Rating:  -
Eddings tells an ok story but he's trying to do too much with the dialogue. i liked reading this book because you can fairly easily sink into the fantasy world here...but the writing is terribly flat. when the characters arent, grinning, chuckling, "trembling violently" or doing something with "dreadful" intensity, they resort to some embarassing victorian pretentions that also have become very predictable stock phrases in the book (eg. "durnik, you're an absolute treasure", "why pol, what a thing to say "..."silk, you're reprehensible" --> silk replies "i know, its digusting isnt it? "...i would be more engrossed in this story if eddings treated the dialogue with more gravity, instead of mistakenly operating under the belief that this is actually witty banter. but, not only is it not witty, its not even humorous. and not only is it not humorous, its really very grating. david eddings, you are not oscar wilde. i just dont buy that in the midst of every battle, the characters would make matter-of-fact comments about it being "not a bad little fight"...and frankly i find it a little disturbing that they all take such giddy delight in violence and slaughter...it also gets old after a while. oh, and another thing...a theory i have about characters with too much power...it ruins the story. this is a trap robert jordan has fallen into with his wheel of time series...if the characters are too powerful, it reduces the story in a great many ways. not the least of which is the story becomes devoid of suspense. this was a boundary eddings balanced precariously on in the belgariad, but crossed in the first book of the mallorean. there's no suspense here because you know that whenever one of the characters is in trouble, or an army is in trouble, one or more of the sorcerers will appear, work some magic, and everything will be fine. magic is of course a mainstay of fantasy novels, but it has to be used wisely. one of the main ways this is violated is by eliminating the need for travel. (something done in the wheel of time also). when ce'nedra is attacked, polgara, halfway across the world, appears that very night to magically fix things. there is no danger of anything bad happening because the god-like sorcerers can always be right there. not only does it reduce the suspense, it also shrinks the grandeur of the world, it makes it all seem very small if it can be instantly traversed.
Rating:  -
This is a great book. The problem is that it's a sequel to the Belgariad, so it pales in comparison. Belgariad fans will love this, but if you haven't read the Belgariad first, don't try this one yet.
Rating:  -
This entire series is wonderful! Eddings is probably the most imaginative author I have ever read, and his use of diction to build description, imagery, and characterization is astounding! However, before reading the Mallorean series, you MUST read the Belgariad series. The Mallorean will kind of make sense, but it will make better sense if you read the Belgariad first. The Mallorean series is a sequal series to the Belgariad.
Rating:  -
This series is simply a rehash of The Belgariad. It's the same kind of story: Garion must once again defeat the Child of Dark.
Why?
--Well, because he didn't *truly* defeat him last time.
But wait a minute, I thought the Child of Dark was dead.
--Oh, what little you know.
But, seriously, nothing truly exciting happens in the Mallorean. The plot is very simple and you keep hearing Garion whine "Why me?"
I loved the character interactions in The Belgariad. In this series, however, it gets boring because it's ALL THE SAME! Those witty one liners that were hilarious in The Belgariad get tedious here. You can only hear "I hadn't thought of it that way" with that oh-so-witty "I thought you hadn't" reply so many times! Polgara's use of the word "dear" was charming in the The Belgariad but in the Mallorean she over does it. Not only that, you hear quite a few other female characters use "dear." Very annoying!
I was *really* looking forward to Garion's and Ce'Nedra's growing up. But Garion is still that stupid boy that he was before he became the Rivan King. You'd think he would mature after having slain a God. But no, he's just as dense and seems to feign love for Ce'Nedra. Yea, that brings me to another point. Only once in the entire novel do you feel as if Garion truly loves Ce'Nedra: that is a scene when the two of them go for an outing in the woods (a beautiful scene -- heck, you should get this book for just that scene!). But, besides that, there is virtually no interaction between them. It's not like I was looking for Romeo and Juliet but this is insulting! Sometimes you wonder if Garion cares at all for her. People have to *tell* him to look out for Ce'Nedra's safety! Argh!
Ok, enough rant. Take my rant with a grain of salt: I'm still on Book 4. Yes, I will finish the series but only because I hate to stop midway. So, here's to hope that things will get interesting again! But somehow, I doubt it.
Rating: -
Disappointing and very lightweight. I didn't read the Belgariad but I don't think that mattered at all. I think Eddings deliberately stretched this out for the MONEY!! Most of the book deals with a series of crises for Garion and his queen, Ce'Nedra. They aren't having sex...Wah!! They don't have any kids...Wah! Those guys are fighting, make them stop...Wah!! The old king died, what do we do...Wah! Those people don't want to listen to me and are leaving the kingdom. Whine, whine, whine. My advice would be to start with the last 100 pages where events are set up for the next novel or just skip to the summary of the next novel, as one other reviewer suggested.
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