Drunkard's Walk Forums

Story here.

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Epsilon

Excuse me, I am off to reread the Belgariad and the Elenium...

Oh that is sad news indeed. I remember reading Castle of Wizardry of the Belgariad when I was about 12 or so. Before I had even heard of or read The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings.

In many ways David Eddings' Belgariad is what I consider to be THE classic fantasy yarn, and every time I read a fantasy novel I use that as one of the
yardsticks for how much I enjoyed it.

Goodbye Mr. Eddings and thanks for the nice memories.
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Take Your Candle, Go Light Your World.

Hell, hell, hell.

I hated the "Destiny demands" aspect of his plot for the Belgariad and Malloreon, but I liked many of the
characters a lot (maybe that's why I hated it -- that destiny put some very nice people through a lot of unpleasant b.s.). I have to
admit, the twins Belkira and Beltira were never high on my list, because of the way, when meeting the rest of the group, they seemingly felt compelled to
announce what the Prophecy called each of those people, and that just struck me as so impolite....

There were some glorious moments in that series. Possibly my favorite was the legend of Gorim badgering UL into becoming his people's god -- and the god
for nonhuman creatures, too. Or the voice of the Prophecy assuring Mara that his grief would end someday: "Forever is a very long time, Mara, and only
I can see to the end of it."

I never had quite as intense a response, positive or negative, to the Elenium and Tamuli. On the other hand, I bought and still own
copies, so....
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

For all their flaws, I absolutely loved those books as a kid. I didn't imagine he was that old. Wow.

I'd hoped for more Sparhawk goodness... ;.;

May the Snark be with him.

--Sam

"This is graveness."

I'm embarrassed to say I've never read any of Eddings' work. Maybe I should start.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

He was, and I'll be frank here, a hack writer. But he was a REALLY GOOD hack writer -- he deliberately constructed the Belgariad out of all the classic fantasy tropes and the Hero's Journey, and made it work.

I prefer the Elenium/Tamuli novels over the Belgariad/Malloreon, mostly because we meet Sparhawk as a fully formed adult badass. Garion's journey to
maturity got tiresome after a while.

--Sam

"An object at rest -- CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!!!"

Perhaps my favorite moment from the Tamuli was when a man asked the Child-Goddess Aphrael if his people's pantheon of gods really
existed. She told him they did, but admitted that her own pantheon -- and, apparently, several others -- found them rather silly and frivolous.
"They're fun at parties, though."
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

Yeah. If you've never read it Bob, you'll likely find the Belgariad kind of amateurish. His later writing was more sophisticated, but then, it has been
argued that he told the same story over and over again, so it makes sense he'd get better at it.

His best talent, though, was an amazing ability for snark. Eddings could (and almost always did) write the sort of sarcasm that we all come up with the day
after the fact, and wish we could've said when it mattered.




I started in seventh grade with the last book of the Elenium (one of the two Eddings books our class library had), and now own 20 of his books. I'd be
buying more, but his last series (the Dreamers, or something like that) didn't click with me.

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My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

This is sad. I knew he was getting old, but I hadn't realized he was that old. I've read most of his older work (Belgariad through the Tamuli),
though I never picked up his new series. The Rivan Codex is an excellent read about how he constructed the entire
world of the Belgariad and Mallorean. His cookie-cutter method is disturbingly calculating to me, but still intriguing. I think I've read that one book
more than any other of his, mainly for the "that's an interesting way of doing it" factor.
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Honou Productions.

Sad to see another great author die. I loved reading the Elenium and Tamuli and also greatly enjoyed the Belgariad and Malloreon (although I loathed
Polgara the Sorceress, as the book retconed Polgara from being awesomeness incarnate and a paragon of female empowerment to being the meat-puppet of
external forces. It was as if someone wrote a new novel in the Lord of the Rings series that revealed that every single act that Gandolf took was at
the direct behest of Forrest Gump).
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"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

Most of David Eddings' fantasy work, especially his earlier material, is very formulaic. To be fair, this is by design. As Lurker said, the Belgariad was supposed to hit all the classic tropes.

