Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad (Paperback))
by David Eddings
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1775)
recommends it for:
Harry Potter Fans
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME THINGS YOU MAY CONSIDER AS SPOILERS, though, I think they are just nuances because I'm not telling huge chunks of the story.
I like this book because I like Harry Potter, and they are very similar, but I’ll get to that later.
This is the first book in a series of five called The Belgariad, which chronicles the quest of a boy who learns he is a sorcerer. His parents were killed when he was a baby, and he lives with his aunt. Sound familiar? This book was publishe...more
I like this book because I like Harry Potter, and they are very similar, but I’ll get to that later.
This is the first book in a series of five called The Belgariad, which chronicles the quest of a boy who learns he is a sorcerer. His parents were killed when he was a baby, and he lives with his aunt. Sound familiar? This book was publishe...more
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recommends it for:
anyone of any age who can read
Eddings has really created a beloved series of books that can be recommended to young and old alike. It is not deep or etremely thought provoking, it's just an enjoyable combination of adventure, humor, and fun. Garion, a naive farm boy, finds out that he is not ordinary at all. As he discovers his powers, he grows to adulthood through the ten books that comprise the Belgariad and the Mallorean. Critics might find some elements a bit formulaic, but few can deny that it is a fun series to read...more
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Review here for the entire Belgariad.
I noticed that most of the reviewers give this a nostalgic loved-this-when-I-was-young rating. And they're right to do so. This is the perfect series of books for a young reader: clever enough to hold its own, exciting without being too graphic, and the youth don't notice just how bad the prose is.
I mean, it's hilariously bad. It's not that the Eddings machine can't write for beans; it's that the writing does all the hackneyed nasty cliched things ...more
I noticed that most of the reviewers give this a nostalgic loved-this-when-I-was-young rating. And they're right to do so. This is the perfect series of books for a young reader: clever enough to hold its own, exciting without being too graphic, and the youth don't notice just how bad the prose is.
I mean, it's hilariously bad. It's not that the Eddings machine can't write for beans; it's that the writing does all the hackneyed nasty cliched things ...more
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Read in January, 1991
recommends it for:
young newcomers to fantasy, easy reading
This is a review of the entire story entitled The Belgariad (TB), which consists of five volumes. Since this is all one story that should really be read from beginning to end, there is no point in reviewing the volumes one by one.
TB is the story that made Eddings famous as a fantasy writer, and the success of this story is likely the reason for the many books later writting by the Eddings expanding the TB story. This was also one of the first full epic fantasy series to be sold widely...more
TB is the story that made Eddings famous as a fantasy writer, and the success of this story is likely the reason for the many books later writting by the Eddings expanding the TB story. This was also one of the first full epic fantasy series to be sold widely...more
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Read in February, 2008
This is a review of The Belgariad, a fantasy series that includes the books: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, and Enchanter's End Game.
Are the cares of life getting you down? Sky rocketing gas prices, financial and housing markets in ruins, high unemployment, an unending war sucking dry the country's coffers and recession looming on the horizon. Rather than resort to drink or despair, get away with some escapist fantasy! I read The Belgariad ser...more
Are the cares of life getting you down? Sky rocketing gas prices, financial and housing markets in ruins, high unemployment, an unending war sucking dry the country's coffers and recession looming on the horizon. Rather than resort to drink or despair, get away with some escapist fantasy! I read The Belgariad ser...more
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Read in January, 1986
recommended to Nathan by:
That pretty red-haired doctor I had when I was 11recommends it for: Fantasy readers, anyone who liked The Lord Of The Rings movies or books
I read this around age 11 or 12, it was recommended by my doctor when she heard that I had liked reading The Hobbit. It had taken me around a year to get to it, but when I did I was fascinated -- it was mythic, sweeping, moving, funny, had good (if rather stereotypical fantasy) characters, used descriptive language that really made me feel I could see the people and places in it. And there was a certain rough, raw, realistic feeling to it that I had found lacking in the other fantasy works I'd...more
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Read in August, 1989
recommends it for:
Teenage Boys or anyone older that still acts like a teenager
After sharpening my teeth on years of Dragonlance novels, I quickly found myself waiting for new novels to come out yet still in need of Fantasy support.
My mother insisted that I continue to check out books from the library and prior to the internet revolution and before my indulgence in book clubs I surfed amongst the Sci-fi/Fantasy section of many a Tucson library. I spent hours standing or kneeling with my head craned at a 90 degree angle as I pulled book after book from the shelves to a...more
My mother insisted that I continue to check out books from the library and prior to the internet revolution and before my indulgence in book clubs I surfed amongst the Sci-fi/Fantasy section of many a Tucson library. I spent hours standing or kneeling with my head craned at a 90 degree angle as I pulled book after book from the shelves to a...more
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Read in January, 2000
I'm not going to review the whole Belgaraid Series. I just wanted everyone to know how much I loved them. They are witty, filled with social, political and religious criticisms and entertained me as a teenager. Garion is a young orphan boy being raised by his beautiful Aunt Pol on a wealthy farm. They are whisked away on a journey be the comical Mr. Wolf and Garion's life turns upside down. He learns that Aunt Pol and Mr. Wolf are really old sorcerers and that he himself is the Pawn of Prophesy ...more
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When I first started reading Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad part 1) I was instantly drawn into this fantastic world that David Eddings created. The story is full of wonderful and intriguing characters, and that is what moves this story along. The plot has been done before, but it's slightly reinvented for this story. Garion is expertly written, and as I read his story I felt as if it were me who was taking this journey. Not many books have done this. Belgarath is reminiscent of Tolkien's Gandalf, o...more
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Read in January, 2004
Reread in 2004.
