David Eddings is a fantasy author born on July 7, 1931 and died on June 2, 2009. He began his writing career upon seeing a copy of the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien at his local book store and thought to himself “Is this old turkey still floating around.”
He had only written the first draft of a single book at the time but had a doodle of a fantasy map from years before. Eddings began to fill in some of the details on this map, expanded it, and watched as it became the setting of his highest acclaimed series, the Belgariad.
The Belgariad is a fantasy novel following a young farm boy named Garion’s journey from the small world of Faldor’s farm into a a much wider world of kings, magic, monsters, and gods. This novel was written to take the ideas of epic fantasy Tolkien birthed to their logical confusion, and Eddings not only succeeded in that goal but surpassed all expectation. It was able to take the epic fantasy formula that typically takes thousand of pages to truly become rewarding in only the first 50 pages. And it took the boiled down political aspects of the worlds of many fantasy series and infused a level of complexity and intrigue that remains unmatched in the genre.
But Eddings shines brightest with his character writing. Readers will find themselves immersed in every social interaction the characters have with one another and no character feels similar to any of the other characters. Whether it be the spy thief master merchant Silk or the cursed warrior chief Barak or the slimy traitor assassin Brill or the two surprisingly human immortal sorcerers David Eddings brings all these and many many more to life in this 900 page series. And if unsurprisingly a reader wished for more adventures in this world David Eddings wrote five more books that take place only ten years after this series ends.
The Belgariad is a must read from a up and coming fantasy readers or a decades long veteran of the genre.
