The Belgariad

[Daruya]

Have any of y'all read The Redemption of Althalus?

 

I still pull out my Belgariad and Mallorean series on occasion and re-read them and appreciate them for what they are. The books I'm most critical of are the ones I tend to not re-read. For example, I've tossed all my Todd McCaffrey Pern books in the yard sale box. I just can't force myself to read his continuation of his mom's work. I love hers, managed to not hate the joint efforts, that's as far as I can go!

 

Anyway, some of my favorite characters are in the Belgariad/Mallorean books. Polgara, Belgarath, Durnik, Silk, Velvet, Cyradis. Oh, and I love when Garian started that thunderstorm to stop the fighting between Nerina's guardian and Mandorallen and Belgarath just about took his head off when he got back from settling things again. And how Belgarath translocated officious scholars to great heights (giggle) when they were uncooperative/unhelpful.

[Senexx]

I've read all Edding's work..

 

What I didn't like about Redemption of Althalus was it was all exposition for the first several chapters before getting to the actual story.

I've even read his murder mystery Regina's song.

[Daruya]

Senexx, I was rather amused by all the bad luck he experienced before he made it to Emmy's House! LOL!

[Senexx]

I'm sorry to say its been a while since I've read it and only read it once.

[dicetosser1]

Althalus was hard to get into. Not bad once you were in but it got a bit cloying

 

 

I did like gher tho!

[Werthead]

The Belgariad is a splendid YA fantasy series. Give it to a youngster to read when they are say around 10 years old, and they'll probably dig it.

 

The Malloreon is a horribly-written, cash-in series written for the money (well, more for the money). Eddings was never brilliant at character or pacing or tension, but at least did an okay job of it in The Belgariad. These things are just lacking altogether in The Malloreon, which should just be avoided like the plague.

 

I heartily recommend The Rivan Codex, the non-fiction book where Eddings discusses writing the series and his motives to do so. A refreshingly - possibly even brutally soul-destroying - honest about how his non-fantasy 'proper' books had failed to sell so he cashed in on the post-Tolkien fantasy boom. He goes on at some length about how much money he's made from the books and how that was his main motivating factor.

[Guest George Saladin]

hi! this is my first post 

 

I loved both- Belgariad & Malloreon. 

 

However, there was one point that it seemed to me was 'missed' by the author, or cut out by DelRay.

 

Its in the 3rd book of Belgariad, the part where they're travelling up to the Vale of Aldur, from Nyissa- they've just crossed the district of the Marags and are ascending the hills. 

In the map, you can see this long Eastern Caravan highway or something (from Tolnedra to Cthol Murgos) that has to be crossed before they get to the mountains and the secret cave of the Gods.

 

But strangely, there's no mention ever, of crossing the great caravan highway- nowwhere!

They're just traipsing thru the mountains, they get caught up in a huge blizzard, and next thing you know, the mare's about to calve, and Garion finds the secret cave somehow. 

 

Maybe the great caravan highway was covered by great snow driifts, and they walked over it, eh? ;)

 

 

George

[The Fisher King]

To echo Wert: Rivan Codex is great and worth it just for ''Anheg's Journal'' which is brilliant/

 

 

Fish

[Viperswhip]

My favourite process is still to read the Belgariad and the Polgara and then Belgarath. I love reading those two particular books together, the interplay between the two is fantastic.

[Guest Treefugger]

 

 

However, there was one point that it seemed to me was 'missed' by the author, or cut out by DelRay.

 

Its in the 3rd book of Belgariad, the part where they're travelling up to the Vale of Aldur, from Nyissa- they've just crossed the district of the Marags and are ascending the hills. 

In the map, you can see this long Eastern Caravan highway or something (from Tolnedra to Cthol Murgos) that has to be crossed before they get to the mountains and the secret cave of the Gods.

 

But strangely, there's no mention ever, of crossing the great caravan highway- nowwhere!

They're just traipsing thru the mountains, they get caught up in a huge blizzard, and next thing you know, the mare's about to calve, and Garion finds the secret cave somehow. 

 

 

 

Agreed. I also thought the journey from Nyissa to The Vale was a bit vague.

 

I just finished re-reading The Belgariad for the third time in my life. I still enjoy it.

 

My first reading, at around 14 years of age, was very enjoyable. Being the same age as Garion at the time, I really felt close to him. Unfortunately, I learned from Eddings that women are all mysterious and fickle, and control men through bitchiness. After all these years, that's my main contention with the series.

 

Something is strange to me: others are saying that Silk's reaction to his mother's visit, and his secret love for Porenn, add to his character. However, for starters, why would a scarred mother make him more deep? Because he cried when he saw her? It's a little flimsy. Secondly, Eddings spends the entire Belgariad teaching us that Silk is in fact a lonely rogue, and happily so. He's not the kind to fall in love, and even if he did, he's definitely not the kind to mock himself and pine secretly. Maybe if Porenn was shown to be some brilliant mind, something magnificent enough to make Silk admire her, then maybe I could understand a secret love. There's pretty much only one thing that could make me overlook this out-of-character behaviour, and that would be if Porenn was the best in the world at "the game" that Silk plays.

 

I've read The Elenium twice, and will read it again soon. I think I enjoy that series even more than The Belgariad. Overall, I felt it had better characterisation (although Queen Ehlana is still as one-dimensional as Ce'Nedra). Sephrenia was probably Eddings' break-through female character because she was strong without bossiness, and her background was more deeply elicited by the happenings of the series.

 

The sequels to each of these series were a bit disappointing when compared with the predecessors. The Malloreon—I can't even remember it. It just didn't do anything for me. The Tamuli wasn't that bad, apart from an anti-climactic ending.

 

I read The Wheel Of Time up to halfway through A Crown Of Swords. Its world was so intriguing to me. I was very impressed as Jordan expanded the story to include so many competing factions, ideas, and entities. I especially loved the exploration of artefacts and the history accompanying them. I've never experienced such pleasure at learning about a new piece of something, and then later finding out where it came from, and how it's going to fit into the story. Then, with the weight of new entries starting to burden me, I toppled over and could go no further. I lost the story he was trying to tell me. Such a shame. I've never gone back to it.

 

Now, I've just borrowed Gardens Of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates from my local library. Let's see how they go.

 

P.S. I found Jordan's inclusion of a glossary to be a great idea. It's annoying when you don't know how an author intended something to be pronounced.

[Ozzie_aiel]

I enjoyed the Belgariad. Yes, most of the characters were about as deep as a muddy puddle, but there were plenty of laughs and I actually liked the story. The Belgariad is like the "easy listening music" of fantasy. Not overly deep but still fun