Barak, Hettar, Silk and X'Nedra

[slowfox]

Mandorellan: What say you, Barak? There can only be a couple of hundred of them...

The Belgariad by David Eddings is not good writing... But it was the first, non-LotR fantasy series I ever read, and as such it warrants a mention.

Five books: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry and Enchanters' End Game (and if you think the titles are just a smidgen laboured, I'll certainly concur).

Garion is a farm boy, who lives on a farm with his 'Aunt', Polgara, and another farmhand, Durnik. I forget the exact set-up, now, but Polgara's father - Belgarath - turns up and drags Garion and Polgara off on a quest to complete a prophecy. Durnik comes along too.

The 'Bel' in front of 'Garath' denotes that he's a sorcerer, just like the 'Pol' in front of 'Gara'.

Anyway, The Gang set off across their world, slowly picking up a team of characters as required to fulfil the prophecy (which speaks to Garion directly, in often sarcastic manner), and Do Great Things.

Even as a 14-year old kid slap bang in the middle of this book's target market segment, The Belgariad made me uncomfortable with its casual racism: all people of a given land have exactly the same characteristics. Come from Drasnia? Then you're a thief or a spy. Garion's home land (whose name I forget, but which obviously also accounts for Durnik) is supposedly home to honest (but slightly... dim) good workin' folk.

OTOH, it has its moments - X'Nedra's kinda cool - although Eddings chickens out of showing and gives us a tell when she gets to be the great orator of her time and delivers a rousing battle speech to the masses. Definitely cheating.

Garion goes through a whole 'coming of age' thing with regard to the prophecy, X'Nedra starts off painful, but gets better, and it all moves towards one BIG FAT HAPPY ENDING, but it's a pretty nice, brainless ride there.

There's a sequel (series), The Mallorean, which I think I staggered through, but have (I hope) managed to scrub my brain free of most of the detail since.

Comments

[loup_noir]

I only read the first series, and I read that as it came out back in the eighties. One has to remember the state of the universe when books were originally issued. I remember thinking it was a fast, fun read. We both enjoyed them, but I must note not enough to read the rest of the series. Must have liked them, because we named one of our dogs Polgara. Funny, now that I think back on it, I can't remember much about those books. We still have them, but unlike Cherryh, they continue gathering dust.

[slowfox]

Polgara is an awesome name for a dog! Am *well* impressed :-)

One has to remember the state of the universe when books were originally issued.

This is a good point - the fantasy landscape of the mid 80s wasn't a wholly edifying place to be, if memory serves.