(Pre-written long ago - Away taming sharks in Cardiff)
In a severe blow against my remaining geek credibility (here, take it, it's meaningless now anyway), it's rather fun to admit not liking Tolkien very much (if at all). His famous books are undoubtedly classics and unbearably popular, but they're also just the teensiest bit dry and wallowing in the sermons of corrupting power. And where are the girl hobbits, blast it?! No, my experience with fantasy began with CS Lewis's 'The Magician's Nephew', Terry Pratchett's 'The Light Fantastic' and the fellow in the title of the post. In actuality he always co-wrote with his wife and so we should be crediting David and Leigh Eddings, but habits are hard to break.
The first Eddings fantasy novel was 'Pawn of Prophecy', which kicked off his first and best series 'The Belgariad'. I borrowed it from the school library, an awesome place, and immediately fell under its sway. At least I think I read 'Pawn of Prophecy' first, but it might have been the fourth book of the five, 'Castle Of Wizardry'. This was in direct contrast to Sir Walter Scott's 'Ivanhoe' which failed to appeal almost immediately and which is still somewhere here in the house, shamefully never having been returned. You're reading the blog of a book criminal. One day, 'Ivanhoe', one day!
Eddings could really write, encapsulating mystery into a heady set of archetypes in both the 'Belgariad' and his second excellent series the 'Elenium'. A heavy proponent of starting en media res, once you got caught up in the narrative there was no escape. Subsequent series never quite lived up to the high standards of the first, being in certain senses template sequels and forcing retcons to allow for further stories. Hence the 'Belgariad' begat the 'Malloreon', 'Belgarath the Sorceror' and 'Polgara the Sorceress' while the 'Elenium' begat the 'Tamuli'. By the time new stories came out in the forms of 'The Dreamers' and 'The Redemption of Althalus' it was really all over. None of that matters though, because those first two series are spellbinding, and 'The Malloreon' has an almost transcendental ending that makes up for some of the trundling to every country on the map. 'Belgarath the Sorceror' also takes place over about seven thousand years of history, which is no mean feat in one volume!
Returning to the beginning, the 'Belgariad' is a magnificent little series, unpretentious and uncontrived. Starting from humble beginnings, and told from the point of view of the farm boy Garion, we escalate from a bucolic childhood to a death match with a rampaging god against the backdrop of a doomed continental war. And that happens in five fairly short volumes, which also introduce ancient prophecies, epic loves and some tragedies you wouldn't even shake an extremely pointy stick at. It all works. It even works now, twenty years later, and with buckets of further experiences. As a series it is rich, richer than I had thought. Fledgeling romances, millennia-long grudges, a fascinating version of sorcery, huge swathes of unexplored backstory and a world burgeoning with untold history make for a fascinating panoply of subplots, which doesn't even include the split into parallel storylines toward the end, or the fact that Silk is a spy who can never quite shake the habit.
Eddings designed this story, according to an interview in an old issue of Dreamwatch and in 'The Rivan Codex', to be so chock full of archetypes that it would be literally impossible to stop reading. He succeeded, and made it good too. There can be no doubt that starting with the plot already in motion is as powerful a narrative tool as can be found in fiction. There is almost no television series, no film, and no book outside of 'Star Trek' and 'Ghostbusters' that can not be improved by foregoing the introduction for a hefty dose of mystery instead. A great fan of Malory, the original epic literature author, Eddings patterned the protagonist on Sir Perceval of Arthurian legend, an innocent who learns of the greater story and his place in it as the story goes on. Garion's place and to an extent Sparhawk's in the 'Elenium', apart from being surrounded by colourful and well-conceived characters with excellent dialogue, realising his potential as a sorceror and reclaiming the long vacant throne of an island kingdom, revolves around finally killing an immortal god.
The 'Belgariad' is a great series, the 'Malloreon' and prequels very good ones, the 'Elenium' fascinating and 'The Tamuli' pretty good. David (and Leigh) Eddings recreated or even invented a type of fantasy that is accessible to both the juveniles and uncynical adults out there in the world. They were sadly missed even before David died. Their books mean more to me than any other series in existence. Thank you for the words.
Oh, and I noticed you noticing. Don't deny it.
O.
No comments:
Post a Comment