Pawn of Prophecy
The Belgariad, Book 1
David Eddings
Del Rey
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
Themes: Classics, Epics, Shapeshifters, Witches
**+
Description
It has been thousands of years since the Great Gods walked the world, each among their own people. The story of the lone god Aldur, his select pupils-turned-immortals,
and the Living Orb he created to focus his powers have faded to legends. Even the tale of how Aldur's brother god, Torak, stole the Orb and nearly destroyed the world
before Belgarath, Aldur's eldest student, and a select band of brave humans managed to steal it back has become little more than a minstrel's story... but it all happened.
And if men forget, gods do not. They live forever - as do their rivalries.
Now the Orb has been stolen again, and the specially-marked line of kings charged with
guarding it has vanished. The old god Torak, disfigured by the wrath of the Living Orb, is set to be reawakened by his faithful followers. Into all this is drawn Garion, an
orphan boy raised on a quiet Sendar farm with his mysterious Aunt Pol. Garion's Sendarian logic tells him that immortality and gods are fairy-tale nonsense. He soon learns
that the world beyond the farm cares little for his logic, as he is pulled into an adventure straight out of legend with people who walked the world before the Orb was
created.
Review
I had heard great things about this book. I was disappointed. Only a few characters seem distinctive enough to care about in any way, and one is the most abrasive, rude lady I've ever been forced to consider as a protagonist. The rest of the book is a wash of races and places and other names I could hardly keep straight, and after a time I stopped bothering. The Prologue gives away most of the plot, and the way everyone kept hiding it from Garion grew very old very fast. If the main character is kept in the dark about everything relevant to him and his destiny while we readers already know it, what is the point of all his adventuring? In their defense, though, Garion is thickheaded about many revelations, mainly to keep the story moving, but when he does ask questions of his companions, they prove singularly uncooperative. I was even more frustrated at their non-answers and deferrals than he was by the end of the story, which chooses a very awkward note on which to terminate. A great deal is made of Garion learning the secret hand language known only to the trader folk... and, apparently, every other remotely human-like being in the world except Garion himself. What is the point of a secret language that isn't a secret? Most everyone falls into neatly-divided racial stereotypes (all Angaraks are smart and evil, all Thulls dumb and evil, and so on), each race being easily recognized by sight, which made me wonder why they kept running into trouble, with their enemies so readily identifiable. It also made me think the story was badly written, to rely so heavily on stereotyping. Several fantasy clichés were put into play here, in ways that made me think the author considered them quite clever. I kept having flashbacks to Diana Wynne Jones's genre-mocking Tough Guide to Fantasyland as I read this book, but not in a good way. I didn't hate it, I just wasn't absorbed in the story. Been there, done that - and been more interested in other people's versions of similar material, as well. Another "classic" series that can go on without me, I'm afraid.