Blast From the Past: The Belgariad
March 5th, 2011 § 4 Comments
All the titles have chess motifs. I just realised that!
I read the Belgariad series back in 1987 or ’88 when a classmate pushed the first book, Pawn of Prophecy, on me. God knows why but he did and I thought it was the greatest post-LOTR fantasy novels that I ever read. Read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and the Belgariad and that’s it for all your fantasy fiction needs. Seriously, don’t bother with anything else. Waste of time. Discworld doesn’t count. That’s comic fantasy. But for serious fantasy, Tolkien and Eddings are your go to guys (though I’ve never actually finised LOTR. Maybe someday).
Anyway, there is nothing special in Belgariad and it’s still surprisingly great. Eddings didn’t write anything original for the series and he didn’t care. Just about every trope was applied to the story. A poor orphan farm boy who turns out to be ‘The Chosen One’? Check. Taken care by a couple of wizards? Check. He has to fulfill a prophecy? Check. A Dark Lord? Check. A motley crew to assist him in his quest? Check. Big fight at the end? What do you think? Belgariad is Star Wars with less lasers. It is totally laden with clichés that it shouldn’t be worth reading but it is. In the words of Eddings himself, Belgariad is “the literary equivalent of peddling dope”.
It works despite its derivativeness because Belgariad wasn’t written too seriously, a problem with most fantasy authors who believe the genre is sacred and must be treated as such. No, it isn’t. The genre is all about kids kicking orcs and trolls and killing the evil wizard and getting the girl in the end. It’s not about delivering a message to the readers. It’s all about telling a good story by using tried and tested methods. Another good thing about this series is that Eddings gave his stock characters sarcastic lines just about every time they speak (Silk especially). They’d be boring otherwise. None of them are perfect either, they all have tiny flaws somewhere, argue with each other a lot but also care about each other. In other words, they’re like your family.
David Eddings wrote a sequel, Malloreon. Don’t bother with that one. It’s Belgariad 11 years later. Pointless, I thought. He also wrote some more stuff including prequels to the Belgariad but I never read those and don’t intend to. Just stick with Belgariad and go read Tolkien’s early stuff if you haven’t already and that’s it. You’re done with ‘serious’ fantasy fiction.
Thank you for writing this post. I never thought you read Eddings too!
I read this when I was in form 5 and finished the series somewhere during my matriculation years. I agree with you that those who wants to read Eddings and enjoy them should stick to the Belgariad series. But I enjoyed the Malloreon, nevertheless.
You should try Belgarath the Sorcerer – the stand-alone book. Polgara the Sorceress is quite to draggy.
As an Eddings’ fan, I do enjoy the Elenium series. Sparhawk was just like a combination of Silk and Barak plus he was a knight. You should try reading the trilogy as well. I do not enjoy the rest of Eddings’ book on fantasy.
But I do reread his Regina’s Song. A non-fantasy and yet, witty and entertaining as well.
best ever ! all still around.
I have only recently started reading “traditional” sword/sorcery fantasy since Elizabeth Vaughn and Patricia Briggs. They don’t write multi-part series (mostly just trilogies or duologies) so it is easier to follow than finding out you started out with book 4, 7, 8 and 9, and then having read all except for the 1st one which you couldn’t find. *argh*
I have been going past the Eddings shelf at the rental store I frequent, but have not reached out to touch. Perhaps will do so after reading your rec.
The genre is all about kids kicking orcs and trolls and killing the evil wizard and getting the girl in the end. It’s not about delivering a message to the readers. It’s all about telling a good story by using tried and tested methods. Another good thing about this series is that Eddings gave his stock characters sarcastic lines just about every time they speak (Silk especially). They’d be boring otherwise. None of them are perfect either, they all have tiny flaws somewhere, argue with each other a lot but also care about each other. In other words, they’re like your family.
I don’t understand genres what take themselves so seriously. Whatever genre it is, it is about good storytelling that is entertaining, innit? The tropes are not necessarily a bad thing; people enjoy patterns and it works for a very valid reason: people *want* predictability to a certain extend. All those high brow literary type what only favour books that no one actually reads (except those who swan about like they’re in Oprah’s book club) can go take a running jump.
I have to agree with you that Eddings’ work was derivative (esp if you are an LOTR fan, like me) but it was a jolly good yarn, despite its unoriginality. I enjoyed Belgariad and thought it was a good lighter story to follow after LOTR. Am not so sure if I agree with you that one doesnt have to read other books in the fantasy genre. Raymond E Feist’s stuff is pretty good, though I have only read The Magician, and Neal Stephenson has quite a following. Fantasy was a phase for me, and mine puttered out after Belgariad. I now go for stand alone titles – and for those, you simple can’t beat Neil Gaiman’s quirky fantasy settings.