| SF Reviews by Aaron M. Renn | By Author - By Title - By Date Reviewed |
Conclusion: Worth Reading
I suppose these are books that could be held up as the cannoncial example of Bad Fantasy. Both five volume series contain utterly predictable epic quests that are so full of bad cliches it isn't funny. I won't even bother telling you what they are about. They seemed to be big sellers though and obviously since I bought the second series in hardcover, I must have liked them pretty well at the time.
I guess I attribute my lack of disgust at these books to a couple of factors. First, this is the ultimate mind candy. You simply do not have to engage a single brain cell to read these books, even if you haven't read them before. Thus they are perfect for when you are suffering from exactly the sort of malaise I've been. And despite being two five volume series, they are very fast reading. I think I re-read the first five books in like two days without really trying.
Another thing I sort of like are the characters. Not all of them mind you, but some of them. Silk for one, the Drasnian spy who is the ultimate smooth operator. I've always liked characters such as him, I think because secretly that's what I wanted to be. When I was a kid, I loved those "Great Brain" books by John D. Fitzgerald because I imagined myself a smooth operator like young blackmailer Tom. Heck, I still like those books! I like the Stainless Steel Rat books for the same reason. This is pure escapism, imagining yourself the ultra-competent hero, but one who is a smart ass and rogue at the same time. Other characters struck me for similar reasons. And Eddings is able to use the differences between his stereotypical motley crew to some humorous effect.
There are a few things in these books that are so bad it is almost funny. Before ending this review, I can't resist mentioning a few of them to give you a flavor. These could be considered SPOILERS, so beware.
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In the first series, there is a character called Durnik that is supposed to be "The Man with Two Lives". Everybody knows this, yet at the end when he dies - thus ending his first life - everybody is sad and acts like it is the end of the world. Hello!? Of course he is going to get resurrected.
There are the Good Guys and the Bad Guys. The chief good guy is called "The Child of Light" and the chief bad guy "The Child of Dark". The interesting thing is that the bad guy calls himself (or herself as the case may be) the Child of Dark. I don't know too many real life evil overlords who basically went around admitting they were evil. This is particularly amusing at the end of the second series, when a woman is forced to choose between the two side, yet agonizes over which one is really good or evil. Hello!? Just ask! They bad guys will tell you who they are.
A lot of the good guys enjoy activities that are, well, not very wholesome. They love to get drunk, steal, kill people in fights, etc. To avoid any unpleasant moral dilemmas here, Eddings makes sure that the bad guys are super-duper-evil, going around performing human sacrificies and worshipping demons and such.
The two series have the exact same plot. Eddings basically admits this and tries to account for it in the story by saying that when the good side and the dark side split up way back when, history got caught in an infinite loop. This does not, however, account for the two other series Eddings wrote set in a different universe that also have the exact same plot.
The super-nice god of the good guys spends his days like a Buddist monk contemplating things to lofty for motal man. He does this because way back when he and his buddies created the world, he decided not to choose any people for his own, and so didn't have any god-like duties such as watching over them to occupy his time. This left one of the groups of people that got created without a god, and all sorts of nasty stuff happened to them. Hello!? How can this be the good god? I think he's a prick! Why did he create a group of people for himself if he wasn't going to watch over them?
There's lots more good stuff where this came from, and these books are almost worth reading for the cornball elements alone.
%A Eddings, David %T Pawn of Prophecy %S The Belgariad %V Book 1 %I Del Rey %D 1982-04 %G ISBN 0-345-30997-9 %P 258 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$2.95
%A Eddings, David %T Queen of Sorcery %S The Belgariad %V Book 2 %I Del Rey %D 1982-11 %G ISBN 0-345-30079-3 %P 327 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$2.95
%A Eddings, David %T Magician's Gambit %S The Belgariad %V Book 3 %I Del Rey %D 1983-06 %G ISBN 0-345-30077-7 %P 305 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$2.95
%A Eddings, David %T Castle of Wizardry %S The Belgariad %V Book 4 %I Del Rey %D 1984-05 %G ISBN 0-345-30080-7 %P 374 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$3.50
%A Eddings, David %T Enchanters' End Game %S The Belgariad %V Book 5 %I Del Rey %D 1984-12 %G ISBN 0-345-30078-5 %P 373 pp. %O mass market paperback, US$3.50
%A Eddings, David %T Guardians of the West %S The Mallorean %V Book 1 %I Del Rey %D 1987 %G ISBN N/A (book club edition %P 369 pp. %O hardcover, US$N/A
%A Eddings, David %T The King of the Murgos %S The Mallorean %V Book 2 %I Del Rey %D 1987 %G ISBN N/A (book club edition %P 369 pp. %O hardcover, US$N/A
%A Eddings, David %T Demon Lord of Karanda %S The Mallorean %V Book 3 %I Del Rey %D 1988 %G ISBN 0-345-33004-8 %P 423 pp. %O hardcover, US$18.95
%A Eddings, David %T Sorceress of Darshiva %S The Mallorean %V Book 4 %I Del Rey %D 1989 %G ISBN 0-345-33005-6 %P 406 pp. %O hardcover, US$19.95
%A Eddings, David %T The Seeress of Kell %S The Mallorean %V Book 5 %I Del Rey %D 1919 (original publication 1991) %G ISBN 0-345-33006-4 %P 399 pp. %O hardcover, US$20.00
Reviewed on 2000-07-30
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