When I first read the Belgariad and the Mallorian at about age 12 (true) I thought they were pretty neat.
ANd when I went back at age 16 they were abominable. I mean, the very first book was fairly nice, if only because it really connected to me as a young reader; the child characters were fun and interesting. But he left them behind so fast, and frankly, I just plain few to despise his demi-gods bestride the earth. How many nigh-unstoppable super-beings (who basically do nothing) does the setting need? Yes, they are constantly harassed by various mooks, all of which they do kil easily, and all of which they could easily obliterate on a whim. It’s just that they never do, since the Eddings family apparently does not have a great gift of imagination.
The side characters were a lot more intriguing - the ones who are met, do some favors and scratch some backs, and get something back on their end in the bargain. They usually had realistic and complex motives, interesting personalities, and enjoyable plots.
Possibly most irritating was the “prohecies” angle. AT the very end of the series, we really have no reason to actually think Garion and co. did the actual right thing. FOr all we know, they just sent the world down to an eternity of torment. The prophecies don’t seem to care about normal people, just ordering existence in their own image. Ordinary people have no choice nor chioces; they do as they are commanded by powers greater than them and cannot choose otherwise. The only time people have any freedom is when these two possibilities clash, and even then it’s simply a meaningless binary choice.
Related note: I felt a lot of sadness of Zandramas in the second series, although she was barely touched upon. SHe was never particularly portryed as evil, just a woman caught up in essential slavery to vastly greater powers. She was forced to do as she was told, and forced to “patch reality” with herself. And that was that. Nor did Eddings really touch upon her fate much. Did she exist in any meaningful form? Was there even an afterlife at all in this world? Who knows? Who cares? You’re all just meaningless slaves anyway.
I like Polgara and Belgarath although I’ll admit I like Belgarath a lot better because he’s not a spiteful little bitch just because someone hurt his feelings 3000 years ago. I also liked Sparhawk and Sephrenia* in the Elenium/Tamuli series, but I couldn’t stand all the other characters. Someone needed to smack Aphrael/Danae. Except they couldn’t because she’s a Goddess. :rolleyes:
*I love that name. I used to have a gerbil named Sephrenia.
If I had five demigods coming after me with a big chip on their shoulder ready to turn me into ash, I’d be pretty amoral about my security, too. But of course, the point I made still holds: she just did as she was forced to do by the hand o fate.
(Actually, I don’t recall her torching even one ship.)
I like the Belgariad & Mallorean, and the Elenium & Tamuli (although I was very grateful they were shorter). But I’ve come to terms a long time ago with the fact that I have no taste. I liked the characters, all of them (well some was love to hate, but that works too), I liked the plots. But still I shuddered when I saw his newest epic in Borders. I believe my thought when I picked it up was “Haven’t you already written this? Twice?”
(completely off topic, but that Borders had one singular Heinlein book. ONE. wtH?!!)
She did - she torched at least three that I recall.
And to be fair, the demigods (by which I assume you mean Belgarion, Belgarath, Polgara, Beldin, and Durnik) came after her ‘with a chip on their shoulder’ because she had kidnapped Belgarion’s son. In other words: If you throw rocks at the lion, don’t be surprised when the lion charges you.
But I liked the Belgariad. I liked the Mallorean too, although frankly I felt it went on a little too long (“Hey, there are countries we haven’t tramped through yet in our lengthy chase. Guess where we have to go next?”). I liked the Belgarath and Polgara volumes too, because I thought they filled in a lot of the backstory.
I’m less fond of the two Sparhawk series. I had a lot of trouble with orders of knights who followed this (vaguely) invisible Judeo-Christian god, when real gods and goddesses were manifesting themselves in front of them all the time.
My wife likes the Althalus book; I’m less fond of it because (as others have mentioned) it’s full of plot holes and tramples the same tired ground as his other stories.
But the Dreamers series - yeah, I couldn’t even finish the first one. My wife finished the first one (and I think the second as well), but couldn’t make it any farther than that.
I am actually in the middle of rereading the Malorean and I just finished the Belgariad. I was unpacking my books into my new library and went hey I haven’t read these in years. I truly enjoy the characters the plot is thin but the characters are quite good. just on a note about the Zandramas thing she is totally evil even before she becomes the Child of Dark she liked to bathe in the blood of her sacrificial victims and there are some hints in the book about her sexual excitement during the sacrifice, well they say she sacrificed naked and then say that they can’t repeat the things she did after the sacrifice.
On another note yes he wrote the same story 4 times I’m not sure about the dreamers because they were just boring to me and I didn’t even like the characters.