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"Eddings' BELGARIAD is exactly the kind of fantasy I like. It has magic, adventure, humor, mystery, and a certain delightful human insight." Piers Anthony Long ago, the Storyteller claimed, in this first book of THE BELGARIAD, the evil god Torak drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe. But Garion did not believe in such stories. Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread Torak, or that he would be led on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger by those he loved--but did not know...? |
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Pawn of Prophecy is the first out of five books in the Belgariad series. I read this novel for the first time back when I was in middle school and thought it was a thoroughly excellent and satisfying read. This is a novel I have reread at least once a year since and still find pretty enjoyable. However as time went by and my library increase, I find that this novel doesn't really hold up very well compared to current works like the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. David Eddings writing style is a bit rough and doesn't really flow very well. The true highlight of this novel is the adventure. It starts off with a ordinary boy named Garion and his childhood in the farming community. I actually enjoyed this part of the novel the most as it was very laid back and was very successful and giving the reader insight into the boy Garion, his friends and their developing relationships through small sequence of events that occured in his life. Well since this wouldn't be much of an adventure if the main characters spent the rest of the novel scrubbing pots, Garion ends up being dragged out of the farm by his aunt who was determined that Garion doesn't have sex with a certain blonde girl in the farmstead (since kids would of been a big problem to her). Well it turns out that his aunt is really a couple centuries old and is in fact a witch! Not sure if he really has any real relations and if his whole life has been lie Garion does what every teenage kid does. He sulks. Then he gets over it cuz he gets kissed by a buxom teenage barbarian chick and goes off and kills a boar. Then he saves the life of a king by sneaking around and eavesdropping on people. Finally he finds out his aunt is actually his great great great to the infinity aunt and that the old storyteller vagabond is his aun'ts dad making him his great great great to the infinity plus one grandfather. In conclusion, I recommend this book to the young reader who wants a easy fantasy series to get into. The series is very enjoyable as an adventure tale. However if you're expecting something with alot of depth this probably isn't the series for you. The only problem with this series is it wrecks every other David Eddings series. David Eddings appears to enjoy using the same formulas over and over from plot to character types.
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