All powerful thingamabob. Bad guy wants it. Good guys want to stop bad guy from getting it because bad guy is either going to use it to take over the world or cause a lot of property damage. Good guy has an ultimate hero meant to get ultimate thingamabob. Guided by an old powerful guy whose power is supposed to be unrivalled except for maybe that of the bad guy, and a bunch of other different characters who don't nescesarrily get along, ultimate hero travels in search of ultimate thingamabob. Results in showdown. Good guys win.
That's the premise of your typical fantasy story. And truth be told, The Belgariad uses just that. Being the cheapskate who knows that buying the individual 5 books will cost him at least 160 bucks, I have taken the easier way out (not PLB, sadly) and bought the 2-book edition, where the first volume is a combination of the first three books while the second volume is a combination of the two remaining books. One volume costs 60 bucks, resulting in me having only to spend RM120. Saves RM40.
But don't think that RM40 is the only thing I gained from all this. I also learned a very important lesson. And that is that regardless of having an all too typical premise, with not much twists to wait out for, a book can still be entertaining if the author knows how to keep you interested. Now while David Eddings hasn't really created a storyline to shout about, the world he weaves is alive and diverse enough for you to keep turning pages as the motley crue of good guys travel from place to place in pursuit of the bad guy's lackey who has the thingamabob. Now some might say that creating a rich world with its history isn't new- Tolkien got there first. Well I'll admit the truth of that, but at least this diverse world isn't accompanied by annoying loud monologues, and the only characters that do go 'thee' and 'thou' are soundly made fun of by the other characters, who at least have the sense to talk like normal people.
Now in the Belgariad, the thingabamob is The Orb (of what, I can't remember), which is supposed to contain such awesome powers that it can cause uh... bad things. And a bad minion working for the ultimate bad God stole The Orb in hopes of using it to 'revive' his master (apparently Gods in this world can be rendered comatose too). Fighting to prevent this are Belgarath and Polgara- a sorcerer and a sorceress, who are also surprisingly a father-daughter team that take the opportunity to lash at each other once in a while. Though this hardly makes up for the sarcastic, horny Church nights supplied in The Elenium, their antics are good enough for a laugh once in a while. The main character is a starry-eyed and reluctant as Frodo, however. Meet Garion. He's not really special (they never are in the beginning of the book, are they?) but he's somehow meant to get The Orb back and kill the comatose God for good. Or at least thats how the prophecy's supposed to go. Accompanied by, like I said, a motley bunch of characters who don't nescesarrily get along with each other. Think, a guy who can talk to horses, a knight who thinks he's invincible, a werebear (of sorts), a guy who can walk through walls, a sarcastic spy (my favourite character) and a bitchy, spoiled brat princess. Their different personalities and their frequent quarrels add color to the already colorful world David Eddings has laid out in front of us, making the story all the more enjoyable. Though, as in The Elenium, the main characters and only two or three others truly get character development, that's a flaw you'll hardly really notice until you get to the end of the book and think back. So that's a plus side I guess.
But as I said, the main attraction is the world itself. As the poor fellows who signed up to be main characters trudge through snow, sand, forest, etc. etc., whilst getting shot at, poisoned, maimed, etc. etc., you'll notice that the places where they go are very much alive. Countries have their own culture, their own style of dressing, etc. etc. I found the Nyissans particularly interesting, but as the slot of 'main evil bad guy' had already been taken by the time their evil queen had been introduced, she had to leave rather early, depriving the reader of a sex scene (HAAARAAAAM!, scream the Biddah Police) between a brainwashed little boy and a narcissistic woman. Oh, wait, that was a good thing.
I haven't bought Volume Two, and despite the fact that I highly doubt there to be any surprising twists awaiting me in Volume Two, I'll buy it anyway because I like this book enough to do so.
Robin Hobb still rules the fantasy arena in my book, but David Eddings still deserves som respect.
Oh yeah, and it's better than The Elenium.
7.5 out of 10.
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