About David Eddings

In case someone didn't know (and are still interested), David Eddings is fantasy author, who got to the Golden list with his five-part story Belgariad. The book has been translated to several languages, and spawned the sequel (also five-parter) Mallorean. After Mallorean, he did two trilogies about spellcasting knight, and then some other books (I havent really kept track). Oh, also two (really lenghty) prequels to Belgariad, named Polgara and Belgarath, of two immortal spellcasters.

The idea of Belgariad is as follows. There are two prophecies, two destinies, which are both as probaple. They can exist side by side for some time, but the final result is different; the "good" one is called the Prophecy of Light, while the other one is of Dark. In Belgariad, the Dark Prophecy is embodied in Torak, mad and crippled god (one of the seven creators of the world), who thousands of years ago broke the world with the help of magical stone belonging his brother-god Aldur (hermit by nature). The Prophecy of Life is embodied in Garion, who lived his early life in farm, until his caretaker, Aunt Pol hears of massive tidings in the outside world.

The Stone of Aldur has been taken from the empty Throne Room of Riva. Garion is just 15 years old, and dosent really understand what is going on. Helped by friends and associates collected by his Aunt (really sorceress Polgara, age around 3000 years) and her dad, wizard Belgarath, age around 7000 years, they are going to track the stone and return it to where it was taken. If not reclaimed, the Stone can be used to wake Torak from his sleep, where he has laid over 500 years, after showdown with Guardian of Riva (the caretaker of Rivan throne until a king of the chosen line emerges).

The companions of Garion are, apart from his Aunt and Granpa, the Knight Mandorallen (who is totally without fear, but isin't that smart either), Prince Kheldar (who prefers to be called Silk, and is by profession spy, cheater and thief), Barak (huge viking-like warrior), Hettar (two schimitars wielding man with personal hate against the enemypeople, after seeing his parents being tortured by death and suffering great wounds himself as a child. Can also talk to horses), Ce'Nedra (half-human princess from Tolnedra (which is like Rome) and Durnik (smith from the farm where Garion was raised).

The books rise and fall with witty banter. The story goes forward with snapshots from their treks up-and-down the world, which consists of different nations, each with its own people (usually stereotype of some people in our world) and customs. These are not really important, however. They are just a way to give the characters something to interact with, and to talk of with each other, usually in humorous way. The backgrounds are paper-thin, and sometimes are broken to allow good dialogue go its course.
In the first five books Garion finds his destiny as wizard of great strenght and heir to Rivan Throne (empty for 1000 years), and gets to kill a mad god. The books are mainly situated in the western continent, and stay pretty simple. Not much explanation of the world or its workings are given.

In the sequel, good fifteen or twenty years have passed, and Belgarion (as our protagonist is now called), is secured king of small island, and the Overlord of the whole Western world. Then his kid is kidnapped, and he has to follow the kidnapper trough the whole world to final showdown in hidden place, where the face of the world is finally decided.
The books offer the same as did the first series, but this time the nature of the world is explained more trough-out. Several comments by the narrator are not one-to-one with each other, or with the background of the world. For examble, at one point it is referred to the monkey-like ancestors of Men, though in the setting humankind is created by gods as they are now. Also, the status of enemy-wizards (grolims) as either sub-race of Angaraks (the human race as Torak its god) or as priests from among the Angaraks is not made clear.
In the sequel, as well as in all Eddings "epic" stories I have read, the maincharacters are pretty much the same. One is the dull, but courageous one, one is master thief, the other is old spellcaster eg. They talk the same dialogues, and go the same conversations. It is easy to replace any character with character from other series.

You have to give Dave some credit though.

He's honest. He writes for money, and he dosen't lie about it. This is all well and good, but you should respect your audience.

I first read the books when I was 13 years old. Back then my experiences with fantasy were all either Burroughs or Tolkien, so Eddings was, with his witty and humorous voice welcome change to my reading habits. I read the books on one go, one at a day (400-700 pages each), which now sounds really amazing to me. I also bought the books featuring Garion to myself. Carried and delivered lots of commercials and add-paid newspapers to mailboxes to afford them, too!

Final say in the subject. Belgariad or Althalus (another book, only one part) should be good read from the author. With one story, you don't get too tied up with the mistakes or repeating storylines (in Mallorean, the characters themselves wonder, didn't we do this previously too? It's pretty bad when even the characters notice recurring scenes...). Eddings did bring something new to the genre, but he didnt bother to bring something new to his own writing afterwards. It stays more or less as simple as it did in his first published work, with new names and more powerful way of telling it.