</p></section></div><section><section><p><b>Read</b></p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2080908405">August 3, 2017</a></section><div><p>Мил и симпатичен старец беше Дейвид Едингс. Помня, че навремето беше казал в едно интервю как 25 години се е учил да пише преди да издаде първата си книга, за разлика от българския самиздат, който на 20 вече е самиздал три-четири графомански напъна било при Богича, било при баба Весела. Тази книга конкретно му е като best of от другите пор��дици и макар да не е добра колкото тях, може да послужи на много начинающи, да могат поне по формула да пишат, без да се червим после, като ги четем.</p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/924018-izlinda"></a></section><section><p>586 reviews15 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24596915">February 27, 2009</a></section><div><p>I read this book years ago. My sisters and I were big fans of David Eddings and when this book came out, we were excited. While the characters are very much archetypes, I did enjoy it back then. Rereading it now, I may get a little frustrated at repetitions, but it's still an enjoyable read. I have favorite scenes I reread.</p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/924018?shelf=alternate-realties-worlds">alternate-realties-worlds</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/924018?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3826049-alexander-draganov"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>29 books130 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/105585031">September 7, 2018</a></section><div><p>Charming story about a thief who becomes the saviour of the world. The main character is a very likable one, as well as the support cast and as usually Eddings blends his story with a lot of magic and mythology. If you like light, funny fantasy stories, this is a book for you.</p></div><section><ul></ul></section></section></article></div></div>||||I|||| * Home
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 The Redemption of Althalus

 David Eddings , Leigh Eddings

 3.84
 15,990 ratings 577 reviews
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 The Redemption of Althalus is the first stand-alone, single-volume high fantasy saga written by the bestselling husband and wife team of David and Leigh Eddings. Their previous beloved series include the Belgariad, the Malloreon, and the Elenium, and although Althalus is bursting with all the daring escapades their multitude of fans expect, it is also an engaging departure for the authors. Althalus is a grand adventure that is bound to enthrall readers of the authors' previous, multivolume epics, but it features a precision of plot and language that can be achieved only by having an actual resolution.


 Althalus is a young thief and occasional killer known for his skill and incredible luck. A number of capers end without much monetary reward for him, until he stumbles into a shrine built to the fertility goddess Dweia. Soon afterward he meets with the wizard Ghend, who hires him to steal the Book, a magical tome that can be found in the bizarre House at the End of the World. There, Althalus discovers Dweia in the form of a black cat and learns that she has chosen him to aid her in a war against Ghend and her evil brother, the destroyer god Daeva. Together Althalus and Dweia use the power of the Book and gather together a small team of questionable heroes who must battle Ghend's supernatural forces and armies. The thief Althalus can only hope his luck holds out for this one last task, since the very fate of humanity is at stake.


 A stand-alone epic fantasy is a rarity in the modern-day publishing world and a concept that should be embraced more often. The Redemption of Althalus gives us all the action, sorcery, humor, and soaring imagination of a grand series but doesn't leave any loose threads, fractured subplots, or loss of momentum. A great deal of fun action and generally good-natured exploits are punctuated by the authors' usual satire on religion and high society. In one clever turn, Althalus enters a city where the wealthy are forced to hide their riches and live even worse than the poor in order to avoid taxation. Althalus is well-polished and smoothly constructed, with real storytelling muscle and a gratifying finale. The Eddingses should be praised for their willingness to put a cap on this particular story in an effort to offer other wonderfully developed worlds to their readers.

 Genres Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Fantasy High Fantasy Epic Fantasy Adventure Magic
 ...more

 800 pages, Paperback

 First published January 1, 2000

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 About the author

 David Eddings

 182 books 5,151 followers
 David Eddings was an American author who wrote several best-selling series of epic fantasy novels. David Eddings' wife, Leigh Eddings , was an uncredited co-author on many of his early books, but he had later acknowledged that she contributed to them all.

 David Eddings' first books (which were general fiction) sold moderately well. He later switched to writing epic fantasy, a field in which he achieved great success. In a recent interview with sffworld.com, he said: "I don't take orders from readers."

 On January 26, 2007 it was reported that Eddings accidentally burned about a quarter of his office, next door to his house, along with his Excalibur sports car, and the original manuscripts for most of his novels. He was flushing the fuel tank of the car with water when he lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable.

 On February 28, 2007, David Eddings' wife, Leigh Eddings (born Judith Leigh Schall), died following a series of strokes. She was 69.

 David Eddings died on June 2, 2009 at the age of 77.

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 3.84
 15,990 ratings 577 reviews
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 Displaying 1 - 30 of 577 reviews
 Eric
 855 reviews 72 followers
 July 11, 2013
 Let me start by saying I am a huge David Eddings fan. His Belgariad series is one of my favorite fantasy series -- in some ways more so than even the holy The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

 That being said, I couldn't stand this book. He reused, recycled and regurgitated his characters and story-lines from his more successful works and threw them slapdash into this altogether uninspired and uninspiring book.

 If you want to read something good -- no, fantastic -- from Eddings, read the Belgariad , a five-book fantasy series that begins with Pawn of Prophecy .
 fantasy
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 Adam Reinwald
 5 reviews 2 followers
 March 30, 2016
 I read fantasy stories because I like to see epic stories of love and evil played out. I like to think that evil may win, and that good sometimes doesn't have a chance against overwhelming odds. I like to read grand battles where things...you know...happen. I like the evil side to be just as intelligent as the good side; an even match so you question the ending.

 If you like these things, don't read this book.

 It's predictable from start to finish. The "bad guys" as they so often refer to them are, well, stupid. They're incompetent bumbling fools held together by an evil god who never makes an appearance. If they had some substance to them, if you knew their personal motives, if they had some kind of complexity to them that made them interesting or cool, then we would have something!

 The conflict is boring, the battles are boring, the characters are boring. I suffered through 726 pages of boredom in the hopes that the Eddings' would pull something out that would at least salvage this train wreck.

 And the ENDLESS amount of exposition was incredibly tedious. How bad of a writer do you need to be to spell out the story two or three times for your readers? How stupid do you think we are? I don't care to read the entire Althalas and the Wolf Tunic story all over again, dragging it out for a good five pages or so.

 Some have said that this was intended for a younger audience. Can someone point out to me where it says that on the dust cover? Did I miss something? I didn't find it in the young adult section... And even if I had, I'd be disappointed.

 People remark on the characters falling in love, which I'm fine with if there were reasons! Just because two kids are teenagers won't make them fall in love! And a sexy woman and a priest...well, they apparently fall in love because he has pent up lust and she has a challenge. Wow.

 It could have been really cool had it not been so shallow. No one grows. Nothing changes. No surprises. Don't waste your time.
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 M.J.W. Harrington
 Author 1 book 2 followers
 December 20, 2012
 Cheesy, but fantastic.

 The Redemption of Althalus is, to me, David Eddings summed up in a single book. His characters are witty and lovable, the plot is engaging and epic in scale whilst still being simple and easygoing. This book was one of a few that got me into fantasy when I was younger, and while it's probably not the greatest book of all time- it's still a good story well told, if slightly lacking in depth.

 As a standalone novel, it's perfect for the job- everything is all tidied up and resolved by the extremely cheesy finale and the decent length means you're not left with a gaping hole in your chest that begs for more of the book. My copy's been through a lot now, and has suffered the abuse of years of rereading and being carried about in bags that were far less waterproof than anticipated, but every time I pick it back up to read it's like spending time with an old friend whose company I can still enjoy years later.
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 Braden
 1 review 1 follower
 August 30, 2012
 I wasn't really that impressed with this book, which is a shame because I love the other series that I've read by David and Leigh Eddings. This is 800 pages of everybody congratulating each other on how clever they've been. They defeat the enemy at every turn with very little effort, almost like a kid killing ants with a magnifying glass. The lack of real conflict in this book makes it feel sort of like a historical account rather than a fantasy novel. The greatest tragedy to me are the characters. There was absolutely no character progression, growth, anything. They are completely flat. I call this a tragedy because they had such potential! A thief/murderer turned father figure and savior, a mind-reader who was nearly burned at the stake by people who accused her of being a witch, a priest struggling with his faith (who falls for the "witch"), a boy genius, and a teenage queen who falls in love with the soldier who killed her father in war all gathered together to save the universe. That to me sounds like a group of characters to get excited about! But no. Nothing. They are each individually used for their abilities and then basically forgotten (except to be clever or congratulate someone else on how clever they've been...ugh). What's worse is that I know the Eddings' know how to create compelling characters. The Belgariad and The Malloreon are full of them! I honestly don't know what went wrong with this one, but I'm just going to chalk it up as a loss and try not to let it tarnish my opinion of these authors as I begin The Elenium.
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 anenko
 82 reviews 2 followers
 February 18, 2008
 Redemption of Althalus is all of Eddings' worst tendencies condescend into one novel. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the book is horrible, but there's no spark to the story, and no life to the characters.

 One of the big problems with The Redemption of Althalus--and with Eddings' novels in general--is how convenient everything is for the heroes. The heroes just happen to stumble across the very person they need to recruit; the heroes just happen to overhear the villains discussing vital military matters' everything "just happens." Althalus tells the reader how cunning and violent the villains are, but in practice, they're inept morons. There's no sense of urgency or desperation; we *know* whose going to win from the get-go.

 The reader is also subjected to frequent exposition dumps; having the same information repeated to a different character every several chapters isn't especially exciting. While there are some clever lines of dialogue, the characters aren't as witty as they--and the author--believe them to be. The banter feels forced and tired, and echoes the jokes from previous series.

 There's something subtly off-putting about the way the female characters are written. I dislike how they are frequently "arch" or "sly;" the women come across as smugly superior when dealing with emotionally/romantically inept men. I dislike the idea that all men are morons when it comes to women, and that all women are schemers out to snare men. I hate how the lone female villain's appearance is her main characteristic; she is repeatedly referred to as a "cow" and a "hag" by the characters and within the narration itself.
 fantasy-and-paranormal
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 Venus Smurf
 166 reviews 10 followers
 July 20, 2013
 This is easily my favorite book of all time. I love David Eddings, because his characters are always so sarcastic and funny, but Althalus tops them all. After all, what's not to love about an assassin and thief who spends his time arguing with goddesses? Or a princess who just might be knife happy? This book is clever, funny, complicated, and just plain fun to read.

 This is the book I tell everyone to get for themselves, because even though I want the world to read it, I'm much too possessive of my own copy to lend it out.
 books-to-buy-right-now pretty-assassin-man read-me-read-me-now
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 Freya Marske
 Author 13 books 1,539 followers
 August 27, 2016
 Consider this a lesson in Not Revisiting The Problematic Faves Of Our Youth; I hadn't read this since high school, and remembered it vaguely as falling in the heist/con genre (which, vaguely, it does). It's about a thief who gets seduced into the service of a goddess and goes around collecting a ragtag bunch of misfits, you know the drill, so that they can defeat another inexplicable bunch of misfits who are SUPER EVIL and working for EVIL and they're all ugly and 'primitive' and 'insane' and sometimes coded as posh British (??) and did I mention EVIL. Fairly standard late-90s fantasy quest stuff.

 THINGS I HAD NOT, UNFORTUNATELY, REMEMBERED ABOUT EDDINGS:
 - heterocentrism and weird, coy gender essentialism to a truly risible degree
 - epithets up the wazoo
 - every single possible variant of the word 'said'. sometimes used all on the same page. I have never felt so fond of 'said' as after a chapter's worth of exclaiming, objecting, replying, asking, agreeing, chuckling, demanding, protesting, noting, hissing and explaining.
 - sometimes they even had MULTIPLE ADVERBS ATTACHED
 - oh god so many adverbs
 - so. much. unnecessary. banter. it's not even bad! it's just repetitive! and, not unlike a Joss Whedon show, every single character has the exact same Banter Voice.

 This is a 900 page book and a good editor could probably have shaved 1/3 of the word count off, easy.

 Anyway. I reread it. I felt fondly nostalgic, and I enjoyed many parts of the plot. I will now be donating the book to a charity fair without much regret, and I will probably be even more ruthless than usual with adverbs and dialogue tags in my own current projects, because OH MY GOD. I think I now have an allergy.
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 Cameron
 2 reviews
 November 6, 2016

 Have you ever wanted to see what it’s like for someone to go insane from listening to an audiobook? I invite you to stick around and find out.

 First and foremost: fuck this book. It is astounding in its awfulness. I consider it a crash course on how not to write a fantasy epic. Secondly, I’d like to suggest an alternate title: "The Gary Stus, the Cardboard Villain, and the Story of How the Former Repeatedly and Unerringly Curbstomped the Later at Every Turn – Hence Ruining Any Sense of Narrative Heft or Conflict in the Story." It's a little bulky and I’m Looking to trim it down some, but honestly I think the current working version is already good enough to send to the Eddings estate for whenever they reach into the depths of hell for a new print run.

 I wanted to put this book behind me. I wanted to pretend that it never happened; to repress the memory of it and move on with my life, but even half a year later, I can't. The overwhelming awfulness of this 'novel' weighs on my mind, and I don't think I can move past it without doing the GLOBAL public service of leaving a review for this monstrosity.
 What follows is an editorialized collection of the rants and messages I typed out for a friend whilst I was reading this... thing. Hence, it might lack coherence at some points, flitting from criticism to criticism without any overarching thread, but I assure you that it will still provide much the same horrific entertainment as watching a train crash in slow motion. If you give a flying fuck about spoilers, you are welcome to stop right here, and expose yourself to this infohazardous piece of shit without any further warning from me - and if this is so, then you are welcome to the brain cancer that awaits within its pages.

 I loved David Eddings' Belgariad as a younger reader. You wouldn't think that would be at all relevant, but I also loved The Redemption of Althalus too. I mean, why wouldn't I have? It was a single-tome fantasy epic! It was like the Belgariad condensed into a single, sprawling novel! The issue, of course, was that it wasn't like the Belgariad, it basically was the Belgariad. The same character archetypes that I remember, following the same story arc I remember.
 As an adult reader, I hate this book so much that I refuse to read the Belgariad again, for fear that I will find that I hate it just as much. I really can’t stress enough just how much I despise The Redemption of Althalus. Let’s just get started with the rant-view



 At first, I was resistant to recognizing the shittiness of this book due to the sheer power of my nostalgia goggles, but even at the outset I had bones to pick. Just watch as my critique starts soft, and slowly degrades into full-blown rage-induced insanity.
 It's got over-explain-and-repeat-so-younger-readers-don't-get-lost syndrome so bad that one would be forgiven for thinking it was an English translation of a manga novelization or something (I activate my pot of greed card!). And it broadcasts the character relationships so hard I'm worried a lighthouse might dive out of my earbuds and skewer my brain.
 The characters are very trope reliant. Not two dimensional, but definitely less than three dimensional – except for one character, who is definitely 2D. All his dialogue in the story consists of either [say something priestly] or [say "that's impossible" when the character who is LITERALLY A GODDESS offhandedly mentions something that conflicts with his faith that he's pretty much turned away from anyway].
 Oh, and the narrator kinda bugs me. He voices one female character who I always imagined to have a kinda sultry voice with a... crone-ish voice instead. Every other woman in the story is voiced like a caricature of an overdramatic housewife
 Well, the weird thing is that I'm still enjoying it, for the bare most-part, but I wonder if I would hate it if I wasn't wearing nostalgia goggles.



 For the next few chapters, that was the extent of my dislike for the novel, but oh, just watch how it changed. Watch how mere words managed to reduce a man to a subhuman beast.
 bTW the nostalgia vision has worn off for Redemption of Althalus - or should I say: "The Unchanging Characterization of Gary Stu" - and I fucking hate it now. I'm like 3/4 through, and I'll be able to power through to the end with my shift tomorrow. I Consider it the audiobook equivalent of hate fucking. It's horrible and it'll end up leaving your day exponentially worse, but you're gonna do it anyway.
 Every plot point in this book (EVERY FUCKING ONE) can be condensed to either "A thing happened, and then it turned out not to be a big deal" or "A thing happened, and then it kinda just resolved itself."

 "Oh no! We burnt all of the cropfields to gimp the arm we were fighting, but now that we've totally curbstomped them for the second time - without the absence of crops playing into it at all - out subjects are all going to starve when winter comes in a few weeks! We'll have to bankrupt ourselves importing grain!"
 -three chapters later-
 "Well, it turns out that the southerners had the best harvest they've had in years, so the grain is going very cheap! I also buy in unconnected bulk purchases so that nobody realizes how dire things are and skin me for it. (This part's a literal quote up next:) I've moved forty tonnes of grain, but I've only paid for 30!" What’s even more ridiculous is that the time of year and price of gold means literally nothing anyway, because one character constantly manipulates time and can organize time travel freely, while another has an effectively limitless supply of gold for no real reason. Hence, there was no reason to contrive grain being senselessly cheap at all, except to assure the reader that "LOOK EVERYTHING IS FINE AND ALWAYS WILL BE" Oh, and nevermind how fucking illogical it is that the harvest was somehow perfect that year, when the inciting incident for the plot involves growing glaciers locking up the world's water and causing global droughts.

 "Oh no, the illusion million-strong army outside we were pretending to surrender to in an elaborate ruse to draw the enemy leaders close to us has suddenly been replaced by a REAL million-strong army because FANTASY MAGIC. Looks like things are actually not going to go perfectly our way for once and this is actually a real surrender. Oh, wait. One of the bad guys just got stabbed and died, which made the entire army disappear and instantly turned it into another hero-wins curbstomp. YAY.” Seriously, fuck this book.



 By the end, I hated every fucking character and wanted to physically wrench them from the book and Make them understand just how much pain they were causing me. I'm honest to Christ not kidding. Every piece of dialogue involved over-explaining something and repeating it at least once, if not twice, for no fucking reason at all – normally capped off by a round of multiple "are you sure this is a good idea?"
 Laytha was the worst for this. Throughout the entire book, she existed to basically support ANY IDEA that was uttered. Almost every time, with a simple "it's an interesting idea" or "sounds like it's worth a try". That was all she ever contributed to anything at all, unless the scene was focusing on her
 And then there’s Gher. Motherfucking Gher. That little fuck. I hate him the most. I despise him as Satan despises God. Every fibre of my being is dedicated to loathing him. Part of it was helped by the FUCKING AIGOUABEGAIBGAEG BECAUSE THERE IS NO WORD TO DESCRIBE IT voice the narrator gave him, but the rest of it is just because of how he exists in the story. He shits out literally every idea for the middle two quarters of the story, bar one. Over explains it, of course, and then everyone spends ten lines musing over it the exact same way every fucking time and then congratulating him on how clever he is.
 There is so much more wrong with Gher but I literally lack the capacity to articulate it. It's like a giant mush of hatred balled up in my head, with individual details bubbling to the surface and then diving back to the core before I can render the concept as words. I hate Gher so fucking much that I’m actually going to just stop talking about him because it pains me to think of him.

 But on the note of characters praising one-another: half the dialogue in the story is everyone congratulating each other on how fucking clever they are. The other 50% is divided roughly as so:
 10% Althalus retelling the same stories multiple times throughout the story with sometimes no changes.
 10% Althalus convincing everyone ever to do everything he says within seconds
 10% Dweia revealing something offhandedly about the details of their seemingly limitless magical capabilities, and either Bheid or Gher immediately telling her with absolute certainty what the "truth" is even though she is LITERALLY AN OMNISCIENT GOD AND YOU HAVE AN EXCHANGE LIKE THIS EVERY FUCKING CHAPTER.
 10% inexplicably repeated jokes and lines that are either really shitty callbacks or really shitty attempts at running jokes. (You wouldn't think this is worth mentioning, but part of what broke me while reading this book was how, with this point combined with all the other things I've written, it felt like I was reading the same general thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER)
 And finally, 10% conveniently or magically overheard enemy planning, always discussed in breadth, and detail by two people who both already know the full details, and hence would never, EVER have reason to talk about the entirety of their immediate plans in excruciating detail to each other – especially as if they are both explaining it to each other for the first time



 And it’s about here that I petered out. Even half a year later, I can't bring myself to elaborate any further. Hopefully, I’ve managed to impress on you how fundamentally bad this book is. If I develop cancer in my life time, I don’t care if it’s because I just went swimming in a pool of nuclear waste; I will attribute it singularly to having read this book.

 David and Leigh Eddings: what the fuck happened?

 This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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 a-special-kind-of-trash
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 Casey
 2 reviews
 April 20, 2014
 I love this book, I find it a refreshing read in which cinematic battles are not the method of fixing the problem.

 I do however acknowledge the complaints of those who have given this book one and two stars. It is the same tropes Eddings used in all of his series, simply condensed down into one book.

 Personally I enjoy the characters, the setting and the reality of their situation. I also enjoyed the fact that their conflict is one of many in the universe, and it would only be important for the time they were living it. Once their conflict was done, it was no longer important, a refreshing take on the importance of a hero.

 Althalus is simply one of my all time favorite characters in existence and will continue to be so, his habit of looking at everything through the lens of humor is one that I find interesting, when many modern hero's are rather intense. He is more laid back and relaxed about things, though even he has his limits.

 This may be my favorite book, but that doesn't mean that it is perfect, yes it does have it's flaws. Still, for the unconventional read, the character growth and multitudes of likable characters, it is hard to trump. I would have to say nearly all of it's flaws come into play because it is one book, but with enough ideas to last for two or three. Personally I think that would have ruined the pacing, but that is just me.

 I highly recommend this book, I highly recommend Eddings, and I personally feel that if one has never read Eddings material, this would make for a great entry piece if they do not want to manage a six or twelve book series respectively.
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 Johanna Karlsson
 77 reviews 1 follower
 April 7, 2020
 Eddings was once my favorite author (though The Redemption of Althalus was never a favorite), but I think I've grown apart from his writing. This book has several problems, but I'll focus on the two main reasons I did not like this book:

 First: there is no tension in the entire book. Or maybe there's one at page 630 and that gets resolved within two pages. I like when it goes well for the good guys, but the bad guys in this book is so stupid you never feel like anything is at stake.

 Second: even though the female characters in this book has agency (somewhat, at least), they're stereotypical written and does a lot of talking of clothes (alas "of screen", otherwise it might have been more okay) and scolding and doting over the male characters. Additional to this the world described in this book is sexist. It gets really tiresome after a while.

 But apparently I read all 913 pages, so it was not totally bad: some of the characters are fun and sometimes the interaction between them is fun to read.

 (But mostly I got through it because I'm stubborn and this is probably the last time I read a book by Eddings)
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 Tove Selenius
 137 reviews 22 followers
 November 26, 2018
 Ah, well. Somewhere in some private dimension, a sad twelve-year-old that was once me is content. It was worth it for that, I guess.
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 Geoffery Crescent
 150 reviews 5 followers
 February 21, 2017
 Whenever anyone asks me who my favourite author is, I'll normally trot out the answer David Eddings without a second thought. Sure, the Lord of the Rings is my favourite book but David, and his lesser acknowledged wife Leigh, wrote almost twenty books that I happily count among my favourites. This includes the five book series The Belgariad and its sequel series The Malloreon, trilogy The Elenium and its companion series The Tamuli, as well as a bunch of prequel and stand-alone novels. Of course, they also wrote the high-concept but slightly ropey The Dreamers series, the cliched but weirdly enjoyable Regina's Song and two non-genre novels that we'll forgive because almost everyone's first few novels are a bit shitey. And then we get to the subject of my review, 2000's stand alone fantasy novel The Redemption of Althalus, which has literally no excuses for being badly written, riddled with poorly executed tropes and in so many ways an inferior copy of Eddings' previous stories that I've started to wonder if he was really just a two-trick pony.

 There are two basic types of fantasy series, that is they tend to be either character driven or plot driven. Of course, there are plenty of examples where an author has managed to do both, although these often tend to be enormous, rambling, unwieldy and, in George R R Martin's case, unfinished.

 Sorry George.

 Eddings' books normally stick firmly on the side of the characters, with his plots being mostly arbitrary quests to save the universe from one evil god or another, with a couple of prophecies, enchanted crystals and chosen ones thrown in for good measure. Redemption is no different. Here the evil God Daeva wants to rule the world and revert it back to a pre-historic state, which has interesting archaeological implications but probably wouldn't do much good in the long run. His sister Dweia is out to stop him. They have a brother as well, Deiwos, but he basically does sweet fuck all. Naturally both Daeva and Dweia have a selection of prophesied chosen ones at hand to help them out, and this is where things turn sour. See, even though the plots in The Belgariad and The Elenium are fairly tropey and flimsy, they have both have fantastic casts of characters that make the books worth reading. What Redemption has is a bunch of expies. In other words, they're just recycled characters from Eddings' previous novels.

 Dweia is the beautiful, whimsical goddess, equal parts Polgara and Aphrael. Sadly she lacks the former's character development and maternal strength and unlike the latter without childhood to explain some of her more irritating tendencies, she comes across across as bland, infallible and annoying. She's too perfect, and no-one likes a perfect character. She also has "limbs rounded with such perfection it made his (Althalus') heart ache." I'm not sure why having rounded limbs is that important, but Eddings goes on about it a hell of a lot so it must be. She also spends a good deal of the time as a cat called Emerald which is...okay I guess, but it makes her relationship with Althalus downright creepy. In The Belgariad, Belgarath and Poledra spent time as wolves as well but they were either wolf lovers, or people lovers. In Redemption we just have scenes of a bloke flirting with a talking cat. It's weird.

 Althalus is equally problematic. He's clearly supposed to be a lovable rogue of the sort Eddings normally does so well but again he feels like he's been cobbled together from spare parts. He has none of Belgarath's likability or charm, none of Silk's vulnerability or quick wit and none of Stragen's complexity or back story. He's just sort of...there! He's far too keen on murdering to be in any way sympathetic and several of the traits ascribed to him in the story's opening are never shown in the actual novel. Eddings completely ignores the rule of "show, don't tell," instead having numerous characters remind us that Althalus likes to act in a certain way, but never actually shows him doing it. Case in point: when Leitha points out that "trust me," is Althalus' favourite phrase despite the fact that he has never once used it in the novel. Except...that's Silk's favourite phrase. The only phrases that Althalus seems to enjoy using are calling people, "old boy," and "neighbour." Which are Martel and Sparhawk's favourite phrases respectively. Getting the picture? Oh, and the redemption of the novel's title? It never really happens. Sure, Althalus gives up his life as a thief to live with Dweia, but his last act in the book is too criticise her for getting fat because her abdomen was ever so slightly rounded. Sheesh, what a jerk. It's okay though, because she's actually pregnant. Not fat. The very thought... Still, he feels slight remorse at having to trick a man he respects, not enough remorse not to trick him but still. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

 The secondary characters don't fare much better either. Ghend is an expy of Talen, a cute kid with a penchant for theft, but with none of the sass. It probably din't help that I pictured him looking exactly like Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menance, for some reason. Leitha is just Xanetia, the pale beauty with a gift that's more of a curse, only with added rape as a back story, because who doesn't love that? She's also supposed to have a "twisted sense of humour," although once again this is only ever talked about and not shown, and she has a bizarre habit of calling Althalus "Daddy," which was blamed on the rape for some reason, either way it's just kind of odd. Eliar is Kalten, the dumb blonde muscle with a big appetite, which leads onto a very peculiar feeder/feedee relationship, in other words, he has a lady who feeds him all the time, but this is okay because Eliar miraculously isn't a fatty. That wouldn't be okay. I'll get on to that in a minute if it feels like I'm labouring the point. Which I am. Anyway. Eliar's *cough* feeder *cough* is Andine, only she's really just a less adorable version of Ce'Nedra, a tiny, beautiful princess, sorry "Arya" (Game of Thrones was first published in 1998 by the way, I'll let you work that one out for yourself) with a flair for dramatics and a loud voice. She also spends a ridiculous amount of time away from her kingdom but unh...no-one seems particularly bothered by this. It's almost like we don't even need a monarchy... So far, so similar. The only really original character in there is Bheid, although he's a monk and you loose serious imagination points if you have a monk and you just call him Bheid.

 The bad guys are a little better, but only because they're bland, rather than copied. In fact, looking back over their names again I can't even remember which was which, except for Khnom and Gelta. I felt sorry for Khnom because he didn't really do anything that evil but he still got sucked into oblivion. Gelta sticks out because she's a chunky, acne scarred lady and as a chunky, acne scarred lady myself I obviously thought hurrah, at last someone I can cosplay as!

 Except...she's never called a woman. She's a bitch, or a cow, or a whore or any other derogatory female slur you care to come up with. This is due in part to the fact she's evil, but note that none of the male baddies ever come in for this sort of language, and in part because she's a warrior and women can't possibly be warriors. Way to break down the barriers there, Eddings. Actually, way to backtrack on all the female warrior characters in your previous four series. Mirtai would be spinning in her grave. Furthermore an extraordinary amount of time is given over to discussing how hideously ugly Gelta is. Notice how I mentioned how attractive all the nice ladies are? You can't be ugly and good in the Redemption universe. I know that's pretty much a fantasy staple but do they really have to go on about Gelta's pock-marked face every time she appears on the fricking page? There's only one other character that comes under this much scrutiny for their appearance and his name is Gosti. Gosti Big-Belly.

 Gosti is the secondary antagonist of the novel, a clan chief with a reputation for being rich but actually has very little to his name. He gets swindled by Althalus, once in the past and once in an alternate time-line because Eddings, much like Stephen Moffat, tries to get away with being cleverer than he is by going timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly. Gosti has two defining attributes, one is obviously his enormous fatness and the other is his stupidity; the two naturally go hand-in-hand. In all honesty the bad guys and the good guys could start a little club together called the No Fatties where they all go to bitch about gross fat guys are because this is essentially what happens every time Gosti appears. And, get this, Gosti is actually proud and happy to be fat! The name Big-Belly is self ascribed. And everyone thinks this is pretty much the worst thing to have ever happened. I mean, sure, Althalus killed a man because he liked the look of his jacket but Gosti is fat and happy what a terrible fucking example of humanity.

 So that's the characters dealt with. The plot? Well, like the rest of Eddings' novels, it's fairly nothingy. There's a long drawn out war in which a lovable, but minor, character dies, all of the bad guys get obliterated and then all the adults pair up nicely together at the end because women love marriage, men love sex, but won't do it outside of marriage, and absolutely no-one is gay. Duh. This might sound harsh and to be fair similar criticisms could be levelled at the amount of neat, hetero couples in The Tamuli but at least in that they hung a lampshade on it! Redemption is just a limp war/space-time travel/prophecy yarn with a bunch of expies milling around waiting to be injected with character. It never happens. The whole thing reads like Eddings' fan-fiction. It's over-long, glacially paced and predictable and it's the one damn thing that makes me think twice about listing David Eddings as my favourite author. Now, if anyone needs me, I'll be in down at Faldor's Farm. Trust me.
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 Karl Stark di Grande Inverno
 502 reviews 17 followers
 March 31, 2016
 Ridondante.
 Sarebbe potuto durare la metà delle pagine, e gli avrei dato una stella in più.
 Così è noioso, noioso, noioso.
 Il problema più grande è che i personaggi continuano a ripetere gli stessi dialoghi più volte, raccontando un mucchio di volte le stesse cose.
 Questo all'inizio non si nota molto, ma dopo la metà questo difetto assume proporzioni gigantesche.
 Gli stessi personaggi poi, sono caratterizzati veramente poco, sia psicologicamente sia fisicamente: quelli principali avrebbero delle potenzialità, ma le loro azioni spesso sono guidate in modo illogico; in più non hanno particolari approfondimenti psicologici. Quelli secondari si dividono in militari tutti uguali fra loro, anche nei nomi, e "nemici al servizio del Dio del Male", senza qualità particolari se non il fatto di essere brutti, sporchi & cattivi.
 Ah, tra l'altro il Dio del Male, che viene chiamato in causa ogni cinque pagine, non si vede nemmeno.
 La trama è di una banalità allucinante: piatta, lineare, prevedibile... nessun sussulto, nessun colpo di scena. L'unica trovata decente, e cioè le porte magiche che dal quartier generale dei buoni permettono di raggiungere qualsiasi punto dello spazio e del tempo per fregare i nemici, viene usata a sproposito. Invece di dosare bene questa idea, gli autori ne abusano, rendendo virtualmente invincibili ed onnipotenti i buoni, e facendo fare ai cattivi la figura dei fessi, sempre.
 fantasy
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 MarsianMan
 262 reviews
 December 24, 2008
 Probably my favorite book from David and Leigh Eddings. It is a one book epic about a thief. Althalus has been having a run of bad luck when he is hired to steal a book (whatever that is) from the House at the End of the World. He thinks he has died or gone mad when he enters a room, hears a cat speak to him and notices the door no longer exists.

 I don't really know what to say other than I really love this book.
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 Charlton
 133 reviews
 May 15, 2022
 The book was good, it wasn't what I expected from Eddings. It was a light hearted read but with some great characters. There was thievery, cunning, war, and the one thing that might be the switch for a lot of people. It deals with gods, and time leaps, and space jumps.
 adventure fantasy fiction
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 Betawolf
 372 reviews 1,473 followers
 January 10, 2019
 Eddings was always a comfort-read for me in my teens. It was something about the epic scope, the moral pragmatism and the supportive, close-knit team of friends and family -- the recurring tropes of his books are just easy, familiar tones. Althalus is the one-book Eddings experience, which I pick up again now after having several times used it as the poster for Eddings' other work. Enough time has passed that I've forgotten most of the plot detail, so it's about as close to a fresh read as I can get.

 It's strange what you don't notice. The plot is of the calibre I expected, with the many different locations, the high-level magic-infused war-planning and the varied (but somewhat passive) supporting cast. The younger me apparently got caught by this and couldn't see the sometimes painfully simple writing, or the very troublesome morality of the `good guys'. According to this last, all means are justified, all harm permissible, all prior desires or beliefs must be cast aside, because a mind-altering deity tells you so after having abducted you against your will. There is a lot of objectively bad behaviour that gets okayed in here on very flimsy grounds. In a way, this is realistic -- we are good because we are Us and not Them -- but I'm not sure Eddings or his readers take the story in those bleak terms.

 Still readable, but probably less so than it was for the younger me. Sometimes soppy, sometimes annoying (those dream sequences), often a little too twee. But there are some fun uses of magic, and some nice military campaigns, and if you can quiet the critical voice pointing out what is wrong with it, there's a sense of purpose and belonging on offer.
 fantasy fiction
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 Lexis
 23 reviews
 August 8, 2010
 Redemption of Althalus is not something I can compare to other fantasy books. This is because, generally speaking, I don't read these kind of books. The epic fantasies.

 For the pure and simple reason that I have nothing to compare it to, I'm going to say that Redemption of Althalus is a good, clean, fun book. There are a sea of characters for readers to choose from, including the self-proclaimed best thief in the world, Althalus, and Gher, the eight-year-old with the brightest ideas on the planet.

 Many don't seem to realise this, but this book was written by David and his wife, who as well as having a slightly darker sense of humour brings in a whole host of kickass female characters to enjoy.

 As I have read in other reviews, this book's plot leaves much to be desired. I understand. It is hardly thrilling from a tactics point of view. The villains are notorious, but idiotic. I get it. But if you are the kind of person who doesn't usually read epic fantasies and enjoys to chuckle at the small pieces of dialogue that make books like these fun, then this is for you.

 The books intimidating size daunts them, but I believe this book would be a fantastic read for 10-12 year olds.

 From a girl who can't read Tolkien (the shame of it!), I think that Redemption of Althalus is epic enough and fantasical enough for me.
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 Ron
 Author 1 book 134 followers
 May 29, 2019
 “I don’t want to contaminate a good story with truth. That’d be a violation of my artistic integrity.”

 A fun read. Sort of a tongue-in-cheek parody of epic fantasy. World’s great thief (he thinks), competitive divine siblings, threats to end reality. Faint echoes of Star Wars. Didn’t notice much redemption of Althalus, but who cares?

 “It’s not the writing that changes, pet. It’s the reading.” “Wait a minute. Doesn’t the writing mean the same to everybody?” “Of course it doesn’t. Everybody reads any writing gets a different meaning from it.”

 Reads like a first draft—wordy and repetitious, but fun. Many modern writers would have published this as three (at least) books.

 “Can you pretend to be stupid?” “Ma’am, I’m a country boy from the highlands of Arum. We invented stupid.”

 Laced with colloquialisms: “I’m getting a little too old for this.” “Am I starting to hear rumblings of mutiny here?” “Rumble-rumble-rumble. Satisfied?” “You have a nice war now, you hear?” “You’ve got that right.” “Trying to bamboozle me.” “It’s sending them right up the wall.” “Let’s get cracking.” “Moving right along here.” “Have a nice day, hear?”

 “Powerful men can command the actions of weaker men, but not their thoughts or beliefs.”

 Enjoy.

