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Originally Posted by HarryT
Whereas it's one of my real "comfort" reads, and I re-read it every few years. It's still a magical experience for me every time I re-read it. We all have differing tastes.
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I've been re-reading it at this very moment, and I must say that sometimes, it's confusing. For example, it takes Eddings until the start of the fourth book to explain the divide in the world.
The West is divided into several countries, and each contry is a seperate people. The East is divided into several countries too, but they are all Angaraks. Then there is a hint that something called 'Mallorea' exists, even farther East, and they are Angaraks too. So, about 67%+ of the world is taken up by people that follow one evil god, and 33% of the world is populated by the peoples of six different gods. Even if these six different peoples are all put together, they are outnumbered by the Angaraks in the East two to one, not even counting the 'hordes of Mallorea." It was also unclear how and why Torak ended up in Mallorea.
I would have liked that Eddings explained that a bit earlier than in the prologue of book 4. There are other things that are not really clear within the first four books, such as:
Spoiler:
- Is UL actually the father of the other 7 gods, and thus more powerful? It looks like it, but it is not certain.
- Does this make the Ulgo's the most powerful people in the world?
- What is the voice of "The Prophecy" in Garion's mind; is it above the gods or not? It probably is. Did it create the entire universe, including the gods?
- What is the orb? Aldur created it, but it seems to be more powerful than the gods themselves. Was it actually created by Aldur, or was it created by the prophecy, and only found by him?
- Many things, such as 'The Guide', 'The Bowman', 'The Man with Two Lives' and such are not resolved; at least not up to halfway the fifth book, the point where I'm now in the story.
It's almost necessary to just read all 10 books straight through as one story, or there will be a lot of loose ends. Even then, it's almost mandatory to read Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the Sorceress, and the Rivan Codex to fix ALL of the loose ends.
I'm not saying these are bad stories, but they can be confusing.
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Originally Posted by pwalker8
Eddings is able to tell the same story over and over again, and make it interesting.
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LOL. If you read the Belgariad and Malloreon first, and then read the Elenium and Tamuli, you'll find some startling similarities between those stories. Then read The Dreamers series; that is actually the same story, four times in a row, on a different continent. That is the only series I've actually ever abandoned. (Halfway through the third book, skipping to the fourth, finding out that it was another repeat on yet another continent, and then I quit.)