The Belgariad, Vol. 1: Pawn of Prophecy / Queen of Sorcery / Magician's Gambit (The Belgariad, #1-3) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Aug 24, 2009 Lorena rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Maybe more like a 2.75 on the ratings scale. Competent but predictable fantasy. The author created the world before he created the story, and it shows. The setting is very thoroughly imagined and meticulously crafted; the story, less so. The characters are all familiar fantasy archetypes, though not bad examples of those archetypes, for the most part. The pacing is exceedingly slow, and the action depends a great deal on the people in the story not telling each other basic, necessary information ...more

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Jul 24, 2009 Carl rated it really liked it

Just finished rereading the entire series recently. Very enjoyable, though it's really hard to shake the feeling (despite quite a bit of "adult" stuff in here, both in terms of gore and sex) that this is a young adult fantasy-- in fact, even the aforementioned "adult" parts feel like they are written for jr hi or high schoolers, as though Garion's coming of age in the book were paralleled by the reader's experience with the book.

In the introduction David Eddings refers to his work as fantasy wi Just finished rereading the entire series recently. Very enjoyable, though it's really hard to shake the feeling (despite quite a bit of "adult" stuff in here, both in terms of gore and sex) that this is a young adult fantasy-- in fact, even the aforementioned "adult" parts feel like they are written for jr hi or high schoolers, as though Garion's coming of age in the book were paralleled by the reader's experience with the book.

In the introduction David Eddings refers to his work as fantasy with the flavor of realism-- which seems rather odd, since this is about as high fantasy as you can get, and occasionally feels a bit contrived too (though in such a way that it seems appropriate to the sort of book it is). Still, I think I know what he means-- by way of example, both Polgara and Belgarath embody both the high fantasy "immortals" with all their attendant weight and romance, and the practical, perhaps even cynical sensibilities one would expect from people who had spent thousands of years dealing with other people and all their problems, mundane or otherwise.

Eddings' world feels strangely closed to me-- it's like a board set for one single game, rather than a ground for a variety of games which may or may not relate to each other. I suppose it takes the "cosmic struggle" of high fantasy and pushes it to the extreme, in a way-- there is really nothing at all of consequence in these stories outside of the two prophecies and Torak. We get this in Tolkien as well, of course, but Tolkien's world seems a bit more diverse and open ended, even though he certainly pulled it all together around a grand narrative of conflict with a Dark Lord, first Melkor then Sauron. I think some people would disagree and find Tolkien's work a bit more oppressively "closed" (as I'm putting it) than Eddings', but this is how it feels to me.

I have to admit that Eddings' world also potentially encourages a rather excessive "us vs them" attitude-- not that other groups' perspectives are not sympathetically considered, but the whole emphasis on the merchants of the Murgos as undercover spies throughout the rest of the world, the fact that trusting them is a grave mistake because as a race they are inherently opposed to the goals of the "West" (gack!), is obviously problematic in the post 9-11 world (or even in the context of immigration in the US-- or Europe). Most likely the situation in Eddings' book stems from the semantics of the Cold War, conscious or unconscious. In any case, I don't think Eddings was really proposing such a world view-- it seems to me that he was just taking some of the stereotypes of the high fantasy genre and pushing them to their limits, with some twists. One I get past the (overt?) oversimplification of the "real world", I think it's an interesting way, especially in something for younger readers, to explore political/anthropological themes (taken broadly)-- in other words, it deals with differences between communities in a way both blunt and subtle. Hm, not sure I'm explaining that well.

But that said, the whole East vs West thing is just a bit too much at times, at least once you're out of the story and can be objective again-- I mean, they even get their RUGS from Mallorea! Just a touch too much Orientalism. I suppose there could be some element of satire to all this, but I don't think I really see that here. ...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Harold Ogle marked it as to-read

Shelves: fun-characters, fantasy

Queen of Sorcery continues the story begun in Pawn of Prophecy in two respects: the plot picks up exactly where the previous book stopped, and it also has a title that is really unrelated to the story itself. United States audiences like to lampoon modern Japanese culture for its frequent combination of two completely unrelated words to make a title, such as "Metal Gear Solid," "Fullmetal Alchemist," or "Sailor Moon," but this book's title is just as nonsensical. We do hear a little bit more abo Queen of Sorcery continues the story begun in Pawn of Prophecy in two respects: the plot picks up exactly where the previous book stopped, and it also has a title that is really unrelated to the story itself. United States audiences like to lampoon modern Japanese culture for its frequent combination of two completely unrelated words to make a title, such as "Metal Gear Solid," "Fullmetal Alchemist," or "Sailor Moon," but this book's title is just as nonsensical. We do hear a little bit more about the "prophecy" suggested by the first book at the beginning of the second, but we're never really shown why the book is called Queen of Sorcery.