 “Do men ever grow up?” “Not if we can avoid it, no.”
 ebook fantasy humor
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 Marsha Ramnanan
 Author 5 books 12 followers
 February 17, 2018
 This was such a strange little traipse through a world in which 3 Gods fought (or passively sat by) over the future of reality. Characters were quirky and original and the story itself was a good one.
 To be fair - I don't know why it didn't appeal to me more.
 Maybe it was because Althalus himself went from being such a rogue to being an extension of Dweia - even while trying to have his own voice, or maybe it was the neat pairings off that was a little too...well - neat. Or it could be that evil was too clearly evil and I don't feel like that's ever really the case.
 It was a good read and I would recommend it for a nice rainy evening - but it won't be one of those books that I re-read when I have that 'want to visit with all friends' feeling, if you know what I mean?
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 Carry
 71 reviews 12 followers
 March 16, 2011
 A really good book! I like the "doors" and I loved every follower of Althalus and "Emmy". I liked the dream concept, the the old english was getting on my nerves sometime... especially when it lasted long!
 Very good book though, I'm going to look for other books by these authors when I'm out of reading material.

 If you want to read a refreshing fantasy novel, pick this one!
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 Allison Hurd
 Author 3 books 679 followers
 March 28, 2017
 I dunno. This story was great the first two times I read it in the Belgariad and the Mallorean. But somehow, I didn't like it as much with the third set of the same but renamed characters.
 fantasy man-author
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 William
 112 reviews 9 followers
 January 7, 2023
 It's a little awkward when a book is recommended to you and you find yourself coming out of it seething. Eddings has some wit and fun with his world, which is more than I can say for many fantasy authors who are so hell-bent on mimicking Tolkien that any sort of levity is a sin. Unfortunately, that's about where my positives for the book end.

 I see a lot of reviews here which decry this work for having familiar Eddings tropes condensed into a predictable mess, and without even reading another of his works I can say that is probably the case. The villains are bland and portrayed as barely possessing two brain cells between them, making them all (with the exception of one undead dude) completely non-threatening to our heroes. There is never a sense of urgency in a plot which allows its heroes to time and space hop, deliver armies whenever needed, retrieve endless funds, etc. The attempts Eddings does have to create tension only barely succeed - Eliar being clubbed on the back of the head, for example, limits the groups space-hopping abilities for a bit, but the heroes' army is never put in any real state of duress. They continue to pretty easily hold off the idiotic assaults of the enemy, retreating to a conveniently placed mountain for no reason other than to really beat it into the villain's heads that they are absolutely as stupid as they act. In another scene, our heroes burn the crops ahead of the invading army in order to starve them out, and then have to deal with the consequences of that food shortage for the land they are trying to protect... until surprise! The neighboring country actually had a great harvest, and we'll just use some of that endless money to fill the granaries! Voila! No problems! The entire book is a sad hodge-podge of such instances back to back, making for slow pacing and confounding predictability. Something always goes a bit wrong, only to be corrected with no consequence. Oh, the enemies got a giant army in your city and you guys can't fend them off? Stab one guy and they all turn out to be an illusion that just poofs! Yikes, dude.

 Beyond this, every character was lackluster and confusing in their motivations. The seven main characters are reductive to the point of parody (Eliar likes food & soldiering, Gher is an original thinker and resident expositionist, Bheid has a sense of righteous justice and cannot for the life of him accept reality, etc.) This works passably with some like Andine, but makes the others fall horribly flat. Entire character arcs are introduced and then never resolved. Althalus, our titular hero, doesn't even have an arc - he's still the same sneaky, okay-with-murdering, money-loving "rogue" by the end as he was at the beginning, only now he likes a cat-goddess. Okay. That's not really worthy of a title like The Redemption of Althalus, but surely that was just a misstep, right? A really big, glaring, giant-font mistake... oh dear. But the most egregious example to me was Bheid's despair after taking his first kill, in which he essentially mopes for a bit and is just told to get over it and does - showing no shift in perspective or lesson learned. They even set up a scene where he is going to officiate a wedding, where I thought perhaps Eddings would give him a moment in his speech where he addressed death and life and his newfound perspective in order to let us understand it - but they just cut right past the wedding altogether.

 And the weddings... oh, the weddings. Everyone had to pair up, which is one of my least favorite things a novelist can do. Some, like Eliar and Andine, were admittedly alright; they're teenagers, so their romance made sense, but Bheid and Leitha are so tired as standalone characters that their pointless hook up was exasperating. I don't know about his other works, but Eddings comes off here as profoundly misunderstanding romance, and women, really - I was especially turned off with his tendency to make women smugly do figure 8's around their idiotic men, as if we as an audience are supposed to laugh along and say, "Oh, men!" Eddings concept of a 'good' woman is nagging, manipulative pedant. Meanwhile, the only female villain is singularly and repeatedly characterized only by how ugly she is - a line of insult that is not ever pointed toward our male antagonists. Gelta is ugly beyond all reason, because that's what makes women bad, I guess; they're all pimply and bulbous and stinky and just ugly ugly ugly, huh? Not to mention how often she is referred to as a bitch, cow, whore, and another host of expletives never raised to her male counterparts. It was legitimately gross to read.

 All of the above mentioned points had already dropped this book's potential rating. But the final straw was the amount of exposition in this book. It actually killed me a little inside. Eddings needs like, three more editors to go through and tell him to cut stuff out. Remember that wedding scene with Bheid I mentioned earlier that could have been good for resolving an emotional arc but was instead skipped? Well, Eddings definitely felt that was too much to write about, and yet doesn't waste a second to tirelessly repeat exposition that we as readers have already been made aware of to other characters. This guy is the king of useless exposition; I cannot count the amount of times the characters lengthy explanations of the in-universe magic or their next move were completely hashed out to us as readers, only to be told to us again whenever a new character arrives and says "wait, so what are you guys doing?" It was quite literally exhausting. Gher explains the concepts of their space and time-hopping not once, not twice, but on eight separate occasions, each time being as lengthy and repetitive as the first. Eddings is also the worst offender of the "show, don't tell" rule that I've read in a long time. We are told Althalus is an awesome thief all the time, although we never see it; we are told Leitha is a jokester, although her "jokes" consist of two occasions where she makes Bheid a little uncomfortable and teases Althalus by awkwardly calling him "daddy" (a thing that is already cringey but even more so when put against her rape-backstory). We're told the evil god wants to rule the world or something, but we never quite get an idea of what it is he wants to do with it. There is so little ever shown that by the end of the book I was still left unsure as to exactly what the god's books were - did they house the respective god's power or essence? Would destroying them destroy the god? Did they each contain different magical powers? Who knows.

 In short, everything about this was hopelessly contrived. This is the type of book I would give to a creative writing class to read to learn how NOT to write a story - if it weren't a laborous, excruciating 800 pages. It really fails on that many fronts. What little possible potential the set-up for this story had was squandered by horrific pacing, endless repetitiveness, bad characterization, cringey depictions of women & outright misogyny, fat-shaming, and a strange penchant for setting up religious straw-man through which Eddings seemed to angrily scream at the audience that religion was stupid and limited and anyone who believed in anything other than what was right in front of them is obviously being conned. I gotta rate this 1/5. I sort of feel bad since a friend offered it to me as an example of the type of story he liked. We're... gonna have to have some words.
 fiction recommended tossed-aside
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 Rachel Langton
 107 reviews
 January 17, 2022
 2.5/5. My uncle gave this to me to read, not typically something I would choose for myself. It started off interesting, but it was a long build up for not a big enough ending.
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 Gareth Otton
 Author 5 books 68 followers
 June 25, 2013
 As it was with the Belgariad and the Malloreon, so it shall be with the Redemption of Althalus as well...

 I read the Rivan Codex some time ago and in it David Eddings admitted that he got into writing fantasy not out of a love of fantasy but because he found a tested formula from reading other fantasy novels that would allow him to write a good book of his own. When most of my fellow fantasy readers stumble across one of Edding's books it is obvious that his formula allows him to do just that, the problem arises however when you read a second novel by the same author.

 David & Leigh Eddings don't just reuse their formula for their novels, they almost duplicate it time and again. So similar are their novels that the Redemption of Althalus was basically the same characters from the Belgariad only with different names.

 In this novel Althalus (or Belgarath) is a thief who catches the attention of the goddess Dweia (or Polgara mixed with Aludr). She teaches him to use the magic of a book by imagining what he wants and saying a magic word from the book which causes his will to become reality (or the will and the word). Once he has mastered this which takes him a few thousand years he goes out into the world to gather to him a rag tag crew of various characters to help them save the world from his evil counterpart Ghend (who is basically Zedar, Ctuchick or Asharak from the the Belgariad).

 This group all have been given certain tasks and they go about them in order to save the world. Amongst this group we find a young arum soldier called Eliah (bascially an alorn like Barak), a spoiled young princess named Andine (Ce'Nedra), a priest named Bheid (Relg) a witch named Lietha (this one is kind of original) and finally a young boy named Ghend who is really young but incredibly intelligent (sound much like Eriond?).

 They proceed through the story at a steady pace enjoying relatively danger free jobs that are never too hard and the outcome which is obvious from the start. Whilst they are about their business, huge portions of the book are given to repeating things we already know as every time a new character is introduced one of the other characters sums up everything that has happened in the book up until that point. I am surprised this book made it past the editors desk as there are whole parts of the story that are literally repeated up to three times (I am talking about Althalus's tale of his time with Gosti Big Belly which is very tiresome by the end of the novel).

 So why then with all these faults do I rate this book 4 stars?

 Simply because I love it. Whilst it holds all of those repetitions and copied elements from Eddings other novels it is still a hugely enjoyable book to read. It is easy to follow, laugh out loud funny at times and like all of Eddings other work it makes you smile and leaves you with a happy feeling inside.

 Like the Belgariad and the Malloreon before it this sits comfortably on my guilty pleasures shelf and being as it was amongst the first fantasy novels I ever read it is a nostalgic favourite of mine.

 Personally I think it lacks the epic scope of the Belgariad but it is still a hugely enjoyable book so I recommend it to all.
 david-eddings fantasy-read
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 Seth Swanson
 Author 3 books 30 followers
 July 5, 2016
 I just read this again after getting the Kindle edition. Full of fond memories I tried to get back into it making it close to my forth or fifth reading of this book. In the end though, I ended up giving up. I'm not quite sure what it was, that made me take another look at this but I started getting annoyed by the characters and the plot line.

 My main complaint the last time around was that it was becoming difficult to tell one character from another. All the women were given to say just about the same thing when talking to about or too the men and the same conversation happened in pretty much the same way between multiple characters.


 It could just be that I've read the book, and know, pretty much what was going to happen, but on this reading it never seemed that there was any real risk involved to the characters. Most problems were handled quickly and handily. when confronted by the first of Ghend's underlings, and just about every time after, Althalus' abilities handle them without any real difficulty. The book is about saving all of reality (like most of Eddings' books) and I don't get the sense that reality is ever in danger. Ghend's underlings are too incompetent to pose a threat to Althalus and Ghend isn't even allowed to use his own abilities against the protagonist whose power is never really limited. The final conflict is more of a formality than an actual climax, since it was all orchestrated by the protagonists, playing a big swindle on Ghend ... meaning that in the final battle between good and evil, evil never really stood a chance to win, which means it wasn't terribly exciting.


 Granted, there are still things I like about the Redemption of Althalus, but I'm thinking this is where Eddings might have started going downhill. I just could not get into the Dreamers series.

 If you're a fan of Eddings and haven't read it yet, go ahead and check it out from your library. Chances are, it'll be a good enough read, but you'll not a lot of similarities between the characters here and those in the Belgariad or the Mallorean.
 fantasy
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 Andy
 24 reviews
 June 1, 2010
 Wow, this was a big disappointment. I read it several years ago and remembered enjoying it quite a lot. Apparently my tastes have changed. But this was just painful to read. Between the terrible (and repetitive, and explain-y) dialogue, the lack of any sort of tension, the lack of internal plot coherence, ridiculous situations which were supposed to seem severe but were solved within a page or two, and the supposed 'god' who couldn't be bothered to think up the most simplistic ideas until after someone suggested them, this was bordering on painful to read.

 I liked (and still like) Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series. But there was absolutely no involvement from an editor here. I could have killed 50-100 pages easily just by eliminating repetitive dialogue, over-used catch phrases, or the annoying habit of everyone saying the name of the person to whom they're speaking. Oh, and the over-use of the adverb was awful. Seriously, I knew that things like '"I wonder why that is," Steve said musingly.' just sound bad when I was in middle school.

 If you appreciate good writing style, don't read this.
 2010
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 Vanessa
 1 review
 January 4, 2011
 In my defense, I first read this book when I was twelve, so the sense of wonderment and excitement still stay with me till today,and seeing that I still remember the title of the book, as well as most of the plot, I'd say it made a pretty good impression on me when I first read it. And it's the experience of immersing myself in the story rather than the fancy language and vague visuals. When I finished the book I remember an especially vivid dream I had the same night, set in the world Althalus walked through and watched over.

