Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad, Book 1)
by David Eddings
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2312)
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 August, 2008
I started out really liking this book; I thought it would be a good fantasy novel. I think if I had been able to sit and read it from cover to cover I probably would have ended up liking it more than I did. By time I finished, I didn’t feel like too much had really happened. I didn’t like how Garion (who is 14 by the way, it took about 200 pages for them to say his exact age), was kept ignorant throughout the whole book, which to me ended up making him kind of whiney. There were so many diff...more
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I decided to try Eddings because Heather recommended a book by him, but our library didn't have that specific one. So I checked out the first 3 books in this series. If the next one isn't better I won't be reading it anymore. This was one long exposition or beginning paragraph because nothing really happened and most of the characters are not that sympathetic. The premise is that there are these seven gods with really hard names that have followers or people on the land and sub-groups within...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 January, 2008
Si on devait faire la liste des défauts du roman, on pourrait écrire l’équivalent d’une thèse. Le premier chapitre est un très vague résumé du Silmarillion de Tolkien, le style ne m’a pas semblé toujours très adroit, voire par moments franchement insipide, la psychologie des personnages tiendrait sur un timbre poste (les rois et reines sont sortis d’une mauvaise opérette), il se passe toujours quelque chose mais tout est anecdotique (l’intrigue progresse seulement dans l...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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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, 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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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 January, 1983
Along with Raymond Feist, Eddings was probably responsible for the revival of the fantasy genre in the 1980s, bringing a new sense of fun to a world that was dangerously prosaic.
In the Belgariad, there is no pretence of creating a coherent world that lives and breathes - it's almost the perfect exemplar of one that only exists within a few miles of the central travelling party who find themselves required to visit all corners of...more
In the Belgariad, there is no pretence of creating a coherent world that lives and breathes - it's almost the perfect exemplar of one that only exists within a few miles of the central travelling party who find themselves required to visit all corners of...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Fans of the Odyssey or Lord of the Rings
Garion is an adolescent boy who the reader knows early on has a family secret that probably will lead to him saving civilization--or at least the civilization in the Belgariad series. He grows up on a farm with his "Aunt Pol" yet doesn't know anything about his parents, nor will she answer any questions that he asks. However, there appears to be an urgent journey that they have to embark upon with a motley crew of characters from all over the land. Yes, that's right, I said "l...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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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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I don't know if it's the rave reviews for David Eddings, but as for this first installment, I have to say that I'm on the fence. Though I definitely enjoyed the banter among some of the lead characters and the strong hints of stories-within-a-story, I've yet to experience that gripping sense of suspense and drama. I was expecting quite a bit more show of magic/sorcery [even if just a teaser:], since other fantasy epics have quite a lot going on even on the first book.
Of course it's very lik...more
Of course it's very lik...more
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I read the Bellgraid and the Malloreon about 10 years ago now, so my memory isn't up to a synopsis of the series or anything, but I did highly enjoy them then, they still grace my shelves now, and I hope to reread them in the near future.
These books are great for the reader that enjoys fantasy series reading (so if you prefer a one off, try something else). They develop an amazing story and history that kept me engaged. The two series are intimately related/connected. The world is more of...more
These books are great for the reader that enjoys fantasy series reading (so if you prefer a one off, try something else). They develop an amazing story and history that kept me engaged. The two series are intimately related/connected. The world is more of...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.05 (2312 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.87 (225 ratings) number of reviews: 163popular shelves
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quote
""We're living in momentous times, Garion. The events of a thousand years and more have all focused on these very days. The world, I'm told, is like that. Centuries pass when nothing happens, and then in a few short years events of such tremendous importance take place that the world is never the same again."
"I think that if I had my choice, I'd prefer one of those quiet centuries," Garion said glumly.
"Oh, no," Sild said, his lips drawing back in a ferretlike grin. "Now's the time to be alive - to see it all happen, to be a part of it. That makes the blood race, and each breath is an adventure.""
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