Still, it's a good and engaging read. Eddings continues his "high fantasy with grounded-in-reality heroes" approach to good effect. Garion meets a high-spirited teen named Lelldorin, whom he befriends and only realizes belatedly is something of an idiot. Even so, Garion holds onto prejudices that Lelldorin gives him, and he meets Mandorallen, who is a Lancelot-style character of questionable parentage ("The Song of Ice and Fire's" Brienne is a spiritual descendant of Mandorallen). Garion takes an immediate dislike to him, but Mandorallen proves himself a doughty and reliable boon companion as the group continues ever south, chasing after Belgarath's fellow sorceror, Zedar, who is revealed to have stolen the Orb of Aldur (pretty much any reader of the first book who didn't skip the prologue has pieced this together long before it is revealed to Garion). They are concerned that Zedar is taking the Orb to the high priest of the Grolim, Ctuchik, so that Ctuchik can revive the slumbering mad god, Torak, and so all haste is given to the chase. The problem is that the party keeps getting waylaid by Murgo villains sent to delay their pursuit. Chief among them is Asharak and Brill, who've been keeping pace with the party since the beginnings of the first book.

From what I can tell, this is the "Two Towers" of the series: it's a lot of fun, but somehow it's not quite as satisfying as what came before or after. That's not to say that nothing happens, of course: the book is very engaging with plots, counterplots, and quickly changing scenery as the protagonists move across four nations. At first, they try to warn the human nations of Arendia and Tolnedra that war is coming, speak to the Dryads in their sacred forest south of Tolnedra, and then finally are embroiled in the machinations of Salmissra, serpent queen of the swamp kingdom of Nyissa. Is Salmissra supposed to the Queen of Sorcery, though her sorcery is practically nonexistent? Is Polgara, even though she is not a queen (at least, as far as is intimated in this book)? It's vexing. Still, in each country, the heroes are involved in some plot by or against the leaders of the land, which they foil through different methods. Garion gradually begins to appreciate that he has some aptitude for sorcery himself (another reviewer complained that "suddenly Garion is throwing lightning bolts from his hands," but that doesn't happen here); his developing any aptitude with magic is slow but inevitable. What's interesting, in reflection, is how very much plot there is in this book, and yet the focus is so powerfully on the characters and their interactions that the plot if almost secondary.

This edition, published during the 20th anniversary of the first printing of Pawn of Prophecy, has a small forward from Eddings, in which he admits that what he was trying to do was write a fantasy novel with the real-life characters of Steinbeck or Faulkner. I think he succeeded. But while I don't judge a book by its cover - or any of the weird decisions that publishers make that don't really bear on the story and are independent of the author's work - I do have to comment on this edition in a couple of particulars. The story is great, and having the first three books together in one volume is very handy. But the maps are terrible: it appears that someone at the publishing company took one of the original mass-market paperbacks and photocopied the maps, blowing them up in an enlargement, and then traced over all the features of the map with a fat felt-tipped marker. The maps are completely illegible, and so it's almost insulting having them there. The second quibble is, yes, the cover: with Pawn of Prophecy, the picture of Polgara sheltering the little boy version of Garion makes sense: it's an encapsulation of their relationship for the years before the book begins. But the main story in this series starts with Garion at 14, so the picture of him as a small child is bizarre. In Queen of Sorcery, he is either blatantly propositioned or flirted with by at least three different girls/women, one of whom comments on how big and muscular he is. He is still a boy, certainly, but he's not a child - indeed, much of the first book consists of his trying to explicitly assert that he is not a child (which is pretty typical teen behavior, after all). Still, both of these are niggling concerns over publication details. The book is a very good and quick read. ...more

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Sep 07, 2007 Lbd rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Eddings is much like Feist in that he takes me away to other worlds. (did i mention i read for escaping?). I really enjoyed the Belariad series. I wanted to keep up with the characters on their adventures and misadventures. So much better than the tripe on television!

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Mar 06, 2008 Carmen rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

I've read this series many, many times. It is one of the first fantasy series i read as a younger girl [besides LOTR, of course]. I like to revisit these books occationally for a little jaunt down memory lane ...more

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