 So, in that context, I'd say it is a pretty damned good book.
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 KnijenZadnik
 134 reviews 48 followers
 Read
 August 3, 2017
 Мил и симпатичен старец беше Дейвид Едингс. Помня, че навремето беше казал в едно интервю как 25 години се е учил да пише преди да издаде първата си книга, за разлика от българския самиздат, който на 20 вече е самиздал три-четири графомански напъна било при Богича, било при баба Весела. Тази книга конкретно му е като best of от другите пор��дици и макар да не е добра колкото тях, може да послужи на много начинающи, да могат поне по формула да пишат, без да се червим после, като ги четем.
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 Izlinda
 586 reviews 15 followers
 February 27, 2009
 I read this book years ago. My sisters and I were big fans of David Eddings and when this book came out, we were excited. While the characters are very much archetypes, I did enjoy it back then. Rereading it now, I may get a little frustrated at repetitions, but it's still an enjoyable read. I have favorite scenes I reread.
 alternate-realties-worlds fantasy
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 Alexander Draganov
 Author 29 books 130 followers
 September 7, 2018
 Charming story about a thief who becomes the saviour of the world. The main character is a very likable one, as well as the support cast and as usually Eddings blends his story with a lot of magic and mythology. If you like light, funny fantasy stories, this is a book for you.
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855 reviews72 followers     July 11, 2013   Let me start by saying I am a huge David Eddings fan. His Belgariad series is one of my favorite fantasy series -- in some ways more so than even the holy The Lord of the Rings trilogy. That being said, I couldn't stand this book. He reused, recycled and regurgitated his characters and story-lines from his more successful works and threw them slapdash into this altogether uninspired and uninspiring book. If you want to read something good -- no, fantastic -- from Eddings, read the Belgariad, a five-book fantasy series that begins with Pawn of Prophecy.     fantasy               5 reviews2 followers     March 30, 2016   I read fantasy stories because I like to see epic stories of love and evil played out. I like to think that evil may win, and that good sometimes doesn't have a chance against overwhelming odds. I like to read grand battles where things...you know...happen. I like the evil side to be just as intelligent as the good side; an even match so you question the ending.If you like these things, don't read this book. It's predictable from start to finish. The "bad guys" as they so often refer to them are, well, stupid. They're incompetent bumbling fools held together by an evil god who never makes an appearance. If they had some substance to them, if you knew their personal motives, if they had some kind of complexity to them that made them interesting or cool, then we would have something! The conflict is boring, the battles are boring, the characters are boring. I suffered through 726 pages of boredom in the hopes that the Eddings' would pull something out that would at least salvage this train wreck. And the ENDLESS amount of exposition was incredibly tedious. How bad of a writer do you need to be to spell out the story two or three times for your readers? How stupid do you think we are? I don't care to read the entire Althalas and the Wolf Tunic story all over again, dragging it out for a good five pages or so. Some have said that this was intended for a younger audience. Can someone point out to me where it says that on the dust cover? Did I miss something? I didn't find it in the young adult section... And even if I had, I'd be disappointed. People remark on the characters falling in love, which I'm fine with if there were reasons! Just because two kids are teenagers won't make them fall in love! And a sexy woman and a priest...well, they apparently fall in love because he has pent up lust and she has a challenge. Wow. It could have been really cool had it not been so shallow. No one grows. Nothing changes. No surprises. Don't waste your time.                   Author  1 book2 followers     December 20, 2012   Cheesy, but fantastic.The Redemption of Althalus is, to me, David Eddings summed up in a single book. His characters are witty and lovable, the plot is engaging and epic in scale whilst still being simple and easygoing. This book was one of a few that got me into fantasy when I was younger, and while it's probably not the greatest book of all time- it's still a good story well told, if slightly lacking in depth. As a standalone novel, it's perfect for the job- everything is all tidied up and resolved by the extremely cheesy finale and the decent length means you're not left with a gaping hole in your chest that begs for more of the book. My copy's been through a lot now, and has suffered the abuse of years of rereading and being carried about in bags that were far less waterproof than anticipated, but every time I pick it back up to read it's like spending time with an old friend whose company I can still enjoy years later.                   1 review1 follower     August 30, 2012   I wasn't really that impressed with this book, which is a shame because I love the other series that I've read by David and Leigh Eddings. This is 800 pages of everybody congratulating each other on how clever they've been. They defeat the enemy at every turn with very little effort, almost like a kid killing ants with a magnifying glass. The lack of real conflict in this book makes it feel sort of like a historical account rather than a fantasy novel. The greatest tragedy to me are the characters. There was absolutely no character progression, growth, anything. They are completely flat. I call this a tragedy because they had such potential! A thief/murderer turned father figure and savior, a mind-reader who was nearly burned at the stake by people who accused her of being a witch, a priest struggling with his faith (who falls for the "witch"), a boy genius, and a teenage queen who falls in love with the soldier who killed her father in war all gathered together to save the universe. That to me sounds like a group of characters to get excited about! But no. Nothing. They are each individually used for their abilities and then basically forgotten (except to be clever or congratulate someone else on how clever they've been...ugh). What's worse is that I know the Eddings' know how to create compelling characters. The Belgariad and The Malloreon are full of them! I honestly don't know what went wrong with this one, but I'm just going to chalk it up as a loss and try not to let it tarnish my opinion of these authors as I begin The Elenium.                  82 reviews2 followers     February 18, 2008   Redemption of Althalus is all of Eddings' worst tendencies condescend into one novel. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the book is horrible, but there's no spark to the story, and no life to the characters. One of the big problems with The Redemption of Althalus--and with Eddings' novels in general--is how convenient everything is for the heroes. The heroes just happen to stumble across the very person they need to recruit; the heroes just happen to overhear the villains discussing vital military matters' everything "just happens." Althalus tells the reader how cunning and violent the villains are, but in practice, they're inept morons. There's no sense of urgency or desperation; we *know* whose going to win from the get-go.  The reader is also subjected to frequent exposition dumps; having the same information repeated to a different character every several chapters isn't especially exciting. While there are some clever lines of dialogue, the characters aren't as witty as they--and the author--believe them to be. The banter feels forced and tired, and echoes the jokes from previous series. There's something subtly off-putting about the way the female characters are written. I dislike how they are frequently "arch" or "sly;" the women come across as smugly superior when dealing with emotionally/romantically inept men. I dislike the idea that all men are morons when it comes to women, and that all women are schemers out to snare men. I hate how the lone female villain's appearance is her main characteristic; she is repeatedly referred to as a "cow" and a "hag" by the characters and within the narration itself.      fantasy-and-paranormal               166 reviews10 followers     July 20, 2013   This is easily my favorite book of all time. I love David Eddings, because his characters are always so sarcastic and funny, but Althalus tops them all. After all, what's not to love about an assassin and thief who spends his time arguing with goddesses? Or a princess who just might be knife happy? This book is clever, funny, complicated, and just plain fun to read. This is the book I tell everyone to get for themselves, because even though I want the world to read it, I'm much too possessive of my own copy to lend it out.      books-to-buy-right-now pretty-assassin-man read-me-read-me-now               Author  13 books1,539 followers     August 27, 2016   Consider this a lesson in Not Revisiting The Problematic Faves Of Our Youth; I hadn't read this since high school, and remembered it vaguely as falling in the heist/con genre (which, vaguely, it does). It's about a thief who gets seduced into the service of a goddess and goes around collecting a ragtag bunch of misfits, you know the drill, so that they can defeat another inexplicable bunch of misfits who are SUPER EVIL and working for EVIL and they're all ugly and 'primitive' and 'insane' and sometimes coded as posh British (??) and did I mention EVIL. Fairly standard late-90s fantasy quest stuff.THINGS I HAD NOT, UNFORTUNATELY, REMEMBERED ABOUT EDDINGS:- heterocentrism and weird, coy gender essentialism to a truly risible degree- epithets up the wazoo- every single possible variant of the word 'said'. sometimes used all on the same page. I have never felt so fond of 'said' as after a chapter's worth of exclaiming, objecting, replying, asking, agreeing, chuckling, demanding, protesting, noting, hissing and explaining.- sometimes they even had MULTIPLE ADVERBS ATTACHED- oh god so many adverbs- so. much. unnecessary. banter. it's not even bad! it's just repetitive! and, not unlike a Joss Whedon show, every single character has the exact same Banter Voice. This is a 900 page book and a good editor could probably have shaved 1/3 of the word count off, easy. Anyway. I reread it. I felt fondly nostalgic, and I enjoyed many parts of the plot. I will now be donating the book to a charity fair without much regret, and I will probably be even more ruthless than usual with adverbs and dialogue tags in my own current projects, because OH MY GOD. I think I now have an allergy.               November 6, 2016       Have you ever wanted to see what it’s like for someone to go insane from listening to an audiobook? I invite you to stick around and find out.  First and foremost: fuck this book. It is astounding in its awfulness. I consider it a crash course on how not to write a fantasy epic. Secondly, I’d like to suggest an alternate title: "The Gary Stus, the Cardboard Villain, and the Story of How the Former Repeatedly and Unerringly Curbstomped the Later at Every Turn – Hence Ruining Any Sense of Narrative Heft or Conflict in the Story." It's a little bulky and I’m Looking to trim it down some, but honestly I think the current working version is already good enough to send to the Eddings estate for whenever they reach into the depths of hell for a new print run. I wanted to put this book behind me. I wanted to pretend that it never happened; to repress the memory of it and move on with my life, but even half a year later, I can't. The overwhelming awfulness of this 'novel' weighs on my mind, and I don't think I can move past it without doing the GLOBAL public service of leaving a review for this monstrosity.What follows is an editorialized collection of the rants and messages I typed out for a friend whilst I was reading this... thing. Hence, it might lack coherence at some points, flitting from criticism to criticism without any overarching thread, but I assure you that it will still provide much the same horrific entertainment as watching a train crash in slow motion. If you give a flying fuck about spoilers, you are welcome to stop right here, and expose yourself to this infohazardous piece of shit without any further warning from me - and if this is so, then you are welcome to the brain cancer that awaits within its pages. I loved David Eddings' Belgariad as a younger reader. You wouldn't think that would be at all relevant, but I also loved The Redemption of Althalus too. I mean, why wouldn't I have? It was a single-tome fantasy epic! It was like the Belgariad condensed into a single, sprawling novel! The issue, of course, was that it wasn't like the Belgariad, it basically was the Belgariad. The same character archetypes that I remember, following the same story arc I remember.As an adult reader, I hate this book so much that I refuse to read the Belgariad again, for fear that I will find that I hate it just as much. I really can’t stress enough just how much I despise The Redemption of Althalus. Let’s just get started with the rant-view   At first, I was resistant to recognizing the shittiness of this book due to the sheer power of my nostalgia goggles, but even at the outset I had bones to pick. Just watch as my critique starts soft, and slowly degrades into full-blown rage-induced insanity. It's got over-explain-and-repeat-so-younger-readers-don't-get-lost syndrome so bad that one would be forgiven for thinking it was an English translation of a manga novelization or something (I activate my pot of greed card!). And it broadcasts the character relationships so hard I'm worried a lighthouse might dive out of my earbuds and skewer my brain.The characters are very trope reliant. Not two dimensional, but definitely less than three dimensional – except for one character, who is definitely 2D. All his dialogue in the story consists of either [say something priestly] or [say "that's impossible" when the character who is LITERALLY A GODDESS offhandedly mentions something that conflicts with his faith that he's pretty much turned away from anyway].Oh, and the narrator kinda bugs me. He voices one female character who I always imagined to have a kinda sultry voice with a... crone-ish voice instead. Every other woman in the story is voiced like a caricature of an overdramatic housewifeWell, the weird thing is that I'm still enjoying it, for the bare most-part, but I wonder if I would hate it if I wasn't wearing nostalgia goggles.   For the next few chapters, that was the extent of my dislike for the novel, but oh, just watch how it changed. Watch how mere words managed to reduce a man to a subhuman beast. bTW the nostalgia vision has worn off for Redemption of Althalus - or should I say: "The Unchanging Characterization of Gary Stu" - and I fucking hate it now. I'm like 3/4 through, and I'll be able to power through to the end with my shift tomorrow. I Consider it the audiobook equivalent of hate fucking. It's horrible and it'll end up leaving your day exponentially worse, but you're gonna do it anyway.Every plot point in this book (EVERY FUCKING ONE) can be condensed to either "A thing happened, and then it turned out not to be a big deal" or "A thing happened, and then it kinda just resolved itself." "Oh no! We burnt all of the cropfields to gimp the arm we were fighting, but now that we've totally curbstomped them for the second time - without the absence of crops playing into it at all - out subjects are all going to starve when winter comes in a few weeks! We'll have to bankrupt ourselves importing grain!"-three chapters later-"Well, it turns out that the southerners had the best harvest they've had in years, so the grain is going very cheap! I also buy in unconnected bulk purchases so that nobody realizes how dire things are and skin me for it. (This part's a literal quote up next:) I've moved forty tonnes of grain, but I've only paid for 30!" What’s even more ridiculous is that the time of year and price of gold means literally nothing anyway, because one character constantly manipulates time and can organize time travel freely, while another has an effectively limitless supply of gold for no real reason. Hence, there was no reason to contrive grain being senselessly cheap at all, except to assure the reader that "LOOK EVERYTHING IS FINE AND ALWAYS WILL BE" Oh, and nevermind how fucking illogical it is that the harvest was somehow perfect that year, when the inciting incident for the plot involves growing glaciers locking up the world's water and causing global droughts. "Oh no, the illusion million-strong army outside we were pretending to surrender to in an elaborate ruse to draw the enemy leaders close to us has suddenly been replaced by a REAL million-strong army because FANTASY MAGIC. Looks like things are actually not going to go perfectly our way for once and this is actually a real surrender. Oh, wait. One of the bad guys just got stabbed and died, which made the entire army disappear and instantly turned it into another hero-wins curbstomp. YAY.” Seriously, fuck this book.   By the end, I hated every fucking character and wanted to physically wrench them from the book and Make them understand just how much pain they were causing me. I'm honest to Christ not kidding. Every piece of dialogue involved over-explaining something and repeating it at least once, if not twice, for no fucking reason at all – normally capped off by a round of multiple "are you sure this is a good idea?"Laytha was the worst for this. Throughout the entire book, she existed to basically support ANY IDEA that was uttered. Almost every time, with a simple "it's an interesting idea" or "sounds like it's worth a try". That was all she ever contributed to anything at all, unless the scene was focusing on herAnd then there’s Gher. Motherfucking Gher. That little fuck. I hate him the most. I despise him as Satan despises God. Every fibre of my being is dedicated to loathing him. Part of it was helped by the FUCKING AIGOUABEGAIBGAEG BECAUSE THERE IS NO WORD TO DESCRIBE IT voice the narrator gave him, but the rest of it is just because of how he exists in the story. He shits out literally every idea for the middle two quarters of the story, bar one. Over explains it, of course, and then everyone spends ten lines musing over it the exact same way every fucking time and then congratulating him on how clever he is.There is so much more wrong with Gher but I literally lack the capacity to articulate it. It's like a giant mush of hatred balled up in my head, with individual details bubbling to the surface and then diving back to the core before I can render the concept as words. I hate Gher so fucking much that I’m actually going to just stop talking about him because it pains me to think of him. But on the note of characters praising one-another: half the dialogue in the story is everyone congratulating each other on how fucking clever they are. The other 50% is divided roughly as so:10% Althalus retelling the same stories multiple times throughout the story with sometimes no changes.10% Althalus convincing everyone ever to do everything he says within seconds10% Dweia revealing something offhandedly about the details of their seemingly limitless magical capabilities, and either Bheid or Gher immediately telling her with absolute certainty what the "truth" is even though she is LITERALLY AN OMNISCIENT GOD AND YOU HAVE AN EXCHANGE LIKE THIS EVERY FUCKING CHAPTER.10% inexplicably repeated jokes and lines that are either really shitty callbacks or really shitty attempts at running jokes. (You wouldn't think this is worth mentioning, but part of what broke me while reading this book was how, with this point combined with all the other things I've written, it felt like I was reading the same general thing OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER)And finally, 10% conveniently or magically overheard enemy planning, always discussed in breadth, and detail by two people who both already know the full details, and hence would never, EVER have reason to talk about the entirety of their immediate plans in excruciating detail to each other – especially as if they are both explaining it to each other for the first time  
 And it’s about here that I petered out. Even half a year later, I can't bring myself to elaborate any further. Hopefully, I’ve managed to impress on you how fundamentally bad this book is. If I develop cancer in my life time, I don’t care if it’s because I just went swimming in a pool of nuclear waste; I will attribute it singularly to having read this book.   David and Leigh Eddings: what the fuck happened? 
   This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.     a-special-kind-of-trash           April 20, 2014   I love this book, I find it a refreshing read in which cinematic battles are not the method of fixing the problem.I do however acknowledge the complaints of those who have given this book one and two stars. It is the same tropes Eddings used in all of his series, simply condensed down into one book. Personally I enjoy the characters, the setting and the reality of their situation. I also enjoyed the fact that their conflict is one of many in the universe, and it would only be important for the time they were living it. Once their conflict was done, it was no longer important, a refreshing take on the importance of a hero. Althalus is simply one of my all time favorite characters in existence and will continue to be so, his habit of looking at everything through the lens of humor is one that I find interesting, when many modern hero's are rather intense. He is more laid back and relaxed about things, though even he has his limits.  This may be my favorite book, but that doesn't mean that it is perfect, yes it does have it's flaws. Still, for the unconventional read, the character growth and multitudes of likable characters, it is hard to trump. I would have to say nearly all of it's flaws come into play because it is one book, but with enough ideas to last for two or three. Personally I think that would have ruined the pacing, but that is just me. I highly recommend this book, I highly recommend Eddings, and I personally feel that if one has never read Eddings material, this would make for a great entry piece if they do not want to manage a six or twelve book series respectively.                   77 reviews1 follower     April 7, 2020   Eddings was once my favorite author (though The Redemption of Althalus was never a favorite), but I think I've grown apart from his writing. This book has several problems, but I'll focus on the two main reasons I did not like this book:First: there is no tension in the entire book. Or maybe there's one at page 630 and that gets resolved within two pages. I like when it goes well for the good guys, but the bad guys in this book is so stupid you never feel like anything is at stake. Second: even though the female characters in this book has agency (somewhat, at least), they're stereotypical written and does a lot of talking of clothes (alas "of screen", otherwise it might have been more okay) and scolding and doting over the male characters. Additional to this the world described in this book is sexist. It gets really tiresome after a while. But apparently I read all 913 pages, so it was not totally bad: some of the characters are fun and sometimes the interaction between them is fun to read. (But mostly I got through it because I'm stubborn and this is probably the last time I read a book by Eddings)                   137 reviews22 followers     November 26, 2018   Ah, well. Somewhere in some private dimension, a sad twelve-year-old that was once me is content. It was worth it for that, I guess.                  150 reviews5 followers     February 21, 2017   Whenever anyone asks me who my favourite author is, I'll normally trot out the answer David Eddings without a second thought. Sure, the Lord of the Rings is my favourite book but David, and his lesser acknowledged wife Leigh, wrote almost twenty books that I happily count among my favourites. This includes the five book series The Belgariad and its sequel series The Malloreon, trilogy The Elenium and its companion series The Tamuli, as well as a bunch of prequel and stand-alone novels. Of course, they also wrote the high-concept but slightly ropey The Dreamers series, the cliched but weirdly enjoyable Regina's Song and two non-genre novels that we'll forgive because almost everyone's first few novels are a bit shitey. And then we get to the subject of my review, 2000's stand alone fantasy novel The Redemption of Althalus, which has literally no excuses for being badly written, riddled with poorly executed tropes and in so many ways an inferior copy of Eddings' previous stories that I've started to wonder if he was really just a two-trick pony.There are two basic types of fantasy series, that is they tend to be either character driven or plot driven. Of course, there are plenty of examples where an author has managed to do both, although these often tend to be enormous, rambling, unwieldy and, in George R R Martin's case, unfinished. Sorry George. Eddings' books normally stick firmly on the side of the characters, with his plots being mostly arbitrary quests to save the universe from one evil god or another, with a couple of prophecies, enchanted crystals and chosen ones thrown in for good measure. Redemption is no different. Here the evil God Daeva wants to rule the world and revert it back to a pre-historic state, which has interesting archaeological implications but probably wouldn't do much good in the long run. His sister Dweia is out to stop him. They have a brother as well, Deiwos, but he basically does sweet fuck all. Naturally both Daeva and Dweia have a selection of prophesied chosen ones at hand to help them out, and this is where things turn sour. See, even though the plots in The Belgariad and The Elenium are fairly tropey and flimsy, they have both have fantastic casts of characters that make the books worth reading. What Redemption has is a bunch of expies. In other words, they're just recycled characters from Eddings' previous novels. Dweia is the beautiful, whimsical goddess, equal parts Polgara and Aphrael. Sadly she lacks the former's character development and maternal strength and unlike the latter without childhood to explain some of her more irritating tendencies, she comes across across as bland, infallible and annoying. She's too perfect, and no-one likes a perfect character. She also has "limbs rounded with such perfection it made his (Althalus') heart ache." I'm not sure why having rounded limbs is that important, but Eddings goes on about it a hell of a lot so it must be. She also spends a good deal of the time as a cat called Emerald which is...okay I guess, but it makes her relationship with Althalus downright creepy. In The Belgariad, Belgarath and Poledra spent time as wolves as well but they were either wolf lovers, or people lovers. In Redemption we just have scenes of a bloke flirting with a talking cat. It's weird. Althalus is equally problematic. He's clearly supposed to be a lovable rogue of the sort Eddings normally does so well but again he feels like he's been cobbled together from spare parts. He has none of Belgarath's likability or charm, none of Silk's vulnerability or quick wit and none of Stragen's complexity or back story. He's just sort of...there! He's far too keen on murdering to be in any way sympathetic and several of the traits ascribed to him in the story's opening are never shown in the actual novel. Eddings completely ignores the rule of "show, don't tell," instead having numerous characters remind us that Althalus likes to act in a certain way, but never actually shows him doing it. Case in point: when Leitha points out that "trust me," is Althalus' favourite phrase despite the fact that he has never once used it in the novel. Except...that's Silk's favourite phrase. The only phrases that Althalus seems to enjoy using are calling people, "old boy," and "neighbour." Which are Martel and Sparhawk's favourite phrases respectively. Getting the picture? Oh, and the redemption of the novel's title? It never really happens. Sure, Althalus gives up his life as a thief to live with Dweia, but his last act in the book is too criticise her for getting fat because her abdomen was ever so slightly rounded. Sheesh, what a jerk. It's okay though, because she's actually pregnant. Not fat. The very thought... Still, he feels slight remorse at having to trick a man he respects, not enough remorse not to trick him but still. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. The secondary characters don't fare much better either. Ghend is an expy of Talen, a cute kid with a penchant for theft, but with none of the sass. It probably din't help that I pictured him looking exactly like Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menance, for some reason. Leitha is just Xanetia, the pale beauty with a gift that's more of a curse, only with added rape as a back story, because who doesn't love that? She's also supposed to have a "twisted sense of humour," although once again this is only ever talked about and not shown, and she has a bizarre habit of calling Althalus "Daddy," which was blamed on the rape for some reason, either way it's just kind of odd. Eliar is Kalten, the dumb blonde muscle with a big appetite, which leads onto a very peculiar feeder/feedee relationship, in other words, he has a lady who feeds him all the time, but this is okay because Eliar miraculously isn't a fatty. That wouldn't be okay. I'll get on to that in a minute if it feels like I'm labouring the point. Which I am. Anyway. Eliar's *cough* feeder *cough* is Andine, only she's really just a less adorable version of Ce'Nedra, a tiny, beautiful princess, sorry "Arya" (Game of Thrones was first published in 1998 by the way, I'll let you work that one out for yourself) with a flair for dramatics and a loud voice. She also spends a ridiculous amount of time away from her kingdom but unh...no-one seems particularly bothered by this. It's almost like we don't even need a monarchy... So far, so similar. The only really original character in there is Bheid, although he's a monk and you loose serious imagination points if you have a monk and you just call him Bheid. The bad guys are a little better, but only because they're bland, rather than copied. In fact, looking back over their names again I can't even remember which was which, except for Khnom and Gelta. I felt sorry for Khnom because he didn't really do anything that evil but he still got sucked into oblivion. Gelta sticks out because she's a chunky, acne scarred lady and as a chunky, acne scarred lady myself I obviously thought hurrah, at last someone I can cosplay as! Except...she's never called a woman. She's a bitch, or a cow, or a whore or any other derogatory female slur you care to come up with. This is due in part to the fact she's evil, but note that none of the male baddies ever come in for this sort of language, and in part because she's a warrior and women can't possibly be warriors. Way to break down the barriers there, Eddings. Actually, way to backtrack on all the female warrior characters in your previous four series. Mirtai would be spinning in her grave. Furthermore an extraordinary amount of time is given over to discussing how hideously ugly Gelta is. Notice how I mentioned how attractive all the nice ladies are? You can't be ugly and good in the Redemption universe. I know that's pretty much a fantasy staple but do they really have to go on about Gelta's pock-marked face every time she appears on the fricking page? There's only one other character that comes under this much scrutiny for their appearance and his name is Gosti. Gosti Big-Belly. Gosti is the secondary antagonist of the novel, a clan chief with a reputation for being rich but actually has very little to his name. He gets swindled by Althalus, once in the past and once in an alternate time-line because Eddings, much like Stephen Moffat, tries to get away with being cleverer than he is by going timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly. Gosti has two defining attributes, one is obviously his enormous fatness and the other is his stupidity; the two naturally go hand-in-hand. In all honesty the bad guys and the good guys could start a little club together called the No Fatties where they all go to bitch about gross fat guys are because this is essentially what happens every time Gosti appears. And, get this, Gosti is actually proud and happy to be fat! The name Big-Belly is self ascribed. And everyone thinks this is pretty much the worst thing to have ever happened. I mean, sure, Althalus killed a man because he liked the look of his jacket but Gosti is fat and happy what a terrible fucking example of humanity.  So that's the characters dealt with. The plot? Well, like the rest of Eddings' novels, it's fairly nothingy. There's a long drawn out war in which a lovable, but minor, character dies, all of the bad guys get obliterated and then all the adults pair up nicely together at the end because women love marriage, men love sex, but won't do it outside of marriage, and absolutely no-one is gay. Duh. This might sound harsh and to be fair similar criticisms could be levelled at the amount of neat, hetero couples in The Tamuli but at least in that they hung a lampshade on it! Redemption is just a limp war/space-time travel/prophecy yarn with a bunch of expies milling around waiting to be injected with character. It never happens. The whole thing reads like Eddings' fan-fiction. It's over-long, glacially paced and predictable and it's the one damn thing that makes me think twice about listing David Eddings as my favourite author. Now, if anyone needs me, I'll be in down at Faldor's Farm. Trust me.                   502 reviews17 followers     March 31, 2016   Ridondante.Sarebbe potuto durare la metà delle pagine, e gli avrei dato una stella in più.Così è noioso, noioso, noioso.Il problema più grande è che i personaggi continuano a ripetere gli stessi dialoghi più volte, raccontando un mucchio di volte le stesse cose.Questo all'inizio non si nota molto, ma dopo la metà questo difetto assume proporzioni gigantesche.Gli stessi personaggi poi, sono caratterizzati veramente poco, sia psicologicamente sia fisicamente: quelli principali avrebbero delle potenzialità, ma le loro azioni spesso sono guidate in modo illogico; in più non hanno particolari approfondimenti psicologici. Quelli secondari si dividono in militari tutti uguali fra loro, anche nei nomi, e "nemici al servizio del Dio del Male", senza qualità particolari se non il fatto di essere brutti, sporchi &amp; cattivi.Ah, tra l'altro il Dio del Male, che viene chiamato in causa ogni cinque pagine, non si vede nemmeno.La trama è di una banalità allucinante: piatta, lineare, prevedibile... nessun sussulto, nessun colpo di scena. L'unica trovata decente, e cioè le porte magiche che dal quartier generale dei buoni permettono di raggiungere qualsiasi punto dello spazio e del tempo per fregare i nemici, viene usata a sproposito. Invece di dosare bene questa idea, gli autori ne abusano, rendendo virtualmente invincibili ed onnipotenti i buoni, e facendo fare ai cattivi la figura dei fessi, sempre.    fantasy           December 24, 2008   Probably my favorite book from David and Leigh Eddings. It is a one book epic about a thief. Althalus has been having a run of bad luck when he is hired to steal a book (whatever that is) from the House at the End of the World. He thinks he has died or gone mad when he enters a room, hears a cat speak to him and notices the door no longer exists.I don't really know what to say other than I really love this book.                   133 reviews     May 15, 2022   The book was good, it wasn't what I expected from Eddings. It was a light hearted read but with some great characters. There was thievery, cunning, war, and the one thing that might be the switch for a lot of people. It deals with gods, and time leaps, and space jumps.    adventure fantasy fiction               372 reviews1,473 followers     January 10, 2019   Eddings was always a comfort-read for me in my teens. It was something about the epic scope, the moral pragmatism and the supportive, close-knit team of friends and family -- the recurring tropes of his books are just easy, familiar tones. Althalus is the one-book Eddings experience, which I pick up again now after having several times used it as the poster for Eddings' other work. Enough time has passed that I've forgotten most of the plot detail, so it's about as close to a fresh read as I can get.It's strange what you don't notice. The plot is of the calibre I expected, with the many different locations, the high-level magic-infused war-planning and the varied (but somewhat passive) supporting cast. The younger me apparently got caught by this and couldn't see the sometimes painfully simple writing, or the very troublesome morality of the `good guys'. According to this last, all means are justified, all harm permissible, all prior desires or beliefs must be cast aside, because a mind-altering deity tells you so after having abducted you against your will. There is a lot of objectively bad behaviour that gets okayed in here on very flimsy grounds. In a way, this is realistic -- we are good because we are Us and not Them -- but I'm not sure Eddings or his readers take the story in those bleak terms. Still readable, but probably less so than it was for the younger me. Sometimes soppy, sometimes annoying (those dream sequences), often a little too twee. But there are some fun uses of magic, and some nice military campaigns, and if you can quiet the critical voice pointing out what is wrong with it, there's a sense of purpose and belonging on offer.      fantasy fiction           August 8, 2010   Redemption of Althalus is not something I can compare to other fantasy books. This is because, generally speaking, I don't read these kind of books. The epic fantasies.For the pure and simple reason that I have nothing to compare it to, I'm going to say that Redemption of Althalus is a good, clean, fun book. There are a sea of characters for readers to choose from, including the self-proclaimed best thief in the world, Althalus, and Gher, the eight-year-old with the brightest ideas on the planet. Many don't seem to realise this, but this book was written by David and his wife, who as well as having a slightly darker sense of humour brings in a whole host of kickass female characters to enjoy. As I have read in other reviews, this book's plot leaves much to be desired. I understand. It is hardly thrilling from a tactics point of view. The villains are notorious, but idiotic. I get it. But if you are the kind of person who doesn't usually read epic fantasies and enjoys to chuckle at the small pieces of dialogue that make books like these fun, then this is for you. The books intimidating size daunts them, but I believe this book would be a fantastic read for 10-12 year olds. From a girl who can't read Tolkien (the shame of it!), I think that Redemption of Althalus is epic enough and fantasical enough for me.                   Author  1 book134 followers     May 29, 2019   “I don’t want to contaminate a good story with truth. That’d be a violation of my artistic integrity.”A fun read. Sort of a tongue-in-cheek parody of epic fantasy. World’s great thief (he thinks), competitive divine siblings, threats to end reality. Faint echoes of Star Wars. Didn’t notice much redemption of Althalus, but who cares? “It’s not the writing that changes, pet. It’s the reading.” “Wait a minute. Doesn’t the writing mean the same to everybody?” “Of course it doesn’t. Everybody reads any writing gets a different meaning from it.” Reads like a first draft—wordy and repetitious, but fun. Many modern writers would have published this as three (at least) books. “Can you pretend to be stupid?” “Ma’am, I’m a country boy from the highlands of Arum. We invented stupid.”  Laced with colloquialisms: “I’m getting a little too old for this.” “Am I starting to hear rumblings of mutiny here?” “Rumble-rumble-rumble. Satisfied?” “You have a nice war now, you hear?” “You’ve got that right.” “Trying to bamboozle me.” “It’s sending them right up the wall.” “Let’s get cracking.” “Moving right along here.” “Have a nice day, hear?” “Powerful men can command the actions of weaker men, but not their thoughts or beliefs.” Enjoy. “Do men ever grow up?” “Not if we can avoid it, no.”     ebook fantasy humor               Author  5 books12 followers     February 17, 2018   This was such a strange little traipse through a world in which 3 Gods fought (or passively sat by) over the future of reality. Characters were quirky and original and the story itself was a good one.To be fair - I don't know why it didn't appeal to me more. Maybe it was because Althalus himself went from being such a rogue to being an extension of Dweia - even while trying to have his own voice, or maybe it was the neat pairings off that was a little too...well - neat. Or it could be that evil was too clearly evil and I don't feel like that's ever really the case.It was a good read and I would recommend it for a nice rainy evening - but it won't be one of those books that I re-read when I have that 'want to visit with all friends' feeling, if you know what I mean?                   71 reviews12 followers     March 16, 2011   A really good book! I like the "doors" and I loved every follower of Althalus and "Emmy". I liked the dream concept, the the old english was getting on my nerves sometime... especially when it lasted long!Very good book though, I'm going to look for other books by these authors when I'm out of reading material.If you want to read a refreshing fantasy novel, pick this one!                   Author  3 books679 followers     March 28, 2017   I dunno. This story was great the first two times I read it in the Belgariad and the Mallorean. But somehow, I didn't like it as much with the third set of the same but renamed characters.    fantasy man-author               112 reviews9 followers     January 7, 2023   It's a little awkward when a book is recommended to you and you find yourself coming out of it seething. Eddings has some wit and fun with his world, which is more than I can say for many fantasy authors who are so hell-bent on mimicking Tolkien that any sort of levity is a sin. Unfortunately, that's about where my positives for the book end. Beyond this, every character was lackluster and confusing in their motivations. The seven main characters are reductive to the point of parody (Eliar likes food &amp; soldiering, Gher is an original thinker and resident expositionist, Bheid has a sense of righteous justice and cannot for the life of him accept reality, etc.) This works passably with some like Andine, but makes the others fall horribly flat. Entire character arcs are introduced and then never resolved. Althalus, our titular hero, doesn't even have an arc - he's still the same sneaky, okay-with-murdering, money-loving "rogue" by the end as he was at the beginning, only now he likes a cat-goddess. Okay. That's not really worthy of a title like The Redemption of Althalus, but surely that was just a misstep, right? A really big, glaring, giant-font mistake... oh dear. But the most egregious example to me was Bheid's despair after taking his first kill, in which he essentially mopes for a bit and is just told to get over it and does - showing no shift in perspective or lesson learned. They even set up a scene where he is going to officiate a wedding, where I thought perhaps Eddings would give him a moment in his speech where he addressed death and life and his newfound perspective in order to let us understand it - but they just cut right past the wedding altogether.  And the weddings... oh, the weddings. Everyone had to pair up, which is one of my least favorite things a novelist can do. Some, like Eliar and Andine, were admittedly alright; they're teenagers, so their romance made sense, but Bheid and Leitha are so tired as standalone characters that their pointless hook up was exasperating. I don't know about his other works, but Eddings comes off here as profoundly misunderstanding romance, and women, really - I was especially turned off with his tendency to make women smugly do figure 8's around their idiotic men, as if we as an audience are supposed to laugh along and say, "Oh, men!" Eddings concept of a 'good' woman is nagging, manipulative pedant. Meanwhile, the only female villain is singularly and repeatedly characterized only by how ugly she is - a line of insult that is not ever pointed toward our male antagonists. Gelta is ugly beyond all reason, because that's what makes women bad, I guess; they're all pimply and bulbous and stinky and just ugly ugly ugly, huh? Not to mention how often she is referred to as a bitch, cow, whore, and another host of expletives never raised to her male counterparts. It was legitimately gross to read.  All of the above mentioned points had already dropped this book's potential rating. But the final straw was the amount of exposition in this book. It actually killed me a little inside. Eddings needs like, three more editors to go through and tell him to cut stuff out. Remember that wedding scene with Bheid I mentioned earlier that could have been good for resolving an emotional arc but was instead skipped? Well, Eddings definitely felt that was too much to write about, and yet doesn't waste a second to tirelessly repeat exposition that we as readers have already been made aware of to other characters. This guy is the king of useless exposition; I cannot count the amount of times the characters lengthy explanations of the in-universe magic or their next move were completely hashed out to us as readers, only to be told to us again whenever a new character arrives and says "wait, so what are you guys doing?" It was quite literally exhausting. Gher explains the concepts of their space and time-hopping not once, not twice, but on eight separate occasions, each time being as lengthy and repetitive as the first. Eddings is also the worst offender of the "show, don't tell" rule that I've read in a long time. We are told Althalus is an awesome thief all the time, although we never see it; we are told Leitha is a jokester, although her "jokes" consist of two occasions where she makes Bheid a little uncomfortable and teases Althalus by awkwardly calling him "daddy" (a thing that is already cringey but even more so when put against her rape-backstory). We're told the evil god wants to rule the world or something, but we never quite get an idea of what it is he wants to do with it. There is so little ever shown that by the end of the book I was still left unsure as to exactly what the god's books were - did they house the respective god's power or essence? Would destroying them destroy the god? Did they each contain different magical powers? Who knows.  In short, everything about this was hopelessly contrived. This is the type of book I would give to a creative writing class to read to learn how NOT to write a story - if it weren't a laborous, excruciating 800 pages. It really fails on that many fronts. What little possible potential the set-up for this story had was squandered by horrific pacing, endless repetitiveness, bad characterization, cringey depictions of women &amp; outright misogyny, fat-shaming, and a strange penchant for setting up religious straw-man through which Eddings seemed to angrily scream at the audience that religion was stupid and limited and anyone who believed in anything other than what was right in front of them is obviously being conned. I gotta rate this 1/5. I sort of feel bad since a friend offered it to me as an example of the type of story he liked. We're... gonna have to have some words.     fiction recommended tossed-aside               107 reviews     January 17, 2022   2.5/5. My uncle gave this to me to read, not typically something I would choose for myself. It started off interesting, but it was a long build up for not a big enough ending.                   Author  5 books68 followers     June 25, 2013   As it was with the Belgariad and the Malloreon, so it shall be with the Redemption of Althalus as well...I read the Rivan Codex some time ago and in it David Eddings admitted that he got into writing fantasy not out of a love of fantasy but because he found a tested formula from reading other fantasy novels that would allow him to write a good book of his own. When most of my fellow fantasy readers stumble across one of Edding's books it is obvious that his formula allows him to do just that, the problem arises however when you read a second novel by the same author.  David &amp; Leigh Eddings don't just reuse their formula for their novels, they almost duplicate it time and again. So similar are their novels that the Redemption of Althalus was basically the same characters from the Belgariad only with different names.  In this novel Althalus (or Belgarath) is a thief who catches the attention of the goddess Dweia (or Polgara mixed with Aludr). She teaches him to use the magic of a book by imagining what he wants and saying a magic word from the book which causes his will to become reality (or the will and the word). Once he has mastered this which takes him a few thousand years he goes out into the world to gather to him a rag tag crew of various characters to help them save the world from his evil counterpart Ghend (who is basically Zedar, Ctuchick or Asharak from the the Belgariad).  This group all have been given certain tasks and they go about them in order to save the world. Amongst this group we find a young arum soldier called Eliah (bascially an alorn like Barak), a spoiled young princess named Andine (Ce'Nedra), a priest named Bheid (Relg) a witch named Lietha (this one is kind of original) and finally a young boy named Ghend who is really young but incredibly intelligent (sound much like Eriond?). They proceed through the story at a steady pace enjoying relatively danger free jobs that are never too hard and the outcome which is obvious from the start. Whilst they are about their business, huge portions of the book are given to repeating things we already know as every time a new character is introduced one of the other characters sums up everything that has happened in the book up until that point. I am surprised this book made it past the editors desk as there are whole parts of the story that are literally repeated up to three times (I am talking about Althalus's tale of his time with Gosti Big Belly which is very tiresome by the end of the novel). So why then with all these faults do I rate this book 4 stars? Simply because I love it. Whilst it holds all of those repetitions and copied elements from Eddings other novels it is still a hugely enjoyable book to read. It is easy to follow, laugh out loud funny at times and like all of Eddings other work it makes you smile and leaves you with a happy feeling inside.  Like the Belgariad and the Malloreon before it this sits comfortably on my guilty pleasures shelf and being as it was amongst the first fantasy novels I ever read it is a nostalgic favourite of mine.  Personally I think it lacks the epic scope of the Belgariad but it is still a hugely enjoyable book so I recommend it to all.      david-eddings fantasy-read               Author  3 books30 followers     July 5, 2016   I just read this again after getting the Kindle edition. Full of fond memories I tried to get back into it making it close to my forth or fifth reading of this book. In the end though, I ended up giving up. I'm not quite sure what it was, that made me take another look at this but I started getting annoyed by the characters and the plot line.My main complaint the last time around was that it was becoming difficult to tell one character from another. All the women were given to say just about the same thing when talking to about or too the men and the same conversation happened in pretty much the same way between multiple characters. Granted, there are still things I like about the Redemption of Althalus, but I'm thinking this is where Eddings might have started going downhill. I just could not get into the Dreamers series. If you're a fan of Eddings and haven't read it yet, go ahead and check it out from your library. Chances are, it'll be a good enough read, but you'll not a lot of similarities between the characters here and those in the Belgariad or the Mallorean.     fantasy               24 reviews     June 1, 2010   Wow, this was a big disappointment. I read it several years ago and remembered enjoying it quite a lot. Apparently my tastes have changed. But this was just painful to read. Between the terrible (and repetitive, and explain-y) dialogue, the lack of any sort of tension, the lack of internal plot coherence, ridiculous situations which were supposed to seem severe but were solved within a page or two, and the supposed 'god' who couldn't be bothered to think up the most simplistic ideas until after someone suggested them, this was bordering on painful to read.I liked (and still like) Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series. But there was absolutely no involvement from an editor here. I could have killed 50-100 pages easily just by eliminating repetitive dialogue, over-used catch phrases, or the annoying habit of everyone saying the name of the person to whom they're speaking. Oh, and the over-use of the adverb was awful. Seriously, I knew that things like '"I wonder why that is," Steve said musingly.' just sound bad when I was in middle school. If you appreciate good writing style, don't read this.     2010           January 4, 2011   In my defense, I first read this book when I was twelve, so the sense of wonderment and excitement still stay with me till today,and seeing that I still remember the title of the book, as well as most of the plot, I'd say it made a pretty good impression on me when I first read it. And it's the experience of immersing myself in the story rather than the fancy language and vague visuals. When I finished the book I remember an especially vivid dream I had the same night, set in the world Althalus walked through and watched over. So, in that context, I'd say it is a pretty damned good book.                   134 reviews48 followers      Read  August 3, 2017   Мил и симпатичен старец беше Дейвид Едингс. Помня, че навремето беше казал в едно интервю как 25 години се е учил да пише преди да издаде първата си книга, за разлика от българския самиздат, който на 20 вече е самиздал три-четири графомански напъна било при Богича, било при баба Весела. Тази книга конкретно му е като best of от другите пор��дици и макар да не е добра колкото тях, може да послужи на много начинающи, да могат поне по формула да пишат, без да се червим после, като ги четем.                  586 reviews15 followers     February 27, 2009   I read this book years ago. My sisters and I were big fans of David Eddings and when this book came out, we were excited. While the characters are very much archetypes, I did enjoy it back then. Rereading it now, I may get a little frustrated at repetitions, but it's still an enjoyable read. I have favorite scenes I reread.    alternate-realties-worlds fantasy               Author  29 books130 followers     September 7, 2018   Charming story about a thief who becomes the saviour of the world. The main character is a very likable one, as well as the support cast and as usually Eddings blends his story with a lot of magic and mythology. If you like light, funny fantasy stories, this is a book for you.
The Redemption of Althalus
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110692.The_Redemption_of_Althalus
https://matthilliard.wordpress.com/2005/01/05/belgariad-by-david-eddings/#comments
Belgariad by David Eddings
2005-01-05
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<p><small>January 5, 2005 at 12:00 am | Posted in <a href="https://matthilliard.wordpress.com/category/book-reviews/4-stars/">4 stars</a>, <a href="https://matthilliard.wordpress.com/category/book-reviews/">Book Reviews</a>, <a href="https://matthilliard.wordpress.com/category/fantasy/">Fantasy</a> | <a href="https://matthilliard.wordpress.com/2005/01/05/belgariad-by-david-eddings/#comments">5 Comments</a> <br/>Tags: <a href="https://matthilliard.wordpress.com/tag/david-eddings/">David Eddings</a><br/></small></p><p>I started reading <em>Belgariad</em> with some trepidation. For years, JRR Tolkien was all I felt I needed to read from the fantasy genre. I had no patience for the sorry bunch of imitators that his work had spawned. Slowly of course I have been exposed to good fantasy and have been more willing to give such work a chance. Eddings was the last hurdle because on one hand his books are quite popular but on the other hand he doesn’t have a very good reputation among the net literati.</p>
<p>The verdict is in: Eddings is no Tolkien imitator. Like Tolkien, he bases the structure of his work on the epics of the past. However, unlike Tolkien, he has very different goals. In the introduction to my edition, Eddings states the map of the world came before anything else. The tempting contrast is Tolkien creating first the Elvish languages. Although this is not the place to describe Tolkien’s motivations, suffice to say he was motivated primarily to develop a history and stories in that history that served as elaborations on themes and values that were central to his thinking. The world he created predated even the early work on his epic, <em>Lord of the Rings</em>, by decades. Eddings, on the other hand, seems to have started with the epic structure and his geography and worked his way from there. The result is an epic that is thorough in very odd areas and curious unformed in those I personally consider more important.</p>
<p>Did I mention it is pretty good? If I do an entire review as a comparison to Tolkien it’ll sound awful, but Eddings has two things going for him. First, he rigidly adheres to some of the most successful storytelling patterns in history. You may not be surprised by much, but surprise is overrated in fiction (unfortunately that discussion is also out of the scope of this review). Second and perhaps more importantly, as a writer Eddings is very good with light moments and banter between his many named characters. He uses all the right tricks to make sure you will remember the important aspects of a character and is content to sit back and let them chew the scenery. For the rest, Eddings is capable enough. That is why I give it four stars. If you have read it or are otherwise interested in a little bit of spoiler discussion I’ll go into the reasons why it’s a low four stars and not higher:</p>
<p>As I mentioned in the non-spoiler review, the fact Eddings started with a map weighs heavily on the finished product. It is what in my personal lingo I call a “Grand Tour–every separate spot on the map is visited. Once I realized how the characters were carefully zigzagging through the map it took a little away from the story. Drasnia was skipped in the initial run to retrieve the Orb so I could plan the route the second stage of the quest was going to take before the first stage had even ended. Another thing that must be said about the geography is that Eddings does himself no favors with Tolkien fans when he sticks the good guys in the northwestern corner of the world and even sticks the “Overlord of the west” on an island in the western sea. Also, if it wasn’t for the fact the initial exit from Sendaria was south, the path followed by Garion etc. on the first stage of the quest would probably be exactly the same as that followed by Frodo.</p>
<p>More problematic was the ruthless stereotyping. Eddings says in the introduction to my edition he wanted to write a more realistic epic. It didn’t seem all that gritty to me–I can only guess he means he mentions supply trains when the big army has been assembled. What I cannot understand is why he would then make such a mockery of his nationalities (leaving aside his frequent misuse of the word “race”). The only reason the army has supply trains (and thus supplies) is it brought along a King with the practical stereotype. Lucky for them it was Sendarians, not Tolnedrans, who were Practical! I suppose I lied, I do understand why he does it: it’s a crutch that allows him to use a much larger cast than is really necessary. Since all the characters adhere so rigorously to their types you simply have to remember the reigning type for each nationality and there’s no need to flip to a dramatis personae. What’s surprising is how fluid his characterization can be when it comes to actually writing dialogue…although really he gets away with reiterations of the same character note many, many times.</p>
<p>Of course, this stereotyping is also done sociologically, which is even more disastrous. Somehow each nation seems to have a homogenous military force, for example. Vo Mimbre produces knights, Sendaria produces archers, etc. This is so ridiculous it doesn’t need to be attacked. However since it is also applied to the customs and politics of the cultures, the nations really come of as a sham. Particularly bad was the conflict between Mimbrates and Asturians and the lame way in which is was resolved. Maybe if I hadn’t read <em>Lions of Al-Rassan</em> I wouldn’t have noticed, but Kay if you ask me is the Tolkien of societal conflict and you try to cross that territory at your own risk.</p>
<p>That gets to another weakness of the book…nothing in particular happens. The characters don’t change very much, and when they do it tends to be either by authorial fiat (Merel for example) or simply irrelevant to the story (i.e. whatever Garion is feeling at the moment…who cares, fate is at the wheel, not him). The story’s plot and themes could have easily been reduced to a single volume not much longer than the first book, but I admit it probably would have been a commercial failure. There’s something to be said for a nice long story, and the padding–bickering and repartee between characters–is where Eddings’ writing is strongest.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, when he gets to padding actual plot it becomes less sound. The pseudofeminist subplot where the queens take over the kingdoms is bizarre for a number of reasons. For one thing, why make a big deal about modernizing male-female relations when you’ve got a bunch of feudal governments (oh, sorry, only Arendia has an oppressed peasantry…right)? And, if you’re going to do it anyway, why draw all of your important female characters using the classic chauvanist caricatures of “complete ditz” or “complete bitch”? On a related note I was unsure as to why I was supposed to give a damn about Ce’Nedra, or want Garion to be involved with her in the least.</p>
<p>One of the major elements of the story is the concept of fate and prophecy, but unfortunately Eddings seems to have included it because he felt it was expected without actually thinking about too hard. Unfortunately, fate is really more of a Greek issue while the rest of Eddings story comes from Christian (specifically Romantic) sources. If you ask me, the tiny role prophecy and fate played in <em>Lord of the Rings</em> was something of a mistake but at least it was part of a larger theme relating to his monotheism and the toleration of evil. The only justification for Eddings’ material here is a bunch of handwaving about the universe. His seems to have come up with the two prophecy concept as an attempt to give his main character free will, but giving him about 5 minutes of free will (during which, I might add, he makes no choices other than a hand-waving psychological gambit). The attempt is laudable, I suppose, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Five minutes of free will doesn’t justify the “dry voice” hauling Garion around for the preceding four and three quarters books with the marionette strings completely visible.</p>
<p>The other problem with his metaphysics is the empty religion he has provided, again without seeming to give it much thought. His gods are bound by fate, not the enforcers of it, and seem to have been given all the fallibility of man. It all begs the question, what are they doing in the story? Not much, of course–like Tolkien’s little-G gods, they keep to themselves for the most part. But since there is no thematic use of them why are they there at all? It was also a mistake to align gods, when they are aligned at all, with animals instead of with values, but since they seem to be there “just because” it is understandable Eddings would not see the reasons for this.</p>
<p>My last complaint about the metaphysics is the sorcery and how many important elements were left unsaid. The “will and the word” was all well and good, but why is Belgarath immortal? Is Durnik in his new form immortal? Was Polgara choosing mortality when she thought she was giving up her power? Belgarion has the power, is he going to live forever? Might be difficult since one assumes Ce’Nedra is not. Additionally, since the only stated limitation is not being able to destroy matter (if this can even be called a limitation, since functionally speaking disintegration accomplishes the same goal) on the whole it seems wasted. Can they restore a normal person’s youth? How is their power affected by distance? And so forth.</p>
<p>Also I should add that it was difficult to swallow the characterization of Belgarath and Polgara. Polgara is thousands of years old and throws a days-long temper tantrum over what she surely can see is good sense and, for that matter, seems completely bound by fate anyhow? Belgarath in particular is childish, and while it is occasionally hinted this is a sort of disguise, there’s no real evidence of this. While his constant squabbling with Polgara was cute, I just didn’t buy this as the sort of relationship two people who had known each other for thousands of years would have.</p>
<p>I’ve done a lot of complaining here, but that speaks to the strength of the format and of Eddings’ execution, at times. I always have the most to say about books that were tantalizingly close to being great but fell short. The Eddings who wrote this story is probably not capable of writing something I would give five stars to, but there’s always hope he will improve (although his age when writing the <em>Belgariad</em> takes away some of my optimism).</p>
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 Belgariad by David Eddings

 January 5, 2005 at 12:00 am | Posted in 4 stars, Book Reviews, Fantasy | 5 Comments
 Tags: David Eddings

 I started reading Belgariad with some trepidation. For years, JRR Tolkien was all I felt I needed to read from the fantasy genre. I had no patience for the sorry bunch of imitators that his work had spawned. Slowly of course I have been exposed to good fantasy and have been more willing to give such work a chance. Eddings was the last hurdle because on one hand his books are quite popular but on the other hand he doesn’t have a very good reputation among the net literati.

 The verdict is in: Eddings is no Tolkien imitator. Like Tolkien, he bases the structure of his work on the epics of the past. However, unlike Tolkien, he has very different goals. In the introduction to my edition, Eddings states the map of the world came before anything else. The tempting contrast is Tolkien creating first the Elvish languages. Although this is not the place to describe Tolkien’s motivations, suffice to say he was motivated primarily to develop a history and stories in that history that served as elaborations on themes and values that were central to his thinking. The world he created predated even the early work on his epic, Lord of the Rings, by decades. Eddings, on the other hand, seems to have started with the epic structure and his geography and worked his way from there. The result is an epic that is thorough in very odd areas and curious unformed in those I personally consider more important.

 Did I mention it is pretty good? If I do an entire review as a comparison to Tolkien it’ll sound awful, but Eddings has two things going for him. First, he rigidly adheres to some of the most successful storytelling patterns in history. You may not be surprised by much, but surprise is overrated in fiction (unfortunately that discussion is also out of the scope of this review). Second and perhaps more importantly, as a writer Eddings is very good with light moments and banter between his many named characters. He uses all the right tricks to make sure you will remember the important aspects of a character and is content to sit back and let them chew the scenery. For the rest, Eddings is capable enough. That is why I give it four stars. If you have read it or are otherwise interested in a little bit of spoiler discussion I’ll go into the reasons why it’s a low four stars and not higher:

 As I mentioned in the non-spoiler review, the fact Eddings started with a map weighs heavily on the finished product. It is what in my personal lingo I call a “Grand Tour–every separate spot on the map is visited. Once I realized how the characters were carefully zigzagging through the map it took a little away from the story. Drasnia was skipped in the initial run to retrieve the Orb so I could plan the route the second stage of the quest was going to take before the first stage had even ended. Another thing that must be said about the geography is that Eddings does himself no favors with Tolkien fans when he sticks the good guys in the northwestern corner of the world and even sticks the “Overlord of the west” on an island in the western sea. Also, if it wasn’t for the fact the initial exit from Sendaria was south, the path followed by Garion etc. on the first stage of the quest would probably be exactly the same as that followed by Frodo.

 More problematic was the ruthless stereotyping. Eddings says in the introduction to my edition he wanted to write a more realistic epic. It didn’t seem all that gritty to me–I can only guess he means he mentions supply trains when the big army has been assembled. What I cannot understand is why he would then make such a mockery of his nationalities (leaving aside his frequent misuse of the word “race”). The only reason the army has supply trains (and thus supplies) is it brought along a King with the practical stereotype. Lucky for them it was Sendarians, not Tolnedrans, who were Practical! I suppose I lied, I do understand why he does it: it’s a crutch that allows him to use a much larger cast than is really necessary. Since all the characters adhere so rigorously to their types you simply have to remember the reigning type for each nationality and there’s no need to flip to a dramatis personae. What’s surprising is how fluid his characterization can be when it comes to actually writing dialogue…although really he gets away with reiterations of the same character note many, many times.

 Of course, this stereotyping is also done sociologically, which is even more disastrous. Somehow each nation seems to have a homogenous military force, for example. Vo Mimbre produces knights, Sendaria produces archers, etc. This is so ridiculous it doesn’t need to be attacked. However since it is also applied to the customs and politics of the cultures, the nations really come of as a sham. Particularly bad was the conflict between Mimbrates and Asturians and the lame way in which is was resolved. Maybe if I hadn’t read Lions of Al-Rassan I wouldn’t have noticed, but Kay if you ask me is the Tolkien of societal conflict and you try to cross that territory at your own risk.

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 That gets to another weakness of the book…nothing in particular happens. The characters don’t change very much, and when they do it tends to be either by authorial fiat (Merel for example) or simply irrelevant to the story (i.e. whatever Garion is feeling at the moment…who cares, fate is at the wheel, not him). The story’s plot and themes could have easily been reduced to a single volume not much longer than the first book, but I admit it probably would have been a commercial failure. There’s something to be said for a nice long story, and the padding–bickering and repartee between characters–is where Eddings’ writing is strongest.

 Unfortunately, when he gets to padding actual plot it becomes less sound. The pseudofeminist subplot where the queens take over the kingdoms is bizarre for a number of reasons. For one thing, why make a big deal about modernizing male-female relations when you’ve got a bunch of feudal governments (oh, sorry, only Arendia has an oppressed peasantry…right)? And, if you’re going to do it anyway, why draw all of your important female characters using the classic chauvanist caricatures of “complete ditz” or “complete bitch”? On a related note I was unsure as to why I was supposed to give a damn about Ce’Nedra, or want Garion to be involved with her in the least.

 One of the major elements of the story is the concept of fate and prophecy, but unfortunately Eddings seems to have included it because he felt it was expected without actually thinking about too hard. Unfortunately, fate is really more of a Greek issue while the rest of Eddings story comes from Christian (specifically Romantic) sources. If you ask me, the tiny role prophecy and fate played in Lord of the Rings was something of a mistake but at least it was part of a larger theme relating to his monotheism and the toleration of evil. The only justification for Eddings’ material here is a bunch of handwaving about the universe. His seems to have come up with the two prophecy concept as an attempt to give his main character free will, but giving him about 5 minutes of free will (during which, I might add, he makes no choices other than a hand-waving psychological gambit). The attempt is laudable, I suppose, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Five minutes of free will doesn’t justify the “dry voice” hauling Garion around for the preceding four and three quarters books with the marionette strings completely visible.

 The other problem with his metaphysics is the empty religion he has provided, again without seeming to give it much thought. His gods are bound by fate, not the enforcers of it, and seem to have been given all the fallibility of man. It all begs the question, what are they doing in the story? Not much, of course–like Tolkien’s little-G gods, they keep to themselves for the most part. But since there is no thematic use of them why are they there at all? It was also a mistake to align gods, when they are aligned at all, with animals instead of with values, but since they seem to be there “just because” it is understandable Eddings would not see the reasons for this.

 My last complaint about the metaphysics is the sorcery and how many important elements were left unsaid. The “will and the word” was all well and good, but why is Belgarath immortal? Is Durnik in his new form immortal? Was Polgara choosing mortality when she thought she was giving up her power? Belgarion has the power, is he going to live forever? Might be difficult since one assumes Ce’Nedra is not. Additionally, since the only stated limitation is not being able to destroy matter (if this can even be called a limitation, since functionally speaking disintegration accomplishes the same goal) on the whole it seems wasted. Can they restore a normal person’s youth? How is their power affected by distance? And so forth.

 Also I should add that it was difficult to swallow the characterization of Belgarath and Polgara. Polgara is thousands of years old and throws a days-long temper tantrum over what she surely can see is good sense and, for that matter, seems completely bound by fate anyhow? Belgarath in particular is childish, and while it is occasionally hinted this is a sort of disguise, there’s no real evidence of this. While his constant squabbling with Polgara was cute, I just didn’t buy this as the sort of relationship two people who had known each other for thousands of years would have.

 I’ve done a lot of complaining here, but that speaks to the strength of the format and of Eddings’ execution, at times. I always have the most to say about books that were tantalizingly close to being great but fell short. The Eddings who wrote this story is probably not capable of writing something I would give five stars to, but there’s always hope he will improve (although his age when writing the Belgariad takes away some of my optimism).

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 1. CeNedra is a Dryad and she will live as long as her tree. If you read the book more closely, you will find that all of the questions you posed here are answered.

 Comment by Sarah — January 19, 2014 #

 2. I like your review. I read it as a child, when it made sense really. Eddings, in my opinion, does not manage to create any sense of otherness, unfortunately. Therefore, there are are no truly believable (or human) personalities and also there is no mystery. That last is probably the most problematic thing about the books, especially in fantasy. He is certainly not a fabulist. Ocassionaly there is a turn of phrase, or a joke that I like and to his credit his story-telling is very good. What I would say is that this would work as one of Belgarath’s stories…. it needs to be dramatized either by a stoyteller, or even acted out, to give it flesh. It has a mind, but that mind is rather singular. To create a world, you need to understand and recreate multiple minds, or don’t even try…

 Comment by Hugh — May 22, 2014 #

 3. I disagree with the review. I have attempted to read Tolkien on several occasions, and was never “grabbed” by his work. Eddings definitely has a different slant on the Fantasy genre, but it’s more endearing and personal to me. I hold Eddings up as the gold standard for Fantasy novels. The only faults I can find are that 1) from the Belgariad to the Elenium it seemed he told the same story twice. Nevertheless I found both to be entertaining enough to read over and over again. 2) it seems that the characters often tell the same jokes, and use the same sarcasm over and over. Still you did give it four stars so…ok.