I wouldn't call it amateurish, though. It's not the story, you see. I mean - boy from humble peasant beginnings discovers he has a destiny and ancient heritage, meets princess, saves the world... and there's a sword involved too, y'know. There's gotta be a sword.

You know the story. What matters is the execution. I came to Eddings relatively late; I only started reading him, at the insistance of a friend, when I was in the Army. But his work is excellent.

It's the dialogue, you see. His dialogue is wonderfully witty - he has a real flair for banter...and snark, as others have said. His lines are absolutely wonderful, and his characters are terribly amusing.

That alone is worth the price of admission, and why I'm sad to see the man go.
-- Acyl

As Acyl said - it wasn't the plot, it was the chemistry, the banter, the SNARK. Oh my dearly beloved gods, the SNARK.

One of my favorite exchanges of all time comes immediately after Silk tosses the ninja who's been following them for the last three books off a cliff.

Silk: "You'll never guess who I just saw. Our old friend, (SPOILER)."

Belgarath: "What was -he- doing here?"

Silk: "Learning to fly, last I saw."

Belgarath: "Oh. Was he doing very well at it?"

(There is a muffled thump, from far below, a long pause, and then another.)

Silk: "Does bouncing count?"
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Eddings is one of my favorite authors *entirely* because of his masterful dialogue. His works may not be examples of high literature, but his dialogue is
freakin' art.

Stuff of his I recommend:

Belgariad/Mallorean

Elenium/Tamuli

Redemption of Althalus (single book)

The Dreamers quartet, while having a moment here and there, aren't really his best work.

The Redemption of Althalus is actually probably the first thing I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't read Eddings before, because it basically compresses the essence of all the Eddings epics into one novel.
It might come off a bit rushed as a result, but it's easier to pick up and read, rather than...well, a whole series. If you read Althalus and like it...well, the other Eddings books are basically more of the same, just in series form.
But I can loan folks my copy of Althalus. Tossing 'em an entire series of paperbacks gets tricky.
Though that said, you can get compilation volumes of the series and trilogy books...they're still a bit hefty, though.
The Dreamers books are...mmn, different. While there are common thematic threads in most of Eddings' fantasy work, those books depart a lot more. On one hand, that's good. More original and stuff. On the other hand...I didn't enjoy 'em as much myself.
As pointed out, what's really awesome about Eddings books is the dialogue and humour, not the story and high concepts. Soooooo...
-- Acyl

Quote: Acyl wrote:

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The Redemption of Althalus is actually probably the first thing I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't read Eddings before, because it basically
compresses the essence of all the Eddings epics into one novel.

The Redepmetion of Anthalus is what made me stop reading his work, actually. I would say it is his weakest story. Mainly because its too much plot
and not enough character.

What really makes the Belgariad/Mallorean and Elenium/Tamuli work is that when yu get right down to it there isn't very much plot at all. "Go here,
fetch A, go to there, use A to kill B", boom, done.

What makes it works is how much time he draws this out by letting you get involved with his characters. He can spend entire chapters just on two characters
basically chatting and doing nothing but its an enthralling chapter of two people chatting. You really grow to know and like the characters
involved and thus don't care that the story is a hack job and the villains are two-dimensional or the resolution is heavy-handed deus ex machina.

However since I didn't have any time to get to know the characters in Anthalus, I didn't liek any of them, thus all the flaws in his work stood out.

And to be fair, all five books of the Belgariad are probably shorter than the last book of Harry Potter.

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Epsilon

Quote: Epsilon wrote:

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And to be fair, all five books of the Belgariad are probably shorter than the last book of Harry Potter.

This is true, I have Large-format papberbacks of the Collected Belgariad in 2 volumes and Deathly Hallows in similar. Ayuh. Both Belgariad takes up less volume
at similar format/typefaces/etc than Potter 7.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Heard about this a few days ago and it made me read all his books again. Not exactly high literature but very readable. A recent trip to the bookstore had me
make a double take when I saw the Belgariad in the YA section in bright neon colors. Weird.