A Month of Literary Gratitude, Day 3 - The Belgariad, by David Eddings

Thursday, November 3, 2016

The Belgariad, by David Eddings, is one of the those sweeping fantasies that spans the continent and the price of the characters' failures is basically the end of the world.


I read this series - and its sequels - over and over again in high school and into my young adulthood. I loved Polgara, the strong, independent matriarch, and identified with Garion, the befuddled main character whose humble beginnings hid a great destiny. I loved the scope of the series, and how the prophecies and destinies of the characters paid not one wit for how the objects of their focus may have wanted to perhaps do something else with their lives.

These books are not particular profound, nor did they teach life lessons for a young woman. But they were fun, and comfortable like an old shoe - a series that I returned to again and again, especially when I was tired, or depressed, or emotionally stressed by my bad choices. And I think that has a value all its own.

1 comments:

Random Michelle K said...

I also love that series, and it is comfort reading for me as well.

One thing I particularly liked was that David Eddings, after he'd made his name, put his wife's name on his books, because of the work she did with him on his writing. I think it was lovely that he stood up and acknowledged her.

And I imagine that she sounds just like Polgara.