 Comment by Jim — July 6, 2014 #

 4. You have to be kidding me the Belgariad is one of the most obvious Tolkien ripoffs. It’s a worthy series on its own but for pete’s sake it’s a total ripoff. I could write ten paragraphs about where he stole plot elements right from LOTR. It’s the men of the West against one Dark Foe all over the again. Garion equals Aragorn. Belgarath is Gandalf. The orb of Aldur is kind of like the one ring. Torak = Sauron. The Algar strong hold is Helm’s deep. Vo’Mimbre is Minas Tirith. The Grolims are Nazgul. Series I like the series but it’s total rip-off.

 Comment by KH — December 11, 2014 #

 5. The queens “take over the kingdoms” because they’re left as regents while their husbands are off to war with Ce’Nedra.

 I agree with the rest of your review. I was spellbound by the series when I was a teen, and I still feel it did well on mood and excitement, but it is in the shallower end of fantasy. And the stereotyped nationalities are not a good look.

 Definitely agree that Eddings does not handle gender well. I’m surprised you didn’t mention the subplot about Merel’s and Barak’s marital problems and the frankly awful way it’s resolved. (A hint: if a husband gets drunk and forces himself on his wife, she’s the bad guy for not forgiving him. But as soon as she gives him a male heir, their marriage is saved.)

 Comment by chrisnordlander — February 14, 2023 #


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January 5, 2005 at 12:00 am | Posted in 4 stars, Book Reviews, Fantasy | 5 Comments Tags: David Eddings    I started reading Belgariad with some trepidation. For years, JRR Tolkien was all I felt I needed to read from the fantasy genre. I had no patience for the sorry bunch of imitators that his work had spawned. Slowly of course I have been exposed to good fantasy and have been more willing to give such work a chance. Eddings was the last hurdle because on one hand his books are quite popular but on the other hand he doesn’t have a very good reputation among the net literati.
The verdict is in: Eddings is no Tolkien imitator. Like Tolkien, he bases the structure of his work on the epics of the past. However, unlike Tolkien, he has very different goals. In the introduction to my edition, Eddings states the map of the world came before anything else. The tempting contrast is Tolkien creating first the Elvish languages. Although this is not the place to describe Tolkien’s motivations, suffice to say he was motivated primarily to develop a history and stories in that history that served as elaborations on themes and values that were central to his thinking. The world he created predated even the early work on his epic, Lord of the Rings, by decades. Eddings, on the other hand, seems to have started with the epic structure and his geography and worked his way from there. The result is an epic that is thorough in very odd areas and curious unformed in those I personally consider more important.
Did I mention it is pretty good? If I do an entire review as a comparison to Tolkien it’ll sound awful, but Eddings has two things going for him. First, he rigidly adheres to some of the most successful storytelling patterns in history. You may not be surprised by much, but surprise is overrated in fiction (unfortunately that discussion is also out of the scope of this review). Second and perhaps more importantly, as a writer Eddings is very good with light moments and banter between his many named characters. He uses all the right tricks to make sure you will remember the important aspects of a character and is content to sit back and let them chew the scenery. For the rest, Eddings is capable enough. That is why I give it four stars. If you have read it or are otherwise interested in a little bit of spoiler discussion I’ll go into the reasons why it’s a low four stars and not higher:
As I mentioned in the non-spoiler review, the fact Eddings started with a map weighs heavily on the finished product. It is what in my personal lingo I call a “Grand Tour–every separate spot on the map is visited. Once I realized how the characters were carefully zigzagging through the map it took a little away from the story. Drasnia was skipped in the initial run to retrieve the Orb so I could plan the route the second stage of the quest was going to take before the first stage had even ended. Another thing that must be said about the geography is that Eddings does himself no favors with Tolkien fans when he sticks the good guys in the northwestern corner of the world and even sticks the “Overlord of the west” on an island in the western sea. Also, if it wasn’t for the fact the initial exit from Sendaria was south, the path followed by Garion etc. on the first stage of the quest would probably be exactly the same as that followed by Frodo.
More problematic was the ruthless stereotyping. Eddings says in the introduction to my edition he wanted to write a more realistic epic. It didn’t seem all that gritty to me–I can only guess he means he mentions supply trains when the big army has been assembled. What I cannot understand is why he would then make such a mockery of his nationalities (leaving aside his frequent misuse of the word “race”). The only reason the army has supply trains (and thus supplies) is it brought along a King with the practical stereotype. Lucky for them it was Sendarians, not Tolnedrans, who were Practical! I suppose I lied, I do understand why he does it: it’s a crutch that allows him to use a much larger cast than is really necessary. Since all the characters adhere so rigorously to their types you simply have to remember the reigning type for each nationality and there’s no need to flip to a dramatis personae. What’s surprising is how fluid his characterization can be when it comes to actually writing dialogue…although really he gets away with reiterations of the same character note many, many times.
Of course, this stereotyping is also done sociologically, which is even more disastrous. Somehow each nation seems to have a homogenous military force, for example. Vo Mimbre produces knights, Sendaria produces archers, etc. This is so ridiculous it doesn’t need to be attacked. However since it is also applied to the customs and politics of the cultures, the nations really come of as a sham. Particularly bad was the conflict between Mimbrates and Asturians and the lame way in which is was resolved. Maybe if I hadn’t read Lions of Al-Rassan I wouldn’t have noticed, but Kay if you ask me is the Tolkien of societal conflict and you try to cross that territory at your own risk.
That gets to another weakness of the book…nothing in particular happens. The characters don’t change very much, and when they do it tends to be either by authorial fiat (Merel for example) or simply irrelevant to the story (i.e. whatever Garion is feeling at the moment…who cares, fate is at the wheel, not him). The story’s plot and themes could have easily been reduced to a single volume not much longer than the first book, but I admit it probably would have been a commercial failure. There’s something to be said for a nice long story, and the padding–bickering and repartee between characters–is where Eddings’ writing is strongest.
Unfortunately, when he gets to padding actual plot it becomes less sound. The pseudofeminist subplot where the queens take over the kingdoms is bizarre for a number of reasons. For one thing, why make a big deal about modernizing male-female relations when you’ve got a bunch of feudal governments (oh, sorry, only Arendia has an oppressed peasantry…right)? And, if you’re going to do it anyway, why draw all of your important female characters using the classic chauvanist caricatures of “complete ditz” or “complete bitch”? On a related note I was unsure as to why I was supposed to give a damn about Ce’Nedra, or want Garion to be involved with her in the least.
One of the major elements of the story is the concept of fate and prophecy, but unfortunately Eddings seems to have included it because he felt it was expected without actually thinking about too hard. Unfortunately, fate is really more of a Greek issue while the rest of Eddings story comes from Christian (specifically Romantic) sources. If you ask me, the tiny role prophecy and fate played in Lord of the Rings was something of a mistake but at least it was part of a larger theme relating to his monotheism and the toleration of evil. The only justification for Eddings’ material here is a bunch of handwaving about the universe. His seems to have come up with the two prophecy concept as an attempt to give his main character free will, but giving him about 5 minutes of free will (during which, I might add, he makes no choices other than a hand-waving psychological gambit). The attempt is laudable, I suppose, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Five minutes of free will doesn’t justify the “dry voice” hauling Garion around for the preceding four and three quarters books with the marionette strings completely visible.
The other problem with his metaphysics is the empty religion he has provided, again without seeming to give it much thought. His gods are bound by fate, not the enforcers of it, and seem to have been given all the fallibility of man. It all begs the question, what are they doing in the story? Not much, of course–like Tolkien’s little-G gods, they keep to themselves for the most part. But since there is no thematic use of them why are they there at all? It was also a mistake to align gods, when they are aligned at all, with animals instead of with values, but since they seem to be there “just because” it is understandable Eddings would not see the reasons for this.
My last complaint about the metaphysics is the sorcery and how many important elements were left unsaid. The “will and the word” was all well and good, but why is Belgarath immortal? Is Durnik in his new form immortal? Was Polgara choosing mortality when she thought she was giving up her power? Belgarion has the power, is he going to live forever? Might be difficult since one assumes Ce’Nedra is not. Additionally, since the only stated limitation is not being able to destroy matter (if this can even be called a limitation, since functionally speaking disintegration accomplishes the same goal) on the whole it seems wasted. Can they restore a normal person’s youth? How is their power affected by distance? And so forth.
Also I should add that it was difficult to swallow the characterization of Belgarath and Polgara. Polgara is thousands of years old and throws a days-long temper tantrum over what she surely can see is good sense and, for that matter, seems completely bound by fate anyhow? Belgarath in particular is childish, and while it is occasionally hinted this is a sort of disguise, there’s no real evidence of this. While his constant squabbling with Polgara was cute, I just didn’t buy this as the sort of relationship two people who had known each other for thousands of years would have.
I’ve done a lot of complaining here, but that speaks to the strength of the format and of Eddings’ execution, at times. I always have the most to say about books that were tantalizingly close to being great but fell short. The Eddings who wrote this story is probably not capable of writing something I would give five stars to, but there’s always hope he will improve (although his age when writing the Belgariad takes away some of my optimism).
Belgariad by David Eddings
https://matthilliard.wordpress.com/2005/01/05/belgariad-by-david-eddings/#comments
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44659.Pawn_of_Prophecy
Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad #1)
2023-01-01
Author
<div><div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1022982-brad"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>2 books1,670 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58286750">August 19, 2010</a></section><div><p>At Gordon Ramsey's <i>Pétrus</i> restaurant (1 Kinnerton Street / Knightsbridge, London / SW1X 8EA...in case you're interested), I can get a "Roasted beef fillet with braised shin, baked celeriac and Barolo sauce" for the reasonable price of £65.00 pounds.<p>I haven't tried that dish yet (I probably never will), but it sounds fabulous. What I have tried, though, is my Mom's "Roast beef, mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables." I still make it whenever my kids are in the mood, and it costs me about $15.00 dollars Canadian for five people, and it's delicious. Yes, it's simple; yes, it is plain in comparison to Ramsey's feast; but it makes me feel good, tastes great and satiates my hunger. </p><p>Gladly running the risk of sounding like a boring guy, I think, in the big scheme of things, that I will always like my Mom's dish better than Ramsey's, even if I tried it in the company of say...Harrison Ford. I would always remember that "Roasted beef fillet with braised shin, baked celeriac and Barolo sauce" fondly, but I'd go back to my Mom's dish before I ever made it to <i>Pétrus</i> again.</p><p>I feel the same way about David Eddings <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/44659.Pawn_of_Prophecy__The_Belgariad___1_">Pawn of Prophecy</a>.</p><p>There's nothing fancy about Eddings' tale of Garion, Belgarath and Polgara. We've all tasted the ingredients in a similar dish hundreds of times (at least we have if we're fantasy geeks). Some of those dishes have been tastier (think <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/13496.A_Game_of_Thrones__A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire___1_">A Song of Ice and Fire</a> -- at least that's what I've heard), some have been more filling (think <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/33.The_Lord_of_the_Rings">Lord of the Rings</a>), some are perfect aperitifs (think <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/13642.A_Wizard_of_Earthsea__The_Earthsea_Cycle___1_">A Wizard of Earthsea</a>), some are great appetizers (think <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/11127.The_Chronicles_of_Narnia___1_7_">The Chronicles of Narnia</a>), and some are perfect desserts (almost anything by <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/60177.Guy_Gavriel_Kay">Guy Gavriel Kay</a>), but it is always nice to have something familiar and tasty and simple. That's what <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/44659.Pawn_of_Prophecy__The_Belgariad___1_">Pawn of Prophecy</a> is for me (now that I have finally read it).</p><p>I've started a few fantasy series lately, and they've slipped out of my memory as soon as I've put them down, but ten minutes after finishing <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/44659.Pawn_of_Prophecy__The_Belgariad___1_">Pawn of Prophecy</a> I walked into a used bookstore and bought <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/587582.Queen_of_Sorcery__The_Belgariad___2_">Queen of Sorcery</a>, and I plan to read it soon. You see, I need my Mom's Roast beef and mashed potatoes for dinner every couple of Sundays, so I'm not about to wait.</p><p>I'm going to let Eddings cook for me again soon.</p><p>Bram and Ryan were right to love this book as boys (lose the guilt Brer Ryan). It might not be mindblowingly inventive, but it is comfortable, and sometimes that is better than mindblowing -- or just as good. </p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1022982?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/784106-john-conrad"></a></section><section><p>47 reviews15 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12551140">January 15, 2008</a></section><div><p>Eddings has really created a beloved series of books that can be recommended to young and old alike. It is not deep or etremely thought provoking, it's just an enjoyable combination of adventure, humor, and fun. Garion, a naive farm boy, finds out that he is not ordinary at all. As he discovers his powers, he grows to adulthood through the ten books that comprise the Belgariad and the Mallorean. Critics might find some elements a bit formulaic, but few can deny that it is a fun series to read. For me, it was my first introduction to fantasy after Tolkien, and it was very refreshing. It was written in the 1980's when there wasn't much new stuff around. We had Anne McCaffrey and her dragons, and Terry Brooks came along. I guess there was Ursula LeGuin and CS Lewis as well to fall back on, but Eddings really put together a compelling story with memorable dialogue that my wife and I frequently quote from.<p>I think many of the reviews of the Belgariad are too harsh. This is a book that you can hand to your kids without worrying what strange ideas they might pick up. Somebody reviewed the books as xenophobic. What rubbish! If you create a country like Cthol Murgos where the people have an evil ruler who promotes cruelty, or a country like Nyissa who are constantly in fear of being poisoned and have strange mannerisms that imitate their snake god is that xenophobic? No, it's doing what every author needs to do. They create a world that we can escape into and people that we can relate to. If you have to superimpose our world onto the canvas of the Belgariad you're looking too deeply. Eddings writings are not social commentary or overly symbolic. It's not CS Lewis or George Orwell. It's about having fun! Sorry for the tirade, but I get bugged by reviewers who are so full of themselves that they can't admit a book is a good read because someone might think of them as juvenile or unsophisticated!</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/784106?shelf=books-for-young-people">books-for-young-people</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/14716035-bookwraiths"></a></section><section><p>698 reviews1,023 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/459151048">November 9, 2014</a></section><div><p>Originally reviewed at <a href="http://bookwraiths.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/pawn-of-prophecy-by-david-eddings/">Bookwraiths Reviews</a> <p>There is nothing I hate more than trying to review one of my all-time favorite books from my teenage years. We all know the reason: the book just never lives up to your memories of its perfection. A fact - which if we are honest with ourselves - is inevitable, because we personally have changed too much, the world has changed too much, and our tastes have changed too much since the initial reading. This is true to a certain extent with David Edding’s Pawn of Prophecy.</p><p>Back when I picked up this first novel of The Belgariad in 1984, I was a 13-year-old or a 14-year-old (I can’t remember which anymore) just getting over an addiction to Dungeon &amp; Dragons and trying to transition away from my pre-teen persona into my young adult one. I had also just recently made the life altering discovery of J.R.R. Tolkien, whose books made me fall in love with fantasy and ruined my dreams of ever being considered a cool kid in high school. (It was hard to be cool when you were reading The Hobbit and making jokes about what exactly JRR was talking about when he wrote “...it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort”, but I probably shouldn’t really mention that in this review.) So when Pawn of Prophecy found its way into my hands, it must have been fate, and I fell very hard for all things related to Belgarath, Polgara or Garion. A love which lasted into my early twenties and began from the very first page of this novel.</p><p>As a teen who adored the Council of Elrond chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring, the prologue to Pawn of Prophecy was like getting a fix of my favorite pharmaceutical product. Where else except for The Silmarillion could I get to read about ancient gods creating a world only to have its perfection marred by some horrible act and throw creation into a state of constant strife? Not too many places. So within minutes, I was addicted to this story of maimed Torak and his eternal conflict with his godly siblings over possession of the Orb of Aldur, and I had to have more. Honestly, it was just a great hook. </p><p>From this beginning, Mr. Eddings immediately thrust me into the story of a simple farm boy named Garion. I learned of his earliest memories, hiding under a table watching his Aunt Pol cook. I experienced him growing up with his childhood friends, playing games, and even saw his first romance between himself and a local girl Zubrette. I also read about - but payed little attention to - the introduction of a wandering storyteller named Mister Wolf, who seemed like the comic relief more than a major character. (Boy, was I wrong on that!) And like all good fantasy books, Mr. Eddings provided me with constant foreshadowing that there was some terrible evil lurking right around the corner, waiting to destroy all this normalcy. A feeling which he deftly stoked by scene after scene of Garion experiencing visions of an unknown antagonist stalking him. </p><p>Naturally, one day Garion’s quiet farm life did end and end suddenly. Mister Wolf arriving at the farm unexpectedly, bearing news that a mysterious object has been stolen by a thief whom no-one will name. This news shocks Aunt Pol, causing her to pack up her and Garion’s things and leave the farm with Mister Wolf, dragging our clueless teenager along against his will. From there the true adventures began, and what a tale it was! </p><p>A huge, colorful world inhabited by different cultures, grand characters, and even ancient gods opened up before Garion. All of it there for our young farm boy to see and experience and me tagging along behind. Mr. Eddings dazzled both of us with his constant unveiling of ancient mysteries, evil villains, grand conspiracies, divine prophecies, and wonderful history. And the whole time, I - a teenager myself - witnessed one more thing: Garion dealing with the normal teen angst of a simple boy ripped from his safe home and thrown into a larger, more dangerous world than he ever imagined. Every adventure, every heartbreak he experienced slowly turning him into a young man before my reading eyes. Something that I was also struggling with in my own life though in different ways.</p><p>It was a grand ride that Mr. Eddings took my teenage self on during those years, and I adored every one - even when I was 19 instead of a 13-year-old, because for a few hours I could go back “home” and visit my teen heroes Garion, Belgarath, Aunt Pol, Silk, and all the rest. They felt like family to me. And it all started with this book.</p><p>Later in life I returned to Pawn of Prophecy to revisit my old “friends.” Like many times when you visit your childhood haunts, I found that things had changed - specifically me. I was older. No doubt about that. The mirror doesn’t lie after all. Plus, I was a father now. Responsibilities and all that other grown up stuff weighing me down. And I have to admit that I was now a bit jaded about life. Things were more gray now and a lot less black and white than back in my teen years. So Pawn of Prophecy’s straightforward fantasy about good guys defeating bad guys did not energize me as much as it once did. The best comparison I can give is going to your twentieth high school reunion excited to see your old girlfriend/boyfriend only to realize they aren’t sixteen anymore, have put on thirty pounds and gotten wrinkles just like you. How dare they change! That is how I felt as I sat there reading about my old friends Garion, Belgarath, and Polgara.</p><p>So why the five (5) star rating if I felt this way on my re-read you ask?</p><p>Simple: I try to rate my favorite, childhood books by what I thought of them when I read them the first time. </p><p>Maybe rating certain novels that way is wrong, but I cannot think of another way to be fair to a novel which I dearly loved at an earlier period of my life. It isn’t the books fault that I have gotten older after all. And the truth of the matter is that when I read Pawn of Prophecy - not once but numerous times in the 80s - I absolutely loved it! The simple plot and world spanning journeys of Garion bedazzled me, making me want more and more, and in my obviously biased opinion, it is still a great book for the right person - maybe another 13-year-old boy trying to grow up. Because I truly believe that even in its simplicity Pawn of Prophecy can still speak to that person and begin them on their journey into the world of fantasy novels. For that reason - and all my personal memories of it - Pawn of Prophecy will always remain a 5 star book and one of my all-time favorite fantasy novels.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14716035?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/14716035?shelf=favorites">favorites</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/40997852-nicole"></a></section><section><p>708 reviews1,738 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2992877996">June 15, 2021</a></section><div><p><b>3.5 stars</b><br />This was a fun classic fantasy. If you’re looking for something innovative, then this book isn't for you. It was published in 1982 so by today’s standards it is definitely a cliché. However, of course, I personally won’t judge a book as a cliché if it’s almost 40 years old. <p>Even though it can be read to children, I don’t think it’s for a particular age only (though the older you are the less you’d enjoy it I suppose.) <i>Pawn of Prophecy</i> wasn’t fast-paced but it was a very quick read. It is not memorably by any means but it was enjoyable and it’s a good –even if typical- story. </p><p>I might seem negative but only because I don’t want people judging it harshly. The characters were interesting and the main character was decent (however we never learn if he eventually learns to write, there are some minor plot holes). I'm rating it 3 stars instead of 4 because I did not witness enough development in Garion's character/skills. </p><p>I’d only recommend it if you’re looking for a good old fantasy. I'm looking forward to continuing this series, I've been dropping many lately so it's good to read a book and plan to read its sequel!</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/40997852?shelf=2020">2020</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/40997852?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/26681101-markus"></a></section><section><p>469 reviews1,510 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/934729244">January 3, 2019</a></section><div><p>And there we go - after posponing and postponing I've finally kicked off the last of the old great fantasy series on my long term fantasy reading quest.<p><i>Pawn of Prophecy</i> is everything everyone makes it out to be. That is, it is a book which at first seems like a derivative, annoying teenage farmboy fantasy with very few redeeming qualities. For those who stick with it, however, it contains so much more. By the end of the book, I just wanted more immediately.</p><p>After a painstakingly slow beginning, the book picks up pace, and by the end, it becomes a real page-turner. Most of the characters are significantly more enjoyable than their equivalents in many similar fantasy series, and while I understand that some people are annoyed that they're seemingly invincible and face few real challenges to their progress, I found it somewhat refreshing to not have to read through the kind of setback some authors use to create fake suspense.</p><p>While there are plenty of downsides, the world of the <i>Belgariad</i> becomes more and more enjoyable by each chapter.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/26681101?shelf=2018">2018</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/26681101?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/26681101?shelf=the-sapkowski-canon">the-sapkowski-canon</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7151669-anthony-ryan"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>80 books8,173 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1133113982">October 12, 2017</a></section><div><p>The first volume in the five book Belgariad series, which I'll happily admit to reading and then rereading throughout my mid-teens. Farm boy Garion enjoys a peaceful childhood in the care of his loving and occasionally stern Aunt Pol until the arrival of assassins sees them both on the run and Garion increasingly aware that he's much more important than he could have imagined. This is where the classic 'chosen one' fantasy template gets going in earnest and it's rarely been done better. The scale and detail of Eddings' world is often staggering and the interplay between the characters a frequent delight. Some elements will seem overly familiar to modern fantasy readers, from the prolonged info-dump in the prologue to the 'boy with a great destiny' central protagonist. It should be remembered, however, that many of these elements became tropes because of Eddings' success. Genre history lessons aside, this series remains a hugely engaging read and the first volume is no exception.</p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/27962805-choko"></a></section><section><p>1,169 reviews2,568 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2687007692">January 24, 2019</a></section><div><p>Classical Fantasy in its finest! Brought back some of my childhood and the first Sparks of Love for the genre! Yes, I am sure my feelings are tainted by nostalgia, but if I had kids, I would definitely be reading this to them, just as my dad used to read it to me... Yeah, totally worth it 😊🤗💕!</p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/27962805?shelf=advanture">advanture</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/27962805?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2187043-mike-the-paladin"></a></section><section><p>3,145 reviews1,781 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/198803896">April 5, 2012</a></section><div><p>Okay, I see all the glowing reviews and all the 4 and 5 star ratings... sigh. Here I go again. <p>While I don't actually dislike this book I'm pretty far from liking it either. Mostly I struggled to stay awake and keep my mind on it. It starts out slow meanders around trying to find a plot in the midst of it's standard epic fantasy stereotypes and finishes telling me I should get the next book. </p><p>Not for now, thanks. </p><p>The book wants very badly to be a standout epic. I mentioned elsewhere that it felt as though the book kept yelling "LOOK AT ME I'M AN EPIC FANTASY!" The novel begins by introing us to the deities of the book's mythology, telling us about the "evil one of them" and the "mythic event" that set things in motion. . We are told about and later meet Polgara, Belgarath and Garion. Garion is a boy growing up on large and prosperous farm or farm-stead being raised by "Aunt Pol". </p><p>I read one other David Eddings book some years ago and I've largely forgotten it. My only clear impression is that throughout the book we were always traveling. We're here and we need to go there. We get there and we find we need to go somewhere else. Once there another trip became necessary. I joked that I probably wore out shoes reading the book. The same starts out here...</p><p>Anyway, the book strives to build a portentous story but ends feeling mostly like an intro into a longer story. I know a lot of you like this book and I'm not taking shots at it, it just didn't draw me in. I kept finding that my mind had wandered off the story, so enjoy if it's for you. </p><p>This is I'd say a "try it yourself book". I didn't care for it and probably won't follow it up (at least not till someone convinces me that I "simply must" try the next one. LOL). See what you think, not one I really care for. And, frankly...I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be an "Eddings fan". </p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2187043?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2445786-olivia"></a></section><section><p>689 reviews115 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2681996923">September 27, 2022</a></section><div><p>I thought I'm too old. I thought this wouldn't be challenging enough. I thought I'd be bored.<p>Instead, I was deeply engrossed in this book, couldn't put it down. Didn't want to put it down.</p><p>This book is like sipping hot chocolate wrapped in a blanket while it snows outside. It's familiar, comforting, and it's fun.</p><p>Of course, it's neither deep nor complex, but it resulted in a wonderful, heartwarming Saturday afternoon, and I can't wait to continue the series.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2445786?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/289098-w-c"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>1 book4 followers</p></section></div><section><section><p><b>Read</b></p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4785609">August 20, 2007</a></section><div><p>Review here for the entire Belgariad.<p>I noticed that most of the reviewers give this a nostalgic loved-this-when-I-was-young rating. And they're right to do so. This is the perfect series of books for a young reader: clever enough to hold its own, exciting without being too graphic, and the youth don't notice just how bad the prose is.</p><p>I mean, it's hilariously bad. It's not that the Eddings machine can't write for beans; it's that the writing does all the hackneyed nasty cliched things that you're supposed to get out of your system sometime shortly after high school. (For an effective drinking game, swig every time Eddings writes a Tom Swifty - ("I can't swallow this peach," Garion choked.) Or just sip; it happens on every page so you'll drink your share either way) </p><p>On rereading, though, two things struck me other than the bad prose. The first is, the characteriations are really swift, moving directly and smoothly from "yes you care about this person" to "this is what's happening to this person", usually in a couple paragraphs. Drawing parallels for me to the adventure novels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The brevity of the characetrizations are a real strength. The second thing I noticed was that there was something else going on here; glimpses of a cosmology of wonder and fascination beyond the play of the story itself. It was as though, every once in a while, the bottom dropped out of the floor and you realized you were in the midst of the ambitious project of an undiscovered author, the one thing he cares about more than anything else, and you have a front-row seat to teh story he wants to tell, yes, but more importantly you can see him constructing the stage props by hand in the wings, scrambling for everything he can get his hands on, and by some happy accident conjuring a genie that grants his greatest wish.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/119217115--"></a></section><section><p>210 reviews76 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3653380786">May 23, 2021</a></section><div><p>من، در تقریبا تمام مدتی که کتاب رو می‌خوندم:<br /><br />I MEAN, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?<p>ببینید من کتاب‌هایی رو که شصتاد جلد مقدمه‌چینی می‌‌کنن بعد می‌رن سراغ داستان اصلی، دوست ندارم. مثل بلگاریاد. از قرار معلوم تا جلد سوم قرار نیست وارد ماجراهای اصلی بشیم. :|||||| بابا یعنی چی این کار؟ مقدمه‌چینی اون‌جورش خوبه که پایه‌ریزیِ وقایع آینده باشه و در عین حال ماجراها و شخصیت‌پردازی‌های جالب‌توجه ارائه بده نه این‌که ما چند جلد راه رفتن‌ شخصیت‌ها رو تحمل کنیم تا تازه برسیم به داستان اصلی! O_o<br /></p><p>بذارین سریال مستر ربات رو مثال بزنم چون فعلا فقط اون به ذهنم می‌رسه. آغاز مستر ربات مقدمه‌چینیه. هنوز بیننده از وقایع آینده خبر نداره و اگه کسی به الیوتِ قدیمیِ آغاز سریال نگاه کنه، توی دلش سرش داد می‌زنه:<br />Uh man you have NO IDEA!<br />اما از همون اپیزود اول به رابطه‌ی شخصیت اصلی، الیوت، با چندین شخصیت مهم پرداخته می‌شه. زندگی و وضعیت روحیش توضیح داده می‌شه. <b>ماجراهایی که برای ورود اون به قصه‌ی اصلی لازمه اتفاق بیفتن، از همون قسمت اول در حال رخ دادنن.</b><br />در عین حال سازنده برای پایان فصل و چه بسا فصل‌های آینده کد و سرنخ می‌ده. قسمت‌های آغازین مقدمه‌اند، درست، اما به‌هیچ‌وجه <b>نمی‌شه گفت از اپیزودهای آینده کم‌تر مهم‌ یا هیجان‌انگیزند.</b><br />این‌جوری خوبه.</p><p>قلم نویسنده رو چندان دوست نداشتم چون:<br />۱- پر از اسم آدم و مکان بود.<br />۲- نویسنده چیزهایی در ذهن داره که اونا رو روی کاغذ نمی‌آره.<br />یکی از قسمت‌های کتاب رو می‌نویسم که بفهمید منظورم چیه:<br /><i>شولای مخملی و آبیِ سیرِ عمه‌اش باعث شده بود چنان باوقار و زیبا شود که واقعا زبانش بند آمد.</i><br />بعد از این جمله، شخصیت‌ها تا صفحه‌ی بعد دارند از زیبایی پولین تعریف می‌کنند. :|<br />نویسنده‌ی عزیز: اگه به من بگی فلانی خیلی زیبا بود، نمی‌تونم زیباییش رو تصور کنم که. این‌که بذاری بعدش شخصیت‌ها قربون صدقه‌ی زیبایی‌ای برن که من نمی‌تونم ببینم، فقط عصبیم می‌کنه.<br />کلا داره به صفت‌ها می‌گه: لطفا کارِ من رو به‌جام انجام بدین.</p><p>رابطه‌ی شخصیت اصلی (واقعا به‌کار بردن عبارت شخصیت اصلی واسه‌ش کار خنده‌داریه! تنها نشونه‌ی حضور یارو توی داستان اینه که هرازگاهی فکر می‌کنه وای من نمی‌دونم چه خبره!) با بقیه‌ی شخصیت‌ها بسیار سمیه. مخصوصا عمه‌اش. رابطه‌ی این دوتا من رو یاد رابطه‌ی کلارک و مدی توی سریال «صد نفر» می‌ندازه. کلارک، مادر واقعی مدی نیست اما اون رو بچه‌ی خودش می‌دونه و با تمام وجود ازش محافظت می‌کنه. مشکل اینجاست که مدی رو جزء اموال خودش می‌دونه، نمی‌فهمه مدی خودش آدمه و حق داره کارهایی رو بکنه و چیزهایی رو بدونه.<br />عمه پولین هم همینطوره. ننه‌ی گالیون نیست اما بیشتر از والدین ایرانی محدودش می‌ک��ه. نمی‌ذاره هویت داشته باشه. یه جا خیلی بدم اومد که گالیون گفت می‌خواد بره شکار و یکی گفت: «توله‌ات دارد دندان درمی‌آورد، پولین.» 😐<br />هربار که گالیون بی‌نوا دهن باز می‌کنه حرفی بزنه، پولین یکی از «اون نگاه‌ها» که هیچ‌وقت هم نفهمیدم چه نگاه‌هایی هستن بهش می‌ندازه و گالیون دهنش رو می‌بنده. از آغاز تا پایان کتاب درگیری گالیون با ماجراها در این حده که:<br />گالیون: چه خبره؟<br />همه: از عمه‌ات بپرس.<br />عمه: به تو چه ربطی داره که از زادگاه و دوستانت دورت کردیم، شهر به شهر می‌گردونیمت، مدام در حال سروکله زدن با آدم‌های خطرناکیم، مجبورت می‌کنیم پادویی کنی، سر هــــر کاری سرزنشت می‌کنیم، هیچی هم بهت نمی‌گیم؟ حدت رو بدون!<br />گالیون: آه.</p><p>کتاب رو با ترجمه‌ی آقای شهرابی خوندم که بسیار ترجمه‌ی خوبی بود و دست‌شون درد نکنه. عالی و شیوا. فقط، آم، من تنهام یا شما هم حس می‌کنین اعراب‌گذاری زیاده از حده؟ آخه منِ خواننده اول و دوم دبستانی که نیستم، طرز تلفظ کلمات رو بلدم دیگه.👀</p><p>از اون‌جایی که محبوبیت این جلد در گودریدز از بقیه‌ی مجموعه بالاتره گمون نکنم شانسی به بقیه‌ی جلدها بدم. ولی اگه توانایی خرید بقیه‌ی جلدها رو داشته باشم یحتمل نظرم رو عوض می‌کنم و می‌بینم چی می‌شه.</p><p>آخر سر هم بگم که ریویوم رو چندان جدی نگیرید.😂 فقط می‌خواستم غر بزنم و بی‌شک زیاد مبالغه کردم. فانتزی‌پسندها ممکنه خوش‌شون بیاد.</p><p>موفق باشید</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42652215">September 28, 2009</a></section><div><p>When we're all looking for a good book to read, we usually look to our favourite authors and our best friends and trust their recommnendations as to what we should try next. Such as it was for me.<br />The Belgariad was suggested to me by just about everyone I knew who enjoyed fantasy, and a number of my favourite authors. Imagine my surprise when I start reading and keep waiting for the story's plot to begin, and it begins to dawn on me that no such relief will be arriving.<br />The problems I have with the Belgariad are simple: The 'story' is so cliche (An orphen boy who finds himself the subject of a prophecy to save the world, say it isn't so!), The characters are bland and the world seems impervious to logic.<br />Garion, the protagonist of the story, grows up an orphaned child with only his annoyingly mysterious Aunt Pol to take care of him. Despite the fact that he is at an age where he is approaching maturity, Garion demonstrates momentous stupidity several times throughout the series, and particularly in the first book. His entire childhood has been haunted by the prescence of a 'ringwraith' archetype character, a mysterious shrouded black horseman who stalks him, yet he has never once mentioned the terrifying figure to his Aunt Pol, and nor has she, who it becomes known is a powerful sorceress bordering on godly power, ever detected this figure despite being Garion's caretaker and vigilant protector.<br />Over the course of the story, Garion travels alongside a group of companions, every single one of whom is either Royalty, powerful Nobility or an individual regarded as an equal among Kings and Emperors. Bit odd of an adventuring party eh?<br />On top of all of this, the action is horribly bland and Garion's growth into the prophetic saviour is infuriatingly poor, one minute he's a lackwit child and the next he's striding along blasting enemies with torrents of magic without training and out-witting his counselors and advisors despite the fact he's never really had a proper education in statecraft.<br />The dialogue is similarly poor, and often cliche.<br />The romance between Garion and the princess of a neighboring Empire was just plain embarrassing.<br />In summary, I was regretful I had ever picked up the series, and was and still am confused as to how the series ever gathered the acclaim it has.</p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1893651?shelf=high-fantasy">high-fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4009947-anthony"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>5 books1,816 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2460320082">February 17, 2022</a></section><div><p>It’s difficult to rate this book objectively in light of learning about the terrible abuse David Eddings and his uncredited coauthor wife Leigh perpetrated against their two young adopted children. <p>It started out promisingly enough, with the promise being a simple, easy, enjoyably tropey old school fantasy. But as the story wore on, the overt racial essentialism in the world the Eddings created became more and more apparent, and there were an increasing number of cringey moments between husbands and their wives, with the women inevitably being put in their place. </p><p>This series has a reputation of having been formative for many younger readers, a gateway drug of sorts, but it hasn’t aged well, either on its own terms or in light of the revelations about its creators’ misdeeds. </p><p>I won’t be continuing. I almost didn’t want to finish this, but I hate abandoning books I’ve started. </p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4009947?shelf=2021-sffbc-tbr-challenge">2021-sffbc-tbr-challenge</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4009947?shelf=2022-sffbc-tbr-challenge">2022-sffbc-tbr-challenge</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4009947?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> </ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1742824-jason-koivu"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>7 books1,200 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/680454908">November 27, 2019</a></section><div><p>I was chugging along through <i>Pawn of Prophecy</i> just to get through it and viola! Saved by the ending! The prologue, including Eddings' world creation myth, had me really hopeful, but then this one got mired in the typical bratty-kid-is-the-key-to-everything-and-doesn't-know-it epic fantasy trope. That was disappointing. It's just not my jam. I'd heard good things about The Belgariad series. After the slow first two-thirds, things got interesting. I'm intrigued by the story now and one day I'll read the next book.</p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1742824?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1742824?shelf=fiction">fiction</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/42493076-elena-rodr-guez"></a></section><section><p>501 reviews230 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3502151831">October 14, 2022</a></section><div><p>+3<br /><b>“El Destino no siempre significa la muerte. Ojalá el mío lo fuera. Un Destino es algo terrible que le sucede fatalmente a un hombre, y la muerte no es lo peor que puede pasarle”.</b><p>Yo venía en busca de fantasía clásica y voilà la encontré sin lugar a dudas. Necesitaba este tipo de lectura, un libro que no fuese ni muy denso ni muy ligero, sino intermedio. Sentía que si seguía en libros ligeros que devoro a la velocidad del rayo habría acabado con las pocas neuronas decentes que me quedan.</p><p><i>“Cuando uno hace algo que disgusta a otros, éstos tienden a odiarlo. Este odio se acumula con los años hasta que se convierte en algo parecido a una religión. No sólo te odian a ti y a los tuyos, sino que detestan cualquier cosa que tenga relación contigo”.</i></p><p>Este libro que es el comienzo de las Cronicas de Belgarath no deja de ser sino una introducción a una larga saga de fantasía clásica: con fantasia clásica me refiero a que une los componentes de: un viaje, un elegido, una profecía, un grupo, magia, aventuras, amistad y enemigos entre otros elementos típicos de este tipo de literatura.</p><p><i>“Estamos viviendo momentos trascendentales, Garion. Los acontecimientos de un millar de años o más se han concentrado en estos días presentes. El mundo, según me han dicho, es así. Transcurren siglos sin que suceda nada y luego, en unos pocos años, tienen lugar sucesos de tan tremenda importancia que el mundo no vuelve a ser el mismo.</i></p><p><i>-Creo que, si pudiera escoger preferiría uno de esos siglos de tranquilidad.</i></p><p><i>- ¡Oh no! Éste es el momento de estar vivo para ver cómo sucede todo, para participar en ello. Eso hacer correr la sangre en las venas y cada respiración es una aventura”.</i></p><p>Me ha gustado mucho, siento que puede ser una saga que me va a gustar, aunque este libro no deja de ser introductorio. Los personajes me parecen muy carismáticos y la historia interesante. El único problema que encuentro es que nombran tantas razas o pueblos y sus formas de ser que me pierdo un poco. Sin embargo, creo que con el paso de las novelas iré cogiendo el hilo.</p><p><i>“¿Quién puede saber que es fantasía y que es verdad disfrazada de cuento?”</i></p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/61258422-lore-kapo"></a></section><section><p>91 reviews</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3796095539">March 11, 2022</a></section><div><p>"No existen palabras mágicas. Alguna gente cree que sí, pero se equivoca. Los grolims utilizan palabras extrañas pero, en realidad, no son necesarias. Cualquier palabra surte efecto. Lo importante es la voluntad, no la palabra. La palabra es un medio para la voluntad".<p>Este es el primer libro de las Crónicas de Belgarath, fantasía de la clásica, como para volver a enraizarse en los orígenes del género. </p><p>Cada tanto me gusta volver a estos relatos de estructura sencilla, donde los personajes principales se embarcan en un viaje que los llevará a encontrarse con diferentes problemas y enemigos a los que sortear y vencer.</p><p>Tenemos también secretos que no llegan a develarse del todo porque Eddings va construyendo una gran introducción para lo que vendrá después. En este libro vemos solamente atisbos de la historia general, no hay tampoco mucha acción, pero sí bastantes hilos del relato que se abren y van enroscándose a la trama principal.</p><p> Me gusta mucho cómo los personajes mutan, se transforman levemente, paso a paso, a medida que se enfrentan a nuevas experiencias. También me parece muy interesante que aún no exista un Enemigo con mayúsculas, encarnado, al que enfrentarse. Por el contrario, aparece alguien a quien no se nombra y algunos seres llamados murgos, que no sabemos exactamente todo lo que pueden hacer. No es que no sepamos quién es el malo de la historia, sino que por el momento no es relevante.</p><p>Otra cosa que me ha encantado es la personalidad de una de las mujeres de la historia, la tía Pol: avasalladora, no se detiene ante nadie y su personalidad mantiene a raya a cualquiera. </p><p>El Viejo narrador de historias es uno de mis favoritos, a quien no puedo dejar de vincular con un personaje muy querido por la mayoría de quienes disfrutamos de la fantasía clásica.</p><p>En fin, puedo decir que La senda de la Profecía es un viento fresco en medio de un verano caluroso. Para disfrutar tranquilamente sin tener que sumergirse en universos demasiado enrevesados y complejos.</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5427149-nick-borrelli"></a></section><section><p>354 reviews318 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1926484903">February 27, 2017</a></section><div><p>This is the book and series that essentially sparked my interest in the fantasy genre. Now as they are slowly (and I emphasize the word slowly) being released in electronic format, I have begun to start reading them again on my Kindle. Let's be clear: Pawn of Prophecy is not Game of Thrones. It's not The Name of the Wind. Heck, it's not even Assassin's Apprentice. But what it is is an entertaining quest fantasy filled with characters who you feel you know personally by the time you finish the book. The theme is pretty standard farm boy growing up not knowing that he is part of a lineage of a magical family. Evil lord does something bad, the unwitting boy then discovers who he really is and must undertake a quest to vanquish blah blah blah, you get the picture. Despite the formulaic storyline though, David Eddings and his wife Leigh Eddings manage to overcome that by crafting a heartwarming tale that is a pleasure to revisit time and time again. We hear the term comfort-read thrown around quite often, and The Belgariad is that to me in spades. I simply adore the five books that comprise this series and they will always hold a special place in my heart. Like I said, don't expect anything earth-shattering and complex. But do expect a really fun and exciting fantasy with characters who you connect with and who jump off the page.</p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/86793552-farhang-nazaridoost"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>2 books64 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2573216987">April 2, 2019</a></section><div><p>شاید اگه ده سال پیش این کتاب رو می‌خوندم یعنی زمانی که یک پسر سیزده ساله بودم و اولین کتاب فانتزی بود که خوندم می‌گفتم عالیه اما الان به عنوان کسی که دوست داره داستان‌هایی با شخصیت‌های پخته‌تر و کشمکش‌های درونی عمیق‌تری بخونه و همچنین شاهکارهای فانتزی حماسی جهان مثل ارباب حلقه‌ها، چرخ زمان، نغمه آتش و یخ و تعدادی دیگه رو خونده بلگاریاد برای من یک کتاب بسیار خسته کننده با ایده‌ای کهنه، ضرب آهنگی عاری از هیجان و تعلیق با شخصیت پردازی که تاریخ مصرفش گذشته، بود.<br />تقريباً تمام صفحات این کتاب ریتم داستان هیچ‌ هیجان و اشتیاقی برای خواننده ایجاد نمی‌کرد و شخصیت‌ها درحال سفری مجهول برای خواننده بودند، سفری که ما حتی تا نیمه‌ی دوم کتاب نمی‌دونستیم چه هدفی پشت خودش داره.<br />شخصيت‌ها دل نگرانی‌ها و درگیری‌های درونی خودشون رو داشتند و این نکته‌ی خوبیه اما پرداخت کافی نشده بودند تا من به عنوان خواننده بیشتر باهاشون همزاد پنداری کنم درست مثل اینکه صفحات یک روزنامه رو بخونیم و بفهمیم فلان فرد فلان مشکل رو با خانواده‌اش داره و ازش بگذریم.<br />شخصیت اصلی داستان، گاریون پسری در آستانه چهارده سالگی بود که بحرانی درونی با ناشناخته بودن هویت خودش داشت، پسری که نمی‌دونه پدر و مادرش کی هستند و به یکباره  پرت می‌شه وسط یک ماجراجویی و در این حی�� مدام تلنگرهایی بهش زده می‌شد که این ماجرای عجیب و غریب به گذشته‌اش ارتباط مستقیم داره اما هربار که قرار بود این درگیری درونی شخصیت اصلی اوج بگیره و اشتیاق و همزاد پنداری باهم دیگه تنیده بشن تا حس تعلیق و اشتیاق شکل‌ بگیره نویسنده مدام ترمز دستی رو می‌کشید و شخصیت اصلی و خواننده رو دنبال نخود سیاه می‌فرستاد. <br />ديويد ادینگز با خلق شخصیت پولگارا که بار تنها کارکتر اصلی زن رو به دوش می‌کشید قصد داشت همون کاری رو انجام بده که رابرت جردن در چرخ زمان انجام داد اما پولگارا تا اینجا گاهی نقش دایه‌ی مهربان‌تر از مادر رو بازی می‌کرد گرچه می‌شد حس کرد که اهداف دیگه‌ای هم در پشت این مهربانی‌هاش داره اما درهرصورت زنی بود که با وسواس‌های بیش از حد خودش گاهی نفرت من رو برمی‌انگیخت. درست که وظیفه‌اش رو به عنوان کاراکتری که داشت خیلی درست و منطقی انجام می‌داد اما به چه قیمتی؟ به قیمت نابود کردن هیجان داستان! <br />نمی‌‌دونم چه‌طور نویسنده انتظار داره که خواننده شخصیت اصلی‌ای رو که حتی نمی‌تونه خودش رو از عمه‌اش مبرّا کنه و مستقل باشه دوست داشته باشه! وقتی گاریون انتخاب‌های درست و غلطی انجام نمی‌ده و تبدیل به یک کاراکتر وابسته می‌شه آیا جذابیتی خواهد داشت؟ <br />خب یکی دیگه از نکاتی که در زمان امروزی آزار دهنده بود شخصیت بلگارات بود، همون پيرمرد خردمند، همون جادوگر بزرگی که نقش پدر نداشته‌ی شخصیت اصلی رو بازی می‌کنه. دقیقاً همون مرلین، گندالف و دامبلدور و... بدون هیچ تغییری و با تاثیرگذاری بسیار کمتر البته نباید این نکته رو فراموش کرد که زمان انتشار این کتاب (سال 1984)چنین تیپ شخصیت‌هایی کلیشه‌ای محسوب نمی‌شدند.<br />شخصیت‌های دیگه‌ای هم در طول کتاب بودند مثل باراک، خلدار(ابریشم) و حتی دورنیک که با وجود مجموعه بودن این کتاب نمی‌شه پرداخت‌شون رو فعلاً قضاوت کرد و فقط ازشون به عنوان کارکترهایی با پتانسیل بالا یاد می‌کنم که انگار نویسنده‌های فانتزی اون دوران به خوبی ازشون استفاده نمی‌کردند البته بازهم می‌گم که باید چشم انتظار باقی کتاب‌ها ماند. اما وقتی شخصیت آراگورن رو در کتاب ارباب حلقه‌ها و فیلم سینمایی‌اش مقایسه می‌کنم و کیفیت بالای اون شاهکار تاریخی رو کنار بلگاریاد می‌گذارم نمی‌تونم امید چندانی داشته باشم که شخصیت‌های نام برده به خوبی دیده بشن.<br />در جمع بندی نهایی‌ام نمی‌تونم بلگاریاد رو دوست داشته باشم چون کتاب‌های خیلی قوی‌تری در این سبک از فانتزی خوندم و دیگر اینکه فانتزی حماسی امروزه بسیار پیشرفت کرده.<br /> اگر طرفدار پروپاقرص فانتزی حماسی نیستید این کتاب رو دوست نخواهید داشت اما اگر مثل من کشته مرده‌ی این ژانر هستید شاید بلگاریاد با ارفاق راضی کننده باشه. <br />در نهایت هم باید تشکر کنم از مترجم کتاب جناب آقای حسین شهرابی که ترجمه‌شون لذت بخش‌ترین بخش این کتاب بود.</p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/110260399-krell75"></a></section><section><p>267 reviews13 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4677775506">December 11, 2022</a></section><div><p>"Quando si scende al nocciolo delle cose, nulla...o almeno quasi nulla... è davvero impossibile."<p>Erano anni che desideravo leggere ed avere in libreria la saga dei Belgariad, osannata e alla ribalta negli anni 80 e considerata una tappa quasi obbligata per ogni amante del fantasy classico e non.<br />Ebbene devo ammettere che questo primo romanzo è in effetti ben scritto e piacevole da leggere ma non esente da ingenuità.</p><p>Il viaggio che il giovane eroe Garion, ignaro del proprio retaggio e futuro destino, intraprende accompagnato da fedeli e potenti compagni in un mondo pieno di popoli e nazioni diverse, permette al lettore di rimanere coinvolto nell'avventura insieme a lui.<br />Peccato che a parte il girovagare da un villaggio ad una città e da una città ad un villaggio succede ben poco altro per quasi tutta la prima metà del romanzo.<br />Garion ha un innato talento nel trovarsi sempre nel posto giusto al momento giusto forzando un po' troppo gli eventi.<br />Le donne, a parte la zia Pol, sono messe da parte ma spero sia solo una caratteristica del regno barbarico del nord. Il nemico sembra avere mille possibilità di risolvere la situazione ma stranamente non lo fa e rimane a guardare.</p><p>Un fantasy di altri tempi, dove valori, costumi e aspettative del pubblico erano leggermente diversi e si rispecchiano nelle sue pagine. Inutile a parer mio criticare queste differenze, che seppur appaiono evidenti oggi, non lo erano allora.</p><p>Ottima la resa delle varie popolazioni presentate con le loro peculiarità sociali, mentre mi aspettavo qualcosa di più approfondito sulle dinamiche di gruppo e sui personaggi stessi a volte meri spettatori.</p><p>Un primo romanzo di preparazione, con una prosa invidiabile e che promette grandi cose a venire.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/110260399?shelf=eddings">eddings</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/110260399?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/110260399?shelf=letture-2022">letture-2022</a> </ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/724510-phoebe"></a></section><section><p>21 reviews2 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19367087">April 3, 2008</a></section><div><p>This is a review of The Belgariad, a fantasy series that includes the books: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, and Enchanter's End Game. <p>Are the cares of life getting you down? Sky rocketing gas prices, financial and housing markets in ruins, high unemployment, an unending war sucking dry the country's coffers and recession looming on the horizon. Rather than resort to drink or despair, get away with some escapist fantasy! I read The Belgariad series when I was in high school and recently revisited it to see if they were as good as I had thought when I was a mere lass. Lo and behold, the books were a pleasant surprise upon re-reading. The plot includes all the key plot points for a hugely satisfying fantasy story -- no spoilers but there is an epic fight between good and evil, battling prophecies for both, a young good-hearted boy who discovers in time his true destiny, a band of heroes on a quest to seek a powerful talisman, and adventures galore with monsters, gods, fierce warriors, great battles, and magic. These books are not rocket science, and there are no ethical nor even any thoughtful questions posed as sometimes happens with fantasy/sci fi books. But the story moves along briskly with some surprising twists, the characters are fierce and funny. I almost felt sorry for Evil since who could withstand such a powerful band of heroes? Recommended for when you need to escape reality, with no hangovers afterwards. </p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/695116-jim"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>6 books2,016 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32986813">July 14, 2016</a></section><div><p>My old review from 2008 still holds. This is the beginning of a fun, 5 book series. There is another 5 book series, the Mallorean, that comes after plus several additional books, "Polgara", 'Belgarath' &amp; the 'Mrin Codex'. If you stick with the first 5 &amp; maybe the second 5, you'll be happy. Unless this world totally captivates you, reading the 3 additional books is kind of a waste. While there are some tidbits you can pick up, mostly they're a rehash from different POV's of the other 10 books.<p>That said, the world captivated me. My wife &amp; I originally started reading this series just after the second book came out. We the proceeded to read one book a year - FOREVER! - well, it seemed like forever. Of course, we'd have to re-read or at least skim the earlier books again, so I don't know how many times we read them. Two of my kids have read them at least once each, as well.</p><p>It's a sword &amp; sorcery world with a nifty take on it. The characters are engaging, larger than life &amp; just a lot of fun. No sex or gore, it's appropriate for ten or so &amp; up, coming-of-age story. This first book follows Garion from his early memories to about 14. His world starts to turn upside down about 1/4 of the way through as he (&amp; the reader) slowly begin to figure out what's going on. </p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/695116?shelf=1paper">1paper</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/695116?shelf=2fiction">2fiction</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/695116?shelf=3series">3series</a> </ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5811468-gorkem"></a></section><section><p>137 reviews88 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2012823597">November 19, 2017</a></section><div><p><b>Çılgın Tanrılar Dünyasına Hoş Geldiniz</b><p>David Eddings'in isimlerini santraç hamlelerinden ilham aldığı ve epik- fantastik edebiyat öğeleriyle birleştirdiği Belgariad Serisinin ilk kitabı <i>Kehanetin Oyuncağı</i>. </p><p>Dünyanın oluşumundan sorumlu 7 tanrıdan Aldur'un çocuk kalbi büyüklüğünde bir küre yaratıp, başıboş bir halde dolaşan Belgarath adında bir çocuğu müridi olarak yanına alması yetiştirmesi ve ardından kardeşlerinden olan Torak'ın bu taşı çalması ve mutlu mesut yaşayan insanların ve tanrıların halklara bölünmesiyle ortaya çıkan savaşların ön bilgilendirmesiyle başlıyor her şey en basit haliyle. Hikayenin gelişimi ise ana karakter olan yetim Garion'un deyimlerinden ilerliyor. </p><p><b>Eddings Anlatımı ve Karakterler </b></p><p>Eddings harika bir masal anlatıcısı ve buna rağmen Eddings'in bu serisinin hakkının yenildiğini düşünüyorum. Eddings, anlatım olarak sade, tek boyutlu, eğlenceli ve bu basit oluşum içinde sindire sindire katmanlaştırdığı bir okumaya maruz bırakıyor okuyucuyu. Oluşturduğu dünya, fantastik öğelere yaklaşımı dönemsel olarak düşünüldüğünde kendine münhasır. </p><p>Bunun yanında Eddings için şunu belirtmeliyim ki kesinlike bir Tolkien taklitçisi değil. Benzerlikler muhakkak mevcut. (Belgarath/Gandalf) Eddings seriyi tarihsel olguların üstüne oturtup daha çok harita üstünden bir FRP etkisi meydana getirirken, Tolkien sadece bir orta dünya yaratmayıp ve aynı zamanda ırklara özgü dil yaratıyor</p><p>Karakterlere gelince, açıkcası her karakteri kendi içinde çok sevdim . Garion'un çocukluktan başlayarak çiftlikte teyzesi Pol kendini, doğuştan gelen bir içsesini keşfi inanılmaz derece içten bir anlatımdı. Bunun yanında diğer yan ana karakterler, Pol Teyze, Bay Kurt, İpek ve Barak hikayeye dahil olması ve önsözde yer alan tarihsel gelişimi tekrardan farklı açılardan sunmaları da keyifli.</p><p><b>Sonuç.</b></p><p>İlk olarak, çabucak okunan bir kitap. Fakat,kitabın fantastik edebiyat öğeleri açısından günümüzdeki çeşitliliği açısından bakıldığında eksik, problemli, vahim bulunabileceği kesin. Betimler yetersiz. Her şeye rağmen baktığımda kendime iyi ki başlamışım diyorum. </p><p>Fantastik edebiyata giriş yapmadıysanız daha önceden kesinlikle en doğru serilerden biri The Belgariad serisi. Bunun yanında bir genç yetişki serisi olarak da düşünüldüğünde de gönül rahatlığıyla çocuklara okutulabilecek bir seri.</p><p>İyi okumalar!<br />10/8</p><p><i>"Büyülü söz diye bir şey yoktur.Bazı insanlar var zanneder ama...Her söz olur. Önemli olan İradedir, Söz değil. Söz iradenin yoludur sadece.."</i></p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3481936-damian-dubois"></a></section><section><p>141 reviews94 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/736749004">October 16, 2013</a></section><div><p><i>Pawn of Prophecy</i> and the remaining four books that make up <i>The Belgariad</i> series are for me pure comfort reading, something that always manages to put a smile on my face and entertains me throughout.<p>Like many others I cut my fantasy teeth on David Eddings' <i>Belgariad</i> and <i>Mallorean</i> series, once in my early teens and then again in my early twenties. And it was during last week and in between books that I heard the siren song of Eddings once more and knew that I had to heed the call.</p><p>I have read other readers reviews on Goodreads that label this series as being simple, too formulaic, Eddings was secretly a xenophobe and that in comparison to other much well read fantasy series just childish in comparison. Well to them I say phooey! ;) </p><p>Formulaic? Most fantasy series begin with similar tropes so I reject that argument? Xenophobic? You're reading too much into it and obviously have way too much time on your hands. Childish? Well it's definitely a lighter read than say Donaldson, Erikson or Abercrombie but again I don't care. This book is pure entertainment, populated by fantastic characters that you really come to know and love. Silk, Belgarath, Garion, Polgara, Anheg, Barak, Porenn and even the Earl of Seline, all bloody well written and you just can't help but like them.</p><p>Overall, I loved this book to death the first time I read it and age and time haven't diminished my love for it now. Let's all raise a glass to the beauty of nostalgia :)</p><p>Always 5 stars for me.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3481936?shelf=2013">2013</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/238451-patricia"></a></section><section><p>210 reviews86 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3997698">August 25, 2007</a></section><div><p>THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME THINGS YOU MAY CONSIDER AS SPOILERS, though, I think they are just nuances because I'm not telling huge chunks of the story.<p>I like this book because I like Harry Potter, and they are very similar, but I’ll get to that later.</p><p>This is the first book in a series of five called The Belgariad, which chronicles the quest of a boy who learns he is a sorcerer. His parents were killed when he was a baby, and he lives with his aunt. Sound familiar? This book was published in 1982.</p><p>What I liked most about “Pawn of Prophecy” is that the characters are quite human, and quite funny and smart-assed. I’ve laughed aloud a few times, and the author allows the characters to make fun of themselves and the antiquated language they sometimes employ. It’s also rather exciting and it’s an entire new world to learn a la Tolkein. </p><p>I feel secure in saying that I would like this book and perhaps this series had I never read Harry Potter; however, I am a huge HP fan and there is such a great number of parallels between “Pawn of Prophecy” and HP:</p><p>1)	Garion, the boy who finds out he is a sorcerer, lives with his aunt. His parents were murdered when he was a baby, and he has sworn to avenge their deaths.<br />2)	His aunt can turn into an animal. What animal? A great snowy owl, of course!<br />3)	There is an important scene where Aunt Pol tells Garion he “must not say the name” of the evil god that, unbeknownst to him, he is to face in later books. This was prophesied before he was even born.<br />4)	Also, “It’s not a good idea to speak his name. He has certain powers which might make it possible for him to know our every move if we alert him to our location, and he can hear his name spoken a thousand leagues away.”<br />5)	The peoples in the Belgariad are separated by the gods, each choosing his own people to represent and each peoples having certain personality traits, much like the four houses of Hogwarts.<br />6)	The author makes a deal about a cut on Garion’s forehead early on and I wonder if it has remained as a scar.<br />7)	The old sorcerer, Garion’s grandfather, has this said about his eyes: “His eyes were a deep and merry blue, forever young and forever full of mischief.” Of course, this old sorcerer, Belgarath, has long white hair and a white beard etc. etc.<br />8)	Garion has a “mark” upon his person that has been there as long as he can remember.<br />9)	One of the men on Garion’s quest is regularly mistaken for a giant, as he is a big, hairy man.<br />10)	Garion goes through this thing of where everyone keeps referring to him as “the boy” [who lived?] and he has problems with that.<br />11)	Said of the Murgos: “There are some among them who can reach out and pick the thoughts right out of your mind.” Hmm, occlumency circa 1982?</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/238451?shelf=adventure">adventure</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/238451?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/68337677-malum"></a></section><section><p>2,179 reviews130 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2800133810">April 27, 2019</a></section><div><p>By his own admission, Eddings (much like Terry Brooks) was a struggling writer until he saw how Tolkien was selling like hot cakes and decided to churn out simple, easily digestible, highly formulaic fantasy novels. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that (I actually like Brooks' work while admiring the balls it took to blatantly re-write <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> and just changing the names a little). Let's see what Eddings gave us:<p>A mentally handicapped young man who doesn't understand the history or society of his world, or generally anything that is happening around him at any given time, has to constantly ask everyone around him to explain absolutely everything to him. People then go about giving him HUGE info dumps. The tiny amount of action that happens always involves the mentally handicapped boy wandering blindly into danger without a safety helmet or reflective vest, thus requiring a responsible adult to come and save him. Repeat for 300 pages. The End. If this is supposed to be the chosen one, the world would be better off by dumping him down a well and hoping for the best. </p><p>On a side note: since this book basically serves as no more than an almanac for his fantasy setting, it would have been much better had Eddings created a more compelling world.</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/68337677?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a></ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4307906-michael-sorbello"></a></section><section><p>Author <i></i>1 book222 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4106053753">September 16, 2022</a></section><div><p>I read this last year and thought it was decent, but I didn’t like it enough to continue. I decided to give it another go this year with a more open mind and I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it quite a bit more!<p>Garion is a young orphaned farm boy believed to be the descendant of heroes, destined to confront the fallen Dark Lord Torak who betrayed the gods of the old age and threw the world into darkness. With Torak's wicked forces rising from the shadows to wreak havoc in search of an ancient orb that will allow their master to be resurrected, Garion sets out on an epic quest to gain the support of kings from around the world and claim the orb before it falls into the wrong hands. Accompanied by his fierce yet motherly Aunt Pol, the wise sorcerer Wolf, and a slew of colorful companions, Garion must face many challenges before he confronts his mortal enemy and discover the truth behind his lineage.</p><p>An engaging classic fantasy with fun characters and charming humor. The plot and characters are rather simplistic and cliche, but not necessarily in a bad way. All the characters are recognizable archetypes that have been done hundreds of times before. Garion is the orphaned farm boy turned hero of prophecy. Pol is the harsh yet lovable sorceress. Wolf is the wise old bearded wizard. Silk is the cunning sharp-tongued jester. Barak is the barbarian warrior with a heart of gold, etc. But the Belgariad manages to utilize these archetypes much better than most typical classic epic fantasy stories by making them far more human, realistic and relatable.</p><p>The story is as formulaic and by the numbers as fantasy can possibly be, but this was actually an intentional choice by the author. He wanted to prove that he could make a fun, engaging and entertaining series using all the familiar tropes often associated with classic fantasy. Where Eddings succeeds where many classic fantasy epics don’t is the great dialogue, stronger prose, tighter pacing, characters with bright personalities that pop out of the pages and consistently witty and humorous banter between the core cast.</p><p>Is it a monumental work of fantasy that redefines the genre? No. Is it highly entertaining with moments of brilliance here and there? Definitely.</p><p>Silk is my favorite character so far. He’s like Littlefinger from Game of Thrones, but if he were actually a decent guy that just likes gambling, debating and being a sassy little devil.</p><p>My rating: 3.8</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4307906?shelf=1-all-book-reviews">1-all-book-reviews</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4307906?shelf=1-all-fantasy-books">1-all-fantasy-books</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4307906?shelf=1-classic-fantasy">1-classic-fantasy</a> </ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3990525-crystal-starr-light"></a></section><section><p>1,335 reviews811 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/112460122">September 9, 2015</a></section><div><p>Bullet Review:<p>Give the girl a medal! She finished it!</p><p>What a fun ride - but gorrammit did Eddings HAVE to end it THAT WAY? We got some answers (thank Bilbo for that!) but dayum, it took awhile! And now, in order to get more answers and closure, I gotta find book 2!</p><p>Slightly Updated Bullet Review (More Coffee, Less Snoozes):</p><p>I had a LOT of fun reading this. It's pretty much your classic Hero's Journey story - a young boy with a MYSTERIOUS past sees all these crazy things going on. He joins his aunt-figure and a wizened old man on a journey to find something - what, he doesn't know. As he journeys, he meets new peoples (Barak and Silk), learns new skills (basically sign language) and starts to learn the truth about himself and those he thought he knew best.</p><p>I'm not going to bother writing a proper review because I was too damn slow to read this book, and it's not fair. But I will say: this may have all those cliches we gripe and moan about, but in a way that's just so much FUN. Sometimes it's nice to watch something not so gorram serious (I'm looking at you, DC!), and just go along for the ride.</p><p>The only problem? This book does NOT have an ending! We get a couple of answers...and then, BOOM, it's the end! Which means I absolutely HAVE to get my hands on book 2 one of these days and attempt to read this slightly faster than I read it this time around!</p></p></div><section><ul><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3990525?shelf=2015-owned-challenge">2015-owned-challenge</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3990525?shelf=buddy-reads">buddy-reads</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3990525?shelf=fantasy">fantasy</a> </ul></section><hr /></section></article></div><div><article><div><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1805180-seak"></a></section><section><p>429 reviews475 followers</p></section></div><section><section><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40147704">July 30, 2016</a></section><div><p>I realized I still hadn't reviewed this book since I rated it in 2008 (when I joined Goodreads) and read it some time before then. <p>The Belgariad is great starter-fantasy. it will always have a special place in my heart and thus the admittedly inflated rating. Does it break new ground? Not at all. Is it fun and filled with great characters? Yes and no. It's definitely great fun, but the characters are pretty much cardboard cutouts. If the author made them surly (I'm looking at you Belgarath) then they will be that throughout the entire series no matter what. Always surly. And people will always comment about how surly said character is.</p><p>But I loved the adventures when I was just entering fantasy and I'll keep the stars and reserve a reallocation of star-age upon reread (whenever I have time for that).</p></p></div><section><ul></ul></section></section></article></div></div>||||I|||| * Home
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 The Belgariad #1

