The Belgariad: Epic-Fantasy-Tale
For a while now, a friend of mine has been after me to read some books by David Eddings - specifically, the Belgariad. So I finally picked up copies of the books of the Belgariad (Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry , and Enchanter's End Game, for the Google-challenged) and have been reading through them for the past couple of days. So, I figured, why not take this excu- opportunity to ramble on interminably, and review the thing? Hopefully, I'll end up avoiding spoilers, and only reveal that which is painfully obvious. Which would be most of the plot. So, uh, yeah.
The story starts with the typical ordinary-boy-unaware-of-special-destiny as the protagonist. The momentous-event-that-shakes-his-life occurs, and he's dragged on the quest-that-reveals-his-destiny.
(When I do that thing-with-the-hyphens, I'm pointing out a cliché. Fantasy seems so rife with them. Or maybe it's just me.)
Anyhow, the plot drifted on along those lines, and I was surprised - I'd expected more clichés. Eddings, however, manages to avoid most of the clichés that have popped up in so many fantasy(especially medeival-ish) series' ever since The Lord of the Rings hit it big. It has its share throughout the story, no doubt, but to a degree, it avoids them. Notable clichés include: ordinary-boy-unaware-of-special-destiny, quest-that-reveals-his-destiny, prophecy-that-predicts-titanic-clash-between-good-and-evil, and bad-guys-have-evil-sacrificial-rituals. To be fair, it's virtually impossible to avoid every single cliché out there and still craft a good story, so it's all good.
Anyhow, it all moves along toward that titanic-clash-between-good-and-evil in a fairly transparent manner. Which is to be expected, I guess; it would hardly be called a cliché if it wasn't recognizable from a mile away. But like I said, it's all good. Enjoyable, even.
The ingredients are pretty standard - we have sorcery, a good-at-heart young hero, eccentric party members with varied personalities (the smart-aleck, the wiseman, the brave knight, the true love, yadda yadda yadda), a big bad guy who's pure evil (or really bad, at least), gods, sworn enemies, revenge, the usual. It's put together pretty well. Eddings' style of writing is ok - not the best I've seen, yet far from the worst. When combined with the plot and characters, it makes for a semi-engaging read, one which sorta builds up steam as one reads it. It all holds until the ending.
In my opinion, while Eddings did a pretty good job with the rest of the story, the ending is pretty lame. The titanic-clash/climax came out to be a yawn(for me, at least), as Eddings seemed to lose his ability to avoid the clichés and hit them head on here, high, loud, and repeatedly. Whereas I was moving at a fairly leisurely pace through the first four books, I was literally flying through the last quarter of the fifth one, hoping the misery'd end soon. It all boils down to the predictable happy-ever-after ending that I despise so much - everyone falls in love, gets happily married, and lives on to be happy for the rest of their lives, with a vague promise of further adventure. Ugh.
Maybe some of that is contradicted in his later books - I wouldn't know. But what I do know is that I have a healthy (ok, maybe not) dislike of the happy-ending-where-everything-turns-out-perfect. I prefer the more ambiguous sort of endings, the ones where you have to wonder if the "victory" really was a "victory" at all, or think about whether the end was worth the means used, and the cost is greater than just a couple token characters, that sorta thing. But then, it needn't follow that formula either - I just really can't stand happy endings.
So here's what it comes down to:
Plot - 6.5/10
Characters - 6/10
Writing - 6.5/10
Climax - 2/10
Ending - 0/10
All in all, I'd rate the series a 5 or a 6. In my opinion, the average fantasy lover would be better served by playing through some of the better RPG's out there, like Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights. Maybe some of the D&D board games if computers don't take your fancy. But then, that applies to me, with my set of likes and dislikes. If you're really curious (or a huge fantasy freak), go read it for yourself (after making other people read this - we all love traffic, after all), and make up your own mind. A word of advice though - unless you're particularly strong of stomach, I'd avoid the epilogue. It's so soppy I was almost retching at the end of it. But again, that's just me.
8 comments:
Yeah, the clichés are one of the problems I have with fantasy as a genre. And the other is that fantasy books never define clearly what is and isn't possible. In reality, we all know and experience the laws of physics to a great degree, and also have experience life itself, and of interacting with people. These are the things that make it easy for us to know when a certain work is so brilliant, when fact and fiction is blended so skilfully that the reader can't tell the difference. And they are also the things that allow us to tell when the work is just half-baked nonsense.
In fantasy, however, the premise is that events are taking place in a completely different world, governed by a set of laws different from the one we have come to know. In itself, this is perfectly fine; what is not acceptable is the exploitation of this premise to suit the author's whimsies. If the protagonist is indeed such a smart, clever and powerful wizard, why can't he just craft some magic to fix everything? Why does he need to go on and on, until about 400 pages of plot, and only then does he suddenly cast a brilliant spell and fix everything (and live happily ever after, of course, with a vague promise of more adventure)?
It's like those episodes of Droopy and Dribble: no matter where McWolf runs or hides, everything he turns a corner or opens a door, Droopy is already there. How the hell is that dumb pooch already there? It's kinda funny for a gag - once - but after that, it becomes annoying.
Oops. Several typos. Sorry.
Agreed. That's one ofthe things that really annoys me about the whole "medeival-ish" fantasy. They never really define the boundaries, or if they do, they constantly break them with excuses that are often flimsy at best. One of the reasons I don't really like fantasy that much. It's ok at times, I guess, but like you said, it's not really a genre you can read too frequently.
Another thing that annoys me is how no important character ever seems to die, or if they do, they're always brought back. This, though, is present in a lot of other genres, especially marvel/dc comics, so I can't really pin it to fantasy alone.
(typos are ok. tehy are funyn. heh.)
Oh shut up! The book is brilliant, Eddings is brilliant and you have no taste. What's wrong with happy endings? And since I'm the fantasy buff, I'm better qualified to rate it, and I rate it a ten, along with Wheel of Time, and of course Lord of the Rings.
I think I'll do a review on it too. A proper one.
huh!
LOL
Somehow, I knew that was coming.
Oh and about cliches. In your opinion, happy endings are overused? What about the many books with dismal endings and tons of tragedy? Those could be considered cliche's too, couldn't they? After all, that's what books like Danielle Steel are all about.
Are there any books without cliches? You don't like the happy cliches. The books without happy cliches have depressing cliches.
With your dislike for all things trite, it's a wonder you aren't illiterate.
No, it's not that all happy endings are cliched, and it's not that I only like sad endings. What I meant was, I prefer endings and stories with some degree of verisimilitude/reality in them. Endings where the hero strides off into the sunset on his noble steed are all well and fine at times, but they just feel too fake.
Cliches are fine...at times. Like I said above, it's virtually impossible to tell a tale without them. As long as they're judiciously used, it's fine.
Danielle Steele is teh ghey.
That's not true. Avenger hasn't got a happy cliche *or* a depressing cliche. Ditto Shatterpoint, ditto many, many, *many* other books.
With my dislike of all things completely impossible and ridiculously overdone, it's a wonder I bother to watch anything remotely related to mainstream hollywood.
Hmm, looks like I'm rather late to return to this discussion, but all the same, Princess Stefania, I urge you to read The Day of the Jackal by Forsyth. And once you've finished reading it, we'll have ourselves a little discussion about the merits and demerits of fantasy as a genre.
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