I think I first read through David Eddings' books when I was in high school, but unless I unearth the handwritten "books I've read this year" records I used to keep, I won't know when. I reread the Belgariad and the Malloreon in Hawai'i in 2004, and they were a fun enough read (although the second series is far too much like a retracing of the first), but unfortunately what stands out most in my memory is that they were possibly the most badly copyedited books I have...more
I think I first read through David Eddings' books when I was in high school, but unless I unearth the handwritten "books I've read this year" records I used to keep, I won't know when. I reread the Belgariad and the Malloreon in Hawai'i in 2004, and they were a fun enough read (although the second series is far too much like a retracing of the first), but unfortunately what stands out most in my memory is that they were possibly the most badly copyedited books I have...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
a comfort read: predictable, but entertaining
Oh, fine. I'll admit it: 80% of what I read is pure escapist candy.
But when it comes to candy, there's the generic brand in the bulk bin, and then there's good stuff behind the glass display case. The books of the Belgariad are written at the perfect level of predictability. Every trope necessary to the archetypical high fantasy is included, but the books are leavened with enough quirks and clever bits to keep the reader engaged.
For such books as these, a good memory is unpardonable. I p...more
But when it comes to candy, there's the generic brand in the bulk bin, and then there's good stuff behind the glass display case. The books of the Belgariad are written at the perfect level of predictability. Every trope necessary to the archetypical high fantasy is included, but the books are leavened with enough quirks and clever bits to keep the reader engaged.
For such books as these, a good memory is unpardonable. I p...more
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Read in January, 2004
A good friend recommended this to me saying it was hilarious. I didn’t laugh once and don’t think it was meant to be very humorous. It seems more like the typical wish-fulfillment Fantasy story, feigning a little greater maturity than normal, but only feigning it. It’s mostly a feel-good book with very little violent conflict and almost no sense of real danger along the journey, and the journey doesn’t actually end or check out with a tempting note. It felt kind of like getting a rice ca...more
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I'm giving this 4 stars for nostalgia; it was an entertaining read, complete with naive protagonist, relatives-who-were-hiding-something, a random panoply of gods, some kind of magic system that required explanation, and of course the obligatory coming-of-age journey that ends with a confrontation with a dastardly villain. I was a bit peeved at the severe stereotyping of various people groups, but had to give Eddings credit for valiantly attempting to create a whole host of different nations wi...more
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Read in January, 2005
Eddings's Belgariad epic relies heavily on fantasy convention and archetypal characters, but is well-told nonetheless. This first part tells of a young farm boy whose existence is thrown out-of-whack when it is slowly revealed that he will fulfill a age-old prophecy to destroy an evil God. The journey begins and most of the key players are introduced in this volume and while not much of the story is unpredictable, the dialogue and general likability of the characters helps make it a quick read...more
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My 11 year old is a avid reader and rates books by David Eddings as his favorite. I wanted to see what he was reading. I thought one novel would do the trick. But I ended up reading the full 5 (the five are really one book).
Fantastic stuff. Different and similar to Pullman's Dark Matter series, Tolkien, and the Harry Potter stuff. Like Pullman, you get the sense that the author is working out something important. Like the Tolkien you are transported into a different world.
Maps ...more
Fantastic stuff. Different and similar to Pullman's Dark Matter series, Tolkien, and the Harry Potter stuff. Like Pullman, you get the sense that the author is working out something important. Like the Tolkien you are transported into a different world.
Maps ...more
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Read in January, 1990
How can I acurately rate the first major pulp "fantasy epic" that I read as a child after The Lord of the Rings (full disclosure: I was a mutant-freak who read "The Hobbit" in first grade and the Trilogy in third)? David Eddings is one of the worst things to happen to the genre of Fantasy, and yet, in sixth grade, I loved these books. However, by the time I was a sophomore in high school, I had seen through Edding's cheap, plot-generating soft-ware program and tired of his ...more
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Read in March, 2008
This book is good for advanced readers. It is about a boy called Garion who has no understanding of the out side world. He is a sorcerer but he doesn't know that and his aut pol(Polgara) and his grandfather(Belgarath) are acutally Ledgends that help to put the evil God Kal Torak to sleep. But Graion doesn't know that of course. Also later on the Orb of Alder made by the God Alder himself had been stolen to awake the God Kal Torak. Garion, Belgarath, Polgara and Durnik the smith start on a advent...more
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I reread the Belgariad series every few years. At this point, there are no surprises for me, but I enjoy the story, the writing is funny, and the dialogue is witty.
Garion is a farmboy being raised by his Aunt Pol in a fantastical world. His life is changed upside down when a strange old man, an old friend of his aunt's comes to visit. The first book in this series introduces us to Garion's world and the people who populate it. Maps are included at the beginning of each section for the reader...more
Garion is a farmboy being raised by his Aunt Pol in a fantastical world. His life is changed upside down when a strange old man, an old friend of his aunt's comes to visit. The first book in this series introduces us to Garion's world and the people who populate it. Maps are included at the beginning of each section for the reader...more
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This was my first introduction to serial fantasy. I recently reread them and I recognize now how predictable most of the plot was. But I still enjoyed it immensely. The cycle speaks to that part of me that craves the solidarity of those archetypes made flesh; Mother, Father, Thief, Knight, etc. In addition, I think the strongest aspect of these books is the interaction between characters around the campfire during those in-between moments from one epic clash to the next.
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Read in January, 1993
recommends it for:
newcomers to the fantasy genre
This was one of the first fantasy books I ever read. It's a little formulaic and not at all spectacular like Bakker and Tolkein, but at the time it sucked me right in. Most of the standard fantasy elements are included in this series; the farmboy with the fantastic powers and great destiny, the eclectic group of travelers (including a wizard and a thief, so original) searching for an object of power, and the evil god that is slowly awakening. All in all it's a good read.
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