 Pawn of Prophecy

 David Eddings

 4.16
 102,104 ratings 3,554 reviews
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 A magnificent epic set against a history of seven thousand years of the struggles of Gods and Kings and men - of strange lands and events - of fate and a prophecy that must be fulfilled! THE BELGARIAD

 Long ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe.

 But that was only a story, and Garion did not believe in magic dooms, even though the dark man without a shadow had haunted him for years. Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread Torak, or that he would be led on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger by those he loved - but did not know? For a while his dreams of innocence were safe, untroubled by knowledge of his strange heritage. For a little while... THUS BEGINS BOOK ONE OF THE BELGARIAD'
 Genres Fantasy Fiction Epic Fantasy High Fantasy Young Adult Science Fiction Fantasy Adventure
 ...more

 290 pages, Paperback

 First published March 12, 1982

 Book details & editions

 About the author

 David Eddings

 176 books 5,143 followers
 David Eddings was an American author who wrote several best-selling series of epic fantasy novels. David Eddings' wife, Leigh Eddings , was an uncredited co-author on many of his early books, but he had later acknowledged that she contributed to them all.

 David Eddings' first books (which were general fiction) sold moderately well. He later switched to writing epic fantasy, a field in which he achieved great success. In a recent interview with sffworld.com, he said: "I don't take orders from readers."

 On January 26, 2007 it was reported that Eddings accidentally burned about a quarter of his office, next door to his house, along with his Excalibur sports car, and the original manuscripts for most of his novels. He was flushing the fuel tank of the car with water when he lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable.

 On February 28, 2007, David Eddings' wife, Leigh Eddings (born Judith Leigh Schall), died following a series of strokes. She was 69.

 David Eddings died on June 2, 2009 at the age of 77.

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 4.16
 102,104 ratings 3,554 reviews
 5 stars
 44,781 (43%)
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 34,859 (34%)
 3 stars
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 2 stars
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 Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,553 reviews
 Brad
 Author 2 books 1,670 followers
 August 19, 2010
 At Gordon Ramsey's Pétrus restaurant (1 Kinnerton Street / Knightsbridge, London / SW1X 8EA...in case you're interested), I can get a "Roasted beef fillet with braised shin, baked celeriac and Barolo sauce" for the reasonable price of £65.00 pounds.

 I haven't tried that dish yet (I probably never will), but it sounds fabulous. What I have tried, though, is my Mom's "Roast beef, mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables." I still make it whenever my kids are in the mood, and it costs me about $15.00 dollars Canadian for five people, and it's delicious. Yes, it's simple; yes, it is plain in comparison to Ramsey's feast; but it makes me feel good, tastes great and satiates my hunger.

 Gladly running the risk of sounding like a boring guy, I think, in the big scheme of things, that I will always like my Mom's dish better than Ramsey's, even if I tried it in the company of say...Harrison Ford. I would always remember that "Roasted beef fillet with braised shin, baked celeriac and Barolo sauce" fondly, but I'd go back to my Mom's dish before I ever made it to Pétrus again.

 I feel the same way about David Eddings Pawn of Prophecy .

 There's nothing fancy about Eddings' tale of Garion, Belgarath and Polgara. We've all tasted the ingredients in a similar dish hundreds of times (at least we have if we're fantasy geeks). Some of those dishes have been tastier (think A Song of Ice and Fire -- at least that's what I've heard), some have been more filling (think Lord of the Rings ), some are perfect aperitifs (think A Wizard of Earthsea ), some are great appetizers (think The Chronicles of Narnia ), and some are perfect desserts (almost anything by Guy Gavriel Kay ), but it is always nice to have something familiar and tasty and simple. That's what Pawn of Prophecy is for me (now that I have finally read it).

 I've started a few fantasy series lately, and they've slipped out of my memory as soon as I've put them down, but ten minutes after finishing Pawn of Prophecy I walked into a used bookstore and bought Queen of Sorcery , and I plan to read it soon. You see, I need my Mom's Roast beef and mashed potatoes for dinner every couple of Sundays, so I'm not about to wait.

 I'm going to let Eddings cook for me again soon.

 Bram and Ryan were right to love this book as boys (lose the guilt Brer Ryan). It might not be mindblowingly inventive, but it is comfortable, and sometimes that is better than mindblowing -- or just as good.
 fantasy
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 John Conrad
 47 reviews 15 followers
 January 15, 2008
 Eddings has really created a beloved series of books that can be recommended to young and old alike. It is not deep or etremely thought provoking, it's just an enjoyable combination of adventure, humor, and fun. Garion, a naive farm boy, finds out that he is not ordinary at all. As he discovers his powers, he grows to adulthood through the ten books that comprise the Belgariad and the Mallorean. Critics might find some elements a bit formulaic, but few can deny that it is a fun series to read. For me, it was my first introduction to fantasy after Tolkien, and it was very refreshing. It was written in the 1980's when there wasn't much new stuff around. We had Anne McCaffrey and her dragons, and Terry Brooks came along. I guess there was Ursula LeGuin and CS Lewis as well to fall back on, but Eddings really put together a compelling story with memorable dialogue that my wife and I frequently quote from.

 I think many of the reviews of the Belgariad are too harsh. This is a book that you can hand to your kids without worrying what strange ideas they might pick up. Somebody reviewed the books as xenophobic. What rubbish! If you create a country like Cthol Murgos where the people have an evil ruler who promotes cruelty, or a country like Nyissa who are constantly in fear of being poisoned and have strange mannerisms that imitate their snake god is that xenophobic? No, it's doing what every author needs to do. They create a world that we can escape into and people that we can relate to. If you have to superimpose our world onto the canvas of the Belgariad you're looking too deeply. Eddings writings are not social commentary or overly symbolic. It's not CS Lewis or George Orwell. It's about having fun! Sorry for the tirade, but I get bugged by reviewers who are so full of themselves that they can't admit a book is a good read because someone might think of them as juvenile or unsophisticated!
 books-for-young-people
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 Bookwraiths
 698 reviews 1,023 followers
 November 9, 2014
 Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews

 There is nothing I hate more than trying to review one of my all-time favorite books from my teenage years. We all know the reason: the book just never lives up to your memories of its perfection. A fact - which if we are honest with ourselves - is inevitable, because we personally have changed too much, the world has changed too much, and our tastes have changed too much since the initial reading. This is true to a certain extent with David Edding’s Pawn of Prophecy.

 Back when I picked up this first novel of The Belgariad in 1984, I was a 13-year-old or a 14-year-old (I can’t remember which anymore) just getting over an addiction to Dungeon & Dragons and trying to transition away from my pre-teen persona into my young adult one. I had also just recently made the life altering discovery of J.R.R. Tolkien, whose books made me fall in love with fantasy and ruined my dreams of ever being considered a cool kid in high school. (It was hard to be cool when you were reading The Hobbit and making jokes about what exactly JRR was talking about when he wrote “...it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort”, but I probably shouldn’t really mention that in this review.) So when Pawn of Prophecy found its way into my hands, it must have been fate, and I fell very hard for all things related to Belgarath, Polgara or Garion. A love which lasted into my early twenties and began from the very first page of this novel.

 As a teen who adored the Council of Elrond chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring, the prologue to Pawn of Prophecy was like getting a fix of my favorite pharmaceutical product. Where else except for The Silmarillion could I get to read about ancient gods creating a world only to have its perfection marred by some horrible act and throw creation into a state of constant strife? Not too many places. So within minutes, I was addicted to this story of maimed Torak and his eternal conflict with his godly siblings over possession of the Orb of Aldur, and I had to have more. Honestly, it was just a great hook.

 From this beginning, Mr. Eddings immediately thrust me into the story of a simple farm boy named Garion. I learned of his earliest memories, hiding under a table watching his Aunt Pol cook. I experienced him growing up with his childhood friends, playing games, and even saw his first romance between himself and a local girl Zubrette. I also read about - but payed little attention to - the introduction of a wandering storyteller named Mister Wolf, who seemed like the comic relief more than a major character. (Boy, was I wrong on that!) And like all good fantasy books, Mr. Eddings provided me with constant foreshadowing that there was some terrible evil lurking right around the corner, waiting to destroy all this normalcy. A feeling which he deftly stoked by scene after scene of Garion experiencing visions of an unknown antagonist stalking him.

