I was sick with the Mormon Plague last week (my wife brought some nasty bug back from SLC, I caught it, and we spent the last two weeks cursing Joseph Smith,) and she offered to bring me some new books to make me feel better.
“Aha!,” thought I, “I still go back and read the Belgariad every once in a while. Engaging characters. Snappy plot. No, it’s not High Litchrachoor, but I’m sick, and I want the literary equivalent of chicken fried steak right now. Comfort reading. And sure, the quality of the writing degenerated over the years, until ol’ David and Leigh’s best writing is formulaic, predictable, lazy, and generic.”
I think I might have puked or coughed up a kidney or something at this point. But after a warm bath and 26 hours of sleep, I felt up to continuing my thought.
“But still! I have a lot of residual appreciation for them, and they have a series out now that’s in paperback! How bad could it be?”
…
…
…
It’s bad. Really REALLY bad. It’s the laziest Eddings series I’ve read to date. The plot is contrived and uninteresting. The mythology is pasted-on. The characters are STUPID FUCKING cardboard cutouts who have the same conversations over and over and over and over again for hundreds of pages at a time. I mean seriously. HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES did Rabbit tell the full story of the incident where Longbow drove off the attacking pirate ships all by himself? Christ. The authors could at least have abbreviated the account after the first three or so times…but no. In order to fluff up their dumb assed phoned-in manuscript, they had him tell the ENTIRE. FUCKING. STORY. about eight times.
Best to avoid, people. This one was a complete wash. Come to think of it, I knew it was going to be awful, but I read it anyway.
Was it about people looking for shiny blue rocks? Because when I was a kid, and had a much higher tolerance for shitty genre fiction, even I couldn’t read Eddings because it was all about looking for shiny blue rocks. And I read way, way farther into the Dragonlance oevre than anybody should admit sober.
That series was so bad that Leigh Eddings died of shame when it was finished. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
I forced myself through the first book and halfway through the second. Then I closed the book firmly and bounced it off the bottom of the outdoor book return at my library. An entire series made up of Silk wannabes? No. Hell no, in fact.
Oh, I didn’t get through the first one. I’ve considered trying them again from the library because it’s free and I will read stuff I get for free I would never buy, but I think I will continue not reading these.
And I usually like fluffy Eddings fantasy. I mean, it’s not great literature, but there’s some fun stuff. That first book though…eeeech. And they get worse?
David Eddings doesn’t appear to look like someone who has all his faculties lined up in a row.
I read his first two series, the *Belgariad *and Malloreon, and enjoyed them just fine. The *Elenium *I didn’t like much, and then the *Tamuli *I gave up on entirely. I tried to read the *Belgariad *sequels that were about Polgara and Belgarath but they were horrendous. And then I tried that one about the thief who had the talking cat, which was annoying and, unsurprisingly, derivative of all his other works.
I read the *Belgariad * as it came out. It was fun, and the writing was servicable.
When the first book of the *Mallorean * came out I picked it up. Eddings had left a lot of things to be developed. How does a simple smith adjust to god-like power? How does a grieving deity react to learning that its people survive? The queen is now a snake; what does that do to the balance of power? Who was Errand? What does an empty seat in the pantheon mean, and will it be filled soon?
Within the first few chapters it became clear that Eddings was not going to expand or continue with the stories he started. He stated clearly that he was just going to re-write what he had done before.
I put the book down and never opened another Eddings book. That one even gave the *Belgariad * retroactive suckitude.
Wow. He surely has not. Is Leigh really dead? If so, that’s a shame. They obviously loved each other.
Even if, as a team, they were horrible writers.
And DrFidelius, I’m with you. I should have left it at The Belgariad. And what kills me is the raw, unrepentant laziness of it all. “Repetitive? Whatever do you mean? It’s not repetitive. It’s a plot point involving repeated incidents because time’s normal flow has been interrupted, you see.”
I’ll confess, I liked the Elenium and the Tamuli better than the Belgariad and the Malloreon, but I think that’s because I read them first. I also really like both Sparhawk & Sephrenia as characters much better than Belgarion & crew. (Although, I will admit to a fondness for Belgarath, but that’s because he’s such an ornery cuss.)
I’ve read them all, though, and I’ll admit that even as I read my way through the Dreamers series (yes, I read all of them; I was too lazy to take them back to the library before I was done) that I wondered if they could come up with an ORIGINAL plot this time…obviously not.
I don’t know, I may have been one of the few to actually make it through the entire Dreamers series intact. Still, compared to Eddings’ previous works (yes, including Althalus), it was pure and utter dreck.
Of course, this is coming from the guy who enjoyed Althalus, massive plotholes and all. Crazy, I know.
I was a big Eddings fan as a young teenager. I loved the Belgariad, the Mallorean got a free pass because of my love for the Belgariad. The Elenium and Tamuli also got in hanging on the coat tails of the Belgariad. Then came the Polgara and Belgarath books. I enjoyed High Hunt and the Losers, Regina’s Song was a bit meh, Redemption of Althalus was awful, and I have successfully avoided the Dreamers, and will continue to do so
I read your OP several times wondering why I had no clue what you were on about… I knew it was an Eddings series, but since you were describing *all *of their books I just couldn’t tell.
I’m going to offer a dissenting opinion…in that most of you seem to have found at least The Belgariad tolerable, while I did not. It’s been many long years since I read it, and the only thing I recall clearly about it is that every single character grated on me within pages of their introduction. Once I heard that the next series was little more than Belgariad, Mark II, I resolved never to open a book with his name on it again. I have no doubt that the latest offering is at least as wretched as the first, and that’s bad enough for me.
I’m embarrassed to say that I read (and own) both of these. To me, this is where the writing really took a downturn. They were awful.
I always wanted them to do a book about Beldin, my favorite character, but y’know, some things are better left to the imagination (or ghostwriters :)).
Oh, and:
Me too. Good lord, yes. I thought the original Dragonlance was pretty good, and I loved the D&D backdrop (especially the Death Knight), so I really went in for all the books.
I read your OP several times wondering why I had no clue what you were on about… I knew it was an Eddings series, but since you were describing *all *of their books I just couldn’t tell.