Friday 7 January 2011

Book Review: Belgarath the Sorcerer

Belgarath the SorcererBelgarath the Sorcerer by David and Leigh Eddings

Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher

Category: Fantasy

Synopsis: Belgarath tells the story of what happened before events of Pawn of Prophecy.

My Thoughts: As I’ve said in my previous posts on this series I find it difficult to review books that I have such an intimate relationship with. I’ve grown up with these books, they are old friends. But I shall try non the less.

What I like about this book is that the author speaks to the reader as if you really are an old friend. There is a feel about the book that Belgarath really is telling the story to someone he knows, and someone who was there for the events which follow the events in this book, and if you’ve read the other books in the series (which really you must in order to get anything out of this book) you are an old friend.

The “I must know what happened” part of me also really enjoyed getting the beginning of the story, as well as a little bit of how the characters live “now” through the start and end of the books.

This book, like the others in the series, does deal with the fight between good and evil, or as Belgarath prefers: them and us. But I can’t help but feel that to some extent it is much more superficial in its treatment of these aspects than some of the other books in the series, and certainly less so than the book that follows this one. It feels much more like a high school history survey book than a book that delves into the nitty gritty.

Even as a fan of the book I do have to admit that there are some parts of the book that drag and drag and drag. Which is probably why it took me two months to read the book. As I know what happens I didn’t have the compulsion to read the book that I do with other books.

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Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

2 comments:

Charlie said...

I read The Belgariad last year but didn't review it, the pressure was too much and for some reason I find epic fantasy very different to write about.

I haven't read this one yet but I wasn't expecting it to talk so much about things that have already happened so I'll keep that in mind when deciding when to read it. There definitely seems a sort of gap between it and the series.

Zee said...

I absolutely do not discourage anyone from reading this book. It is a great book. And when it covers "old stuff" it goes into them in more depth and you get a clearer picture.

And I totally hear you on reviewing epic fantasy, so hard.