 Naturally, one day Garion’s quiet farm life did end and end suddenly. Mister Wolf arriving at the farm unexpectedly, bearing news that a mysterious object has been stolen by a thief whom no-one will name. This news shocks Aunt Pol, causing her to pack up her and Garion’s things and leave the farm with Mister Wolf, dragging our clueless teenager along against his will. From there the true adventures began, and what a tale it was!

 A huge, colorful world inhabited by different cultures, grand characters, and even ancient gods opened up before Garion. All of it there for our young farm boy to see and experience and me tagging along behind. Mr. Eddings dazzled both of us with his constant unveiling of ancient mysteries, evil villains, grand conspiracies, divine prophecies, and wonderful history. And the whole time, I - a teenager myself - witnessed one more thing: Garion dealing with the normal teen angst of a simple boy ripped from his safe home and thrown into a larger, more dangerous world than he ever imagined. Every adventure, every heartbreak he experienced slowly turning him into a young man before my reading eyes. Something that I was also struggling with in my own life though in different ways.

 It was a grand ride that Mr. Eddings took my teenage self on during those years, and I adored every one - even when I was 19 instead of a 13-year-old, because for a few hours I could go back “home” and visit my teen heroes Garion, Belgarath, Aunt Pol, Silk, and all the rest. They felt like family to me. And it all started with this book.

 Later in life I returned to Pawn of Prophecy to revisit my old “friends.” Like many times when you visit your childhood haunts, I found that things had changed - specifically me. I was older. No doubt about that. The mirror doesn’t lie after all. Plus, I was a father now. Responsibilities and all that other grown up stuff weighing me down. And I have to admit that I was now a bit jaded about life. Things were more gray now and a lot less black and white than back in my teen years. So Pawn of Prophecy’s straightforward fantasy about good guys defeating bad guys did not energize me as much as it once did. The best comparison I can give is going to your twentieth high school reunion excited to see your old girlfriend/boyfriend only to realize they aren’t sixteen anymore, have put on thirty pounds and gotten wrinkles just like you. How dare they change! That is how I felt as I sat there reading about my old friends Garion, Belgarath, and Polgara.

 So why the five (5) star rating if I felt this way on my re-read you ask?

 Simple: I try to rate my favorite, childhood books by what I thought of them when I read them the first time.

 Maybe rating certain novels that way is wrong, but I cannot think of another way to be fair to a novel which I dearly loved at an earlier period of my life. It isn’t the books fault that I have gotten older after all. And the truth of the matter is that when I read Pawn of Prophecy - not once but numerous times in the 80s - I absolutely loved it! The simple plot and world spanning journeys of Garion bedazzled me, making me want more and more, and in my obviously biased opinion, it is still a great book for the right person - maybe another 13-year-old boy trying to grow up. Because I truly believe that even in its simplicity Pawn of Prophecy can still speak to that person and begin them on their journey into the world of fantasy novels. For that reason - and all my personal memories of it - Pawn of Prophecy will always remain a 5 star book and one of my all-time favorite fantasy novels.
 fantasy favorites
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 Nicole
 708 reviews 1,738 followers
 June 15, 2021
 3.5 stars
 This was a fun classic fantasy. If you’re looking for something innovative, then this book isn't for you. It was published in 1982 so by today’s standards it is definitely a cliché. However, of course, I personally won’t judge a book as a cliché if it’s almost 40 years old.

 Even though it can be read to children, I don’t think it’s for a particular age only (though the older you are the less you’d enjoy it I suppose.) Pawn of Prophecy wasn’t fast-paced but it was a very quick read. It is not memorably by any means but it was enjoyable and it’s a good –even if typical- story.

 I might seem negative but only because I don’t want people judging it harshly. The characters were interesting and the main character was decent (however we never learn if he eventually learns to write, there are some minor plot holes). I'm rating it 3 stars instead of 4 because I did not witness enough development in Garion's character/skills.

 I’d only recommend it if you’re looking for a good old fantasy. I'm looking forward to continuing this series, I've been dropping many lately so it's good to read a book and plan to read its sequel!
 2020 fantasy
 77 likes
 3 comments
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 Markus
 469 reviews 1,510 followers
 January 3, 2019
 And there we go - after posponing and postponing I've finally kicked off the last of the old great fantasy series on my long term fantasy reading quest.

 Pawn of Prophecy is everything everyone makes it out to be. That is, it is a book which at first seems like a derivative, annoying teenage farmboy fantasy with very few redeeming qualities. For those who stick with it, however, it contains so much more. By the end of the book, I just wanted more immediately.

 After a painstakingly slow beginning, the book picks up pace, and by the end, it becomes a real page-turner. Most of the characters are significantly more enjoyable than their equivalents in many similar fantasy series, and while I understand that some people are annoyed that they're seemingly invincible and face few real challenges to their progress, I found it somewhat refreshing to not have to read through the kind of setback some authors use to create fake suspense.

 While there are plenty of downsides, the world of the Belgariad becomes more and more enjoyable by each chapter.
 2018 fantasy the-sapkowski-canon
 72 likes
 11 comments
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 Anthony Ryan
 Author 80 books 8,173 followers
 October 12, 2017
 The first volume in the five book Belgariad series, which I'll happily admit to reading and then rereading throughout my mid-teens. Farm boy Garion enjoys a peaceful childhood in the care of his loving and occasionally stern Aunt Pol until the arrival of assassins sees them both on the run and Garion increasingly aware that he's much more important than he could have imagined. This is where the classic 'chosen one' fantasy template gets going in earnest and it's rarely been done better. The scale and detail of Eddings' world is often staggering and the interplay between the characters a frequent delight. Some elements will seem overly familiar to modern fantasy readers, from the prolonged info-dump in the prologue to the 'boy with a great destiny' central protagonist. It should be remembered, however, that many of these elements became tropes because of Eddings' success. Genre history lessons aside, this series remains a hugely engaging read and the first volume is no exception.
 64 likes
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 Choko
 1,169 reviews 2,568 followers
 January 24, 2019
 Classical Fantasy in its finest! Brought back some of my childhood and the first Sparks of Love for the genre! Yes, I am sure my feelings are tainted by nostalgia, but if I had kids, I would definitely be reading this to them, just as my dad used to read it to me... Yeah, totally worth it 😊🤗💕!
 advanture fantasy
 63 likes
 10 comments
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 Mike (the Paladin)
 3,145 reviews 1,781 followers
 April 5, 2012
 Okay, I see all the glowing reviews and all the 4 and 5 star ratings... sigh. Here I go again.

 While I don't actually dislike this book I'm pretty far from liking it either. Mostly I struggled to stay awake and keep my mind on it. It starts out slow meanders around trying to find a plot in the midst of it's standard epic fantasy stereotypes and finishes telling me I should get the next book.

 Not for now, thanks.

 The book wants very badly to be a standout epic. I mentioned elsewhere that it felt as though the book kept yelling "LOOK AT ME I'M AN EPIC FANTASY!" The novel begins by introing us to the deities of the book's mythology, telling us about the "evil one of them" and the "mythic event" that set things in motion. I do wonder why the deities made the powerful gem in question when "misusing it" could apparently undo not only their work, but them?!?! . We are told about and later meet Polgara, Belgarath and Garion. Garion is a boy growing up on large and prosperous farm or farm-stead being raised by "Aunt Pol". Aunt Pol/ Polgara is Belgarth's daughter. Belgarth is a 7000 year old sorcer...meaning Aunt Pol is probably a bit older than she looks also. One of the other things that bugged me about this book is that while we get all kinds of portentous statements about Garion "Aunt Pol" who is raising him seems not to grasp [even though you'd think she'd be old enough to] that over protection may not be the way to go when a boy is the "expected one". Garion gets into a fight...Pol drags him back to the kitchen. Garion builds a raft and falls into a pond...Pol drags him back to the kitchen. Garion "discovers girls" and Aunt Pol catches him in the barn with a pretty young woman getting a kiss and she....you guessed it... drags him back to the kitchen. He's never been taught to read, he's never been taught to swim...Pol's not teaching him to be a hero or champion, she's teaching him to be a scullery worker. When the boy hits 15 years old he starts to go on his first boar hunt, but "to allow it to happen" "Mr. Wolf" (Belgarath) must intervene. Aunt Pol was going to "put her foot down" and prevent it. Oh well.

 I read one other David Eddings book some years ago and I've largely forgotten it. My only clear impression is that throughout the book we were always traveling. We're here and we need to go there. We get there and we find we need to go somewhere else. Once there another trip became necessary. I joked that I probably wore out shoes reading the book. The same starts out here... we soon need to "travel" we flee in disguise. We're freighters...now we're selling turnips...now we're arranging another cargo, so we look like "real freighters". Okay, it's become obvious we're not freighters. Now we'll travel as "fake royalty". Polgara likes that better anyway. Oops! we've been recognized...now we'll travel as "us". That is except for Garion...


 Anyway, the book strives to build a portentous story but ends feeling mostly like an intro into a longer story. I know a lot of you like this book and I'm not taking shots at it, it just didn't draw me in. I kept finding that my mind had wandered off the story, so enjoy if it's for you.

 This is I'd say a "try it yourself book". I didn't care for it and probably won't follow it up (at least not till someone convinces me that I "simply must" try the next one. LOL). See what you think, not one I really care for. And, frankly...I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be an "Eddings fan".
 fantasy
 62 likes
 25 comments
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 Em Lost In Books
 843 reviews 1,689 followers
 January 28, 2019
 3.5*.

 A lovely story, very similar to Grandma's bedtime stories.
 1980-89 2019 3-star
 58 likes
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 Olivia
 689 reviews 115 followers
 September 27, 2022
 I thought I'm too old. I thought this wouldn't be challenging enough. I thought I'd be bored.

 Instead, I was deeply engrossed in this book, couldn't put it down. Didn't want to put it down.

 This book is like sipping hot chocolate wrapped in a blanket while it snows outside. It's familiar, comforting, and it's fun.

 Of course, it's neither deep nor complex, but it resulted in a wonderful, heartwarming Saturday afternoon, and I can't wait to continue the series.
 fantasy
 51 likes
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 W.C.
 Author 1 book 4 followers
 Read
 August 20, 2007
 Review here for the entire Belgariad.

 I noticed that most of the reviewers give this a nostalgic loved-this-when-I-was-young rating. And they're right to do so. This is the perfect series of books for a young reader: clever enough to hold its own, exciting without being too graphic, and the youth don't notice just how bad the prose is.

 I mean, it's hilariously bad. It's not that the Eddings machine can't write for beans; it's that the writing does all the hackneyed nasty cliched things that you're supposed to get out of your system sometime shortly after high school. (For an effective drinking game, swig every time Eddings writes a Tom Swifty - ("I can't swallow this peach," Garion choked.) Or just sip; it happens on every page so you'll drink your share either way)

 On rereading, though, two things struck me other than the bad prose. The first is, the characteriations are really swift, moving directly and smoothly from "yes you care about this person" to "this is what's happening to this person", usually in a couple paragraphs. Drawing parallels for me to the adventure novels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The brevity of the characetrizations are a real strength. The second thing I noticed was that there was something else going on here; glimpses of a cosmology of wonder and fascination beyond the play of the story itself. It was as though, every once in a while, the bottom dropped out of the floor and you realized you were in the midst of the ambitious project of an undiscovered author, the one thing he cares about more than anything else, and you have a front-row seat to teh story he wants to tell, yes, but more importantly you can see him constructing the stage props by hand in the wings, scrambling for everything he can get his hands on, and by some happy accident conjuring a genie that grants his greatest wish.
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 رزی - زن، زندگی، آزادی
 210 reviews 76 followers
 May 23, 2021
 من، در تقریبا تمام مدتی که کتاب رو می‌خوندم:

 I MEAN, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

 ببینید من کتاب‌هایی رو که شصتاد جلد مقدمه‌چینی می‌‌کنن بعد می‌رن سراغ داستان اصلی، دوست ندارم. مثل بلگاریاد. از قرار معلوم تا جلد سوم قرار نیست وارد ماجراهای اصلی بشیم. :|||||| بابا یعنی چی این کار؟ مقدمه‌چینی اون‌جورش خوبه که پایه‌ریزیِ وقایع آینده باشه و در عین حال ماجراها و شخصیت‌پردازی‌های جالب‌توجه ارائه بده نه این‌که ما چند جلد راه رفتن‌ شخصیت‌ها رو تحمل کنیم تا تازه برسیم به داستان اصلی! O_o


 بذارین سریال مستر ربات رو مثال بزنم چون فعلا فقط اون به ذهنم می‌رسه. آغاز مستر ربات مقدمه‌چینیه. هنوز بیننده از وقایع آینده خبر نداره و اگه کسی به الیوتِ قدیمیِ آغاز سریال نگاه کنه، توی دلش سرش داد می‌زنه:
 Uh man you have NO IDEA!
 اما از همون اپیزود اول به رابطه‌ی شخصیت اصلی، الیوت، با چندین شخصیت مهم پرداخته می‌شه. زندگی و وضعیت روحیش توضیح داده می‌شه. ماجراهایی که برای ورود اون به قصه‌ی اصلی لازمه اتفاق بیفتن، از همون قسمت اول در حال رخ دادنن.
 در عین حال سازنده برای پایان فصل و چه بسا فصل‌های آینده کد و سرنخ می‌ده. قسمت‌های آغازین مقدمه‌اند، درست، اما به‌هیچ‌وجه نمی‌شه گفت از اپیزودهای آینده کم‌تر مهم‌ یا هیجان‌انگیزند.
 این‌جوری خوبه.

 قلم نویسنده رو چندان دوست نداشتم چون:
 ۱- پر از اسم آدم و مکان بود.
 ۲- نویسنده چیزهایی در ذهن داره که اونا رو روی کاغذ نمی‌آره.
 یکی از قسمت‌های کتاب رو می‌نویسم که بفهمید منظورم چیه:
 شولای مخملی و آبیِ سیرِ عمه‌اش باعث شده بود چنان باوقار و زیبا شود که واقعا زبانش بند آمد.
 بعد از این جمله، شخصیت‌ها تا صفحه‌ی بعد دارند از زیبایی پولین تعریف می‌کنند. :|
 نویسنده‌ی عزیز: اگه به من بگی فلانی خیلی زیبا بود، نمی‌تونم زیباییش رو تصور کنم که. این‌که بذاری بعدش شخصیت‌ها قربون صدقه‌ی زیبایی‌ای برن که من نمی‌تونم ببینم، فقط عصبیم می‌کنه.
 کلا داره به صفت‌ها می‌گه: لطفا کارِ من رو به‌جام انجام بدین.

 رابطه‌ی شخصیت اصلی (واقعا به‌کار بردن عبارت شخصیت اصلی واسه‌ش کار خنده‌داریه! تنها نشونه‌ی حضور یارو توی داستان اینه که هرازگاهی فکر می‌کنه وای من نمی‌دونم چه خبره!) با بقیه‌ی شخصیت‌ها بسیار سمیه. مخصوصا عمه‌اش. رابطه‌ی این دوتا من رو یاد رابطه‌ی کلارک و مدی توی سریال «صد نفر» می‌ندازه. کلارک، مادر واقعی مدی نیست اما اون رو بچه‌ی خودش می‌دونه و با تمام وجود ازش محافظت می‌کنه. مشکل اینجاست که مدی رو جزء اموال خودش می‌دونه، نمی‌فهمه مدی خودش آدمه و حق داره کارهایی رو بکنه و چیزهایی رو بدونه.
 عمه پولین هم همینطوره. ننه‌ی گالیون نیست اما بیشتر از والدین ایرانی محدودش می‌ک��ه. نمی‌ذاره هویت داشته باشه. یه جا خیلی بدم اومد که گالیون گفت می‌خواد بره شکار و یکی گفت: «توله‌ات دارد دندان درمی‌آورد، پولین.» 😐
 هربار که گالیون بی‌نوا دهن باز می‌کنه حرفی بزنه، پولین یکی از «اون نگاه‌ها» که هیچ‌وقت هم نفهمیدم چه نگاه‌هایی هستن بهش می‌ندازه و گالیون دهنش رو می‌بنده. از آغاز تا پایان کتاب درگیری گالیون با ماجراها در این حده که:
 گالیون: چه خبره؟
 همه: از عمه‌ات بپرس.
 عمه: به تو چه ربطی داره که از زادگاه و دوستانت دورت کردیم، شهر به شهر می‌گردونیمت، مدام در حال سروکله زدن با آدم‌های خطرناکیم، مجبورت می‌کنیم پادویی کنی، سر هــــر کاری سرزنشت می‌کنیم، هیچی هم بهت نمی‌گیم؟ حدت رو بدون!
 گالیون: آه.

 کتاب رو با ترجمه‌ی آقای شهرابی خوندم که بسیار ترجمه‌ی خوبی بود و دست‌شون درد نکنه. عالی و شیوا. فقط، آم، من تنهام یا شما هم حس می‌کنین اعراب‌گذاری زیاده از حده؟ آخه منِ خواننده اول و دوم دبستانی که نیستم، طرز تلفظ کلمات رو بلدم دیگه.👀

 از اون‌جایی که محبوبیت این جلد در گودریدز از بقیه‌ی مجموعه بالاتره گمون نکنم شانسی به بقیه‌ی جلدها بدم. ولی اگه توانایی خرید بقیه‌ی جلدها رو داشته باشم یحتمل نظرم رو عوض می‌کنم و می‌بینم چی می‌شه.

 آخر سر هم بگم که ریویوم رو چندان جدی نگیرید.😂 فقط می‌خواستم غر بزنم و بی‌شک زیاد مبالغه کردم. فانتزی‌پسندها ممکنه خوش‌شون بیاد.

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 39 likes
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 Nathan
 21 reviews 4 followers
 September 28, 2009
 When we're all looking for a good book to read, we usually look to our favourite authors and our best friends and trust their recommnendations as to what we should try next. Such as it was for me.
 The Belgariad was suggested to me by just about everyone I knew who enjoyed fantasy, and a number of my favourite authors. Imagine my surprise when I start reading and keep waiting for the story's plot to begin, and it begins to dawn on me that no such relief will be arriving.
 The problems I have with the Belgariad are simple: The 'story' is so cliche (An orphen boy who finds himself the subject of a prophecy to save the world, say it isn't so!), The characters are bland and the world seems impervious to logic.
 Garion, the protagonist of the story, grows up an orphaned child with only his annoyingly mysterious Aunt Pol to take care of him. Despite the fact that he is at an age where he is approaching maturity, Garion demonstrates momentous stupidity several times throughout the series, and particularly in the first book. His entire childhood has been haunted by the prescence of a 'ringwraith' archetype character, a mysterious shrouded black horseman who stalks him, yet he has never once mentioned the terrifying figure to his Aunt Pol, and nor has she, who it becomes known is a powerful sorceress bordering on godly power, ever detected this figure despite being Garion's caretaker and vigilant protector.
 Over the course of the story, Garion travels alongside a group of companions, every single one of whom is either Royalty, powerful Nobility or an individual regarded as an equal among Kings and Emperors. Bit odd of an adventuring party eh?
 On top of all of this, the action is horribly bland and Garion's growth into the prophetic saviour is infuriatingly poor, one minute he's a lackwit child and the next he's striding along blasting enemies with torrents of magic without training and out-witting his counselors and advisors despite the fact he's never really had a proper education in statecraft.
 The dialogue is similarly poor, and often cliche.
 The romance between Garion and the princess of a neighboring Empire was just plain embarrassing.
 In summary, I was regretful I had ever picked up the series, and was and still am confused as to how the series ever gathered the acclaim it has.
 high-fantasy
 38 likes
 11 comments
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 Anthony
 Author 5 books 1,816 followers
 February 17, 2022
 It’s difficult to rate this book objectively in light of learning about the terrible abuse David Eddings and his uncredited coauthor wife Leigh perpetrated against their two young adopted children.

 It started out promisingly enough, with the promise being a simple, easy, enjoyably tropey old school fantasy. But as the story wore on, the overt racial essentialism in the world the Eddings created became more and more apparent, and there were an increasing number of cringey moments between husbands and their wives, with the women inevitably being put in their place.

 This series has a reputation of having been formative for many younger readers, a gateway drug of sorts, but it hasn’t aged well, either on its own terms or in light of the revelations about its creators’ misdeeds.

 I won’t be continuing. I almost didn’t want to finish this, but I hate abandoning books I’ve started.
 2021-sffbc-tbr-challenge 2022-sffbc-tbr-challenge fantasy
 ...more
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 Jason Koivu
 Author 7 books 1,200 followers
 November 27, 2019
 I was chugging along through Pawn of Prophecy just to get through it and viola! Saved by the ending! The prologue, including Eddings' world creation myth, had me really hopeful, but then this one got mired in the typical bratty-kid-is-the-key-to-everything-and-doesn't-know-it epic fantasy trope. That was disappointing. It's just not my jam. I'd heard good things about The Belgariad series. After the slow first two-thirds, things got interesting. I'm intrigued by the story now and one day I'll read the next book.
 fantasy fiction
 35 likes
 2 comments
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 Elena Rodríguez
 501 reviews 230 followers
 October 14, 2022
 +3
 “El Destino no siempre significa la muerte. Ojalá el mío lo fuera. Un Destino es algo terrible que le sucede fatalmente a un hombre, y la muerte no es lo peor que puede pasarle”.

 Yo venía en busca de fantasía clásica y voilà la encontré sin lugar a dudas. Necesitaba este tipo de lectura, un libro que no fuese ni muy denso ni muy ligero, sino intermedio. Sentía que si seguía en libros ligeros que devoro a la velocidad del rayo habría acabado con las pocas neuronas decentes que me quedan.

 “Cuando uno hace algo que disgusta a otros, éstos tienden a odiarlo. Este odio se acumula con los años hasta que se convierte en algo parecido a una religión. No sólo te odian a ti y a los tuyos, sino que detestan cualquier cosa que tenga relación contigo”.

 Este libro que es el comienzo de las Cronicas de Belgarath no deja de ser sino una introducción a una larga saga de fantasía clásica: con fantasia clásica me refiero a que une los componentes de: un viaje, un elegido, una profecía, un grupo, magia, aventuras, amistad y enemigos entre otros elementos típicos de este tipo de literatura.

 “Estamos viviendo momentos trascendentales, Garion. Los acontecimientos de un millar de años o más se han concentrado en estos días presentes. El mundo, según me han dicho, es así. Transcurren siglos sin que suceda nada y luego, en unos pocos años, tienen lugar sucesos de tan tremenda importancia que el mundo no vuelve a ser el mismo.

 -Creo que, si pudiera escoger preferiría uno de esos siglos de tranquilidad.

 - ¡Oh no! Éste es el momento de estar vivo para ver cómo sucede todo, para participar en ello. Eso hacer correr la sangre en las venas y cada respiración es una aventura”.

 Me ha gustado mucho, siento que puede ser una saga que me va a gustar, aunque este libro no deja de ser introductorio. Los personajes me parecen muy carismáticos y la historia interesante. El único problema que encuentro es que nombran tantas razas o pueblos y sus formas de ser que me pierdo un poco. Sin embargo, creo que con el paso de las novelas iré cogiendo el hilo.

 “¿Quién puede saber que es fantasía y que es verdad disfrazada de cuento?”
 29 likes
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 Lore Kapo
 91 reviews
 March 11, 2022
 "No existen palabras mágicas. Alguna gente cree que sí, pero se equivoca. Los grolims utilizan palabras extrañas pero, en realidad, no son necesarias. Cualquier palabra surte efecto. Lo importante es la voluntad, no la palabra. La palabra es un medio para la voluntad".

 Este es el primer libro de las Crónicas de Belgarath, fantasía de la clásica, como para volver a enraizarse en los orígenes del género.

 Cada tanto me gusta volver a estos relatos de estructura sencilla, donde los personajes principales se embarcan en un viaje que los llevará a encontrarse con diferentes problemas y enemigos a los que sortear y vencer.

 Tenemos también secretos que no llegan a develarse del todo porque Eddings va construyendo una gran introducción para lo que vendrá después. En este libro vemos solamente atisbos de la historia general, no hay tampoco mucha acción, pero sí bastantes hilos del relato que se abren y van enroscándose a la trama principal.

 Me gusta mucho cómo los personajes mutan, se transforman levemente, paso a paso, a medida que se enfrentan a nuevas experiencias. También me parece muy interesante que aún no exista un Enemigo con mayúsculas, encarnado, al que enfrentarse. Por el contrario, aparece alguien a quien no se nombra y algunos seres llamados murgos, que no sabemos exactamente todo lo que pueden hacer. No es que no sepamos quién es el malo de la historia, sino que por el momento no es relevante.

 Otra cosa que me ha encantado es la personalidad de una de las mujeres de la historia, la tía Pol: avasalladora, no se detiene ante nadie y su personalidad mantiene a raya a cualquiera.

 El Viejo narrador de historias es uno de mis favoritos, a quien no puedo dejar de vincular con un personaje muy querido por la mayoría de quienes disfrutamos de la fantasía clásica.

 En fin, puedo decir que La senda de la Profecía es un viento fresco en medio de un verano caluroso. Para disfrutar tranquilamente sin tener que sumergirse en universos demasiado enrevesados y complejos.
 29 likes
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 Nick Borrelli
 354 reviews 318 followers
 February 27, 2017
 This is the book and series that essentially sparked my interest in the fantasy genre. Now as they are slowly (and I emphasize the word slowly) being released in electronic format, I have begun to start reading them again on my Kindle. Let's be clear: Pawn of Prophecy is not Game of Thrones. It's not The Name of the Wind. Heck, it's not even Assassin's Apprentice. But what it is is an entertaining quest fantasy filled with characters who you feel you know personally by the time you finish the book. The theme is pretty standard farm boy growing up not knowing that he is part of a lineage of a magical family. Evil lord does something bad, the unwitting boy then discovers who he really is and must undertake a quest to vanquish blah blah blah, you get the picture. Despite the formulaic storyline though, David Eddings and his wife Leigh Eddings manage to overcome that by crafting a heartwarming tale that is a pleasure to revisit time and time again. We hear the term comfort-read thrown around quite often, and The Belgariad is that to me in spades. I simply adore the five books that comprise this series and they will always hold a special place in my heart. Like I said, don't expect anything earth-shattering and complex. But do expect a really fun and exciting fantasy with characters who you connect with and who jump off the page.
 28 likes
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 Sara
 195 reviews 141 followers
 July 4, 2021
 This book is amazing. I realy love the genre fantasy and this book reminded me of that🥰😆👌

 5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
 best-books-read-in-2021
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 Farhang Nazaridoost
 Author 2 books 64 followers
 April 2, 2019
 شاید اگه ده سال پیش این کتاب رو می‌خوندم یعنی زمانی که یک پسر سیزده ساله بودم و اولین کتاب فانتزی بود که خوندم می‌گفتم عالیه اما الان به عنوان کسی که دوست داره داستان‌هایی با شخصیت‌های پخته‌تر و کشمکش‌های درونی عمیق‌تری بخونه و همچنین شاهکارهای فانتزی حماسی جهان مثل ارباب حلقه‌ها، چرخ زمان، نغمه آتش و یخ و تعدادی دیگه رو خونده بلگاریاد برای من یک کتاب بسیار خسته کننده با ایده‌ای کهنه، ضرب آهنگی عاری از هیجان و تعلیق با شخصیت پردازی که تاریخ مصرفش گذشته، بود.
 تقريباً تمام صفحات این کتاب ریتم داستان هیچ‌ هیجان و اشتیاقی برای خواننده ایجاد نمی‌کرد و شخصیت‌ها درحال سفری مجهول برای خواننده بودند، سفری که ما حتی تا نیمه‌ی دوم کتاب نمی‌دونستیم چه هدفی پشت خودش داره.
 شخصيت‌ها دل نگرانی‌ها و درگیری‌های درونی خودشون رو داشتند و این نکته‌ی خوبیه اما پرداخت کافی نشده بودند تا من به عنوان خواننده بیشتر باهاشون همزاد پنداری کنم درست مثل اینکه صفحات یک روزنامه رو بخونیم و بفهمیم فلان فرد فلان مشکل رو با خانواده‌اش داره و ازش بگذریم.
 شخصیت اصلی داستان، گاریون پسری در آستانه چهارده سالگی بود که بحرانی درونی با ناشناخته بودن هویت خودش داشت، پسری که نمی‌دونه پدر و مادرش کی هستند و به یکباره پرت می‌شه وسط یک ماجراجویی و در این حی�� مدام تلنگرهایی بهش زده می‌شد که این ماجرای عجیب و غریب به گذشته‌اش ارتباط مستقیم داره اما هربار که قرار بود این درگیری درونی شخصیت اصلی اوج بگیره و اشتیاق و همزاد پنداری باهم دیگه تنیده بشن تا حس تعلیق و اشتیاق شکل‌ بگیره نویسنده مدام ترمز دستی رو می‌کشید و شخصیت اصلی و خواننده رو دنبال نخود سیاه می‌فرستاد.
 ديويد ادینگز با خلق شخصیت پولگارا که بار تنها کارکتر اصلی زن رو به دوش می‌کشید قصد داشت همون کاری رو انجام بده که رابرت جردن در چرخ زمان انجام داد اما پولگارا تا اینجا گاهی نقش دایه‌ی مهربان‌تر از مادر رو بازی می‌کرد گرچه می‌شد حس کرد که اهداف دیگه‌ای هم در پشت این مهربانی‌هاش داره اما درهرصورت زنی بود که با وسواس‌های بیش از حد خودش گاهی نفرت من رو برمی‌انگیخت. درست که وظیفه‌اش رو به عنوان کاراکتری که داشت خیلی درست و منطقی انجام می‌داد اما به چه قیمتی؟ به قیمت نابود کردن هیجان داستان!
 نمی‌‌دونم چه‌طور نویسنده انتظار داره که خواننده شخصیت اصلی‌ای رو که حتی نمی‌تونه خودش رو از عمه‌اش مبرّا کنه و مستقل باشه دوست داشته باشه! وقتی گاریون انتخاب‌های درست و غلطی انجام نمی‌ده و تبدیل به یک کاراکتر وابسته می‌شه آیا جذابیتی خواهد داشت؟
 خب یکی دیگه از نکاتی که در زمان امروزی آزار دهنده بود شخصیت بلگارات بود، همون پيرمرد خردمند، همون جادوگر بزرگی که نقش پدر نداشته‌ی شخصیت اصلی رو بازی می‌کنه. دقیقاً همون مرلین، گندالف و دامبلدور و... بدون هیچ تغییری و با تاثیرگذاری بسیار کمتر البته نباید این نکته رو فراموش کرد که زمان انتشار این کتاب (سال 1984)چنین تیپ شخصیت‌هایی کلیشه‌ای محسوب نمی‌شدند.
 شخصیت‌های دیگه‌ای هم در طول کتاب بودند مثل باراک، خلدار(ابریشم) و حتی دورنیک که با وجود مجموعه بودن این کتاب نمی‌شه پرداخت‌شون رو فعلاً قضاوت کرد و فقط ازشون به عنوان کارکترهایی با پتانسیل بالا یاد می‌کنم که انگار نویسنده‌های فانتزی اون دوران به خوبی ازشون استفاده نمی‌کردند البته بازهم می‌گم که باید چشم انتظار باقی کتاب‌ها ماند. اما وقتی شخصیت آراگورن رو در کتاب ارباب حلقه‌ها و فیلم سینمایی‌اش مقایسه می‌کنم و کیفیت بالای اون شاهکار تاریخی رو کنار بلگاریاد می‌گذارم نمی‌تونم امید چندانی داشته باشم که شخصیت‌های نام برده به خوبی دیده بشن.
 در جمع بندی نهایی‌ام نمی‌تونم بلگاریاد رو دوست داشته باشم چون کتاب‌های خیلی قوی‌تری در این سبک از فانتزی خوندم و دیگر اینکه فانتزی حماسی امروزه بسیار پیشرفت کرده.
 اگر طرفدار پروپاقرص فانتزی حماسی نیستید این کتاب رو دوست نخواهید داشت اما اگر مثل من کشته مرده‌ی این ژانر هستید شاید بلگاریاد با ارفاق راضی کننده باشه.
 در نهایت هم باید تشکر کنم از مترجم کتاب جناب آقای حسین شهرابی که ترجمه‌شون لذت بخش‌ترین بخش این کتاب بود.
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 Krell75
 267 reviews 13 followers
 December 11, 2022
 "Quando si scende al nocciolo delle cose, nulla...o almeno quasi nulla... è davvero impossibile."

 Erano anni che desideravo leggere ed avere in libreria la saga dei Belgariad, osannata e alla ribalta negli anni 80 e considerata una tappa quasi obbligata per ogni amante del fantasy classico e non.
 Ebbene devo ammettere che questo primo romanzo è in effetti ben scritto e piacevole da leggere ma non esente da ingenuità.

 Il viaggio che il giovane eroe Garion, ignaro del proprio retaggio e futuro destino, intraprende accompagnato da fedeli e potenti compagni in un mondo pieno di popoli e nazioni diverse, permette al lettore di rimanere coinvolto nell'avventura insieme a lui.
 Peccato che a parte il girovagare da un villaggio ad una città e da una città ad un villaggio succede ben poco altro per quasi tutta la prima metà del romanzo.
 Garion ha un innato talento nel trovarsi sempre nel posto giusto al momento giusto forzando un po' troppo gli eventi.
 Le donne, a parte la zia Pol, sono messe da parte ma spero sia solo una caratteristica del regno barbarico del nord. Il nemico sembra avere mille possibilità di risolvere la situazione ma stranamente non lo fa e rimane a guardare.

 Un fantasy di altri tempi, dove valori, costumi e aspettative del pubblico erano leggermente diversi e si rispecchiano nelle sue pagine. Inutile a parer mio criticare queste differenze, che seppur appaiono evidenti oggi, non lo erano allora.

 Ottima la resa delle varie popolazioni presentate con le loro peculiarità sociali, mentre mi aspettavo qualcosa di più approfondito sulle dinamiche di gruppo e sui personaggi stessi a volte meri spettatori.

 Un primo romanzo di preparazione, con una prosa invidiabile e che promette grandi cose a venire.
 eddings fantasy letture-2022
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 Phoebe
 21 reviews 2 followers
 April 3, 2008
 This is a review of The Belgariad, a fantasy series that includes the books: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, and Enchanter's End Game.

 Are the cares of life getting you down? Sky rocketing gas prices, financial and housing markets in ruins, high unemployment, an unending war sucking dry the country's coffers and recession looming on the horizon. Rather than resort to drink or despair, get away with some escapist fantasy! I read The Belgariad series when I was in high school and recently revisited it to see if they were as good as I had thought when I was a mere lass. Lo and behold, the books were a pleasant surprise upon re-reading. The plot includes all the key plot points for a hugely satisfying fantasy story -- no spoilers but there is an epic fight between good and evil, battling prophecies for both, a young good-hearted boy who discovers in time his true destiny, a band of heroes on a quest to seek a powerful talisman, and adventures galore with monsters, gods, fierce warriors, great battles, and magic. These books are not rocket science, and there are no ethical nor even any thoughtful questions posed as sometimes happens with fantasy/sci fi books. But the story moves along briskly with some surprising twists, the characters are fierce and funny. I almost felt sorry for Evil since who could withstand such a powerful band of heroes? Recommended for when you need to escape reality, with no hangovers afterwards.
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 Jim
 Author 6 books 2,016 followers
 July 14, 2016
 My old review from 2008 still holds. This is the beginning of a fun, 5 book series. There is another 5 book series, the Mallorean, that comes after plus several additional books, "Polgara", 'Belgarath' & the 'Mrin Codex'. If you stick with the first 5 & maybe the second 5, you'll be happy. Unless this world totally captivates you, reading the 3 additional books is kind of a waste. While there are some tidbits you can pick up, mostly they're a rehash from different POV's of the other 10 books.

 That said, the world captivated me. My wife & I originally started reading this series just after the second book came out. We the proceeded to read one book a year - FOREVER! - well, it seemed like forever. Of course, we'd have to re-read or at least skim the earlier books again, so I don't know how many times we read them. Two of my kids have read them at least once each, as well.

 It's a sword & sorcery world with a nifty take on it. The characters are engaging, larger than life & just a lot of fun. No sex or gore, it's appropriate for ten or so & up, coming-of-age story. This first book follows Garion from his early memories to about 14. His world starts to turn upside down about 1/4 of the way through as he (& the reader) slowly begin to figure out what's going on.
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 Gorkem
 137 reviews 88 followers
 November 19, 2017
 Çılgın Tanrılar Dünyasına Hoş Geldiniz

 David Eddings'in isimlerini santraç hamlelerinden ilham aldığı ve epik- fantastik edebiyat öğeleriyle birleştirdiği Belgariad Serisinin ilk kitabı Kehanetin Oyuncağı .

 Dünyanın oluşumundan sorumlu 7 tanrıdan Aldur'un çocuk kalbi büyüklüğünde bir küre yaratıp, başıboş bir halde dolaşan Belgarath adında bir çocuğu müridi olarak yanına alması yetiştirmesi ve ardından kardeşlerinden olan Torak'ın bu taşı çalması ve mutlu mesut yaşayan insanların ve tanrıların halklara bölünmesiyle ortaya çıkan savaşların ön bilgilendirmesiyle başlıyor her şey en basit haliyle. Hikayenin gelişimi ise ana karakter olan yetim Garion'un deyimlerinden ilerliyor.

 Eddings Anlatımı ve Karakterler

 Eddings harika bir masal anlatıcısı ve buna rağmen Eddings'in bu serisinin hakkının yenildiğini düşünüyorum. Eddings, anlatım olarak sade, tek boyutlu, eğlenceli ve bu basit oluşum içinde sindire sindire katmanlaştırdığı bir okumaya maruz bırakıyor okuyucuyu. Oluşturduğu dünya, fantastik öğelere yaklaşımı dönemsel olarak düşünüldüğünde kendine münhasır.

 Bunun yanında Eddings için şunu belirtmeliyim ki kesinlike bir Tolkien taklitçisi değil. Benzerlikler muhakkak mevcut. (Belgarath/Gandalf) Eddings seriyi tarihsel olguların üstüne oturtup daha çok harita üstünden bir FRP etkisi meydana getirirken, Tolkien sadece bir orta dünya yaratmayıp ve aynı zamanda ırklara özgü dil yaratıyor

 Karakterlere gelince, açıkcası her karakteri kendi içinde çok sevdim . Garion'un çocukluktan başlayarak çiftlikte teyzesi Pol kendini, doğuştan gelen bir içsesini keşfi inanılmaz derece içten bir anlatımdı. Bunun yanında diğer yan ana karakterler, Pol Teyze, Bay Kurt, İpek ve Barak hikayeye dahil olması ve önsözde yer alan tarihsel gelişimi tekrardan farklı açılardan sunmaları da keyifli.

 Sonuç.

 İlk olarak, çabucak okunan bir kitap. Fakat,kitabın fantastik edebiyat öğeleri açısından günümüzdeki çeşitliliği açısından bakıldığında eksik, problemli, vahim bulunabileceği kesin. Betimler yetersiz. Her şeye rağmen baktığımda kendime iyi ki başlamışım diyorum.

 Fantastik edebiyata giriş yapmadıysanız daha önceden kesinlikle en doğru serilerden biri The Belgariad serisi. Bunun yanında bir genç yetişki serisi olarak da düşünüldüğünde de gönül rahatlığıyla çocuklara okutulabilecek bir seri.

 İyi okumalar!
 10/8

 "Büyülü söz diye bir şey yoktur.Bazı insanlar var zanneder ama...Her söz olur. Önemli olan İradedir, Söz değil. Söz iradenin yoludur sadece.."
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 Damian Dubois
 141 reviews 94 followers
 October 16, 2013
 Pawn of Prophecy and the remaining four books that make up The Belgariad series are for me pure comfort reading, something that always manages to put a smile on my face and entertains me throughout.

 Like many others I cut my fantasy teeth on David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series, once in my early teens and then again in my early twenties. And it was during last week and in between books that I heard the siren song of Eddings once more and knew that I had to heed the call.

 I have read other readers reviews on Goodreads that label this series as being simple, too formulaic, Eddings was secretly a xenophobe and that in comparison to other much well read fantasy series just childish in comparison. Well to them I say phooey! ;)

 Formulaic? Most fantasy series begin with similar tropes so I reject that argument? Xenophobic? You're reading too much into it and obviously have way too much time on your hands. Childish? Well it's definitely a lighter read than say Donaldson, Erikson or Abercrombie but again I don't care. This book is pure entertainment, populated by fantastic characters that you really come to know and love. Silk, Belgarath, Garion, Polgara, Anheg, Barak, Porenn and even the Earl of Seline, all bloody well written and you just can't help but like them.

 Overall, I loved this book to death the first time I read it and age and time haven't diminished my love for it now. Let's all raise a glass to the beauty of nostalgia :)

 Always 5 stars for me.
 2013
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 Patricia
 210 reviews 86 followers
 August 25, 2007
 THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME THINGS YOU MAY CONSIDER AS SPOILERS, though, I think they are just nuances because I'm not telling huge chunks of the story.

 I like this book because I like Harry Potter, and they are very similar, but I’ll get to that later.

 This is the first book in a series of five called The Belgariad, which chronicles the quest of a boy who learns he is a sorcerer. His parents were killed when he was a baby, and he lives with his aunt. Sound familiar? This book was published in 1982.

 What I liked most about “Pawn of Prophecy” is that the characters are quite human, and quite funny and smart-assed. I’ve laughed aloud a few times, and the author allows the characters to make fun of themselves and the antiquated language they sometimes employ. It’s also rather exciting and it’s an entire new world to learn a la Tolkein.

 I feel secure in saying that I would like this book and perhaps this series had I never read Harry Potter; however, I am a huge HP fan and there is such a great number of parallels between “Pawn of Prophecy” and HP:

 1) Garion, the boy who finds out he is a sorcerer, lives with his aunt. His parents were murdered when he was a baby, and he has sworn to avenge their deaths.
 2) His aunt can turn into an animal. What animal? A great snowy owl, of course!
 3) There is an important scene where Aunt Pol tells Garion he “must not say the name” of the evil god that, unbeknownst to him, he is to face in later books. This was prophesied before he was even born.
 4) Also, “It’s not a good idea to speak his name. He has certain powers which might make it possible for him to know our every move if we alert him to our location, and he can hear his name spoken a thousand leagues away.”
 5) The peoples in the Belgariad are separated by the gods, each choosing his own people to represent and each peoples having certain personality traits, much like the four houses of Hogwarts.
 6) The author makes a deal about a cut on Garion’s forehead early on and I wonder if it has remained as a scar.
 7) The old sorcerer, Garion’s grandfather, has this said about his eyes: “His eyes were a deep and merry blue, forever young and forever full of mischief.” Of course, this old sorcerer, Belgarath, has long white hair and a white beard etc. etc.
 8) Garion has a “mark” upon his person that has been there as long as he can remember.
 9) One of the men on Garion’s quest is regularly mistaken for a giant, as he is a big, hairy man.
 10) Garion goes through this thing of where everyone keeps referring to him as “the boy” [who lived?] and he has problems with that.
 11) Said of the Murgos: “There are some among them who can reach out and pick the thoughts right out of your mind.” Hmm, occlumency circa 1982?
 adventure fantasy
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 Malum
 2,179 reviews 130 followers
 April 27, 2019
 By his own admission, Eddings (much like Terry Brooks) was a struggling writer until he saw how Tolkien was selling like hot cakes and decided to churn out simple, easily digestible, highly formulaic fantasy novels. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that (I actually like Brooks' work while admiring the balls it took to blatantly re-write The Lord of the Rings and just changing the names a little). Let's see what Eddings gave us:

 A mentally handicapped young man who doesn't understand the history or society of his world, or generally anything that is happening around him at any given time, has to constantly ask everyone around him to explain absolutely everything to him. People then go about giving him HUGE info dumps. The tiny amount of action that happens always involves the mentally handicapped boy wandering blindly into danger without a safety helmet or reflective vest, thus requiring a responsible adult to come and save him. Repeat for 300 pages. The End. If this is supposed to be the chosen one, the world would be better off by dumping him down a well and hoping for the best.

 On a side note: since this book basically serves as no more than an almanac for his fantasy setting, it would have been much better had Eddings created a more compelling world.
 fantasy
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 Michael Sorbello
 Author 1 book 222 followers
 September 16, 2022
 I read this last year and thought it was decent, but I didn’t like it enough to continue. I decided to give it another go this year with a more open mind and I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it quite a bit more!

 Garion is a young orphaned farm boy believed to be the descendant of heroes, destined to confront the fallen Dark Lord Torak who betrayed the gods of the old age and threw the world into darkness. With Torak's wicked forces rising from the shadows to wreak havoc in search of an ancient orb that will allow their master to be resurrected, Garion sets out on an epic quest to gain the support of kings from around the world and claim the orb before it falls into the wrong hands. Accompanied by his fierce yet motherly Aunt Pol, the wise sorcerer Wolf, and a slew of colorful companions, Garion must face many challenges before he confronts his mortal enemy and discover the truth behind his lineage.

 An engaging classic fantasy with fun characters and charming humor. The plot and characters are rather simplistic and cliche, but not necessarily in a bad way. All the characters are recognizable archetypes that have been done hundreds of times before. Garion is the orphaned farm boy turned hero of prophecy. Pol is the harsh yet lovable sorceress. Wolf is the wise old bearded wizard. Silk is the cunning sharp-tongued jester. Barak is the barbarian warrior with a heart of gold, etc. But the Belgariad manages to utilize these archetypes much better than most typical classic epic fantasy stories by making them far more human, realistic and relatable.

 The story is as formulaic and by the numbers as fantasy can possibly be, but this was actually an intentional choice by the author. He wanted to prove that he could make a fun, engaging and entertaining series using all the familiar tropes often associated with classic fantasy. Where Eddings succeeds where many classic fantasy epics don’t is the great dialogue, stronger prose, tighter pacing, characters with bright personalities that pop out of the pages and consistently witty and humorous banter between the core cast.

 Is it a monumental work of fantasy that redefines the genre? No. Is it highly entertaining with moments of brilliance here and there? Definitely.

 Silk is my favorite character so far. He’s like Littlefinger from Game of Thrones, but if he were actually a decent guy that just likes gambling, debating and being a sassy little devil.

 My rating: 3.8
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 Crystal Starr Light
 1,335 reviews 811 followers
 September 9, 2015
 Bullet Review:

 Give the girl a medal! She finished it!

 What a fun ride - but gorrammit did Eddings HAVE to end it THAT WAY? We got some answers (thank Bilbo for that!) but dayum, it took awhile! And now, in order to get more answers and closure, I gotta find book 2!

 Slightly Updated Bullet Review (More Coffee, Less Snoozes):

 I had a LOT of fun reading this. It's pretty much your classic Hero's Journey story - a young boy with a MYSTERIOUS past sees all these crazy things going on. He joins his aunt-figure and a wizened old man on a journey to find something - what, he doesn't know. As he journeys, he meets new peoples (Barak and Silk), learns new skills (basically sign language) and starts to learn the truth about himself and those he thought he knew best.

 I'm not going to bother writing a proper review because I was too damn slow to read this book, and it's not fair. But I will say: this may have all those cliches we gripe and moan about, but in a way that's just so much FUN. Sometimes it's nice to watch something not so gorram serious (I'm looking at you, DC!), and just go along for the ride.

 The only problem? This book does NOT have an ending! We get a couple of answers...and then, BOOM, it's the end! Which means I absolutely HAVE to get my hands on book 2 one of these days and attempt to read this slightly faster than I read it this time around!
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 seak
 429 reviews 475 followers
 July 30, 2016
 I realized I still hadn't reviewed this book since I rated it in 2008 (when I joined Goodreads) and read it some time before then.

 The Belgariad is great starter-fantasy. it will always have a special place in my heart and thus the admittedly inflated rating. Does it break new ground? Not at all. Is it fun and filled with great characters? Yes and no. It's definitely great fun, but the characters are pretty much cardboard cutouts. If the author made them surly (I'm looking at you Belgarath) then they will be that throughout the entire series no matter what. Always surly. And people will always comment about how surly said character is.

 But I loved the adventures when I was just entering fantasy and I'll keep the stars and reserve a reallocation of star-age upon reread (whenever I have time for that).
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Author  2 books1,670 followers     August 19, 2010   At Gordon Ramsey's Pétrus restaurant (1 Kinnerton Street / Knightsbridge, London / SW1X 8EA...in case you're interested), I can get a "Roasted beef fillet with braised shin, baked celeriac and Barolo sauce" for the reasonable price of £65.00 pounds.I haven't tried that dish yet (I probably never will), but it sounds fabulous. What I have tried, though, is my Mom's "Roast beef, mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables." I still make it whenever my kids are in the mood, and it costs me about $15.00 dollars Canadian for five people, and it's delicious. Yes, it's simple; yes, it is plain in comparison to Ramsey's feast; but it makes me feel good, tastes great and satiates my hunger.  Gladly running the risk of sounding like a boring guy, I think, in the big scheme of things, that I will always like my Mom's dish better than Ramsey's, even if I tried it in the company of say...Harrison Ford. I would always remember that "Roasted beef fillet with braised shin, baked celeriac and Barolo sauce" fondly, but I'd go back to my Mom's dish before I ever made it to Pétrus again. I feel the same way about David Eddings Pawn of Prophecy. There's nothing fancy about Eddings' tale of Garion, Belgarath and Polgara. We've all tasted the ingredients in a similar dish hundreds of times (at least we have if we're fantasy geeks). Some of those dishes have been tastier (think A Song of Ice and Fire -- at least that's what I've heard), some have been more filling (think Lord of the Rings), some are perfect aperitifs (think A Wizard of Earthsea), some are great appetizers (think The Chronicles of Narnia), and some are perfect desserts (almost anything by Guy Gavriel Kay), but it is always nice to have something familiar and tasty and simple. That's what Pawn of Prophecy is for me (now that I have finally read it). I've started a few fantasy series lately, and they've slipped out of my memory as soon as I've put them down, but ten minutes after finishing Pawn of Prophecy I walked into a used bookstore and bought Queen of Sorcery, and I plan to read it soon. You see, I need my Mom's Roast beef and mashed potatoes for dinner every couple of Sundays, so I'm not about to wait. I'm going to let Eddings cook for me again soon. Bram and Ryan were right to love this book as boys (lose the guilt Brer Ryan). It might not be mindblowingly inventive, but it is comfortable, and sometimes that is better than mindblowing -- or just as good.      fantasy               47 reviews15 followers     January 15, 2008   Eddings has really created a beloved series of books that can be recommended to young and old alike. It is not deep or etremely thought provoking, it's just an enjoyable combination of adventure, humor, and fun. Garion, a naive farm boy, finds out that he is not ordinary at all. As he discovers his powers, he grows to adulthood through the ten books that comprise the Belgariad and the Mallorean. Critics might find some elements a bit formulaic, but few can deny that it is a fun series to read. For me, it was my first introduction to fantasy after Tolkien, and it was very refreshing. It was written in the 1980's when there wasn't much new stuff around. We had Anne McCaffrey and her dragons, and Terry Brooks came along. I guess there was Ursula LeGuin and CS Lewis as well to fall back on, but Eddings really put together a compelling story with memorable dialogue that my wife and I frequently quote from.I think many of the reviews of the Belgariad are too harsh. This is a book that you can hand to your kids without worrying what strange ideas they might pick up. Somebody reviewed the books as xenophobic. What rubbish! If you create a country like Cthol Murgos where the people have an evil ruler who promotes cruelty, or a country like Nyissa who are constantly in fear of being poisoned and have strange mannerisms that imitate their snake god is that xenophobic? No, it's doing what every author needs to do. They create a world that we can escape into and people that we can relate to. If you have to superimpose our world onto the canvas of the Belgariad you're looking too deeply. Eddings writings are not social commentary or overly symbolic. It's not CS Lewis or George Orwell. It's about having fun! Sorry for the tirade, but I get bugged by reviewers who are so full of themselves that they can't admit a book is a good read because someone might think of them as juvenile or unsophisticated!     books-for-young-people               698 reviews1,023 followers     November 9, 2014   Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews There is nothing I hate more than trying to review one of my all-time favorite books from my teenage years. We all know the reason: the book just never lives up to your memories of its perfection. A fact - which if we are honest with ourselves - is inevitable, because we personally have changed too much, the world has changed too much, and our tastes have changed too much since the initial reading. This is true to a certain extent with David Edding’s Pawn of Prophecy. Back when I picked up this first novel of The Belgariad in 1984, I was a 13-year-old or a 14-year-old (I can’t remember which anymore) just getting over an addiction to Dungeon &amp; Dragons and trying to transition away from my pre-teen persona into my young adult one. I had also just recently made the life altering discovery of J.R.R. Tolkien, whose books made me fall in love with fantasy and ruined my dreams of ever being considered a cool kid in high school. (It was hard to be cool when you were reading The Hobbit and making jokes about what exactly JRR was talking about when he wrote “...it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort”, but I probably shouldn’t really mention that in this review.) So when Pawn of Prophecy found its way into my hands, it must have been fate, and I fell very hard for all things related to Belgarath, Polgara or Garion. A love which lasted into my early twenties and began from the very first page of this novel. As a teen who adored the Council of Elrond chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring, the prologue to Pawn of Prophecy was like getting a fix of my favorite pharmaceutical product. Where else except for The Silmarillion could I get to read about ancient gods creating a world only to have its perfection marred by some horrible act and throw creation into a state of constant strife? Not too many places. So within minutes, I was addicted to this story of maimed Torak and his eternal conflict with his godly siblings over possession of the Orb of Aldur, and I had to have more. Honestly, it was just a great hook.  From this beginning, Mr. Eddings immediately thrust me into the story of a simple farm boy named Garion. I learned of his earliest memories, hiding under a table watching his Aunt Pol cook. I experienced him growing up with his childhood friends, playing games, and even saw his first romance between himself and a local girl Zubrette. I also read about - but payed little attention to - the introduction of a wandering storyteller named Mister Wolf, who seemed like the comic relief more than a major character. (Boy, was I wrong on that!) And like all good fantasy books, Mr. Eddings provided me with constant foreshadowing that there was some terrible evil lurking right around the corner, waiting to destroy all this normalcy. A feeling which he deftly stoked by scene after scene of Garion experiencing visions of an unknown antagonist stalking him.  Naturally, one day Garion’s quiet farm life did end and end suddenly. Mister Wolf arriving at the farm unexpectedly, bearing news that a mysterious object has been stolen by a thief whom no-one will name. This news shocks Aunt Pol, causing her to pack up her and Garion’s things and leave the farm with Mister Wolf, dragging our clueless teenager along against his will. From there the true adventures began, and what a tale it was!  A huge, colorful world inhabited by different cultures, grand characters, and even ancient gods opened up before Garion. All of it there for our young farm boy to see and experience and me tagging along behind. Mr. Eddings dazzled both of us with his constant unveiling of ancient mysteries, evil villains, grand conspiracies, divine prophecies, and wonderful history. And the whole time, I - a teenager myself - witnessed one more thing: Garion dealing with the normal teen angst of a simple boy ripped from his safe home and thrown into a larger, more dangerous world than he ever imagined. Every adventure, every heartbreak he experienced slowly turning him into a young man before my reading eyes. Something that I was also struggling with in my own life though in different ways. It was a grand ride that Mr. Eddings took my teenage self on during those years, and I adored every one - even when I was 19 instead of a 13-year-old, because for a few hours I could go back “home” and visit my teen heroes Garion, Belgarath, Aunt Pol, Silk, and all the rest. They felt like family to me. And it all started with this book. Later in life I returned to Pawn of Prophecy to revisit my old “friends.” Like many times when you visit your childhood haunts, I found that things had changed - specifically me. I was older. No doubt about that. The mirror doesn’t lie after all. Plus, I was a father now. Responsibilities and all that other grown up stuff weighing me down. And I have to admit that I was now a bit jaded about life. Things were more gray now and a lot less black and white than back in my teen years. So Pawn of Prophecy’s straightforward fantasy about good guys defeating bad guys did not energize me as much as it once did. The best comparison I can give is going to your twentieth high school reunion excited to see your old girlfriend/boyfriend only to realize they aren’t sixteen anymore, have put on thirty pounds and gotten wrinkles just like you. How dare they change! That is how I felt as I sat there reading about my old friends Garion, Belgarath, and Polgara. So why the five (5) star rating if I felt this way on my re-read you ask? Simple: I try to rate my favorite, childhood books by what I thought of them when I read them the first time.  Maybe rating certain novels that way is wrong, but I cannot think of another way to be fair to a novel which I dearly loved at an earlier period of my life. It isn’t the books fault that I have gotten older after all. And the truth of the matter is that when I read Pawn of Prophecy - not once but numerous times in the 80s - I absolutely loved it! The simple plot and world spanning journeys of Garion bedazzled me, making me want more and more, and in my obviously biased opinion, it is still a great book for the right person - maybe another 13-year-old boy trying to grow up. Because I truly believe that even in its simplicity Pawn of Prophecy can still speak to that person and begin them on their journey into the world of fantasy novels. For that reason - and all my personal memories of it - Pawn of Prophecy will always remain a 5 star book and one of my all-time favorite fantasy novels.     fantasy favorites               708 reviews1,738 followers     June 15, 2021    3.5 stars This was a fun classic fantasy. If you’re looking for something innovative, then this book isn't for you. It was published in 1982 so by today’s standards it is definitely a cliché. However, of course, I personally won’t judge a book as a cliché if it’s almost 40 years old. Even though it can be read to children, I don’t think it’s for a particular age only (though the older you are the less you’d enjoy it I suppose.) Pawn of Prophecy wasn’t fast-paced but it was a very quick read. It is not memorably by any means but it was enjoyable and it’s a good –even if typical- story.  I might seem negative but only because I don’t want people judging it harshly. The characters were interesting and the main character was decent (however we never learn if he eventually learns to write, there are some minor plot holes). I'm rating it 3 stars instead of 4 because I did not witness enough development in Garion's character/skills.  I’d only recommend it if you’re looking for a good old fantasy. I'm looking forward to continuing this series, I've been dropping many lately so it's good to read a book and plan to read its sequel!     2020 fantasy               469 reviews1,510 followers     January 3, 2019   And there we go - after posponing and postponing I've finally kicked off the last of the old great fantasy series on my long term fantasy reading quest. Pawn of Prophecy is everything everyone makes it out to be. That is, it is a book which at first seems like a derivative, annoying teenage farmboy fantasy with very few redeeming qualities. For those who stick with it, however, it contains so much more. By the end of the book, I just wanted more immediately. After a painstakingly slow beginning, the book picks up pace, and by the end, it becomes a real page-turner. Most of the characters are significantly more enjoyable than their equivalents in many similar fantasy series, and while I understand that some people are annoyed that they're seemingly invincible and face few real challenges to their progress, I found it somewhat refreshing to not have to read through the kind of setback some authors use to create fake suspense. While there are plenty of downsides, the world of the Belgariad becomes more and more enjoyable by each chapter.     2018 fantasy the-sapkowski-canon               Author  80 books8,173 followers     October 12, 2017   The first volume in the five book Belgariad series, which I'll happily admit to reading and then rereading throughout my mid-teens. Farm boy Garion enjoys a peaceful childhood in the care of his loving and occasionally stern Aunt Pol until the arrival of assassins sees them both on the run and Garion increasingly aware that he's much more important than he could have imagined. This is where the classic 'chosen one' fantasy template gets going in earnest and it's rarely been done better. The scale and detail of Eddings' world is often staggering and the interplay between the characters a frequent delight. Some elements will seem overly familiar to modern fantasy readers, from the prolonged info-dump in the prologue to the 'boy with a great destiny' central protagonist. It should be remembered, however, that many of these elements became tropes because of Eddings' success. Genre history lessons aside, this series remains a hugely engaging read and the first volume is no exception.                  1,169 reviews2,568 followers     January 24, 2019   Classical Fantasy in its finest! Brought back some of my childhood and the first Sparks of Love for the genre! Yes, I am sure my feelings are tainted by nostalgia, but if I had kids, I would definitely be reading this to them, just as my dad used to read it to me... Yeah, totally worth it 😊🤗💕!    advanture fantasy               3,145 reviews1,781 followers     April 5, 2012   Okay, I see all the glowing reviews and all the 4 and 5 star ratings... sigh. Here I go again. While I don't actually dislike this book I'm pretty far from liking it either. Mostly I struggled to stay awake and keep my mind on it. It starts out slow meanders around trying to find a plot in the midst of it's standard epic fantasy stereotypes and finishes telling me I should get the next book.  Not for now, thanks.  The book wants very badly to be a standout epic. I mentioned elsewhere that it felt as though the book kept yelling "LOOK AT ME I'M AN EPIC FANTASY!" The novel begins by introing us to the deities of the book's mythology, telling us about the "evil one of them" and the "mythic event" that set things in motion. . We are told about and later meet Polgara, Belgarath and Garion. Garion is a boy growing up on large and prosperous farm or farm-stead being raised by "Aunt Pol".  I read one other David Eddings book some years ago and I've largely forgotten it. My only clear impression is that throughout the book we were always traveling. We're here and we need to go there. We get there and we find we need to go somewhere else. Once there another trip became necessary. I joked that I probably wore out shoes reading the book. The same starts out here... Anyway, the book strives to build a portentous story but ends feeling mostly like an intro into a longer story. I know a lot of you like this book and I'm not taking shots at it, it just didn't draw me in. I kept finding that my mind had wandered off the story, so enjoy if it's for you.  This is I'd say a "try it yourself book". I didn't care for it and probably won't follow it up (at least not till someone convinces me that I "simply must" try the next one. LOL). See what you think, not one I really care for. And, frankly...I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be an "Eddings fan".      fantasy               689 reviews115 followers     September 27, 2022   I thought I'm too old. I thought this wouldn't be challenging enough. I thought I'd be bored.Instead, I was deeply engrossed in this book, couldn't put it down. Didn't want to put it down. This book is like sipping hot chocolate wrapped in a blanket while it snows outside. It's familiar, comforting, and it's fun. Of course, it's neither deep nor complex, but it resulted in a wonderful, heartwarming Saturday afternoon, and I can't wait to continue the series.     fantasy               Author  1 book4 followers      Read  August 20, 2007   Review here for the entire Belgariad.I noticed that most of the reviewers give this a nostalgic loved-this-when-I-was-young rating. And they're right to do so. This is the perfect series of books for a young reader: clever enough to hold its own, exciting without being too graphic, and the youth don't notice just how bad the prose is. I mean, it's hilariously bad. It's not that the Eddings machine can't write for beans; it's that the writing does all the hackneyed nasty cliched things that you're supposed to get out of your system sometime shortly after high school. (For an effective drinking game, swig every time Eddings writes a Tom Swifty - ("I can't swallow this peach," Garion choked.) Or just sip; it happens on every page so you'll drink your share either way)  On rereading, though, two things struck me other than the bad prose. The first is, the characteriations are really swift, moving directly and smoothly from "yes you care about this person" to "this is what's happening to this person", usually in a couple paragraphs. Drawing parallels for me to the adventure novels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The brevity of the characetrizations are a real strength. The second thing I noticed was that there was something else going on here; glimpses of a cosmology of wonder and fascination beyond the play of the story itself. It was as though, every once in a while, the bottom dropped out of the floor and you realized you were in the midst of the ambitious project of an undiscovered author, the one thing he cares about more than anything else, and you have a front-row seat to teh story he wants to tell, yes, but more importantly you can see him constructing the stage props by hand in the wings, scrambling for everything he can get his hands on, and by some happy accident conjuring a genie that grants his greatest wish.                   210 reviews76 followers     May 23, 2021   من، در تقریبا تمام مدتی که کتاب رو می‌خوندم: I MEAN, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?ببینید من کتاب‌هایی رو که شصتاد جلد مقدمه‌چینی می‌‌کنن بعد می‌رن سراغ داستان اصلی، دوست ندارم. مثل بلگاریاد. از قرار معلوم تا جلد سوم قرار نیست وارد ماجراهای اصلی بشیم. :|||||| بابا یعنی چی این کار؟ مقدمه‌چینی اون‌جورش خوبه که پایه‌ریزیِ وقایع آینده باشه و در عین حال ماجراها و شخصیت‌پردازی‌های جالب‌توجه ارائه بده نه این‌که ما چند جلد راه رفتن‌ شخصیت‌ها رو تحمل کنیم تا تازه برسیم به داستان اصلی! O_o  بذارین سریال مستر ربات رو مثال بزنم چون فعلا فقط اون به ذهنم می‌رسه. آغاز مستر ربات مقدمه‌چینیه. هنوز بیننده از وقایع آینده خبر نداره و اگه کسی به الیوتِ قدیمیِ آغاز سریال نگاه کنه، توی دلش سرش داد می‌زنه:Uh man you have NO IDEA!اما از همون اپیزود اول به رابطه‌ی شخصیت اصلی، الیوت، با چندین شخصیت مهم پرداخته می‌شه. زندگی و وضعیت روحیش توضیح داده می‌شه. ماجراهایی که برای ورود اون به قصه‌ی اصلی لازمه اتفاق بیفتن، از همون قسمت اول در حال رخ دادنن. در عین حال سازنده برای پایان فصل و چه بسا فصل‌های آینده کد و سرنخ می‌ده. قسمت‌های آغازین مقدمه‌اند، درست، اما به‌هیچ‌وجه نمی‌شه گفت از اپیزودهای آینده کم‌تر مهم‌ یا هیجان‌انگیزند. این‌جوری خوبه. قلم نویسنده رو چندان دوست نداشتم چون:۱- پر از اسم آدم و مکان بود.۲- نویسنده چیزهایی در ذهن داره که اونا رو روی کاغذ نمی‌آره.یکی از قسمت‌های کتاب رو می‌نویسم که بفهمید منظورم چیه: شولای مخملی و آبیِ سیرِ عمه‌اش باعث شده بود چنان باوقار و زیبا شود که واقعا زبانش بند آمد. بعد از این جمله، شخصیت‌ها تا صفحه‌ی بعد دارند از زیبایی پولین تعریف می‌کنند. :|نویسنده‌ی عزیز: اگه به من بگی فلانی خیلی زیبا بود، نمی‌تونم زیباییش رو تصور کنم که. این‌که بذاری بعدش شخصیت‌ها قربون صدقه‌ی زیبایی‌ای برن که من نمی‌تونم ببینم، فقط عصبیم می‌کنه.کلا داره به صفت‌ها می‌گه: لطفا کارِ من رو به‌جام انجام بدین. رابطه‌ی شخصیت اصلی (واقعا به‌کار بردن عبارت شخصیت اصلی واسه‌ش کار خنده‌داریه! تنها نشونه‌ی حضور یارو توی داستان اینه که هرازگاهی فکر می‌کنه وای من نمی‌دونم چه خبره!) با بقیه‌ی شخصیت‌ها بسیار سمیه. مخصوصا عمه‌اش. رابطه‌ی این دوتا من رو یاد رابطه‌ی کلارک و مدی توی سریال «صد نفر» می‌ندازه. کلارک، مادر واقعی مدی نیست اما اون رو بچه‌ی خودش می‌دونه و با تمام وجود ازش محافظت می‌کنه. مشکل اینجاست که مدی رو جزء اموال خودش می‌دونه، نمی‌فهمه مدی خودش آدمه و حق داره کارهایی رو بکنه و چیزهایی رو بدونه.عمه پولین هم همینطوره. ننه‌ی گالیون نیست اما بیشتر از والدین ایرانی محدودش می‌ک��ه. نمی‌ذاره هویت داشته باشه. یه جا خیلی بدم اومد که گالیون گفت می‌خواد بره شکار و یکی گفت: «توله‌ات دارد دندان درمی‌آورد، پولین.» 😐هربار که گالیون بی‌نوا دهن باز می‌کنه حرفی بزنه، پولین یکی از «اون نگاه‌ها» که هیچ‌وقت هم نفهمیدم چه نگاه‌هایی هستن بهش می‌ندازه و گالیون دهنش رو می‌بنده. از آغاز تا پایان کتاب درگیری گالیون با ماجراها در این حده که:گالیون: چه خبره؟همه: از عمه‌ات بپرس.عمه: به تو چه ربطی داره که از زادگاه و دوستانت دورت کردیم، شهر به شهر می‌گردونیمت، مدام در حال سروکله زدن با آدم‌های خطرناکیم، مجبورت می‌کنیم پادویی کنی، سر هــــر کاری سرزنشت می‌کنیم، هیچی هم بهت نمی‌گیم؟ حدت رو بدون!گالیون: آه. کتاب رو با ترجمه‌ی آقای شهرابی خوندم که بسیار ترجمه‌ی خوبی بود و دست‌شون درد نکنه. عالی و شیوا. فقط، آم، من تنهام یا شما هم حس می‌کنین اعراب‌گذاری زیاده از حده؟ آخه منِ خواننده اول و دوم دبستانی که نیستم، طرز تلفظ کلمات رو بلدم دیگه.👀 از اون‌جایی که محبوبیت این جلد در گودریدز از بقیه‌ی مجموعه بالاتره گمون نکنم شانسی به بقیه‌ی جلدها بدم. ولی اگه توانایی خرید بقیه‌ی جلدها رو داشته باشم یحتمل نظرم رو عوض می‌کنم و می‌بینم چی می‌شه. آخر سر هم بگم که ریویوم رو چندان جدی نگیرید.😂 فقط می‌خواستم غر بزنم و بی‌شک زیاد مبالغه کردم. فانتزی‌پسندها ممکنه خوش‌شون بیاد. موفق باشید               September 28, 2009   When we're all looking for a good book to read, we usually look to our favourite authors and our best friends and trust their recommnendations as to what we should try next. Such as it was for me.The Belgariad was suggested to me by just about everyone I knew who enjoyed fantasy, and a number of my favourite authors. Imagine my surprise when I start reading and keep waiting for the story's plot to begin, and it begins to dawn on me that no such relief will be arriving.The problems I have with the Belgariad are simple: The 'story' is so cliche (An orphen boy who finds himself the subject of a prophecy to save the world, say it isn't so!), The characters are bland and the world seems impervious to logic.Garion, the protagonist of the story, grows up an orphaned child with only his annoyingly mysterious Aunt Pol to take care of him. Despite the fact that he is at an age where he is approaching maturity, Garion demonstrates momentous stupidity several times throughout the series, and particularly in the first book. His entire childhood has been haunted by the prescence of a 'ringwraith' archetype character, a mysterious shrouded black horseman who stalks him, yet he has never once mentioned the terrifying figure to his Aunt Pol, and nor has she, who it becomes known is a powerful sorceress bordering on godly power, ever detected this figure despite being Garion's caretaker and vigilant protector.Over the course of the story, Garion travels alongside a group of companions, every single one of whom is either Royalty, powerful Nobility or an individual regarded as an equal among Kings and Emperors. Bit odd of an adventuring party eh?On top of all of this, the action is horribly bland and Garion's growth into the prophetic saviour is infuriatingly poor, one minute he's a lackwit child and the next he's striding along blasting enemies with torrents of magic without training and out-witting his counselors and advisors despite the fact he's never really had a proper education in statecraft.The dialogue is similarly poor, and often cliche.The romance between Garion and the princess of a neighboring Empire was just plain embarrassing.In summary, I was regretful I had ever picked up the series, and was and still am confused as to how the series ever gathered the acclaim it has.    high-fantasy               Author  5 books1,816 followers     February 17, 2022   It’s difficult to rate this book objectively in light of learning about the terrible abuse David Eddings and his uncredited coauthor wife Leigh perpetrated against their two young adopted children. It started out promisingly enough, with the promise being a simple, easy, enjoyably tropey old school fantasy. But as the story wore on, the overt racial essentialism in the world the Eddings created became more and more apparent, and there were an increasing number of cringey moments between husbands and their wives, with the women inevitably being put in their place.  This series has a reputation of having been formative for many younger readers, a gateway drug of sorts, but it hasn’t aged well, either on its own terms or in light of the revelations about its creators’ misdeeds.  I won’t be continuing. I almost didn’t want to finish this, but I hate abandoning books I’ve started.      2021-sffbc-tbr-challenge 2022-sffbc-tbr-challenge fantasy               Author  7 books1,200 followers     November 27, 2019   I was chugging along through Pawn of Prophecy just to get through it and viola! Saved by the ending! The prologue, including Eddings' world creation myth, had me really hopeful, but then this one got mired in the typical bratty-kid-is-the-key-to-everything-and-doesn't-know-it epic fantasy trope. That was disappointing. It's just not my jam. I'd heard good things about The Belgariad series. After the slow first two-thirds, things got interesting. I'm intrigued by the story now and one day I'll read the next book.    fantasy fiction               501 reviews230 followers     October 14, 2022   +3 “El Destino no siempre significa la muerte. Ojalá el mío lo fuera. Un Destino es algo terrible que le sucede fatalmente a un hombre, y la muerte no es lo peor que puede pasarle”. Yo venía en busca de fantasía clásica y voilà la encontré sin lugar a dudas. Necesitaba este tipo de lectura, un libro que no fuese ni muy denso ni muy ligero, sino intermedio. Sentía que si seguía en libros ligeros que devoro a la velocidad del rayo habría acabado con las pocas neuronas decentes que me quedan.  “Cuando uno hace algo que disgusta a otros, éstos tienden a odiarlo. Este odio se acumula con los años hasta que se convierte en algo parecido a una religión. No sólo te odian a ti y a los tuyos, sino que detestan cualquier cosa que tenga relación contigo”.  Este libro que es el comienzo de las Cronicas de Belgarath no deja de ser sino una introducción a una larga saga de fantasía clásica: con fantasia clásica me refiero a que une los componentes de: un viaje, un elegido, una profecía, un grupo, magia, aventuras, amistad y enemigos entre otros elementos típicos de este tipo de literatura.  “Estamos viviendo momentos trascendentales, Garion. Los acontecimientos de un millar de años o más se han concentrado en estos días presentes. El mundo, según me han dicho, es así. Transcurren siglos sin que suceda nada y luego, en unos pocos años, tienen lugar sucesos de tan tremenda importancia que el mundo no vuelve a ser el mismo.   -Creo que, si pudiera escoger preferiría uno de esos siglos de tranquilidad.   - ¡Oh no! Éste es el momento de estar vivo para ver cómo sucede todo, para participar en ello. Eso hacer correr la sangre en las venas y cada respiración es una aventura”.  Me ha gustado mucho, siento que puede ser una saga que me va a gustar, aunque este libro no deja de ser introductorio. Los personajes me parecen muy carismáticos y la historia interesante. El único problema que encuentro es que nombran tantas razas o pueblos y sus formas de ser que me pierdo un poco. Sin embargo, creo que con el paso de las novelas iré cogiendo el hilo.  “¿Quién puede saber que es fantasía y que es verdad disfrazada de cuento?”                    91 reviews     March 11, 2022   "No existen palabras mágicas. Alguna gente cree que sí, pero se equivoca. Los grolims utilizan palabras extrañas pero, en realidad, no son necesarias. Cualquier palabra surte efecto. Lo importante es la voluntad, no la palabra. La palabra es un medio para la voluntad".Este es el primer libro de las Crónicas de Belgarath, fantasía de la clásica, como para volver a enraizarse en los orígenes del género.  Cada tanto me gusta volver a estos relatos de estructura sencilla, donde los personajes principales se embarcan en un viaje que los llevará a encontrarse con diferentes problemas y enemigos a los que sortear y vencer. Tenemos también secretos que no llegan a develarse del todo porque Eddings va construyendo una gran introducción para lo que vendrá después. En este libro vemos solamente atisbos de la historia general, no hay tampoco mucha acción, pero sí bastantes hilos del relato que se abren y van enroscándose a la trama principal.  Me gusta mucho cómo los personajes mutan, se transforman levemente, paso a paso, a medida que se enfrentan a nuevas experiencias. También me parece muy interesante que aún no exista un Enemigo con mayúsculas, encarnado, al que enfrentarse. Por el contrario, aparece alguien a quien no se nombra y algunos seres llamados murgos, que no sabemos exactamente todo lo que pueden hacer. No es que no sepamos quién es el malo de la historia, sino que por el momento no es relevante. Otra cosa que me ha encantado es la personalidad de una de las mujeres de la historia, la tía Pol: avasalladora, no se detiene ante nadie y su personalidad mantiene a raya a cualquiera.  El Viejo narrador de historias es uno de mis favoritos, a quien no puedo dejar de vincular con un personaje muy querido por la mayoría de quienes disfrutamos de la fantasía clásica. En fin, puedo decir que La senda de la Profecía es un viento fresco en medio de un verano caluroso. Para disfrutar tranquilamente sin tener que sumergirse en universos demasiado enrevesados y complejos.                   354 reviews318 followers     February 27, 2017   This is the book and series that essentially sparked my interest in the fantasy genre. Now as they are slowly (and I emphasize the word slowly) being released in electronic format, I have begun to start reading them again on my Kindle. Let's be clear: Pawn of Prophecy is not Game of Thrones. It's not The Name of the Wind. Heck, it's not even Assassin's Apprentice. But what it is is an entertaining quest fantasy filled with characters who you feel you know personally by the time you finish the book. The theme is pretty standard farm boy growing up not knowing that he is part of a lineage of a magical family. Evil lord does something bad, the unwitting boy then discovers who he really is and must undertake a quest to vanquish blah blah blah, you get the picture. Despite the formulaic storyline though, David Eddings and his wife Leigh Eddings manage to overcome that by crafting a heartwarming tale that is a pleasure to revisit time and time again. We hear the term comfort-read thrown around quite often, and The Belgariad is that to me in spades. I simply adore the five books that comprise this series and they will always hold a special place in my heart. Like I said, don't expect anything earth-shattering and complex. But do expect a really fun and exciting fantasy with characters who you connect with and who jump off the page.                  Author  2 books64 followers     April 2, 2019   شاید اگه ده سال پیش این کتاب رو می‌خوندم یعنی زمانی که یک پسر سیزده ساله بودم و اولین کتاب فانتزی بود که خوندم می‌گفتم عالیه اما الان به عنوان کسی که دوست داره داستان‌هایی با شخصیت‌های پخته‌تر و کشمکش‌های درونی عمیق‌تری بخونه و همچنین شاهکارهای فانتزی حماسی جهان مثل ارباب حلقه‌ها، چرخ زمان، نغمه آتش و یخ و تعدادی دیگه رو خونده بلگاریاد برای من یک کتاب بسیار خسته کننده با ایده‌ای کهنه، ضرب آهنگی عاری از هیجان و تعلیق با شخصیت پردازی که تاریخ مصرفش گذشته، بود.تقريباً تمام صفحات این کتاب ریتم داستان هیچ‌ هیجان و اشتیاقی برای خواننده ایجاد نمی‌کرد و شخصیت‌ها درحال سفری مجهول برای خواننده بودند، سفری که ما حتی تا نیمه‌ی دوم کتاب نمی‌دونستیم چه هدفی پشت خودش داره.شخصيت‌ها دل نگرانی‌ها و درگیری‌های درونی خودشون رو داشتند و این نکته‌ی خوبیه اما پرداخت کافی نشده بودند تا من به عنوان خواننده بیشتر باهاشون همزاد پنداری کنم درست مثل اینکه صفحات یک روزنامه رو بخونیم و بفهمیم فلان فرد فلان مشکل رو با خانواده‌اش داره و ازش بگذریم.شخصیت اصلی داستان، گاریون پسری در آستانه چهارده سالگی بود که بحرانی درونی با ناشناخته بودن هویت خودش داشت، پسری که نمی‌دونه پدر و مادرش کی هستند و به یکباره  پرت می‌شه وسط یک ماجراجویی و در این حی�� مدام تلنگرهایی بهش زده می‌شد که این ماجرای عجیب و غریب به گذشته‌اش ارتباط مستقیم داره اما هربار که قرار بود این درگیری درونی شخصیت اصلی اوج بگیره و اشتیاق و همزاد پنداری باهم دیگه تنیده بشن تا حس تعلیق و اشتیاق شکل‌ بگیره نویسنده مدام ترمز دستی رو می‌کشید و شخصیت اصلی و خواننده رو دنبال نخود سیاه می‌فرستاد. ديويد ادینگز با خلق شخصیت پولگارا که بار تنها کارکتر اصلی زن رو به دوش می‌کشید قصد داشت همون کاری رو انجام بده که رابرت جردن در چرخ زمان انجام داد اما پولگارا تا اینجا گاهی نقش دایه‌ی مهربان‌تر از مادر رو بازی می‌کرد گرچه می‌شد حس کرد که اهداف دیگه‌ای هم در پشت این مهربانی‌هاش داره اما درهرصورت زنی بود که با وسواس‌های بیش از حد خودش گاهی نفرت من رو برمی‌انگیخت. درست که وظیفه‌اش رو به عنوان کاراکتری که داشت خیلی درست و منطقی انجام می‌داد اما به چه قیمتی؟ به قیمت نابود کردن هیجان داستان! نمی‌‌دونم چه‌طور نویسنده انتظار داره که خواننده شخصیت اصلی‌ای رو که حتی نمی‌تونه خودش رو از عمه‌اش مبرّا کنه و مستقل باشه دوست داشته باشه! وقتی گاریون انتخاب‌های درست و غلطی انجام نمی‌ده و تبدیل به یک کاراکتر وابسته می‌شه آیا جذابیتی خواهد داشت؟ خب یکی دیگه از نکاتی که در زمان امروزی آزار دهنده بود شخصیت بلگارات بود، همون پيرمرد خردمند، همون جادوگر بزرگی که نقش پدر نداشته‌ی شخصیت اصلی رو بازی می‌کنه. دقیقاً همون مرلین، گندالف و دامبلدور و... بدون هیچ تغییری و با تاثیرگذاری بسیار کمتر البته نباید این نکته رو فراموش کرد که زمان انتشار این کتاب (سال 1984)چنین تیپ شخصیت‌هایی کلیشه‌ای محسوب نمی‌شدند.شخصیت‌های دیگه‌ای هم در طول کتاب بودند مثل باراک، خلدار(ابریشم) و حتی دورنیک که با وجود مجموعه بودن این کتاب نمی‌شه پرداخت‌شون رو فعلاً قضاوت کرد و فقط ازشون به عنوان کارکترهایی با پتانسیل بالا یاد می‌کنم که انگار نویسنده‌های فانتزی اون دوران به خوبی ازشون استفاده نمی‌کردند البته بازهم می‌گم که باید چشم انتظار باقی کتاب‌ها ماند. اما وقتی شخصیت آراگورن رو در کتاب ارباب حلقه‌ها و فیلم سینمایی‌اش مقایسه می‌کنم و کیفیت بالای اون شاهکار تاریخی رو کنار بلگاریاد می‌گذارم نمی‌تونم امید چندانی داشته باشم که شخصیت‌های نام برده به خوبی دیده بشن.در جمع بندی نهایی‌ام نمی‌تونم بلگاریاد رو دوست داشته باشم چون کتاب‌های خیلی قوی‌تری در این سبک از فانتزی خوندم و دیگر اینکه فانتزی حماسی امروزه بسیار پیشرفت کرده. اگر طرفدار پروپاقرص فانتزی حماسی نیستید این کتاب رو دوست نخواهید داشت اما اگر مثل من کشته مرده‌ی این ژانر هستید شاید بلگاریاد با ارفاق راضی کننده باشه. در نهایت هم باید تشکر کنم از مترجم کتاب جناب آقای حسین شهرابی که ترجمه‌شون لذت بخش‌ترین بخش این کتاب بود.                  267 reviews13 followers     December 11, 2022   "Quando si scende al nocciolo delle cose, nulla...o almeno quasi nulla... è davvero impossibile."Erano anni che desideravo leggere ed avere in libreria la saga dei Belgariad, osannata e alla ribalta negli anni 80 e considerata una tappa quasi obbligata per ogni amante del fantasy classico e non.Ebbene devo ammettere che questo primo romanzo è in effetti ben scritto e piacevole da leggere ma non esente da ingenuità. Il viaggio che il giovane eroe Garion, ignaro del proprio retaggio e futuro destino, intraprende accompagnato da fedeli e potenti compagni in un mondo pieno di popoli e nazioni diverse, permette al lettore di rimanere coinvolto nell'avventura insieme a lui.Peccato che a parte il girovagare da un villaggio ad una città e da una città ad un villaggio succede ben poco altro per quasi tutta la prima metà del romanzo.Garion ha un innato talento nel trovarsi sempre nel posto giusto al momento giusto forzando un po' troppo gli eventi.Le donne, a parte la zia Pol, sono messe da parte ma spero sia solo una caratteristica del regno barbarico del nord. Il nemico sembra avere mille possibilità di risolvere la situazione ma stranamente non lo fa e rimane a guardare. Un fantasy di altri tempi, dove valori, costumi e aspettative del pubblico erano leggermente diversi e si rispecchiano nelle sue pagine. Inutile a parer mio criticare queste differenze, che seppur appaiono evidenti oggi, non lo erano allora. Ottima la resa delle varie popolazioni presentate con le loro peculiarità sociali, mentre mi aspettavo qualcosa di più approfondito sulle dinamiche di gruppo e sui personaggi stessi a volte meri spettatori. Un primo romanzo di preparazione, con una prosa invidiabile e che promette grandi cose a venire.     eddings fantasy letture-2022               21 reviews2 followers     April 3, 2008   This is a review of The Belgariad, a fantasy series that includes the books: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, and Enchanter's End Game. Are the cares of life getting you down? Sky rocketing gas prices, financial and housing markets in ruins, high unemployment, an unending war sucking dry the country's coffers and recession looming on the horizon. Rather than resort to drink or despair, get away with some escapist fantasy! I read The Belgariad series when I was in high school and recently revisited it to see if they were as good as I had thought when I was a mere lass. Lo and behold, the books were a pleasant surprise upon re-reading. The plot includes all the key plot points for a hugely satisfying fantasy story -- no spoilers but there is an epic fight between good and evil, battling prophecies for both, a young good-hearted boy who discovers in time his true destiny, a band of heroes on a quest to seek a powerful talisman, and adventures galore with monsters, gods, fierce warriors, great battles, and magic. These books are not rocket science, and there are no ethical nor even any thoughtful questions posed as sometimes happens with fantasy/sci fi books. But the story moves along briskly with some surprising twists, the characters are fierce and funny. I almost felt sorry for Evil since who could withstand such a powerful band of heroes? Recommended for when you need to escape reality, with no hangovers afterwards.                    Author  6 books2,016 followers     July 14, 2016   My old review from 2008 still holds. This is the beginning of a fun, 5 book series. There is another 5 book series, the Mallorean, that comes after plus several additional books, "Polgara", 'Belgarath' &amp; the 'Mrin Codex'. If you stick with the first 5 &amp; maybe the second 5, you'll be happy. Unless this world totally captivates you, reading the 3 additional books is kind of a waste. While there are some tidbits you can pick up, mostly they're a rehash from different POV's of the other 10 books.That said, the world captivated me. My wife &amp; I originally started reading this series just after the second book came out. We the proceeded to read one book a year - FOREVER! - well, it seemed like forever. Of course, we'd have to re-read or at least skim the earlier books again, so I don't know how many times we read them. Two of my kids have read them at least once each, as well. It's a sword &amp; sorcery world with a nifty take on it. The characters are engaging, larger than life &amp; just a lot of fun. No sex or gore, it's appropriate for ten or so &amp; up, coming-of-age story. This first book follows Garion from his early memories to about 14. His world starts to turn upside down about 1/4 of the way through as he (&amp; the reader) slowly begin to figure out what's going on.      1paper 2fiction 3series               137 reviews88 followers     November 19, 2017    Çılgın Tanrılar Dünyasına Hoş Geldiniz David Eddings'in isimlerini santraç hamlelerinden ilham aldığı ve epik- fantastik edebiyat öğeleriyle birleştirdiği Belgariad Serisinin ilk kitabı Kehanetin Oyuncağı.  Dünyanın oluşumundan sorumlu 7 tanrıdan Aldur'un çocuk kalbi büyüklüğünde bir küre yaratıp, başıboş bir halde dolaşan Belgarath adında bir çocuğu müridi olarak yanına alması yetiştirmesi ve ardından kardeşlerinden olan Torak'ın bu taşı çalması ve mutlu mesut yaşayan insanların ve tanrıların halklara bölünmesiyle ortaya çıkan savaşların ön bilgilendirmesiyle başlıyor her şey en basit haliyle. Hikayenin gelişimi ise ana karakter olan yetim Garion'un deyimlerinden ilerliyor.   Eddings Anlatımı ve Karakterler   Eddings harika bir masal anlatıcısı ve buna rağmen Eddings'in bu serisinin hakkının yenildiğini düşünüyorum. Eddings, anlatım olarak sade, tek boyutlu, eğlenceli ve bu basit oluşum içinde sindire sindire katmanlaştırdığı bir okumaya maruz bırakıyor okuyucuyu. Oluşturduğu dünya, fantastik öğelere yaklaşımı dönemsel olarak düşünüldüğünde kendine münhasır.  Bunun yanında Eddings için şunu belirtmeliyim ki kesinlike bir Tolkien taklitçisi değil. Benzerlikler muhakkak mevcut. (Belgarath/Gandalf) Eddings seriyi tarihsel olguların üstüne oturtup daha çok harita üstünden bir FRP etkisi meydana getirirken, Tolkien sadece bir orta dünya yaratmayıp ve aynı zamanda ırklara özgü dil yaratıyor Karakterlere gelince, açıkcası her karakteri kendi içinde çok sevdim . Garion'un çocukluktan başlayarak çiftlikte teyzesi Pol kendini, doğuştan gelen bir içsesini keşfi inanılmaz derece içten bir anlatımdı. Bunun yanında diğer yan ana karakterler, Pol Teyze, Bay Kurt, İpek ve Barak hikayeye dahil olması ve önsözde yer alan tarihsel gelişimi tekrardan farklı açılardan sunmaları da keyifli.  Sonuç.  İlk olarak, çabucak okunan bir kitap. Fakat,kitabın fantastik edebiyat öğeleri açısından günümüzdeki çeşitliliği açısından bakıldığında eksik, problemli, vahim bulunabileceği kesin. Betimler yetersiz. Her şeye rağmen baktığımda kendime iyi ki başlamışım diyorum.  Fantastik edebiyata giriş yapmadıysanız daha önceden kesinlikle en doğru serilerden biri The Belgariad serisi. Bunun yanında bir genç yetişki serisi olarak da düşünüldüğünde de gönül rahatlığıyla çocuklara okutulabilecek bir seri. İyi okumalar!10/8  "Büyülü söz diye bir şey yoktur.Bazı insanlar var zanneder ama...Her söz olur. Önemli olan İradedir, Söz değil. Söz iradenin yoludur sadece.."                    141 reviews94 followers     October 16, 2013    Pawn of Prophecy and the remaining four books that make up The Belgariad series are for me pure comfort reading, something that always manages to put a smile on my face and entertains me throughout.Like many others I cut my fantasy teeth on David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series, once in my early teens and then again in my early twenties. And it was during last week and in between books that I heard the siren song of Eddings once more and knew that I had to heed the call. I have read other readers reviews on Goodreads that label this series as being simple, too formulaic, Eddings was secretly a xenophobe and that in comparison to other much well read fantasy series just childish in comparison. Well to them I say phooey! ;)  Formulaic? Most fantasy series begin with similar tropes so I reject that argument? Xenophobic? You're reading too much into it and obviously have way too much time on your hands. Childish? Well it's definitely a lighter read than say Donaldson, Erikson or Abercrombie but again I don't care. This book is pure entertainment, populated by fantastic characters that you really come to know and love. Silk, Belgarath, Garion, Polgara, Anheg, Barak, Porenn and even the Earl of Seline, all bloody well written and you just can't help but like them. Overall, I loved this book to death the first time I read it and age and time haven't diminished my love for it now. Let's all raise a glass to the beauty of nostalgia :) Always 5 stars for me.     2013               210 reviews86 followers     August 25, 2007   THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME THINGS YOU MAY CONSIDER AS SPOILERS, though, I think they are just nuances because I'm not telling huge chunks of the story.I like this book because I like Harry Potter, and they are very similar, but I’ll get to that later. This is the first book in a series of five called The Belgariad, which chronicles the quest of a boy who learns he is a sorcerer. His parents were killed when he was a baby, and he lives with his aunt. Sound familiar? This book was published in 1982. What I liked most about “Pawn of Prophecy” is that the characters are quite human, and quite funny and smart-assed. I’ve laughed aloud a few times, and the author allows the characters to make fun of themselves and the antiquated language they sometimes employ. It’s also rather exciting and it’s an entire new world to learn a la Tolkein.  I feel secure in saying that I would like this book and perhaps this series had I never read Harry Potter; however, I am a huge HP fan and there is such a great number of parallels between “Pawn of Prophecy” and HP: 1)	Garion, the boy who finds out he is a sorcerer, lives with his aunt. His parents were murdered when he was a baby, and he has sworn to avenge their deaths.2)	His aunt can turn into an animal. What animal? A great snowy owl, of course!3)	There is an important scene where Aunt Pol tells Garion he “must not say the name” of the evil god that, unbeknownst to him, he is to face in later books. This was prophesied before he was even born.4)	Also, “It’s not a good idea to speak his name. He has certain powers which might make it possible for him to know our every move if we alert him to our location, and he can hear his name spoken a thousand leagues away.”5)	The peoples in the Belgariad are separated by the gods, each choosing his own people to represent and each peoples having certain personality traits, much like the four houses of Hogwarts.6)	The author makes a deal about a cut on Garion’s forehead early on and I wonder if it has remained as a scar.7)	The old sorcerer, Garion’s grandfather, has this said about his eyes: “His eyes were a deep and merry blue, forever young and forever full of mischief.” Of course, this old sorcerer, Belgarath, has long white hair and a white beard etc. etc.8)	Garion has a “mark” upon his person that has been there as long as he can remember.9)	One of the men on Garion’s quest is regularly mistaken for a giant, as he is a big, hairy man.10)	Garion goes through this thing of where everyone keeps referring to him as “the boy” [who lived?] and he has problems with that.11)	Said of the Murgos: “There are some among them who can reach out and pick the thoughts right out of your mind.” Hmm, occlumency circa 1982?     adventure fantasy               2,179 reviews130 followers     April 27, 2019   By his own admission, Eddings (much like Terry Brooks) was a struggling writer until he saw how Tolkien was selling like hot cakes and decided to churn out simple, easily digestible, highly formulaic fantasy novels. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that (I actually like Brooks' work while admiring the balls it took to blatantly re-write The Lord of the Rings and just changing the names a little). Let's see what Eddings gave us:A mentally handicapped young man who doesn't understand the history or society of his world, or generally anything that is happening around him at any given time, has to constantly ask everyone around him to explain absolutely everything to him. People then go about giving him HUGE info dumps. The tiny amount of action that happens always involves the mentally handicapped boy wandering blindly into danger without a safety helmet or reflective vest, thus requiring a responsible adult to come and save him. Repeat for 300 pages. The End. If this is supposed to be the chosen one, the world would be better off by dumping him down a well and hoping for the best.  On a side note: since this book basically serves as no more than an almanac for his fantasy setting, it would have been much better had Eddings created a more compelling world.     fantasy               Author  1 book222 followers     September 16, 2022   I read this last year and thought it was decent, but I didn’t like it enough to continue. I decided to give it another go this year with a more open mind and I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it quite a bit more!Garion is a young orphaned farm boy believed to be the descendant of heroes, destined to confront the fallen Dark Lord Torak who betrayed the gods of the old age and threw the world into darkness. With Torak's wicked forces rising from the shadows to wreak havoc in search of an ancient orb that will allow their master to be resurrected, Garion sets out on an epic quest to gain the support of kings from around the world and claim the orb before it falls into the wrong hands. Accompanied by his fierce yet motherly Aunt Pol, the wise sorcerer Wolf, and a slew of colorful companions, Garion must face many challenges before he confronts his mortal enemy and discover the truth behind his lineage. An engaging classic fantasy with fun characters and charming humor. The plot and characters are rather simplistic and cliche, but not necessarily in a bad way. All the characters are recognizable archetypes that have been done hundreds of times before. Garion is the orphaned farm boy turned hero of prophecy. Pol is the harsh yet lovable sorceress. Wolf is the wise old bearded wizard. Silk is the cunning sharp-tongued jester. Barak is the barbarian warrior with a heart of gold, etc. But the Belgariad manages to utilize these archetypes much better than most typical classic epic fantasy stories by making them far more human, realistic and relatable. The story is as formulaic and by the numbers as fantasy can possibly be, but this was actually an intentional choice by the author. He wanted to prove that he could make a fun, engaging and entertaining series using all the familiar tropes often associated with classic fantasy. Where Eddings succeeds where many classic fantasy epics don’t is the great dialogue, stronger prose, tighter pacing, characters with bright personalities that pop out of the pages and consistently witty and humorous banter between the core cast. Is it a monumental work of fantasy that redefines the genre? No. Is it highly entertaining with moments of brilliance here and there? Definitely. Silk is my favorite character so far. He’s like Littlefinger from Game of Thrones, but if he were actually a decent guy that just likes gambling, debating and being a sassy little devil. My rating: 3.8     1-all-book-reviews 1-all-fantasy-books 1-classic-fantasy               1,335 reviews811 followers     September 9, 2015   Bullet Review:Give the girl a medal! She finished it! What a fun ride - but gorrammit did Eddings HAVE to end it THAT WAY? We got some answers (thank Bilbo for that!) but dayum, it took awhile! And now, in order to get more answers and closure, I gotta find book 2! Slightly Updated Bullet Review (More Coffee, Less Snoozes): I had a LOT of fun reading this. It's pretty much your classic Hero's Journey story - a young boy with a MYSTERIOUS past sees all these crazy things going on. He joins his aunt-figure and a wizened old man on a journey to find something - what, he doesn't know. As he journeys, he meets new peoples (Barak and Silk), learns new skills (basically sign language) and starts to learn the truth about himself and those he thought he knew best. I'm not going to bother writing a proper review because I was too damn slow to read this book, and it's not fair. But I will say: this may have all those cliches we gripe and moan about, but in a way that's just so much FUN. Sometimes it's nice to watch something not so gorram serious (I'm looking at you, DC!), and just go along for the ride. The only problem? This book does NOT have an ending! We get a couple of answers...and then, BOOM, it's the end! Which means I absolutely HAVE to get my hands on book 2 one of these days and attempt to read this slightly faster than I read it this time around!     2015-owned-challenge buddy-reads fantasy               429 reviews475 followers     July 30, 2016   I realized I still hadn't reviewed this book since I rated it in 2008 (when I joined Goodreads) and read it some time before then. The Belgariad is great starter-fantasy. it will always have a special place in my heart and thus the admittedly inflated rating. Does it break new ground? Not at all. Is it fun and filled with great characters? Yes and no. It's definitely great fun, but the characters are pretty much cardboard cutouts. If the author made them surly (I'm looking at you Belgarath) then they will be that throughout the entire series no matter what. Always surly. And people will always comment about how surly said character is. But I loved the adventures when I was just entering fantasy and I'll keep the stars and reserve a reallocation of star-age upon reread (whenever I have time for that).
Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad #1)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44659.Pawn_of_Prophecy
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8732.David_Eddings
David Eddings
2009-06-02T00:00:00Z

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 <div><h2>David Eddings’s Followers (5,324)</h2></div>
 
 
 
 
 
 </div>
 <div>
 
 
<div>
 <h2>
 	<span>David Eddings</span>
 </h2>
</div>
<br/>
 
 in Spokane, Washington, The United States
 
 <br/>
 
 
 <br/>
 
 
 <br/>
 
 
 <br/>
<div>
	<br/>
	
<span>David Eddings was an American author who wrote several best-selling series of epic fantasy novels. David Eddings&#39; wife, <b>
 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8732.Leigh_Eddings">Leigh Eddings</a>
</b>, was an uncredited co-author on many of his early books, but he had later acknowledged that she contributed to them all.<p>They adopted one boy in 1966, Scott David, then two months old. They adopted a younger girl between 1966 and 1969. In 1970 the couple lost custody of both children and were each sentenced to a year in jail in separate trials after pleading guilty to 11 counts of physical child abuse. Though the nature of the abuse, the trial, and the sentencing were all extensively reported in South Dakota newspapers at the time, these details did not resurface in media coverage of the couple during thei</p></span>
 <span>David Eddings was an American author who wrote several best-selling series of epic fantasy novels. David Eddings&#39; wife, <b>
 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8732.Leigh_Eddings">Leigh Eddings</a>
</b>, was an uncredited co-author on many of his early books, but he had later acknowledged that she contributed to them all.<p>They adopted one boy in 1966, Scott David, then two months old. They adopted a younger girl between 1966 and 1969. In 1970 the couple lost custody of both children and were each sentenced to a year in jail in separate trials after pleading guilty to 11 counts of physical child abuse. Though the nature of the abuse, the trial, and the sentencing were all extensively reported in South Dakota newspapers at the time, these details did not resurface in media coverage of the couple during their successful joint career as authors, only returning to public attention several years after both had died.</p><p>After both served their sentences, David and Leigh Eddings moved to Denver in 1971, where David found work in a grocery store.</p><p>David Eddings&#39; first books (which were general fiction) sold moderately well. He later switched to writing epic fantasy, a field in which he achieved great success. In a recent interview with sffworld.com, he said: &#34;I don&#39;t take orders from readers.&#34;</p><p>On January 26, 2007 it was reported that Eddings accidentally burned about a quarter of his office, next door to his house, along with his Excalibur sports car, and the original manuscripts for most of his novels. He was flushing the fuel tank of the car with water when he lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable.</p><p>On February 28, 2007, David Eddings&#39; wife, Leigh Eddings (born Judith Leigh Schall), died following a series of strokes. She was 69.</p><p>David Eddings died on June 2, 2009 at the age of 77.</p></span>
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44659.Pawn_of_Prophecy">
 
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44659.Pawn_of_Prophecy">
 <span>Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad, #1)</span>
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 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.16 avg rating — 106,012 ratings</span>
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 1982
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44687.Enchanters_End_Game">
 <span>Enchanters&#39; End Game (The Belgariad #5)</span>
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 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.19 avg rating — 92,582 ratings</span>
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 1984
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44688.Magician_s_Gambit">
 
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44688.Magician_s_Gambit">
 <span>Magician&#39;s Gambit (The Belgariad #3)</span>
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 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.15 avg rating — 92,053 ratings</span>
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 1983
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/645023.Castle_of_Wizardry">
 
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/645023.Castle_of_Wizardry">
 <span>Castle of Wizardry (The Belgariad #4)</span>
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 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.17 avg rating — 76,370 ratings</span>
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 1984
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/189802.Belgarath_the_Sorcerer">
 
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/189802.Belgarath_the_Sorcerer">
 <span>Belgarath the Sorcerer</span>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11358.Leigh_Eddings"><span>Leigh Eddings</span></a>
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 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.09 avg rating — 75,132 ratings</span>
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 1995
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/938087-belgarath-the-sorcerer">41 editions</a>
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/587582.Queen_of_Sorcery">
 
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/587582.Queen_of_Sorcery">
 <span>Queen of Sorcery (The Belgariad #2)</span>
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 <span>
 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.15 avg rating — 73,103 ratings</span>
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 1982
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/189811.King_of_the_Murgos">
 <span>King of the Murgos (The Malloreon, #2)</span>
</a> <br/>
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 <span>
 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.11 avg rating — 54,930 ratings</span>
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 published
 1988
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/1458832-king-of-the-murgos">64 editions</a>
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/673657.Guardians_of_the_West">
 <span>Guardians of the West (The Malloreon, #1)</span>
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 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.11 avg rating — 53,707 ratings</span>
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 1987
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 <span>Sorceress of Darshiva (The Malloreon, #4)</span>
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 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.10 avg rating — 46,411 ratings</span>
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 1989
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110694.Seeress_of_Kell">
 
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110694.Seeress_of_Kell">
 <span>Seeress of Kell (The Malloreon, #5)</span>
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 <span><span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span></span> 4.14 avg rating — 45,690 ratings</span>
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 1991
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 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/8732.David_Eddings">More books by David Eddings…</a>
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 <div>
 “What was that?&#34; Belgarath asked, coming back around the corner.<br/>&#34;Brill,&#34; Silk replied blandly, pulling his Murgo robe back on.<br/>&#34;Again?&#34; Belgarath demanded with exasperation. &#34;What was he doing this time?&#34;<br/>&#34;Trying to fly, last time I saw him.&#34; Silk smirked.<br/>The old man looked puzzled.<br/>&#34;He wasn&#39;t doing it very well,&#34; Silk added.<br/>Belgarath shrugged. &#34;Maybe it&#39;ll come to him in time.&#34;<br/>&#34;He doesn&#39;t really have all that much time.&#34; Silk glanced out over the edge.<br/>&#34;From far below - terribly far below - there came a faint, muffled crash; then, after several seconds, another. &#34;Does bouncing count?&#34; Silk asked.<br/>Belgarath made a wry face. &#34;Not really.&#34;<br/>&#34;Then I&#39;d say he didn&#39;t learn in time.&#34; Silk said blithely.”
 <br/>
 ―
 <span>
 David Eddings,
 </span>
 <span>
 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/938086">Magician&#39;s Gambit</a>
 </span>
</div>
 
 <br/>
</div>
	<div>
 <div>
 “God save us from religion.”
 <br/>
 ―
 <span>
 David Eddings
 </span>
</div>
 
 <br/>
</div>
	<div>
 <div>
 “I&#39;ve looked at the world for quite a few years now and I&#39;ve found that if I don&#39;t laugh, I&#39;ll probably end up crying.&#34;<br/>- Prince Kheldar of Drasnia”
 <br/>
 ―
 <span>
 David Eddings,
 </span>
 <span>
 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2987777">Demon Lord of Karanda</a>
 </span>
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See if your friends have read any of David Eddings&#39;s books
 
  
 
 
  David Eddings’s Followers (5,324) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 	David Eddings
 
 
 in Spokane, Washington, The United States
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
	
	
David Eddings was an American author who wrote several best-selling series of epic fantasy novels. David Eddings&#39; wife, 
 Leigh Eddings
, was an uncredited co-author on many of his early books, but he had later acknowledged that she contributed to them all.They adopted one boy in 1966, Scott David, then two months old. They adopted a younger girl between 1966 and 1969. In 1970 the couple lost custody of both children and were each sentenced to a year in jail in separate trials after pleading guilty to 11 counts of physical child abuse. Though the nature of the abuse, the trial, and the sentencing were all extensively reported in South Dakota newspapers at the time, these details did not resurface in media coverage of the couple during thei 
 David Eddings was an American author who wrote several best-selling series of epic fantasy novels. David Eddings&#39; wife, 
 Leigh Eddings
, was an uncredited co-author on many of his early books, but he had later acknowledged that she contributed to them all.They adopted one boy in 1966, Scott David, then two months old. They adopted a younger girl between 1966 and 1969. In 1970 the couple lost custody of both children and were each sentenced to a year in jail in separate trials after pleading guilty to 11 counts of physical child abuse. Though the nature of the abuse, the trial, and the sentencing were all extensively reported in South Dakota newspapers at the time, these details did not resurface in media coverage of the couple during their successful joint career as authors, only returning to public attention several years after both had died. After both served their sentences, David and Leigh Eddings moved to Denver in 1971, where David found work in a grocery store. David Eddings&#39; first books (which were general fiction) sold moderately well. He later switched to writing epic fantasy, a field in which he achieved great success. In a recent interview with sffworld.com, he said: &#34;I don&#39;t take orders from readers.&#34; On January 26, 2007 it was reported that Eddings accidentally burned about a quarter of his office, next door to his house, along with his Excalibur sports car, and the original manuscripts for most of his novels. He was flushing the fuel tank of the car with water when he lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable. On February 28, 2007, David Eddings&#39; wife, Leigh Eddings (born Judith Leigh Schall), died following a series of strokes. She was 69. David Eddings died on June 2, 2009 at the age of 77. 
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 Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad, #1)
 
 
 
              4.16 avg rating — 106,012 ratings
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 1982
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 94 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Enchanters&#39; End Game (The Belgariad #5)
 
 
 
              4.19 avg rating — 92,582 ratings
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 published
 1984
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 89 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Magician&#39;s Gambit (The Belgariad #3)
 
 
 
              4.15 avg rating — 92,053 ratings
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 published
 1983
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 80 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Castle of Wizardry (The Belgariad #4)
 
 
 
              4.17 avg rating — 76,370 ratings
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 1984
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 75 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Belgarath the Sorcerer
 
 by
 David Eddings , 
 Leigh Eddings 
 
 
 
              4.09 avg rating — 75,132 ratings
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 published
 1995
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 41 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Queen of Sorcery (The Belgariad #2)
 
 
 
              4.15 avg rating — 73,103 ratings
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 published
 1982
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 86 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 King of the Murgos (The Malloreon, #2)
 
 
 
              4.11 avg rating — 54,930 ratings
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 published
 1988
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 64 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Guardians of the West (The Malloreon, #1)
 
 
 
              4.11 avg rating — 53,707 ratings
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 published
 1987
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 68 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Sorceress of Darshiva (The Malloreon, #4)
 
 
 
              4.10 avg rating — 46,411 ratings
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 published
 1989
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 20 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Seeress of Kell (The Malloreon, #5)
 
 
 
              4.14 avg rating — 45,690 ratings
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 published
 1991
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 57 editions
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 More books by David Eddings…
 
 
 
  
 
 
 	
 
 “What was that?&#34; Belgarath asked, coming back around the corner.&#34;Brill,&#34; Silk replied blandly, pulling his Murgo robe back on.&#34;Again?&#34; Belgarath demanded with exasperation. &#34;What was he doing this time?&#34;&#34;Trying to fly, last time I saw him.&#34; Silk smirked.The old man looked puzzled.&#34;He wasn&#39;t doing it very well,&#34; Silk added.Belgarath shrugged. &#34;Maybe it&#39;ll come to him in time.&#34;&#34;He doesn&#39;t really have all that much time.&#34; Silk glanced out over the edge.&#34;From far below - terribly far below - there came a faint, muffled crash; then, after several seconds, another. &#34;Does bouncing count?&#34; Silk asked.Belgarath made a wry face. &#34;Not really.&#34;&#34;Then I&#39;d say he didn&#39;t learn in time.&#34; Silk said blithely.”
 
 ―
 
 David Eddings,
 
 
 Magician&#39;s Gambit
 
 
 
	
 
 “God save us from religion.”
 
 ―
 
 David Eddings
 
 
 
	
 
 “I&#39;ve looked at the world for quite a few years now and I&#39;ve found that if I don&#39;t laugh, I&#39;ll probably end up crying.&#34;- Prince Kheldar of Drasnia”
 
 ―
 
 David Eddings,
 
 
 Demon Lord of Karanda
 
 
 
 
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