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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Surprise wearing off, 13 Dec 2002
Once again I am shocked by yet another amazing book in The Belgariad series. My expectations for these books were extremely low before I started reading them, but over and over again I am surprised as I get caught up in the plot and in the amazing characters. However, by now my surprise is wearing off and I'm becoming more and more scepticle of the overall quallity of the writing.The plot is simple: a boy called Garion has started a quest into perilous lands to recover the Orb of Aldur, a very powerful magical item which was stolen by a thief. With the Orb, the thief could awaken the evil god Torak and then mount a campaign to attack and defeat the western civilizations, all of which are eternal enemies of Torak. Garion is traveling with his aunt Polgara, his grandfather Belgarath (both of which are sorcerors), and several other interesting characters as he chases down the thief to recover the Orb. All the while Garion is discovering a strange power which he has, and things are revealed about a mysterious other awareness which inhabits his thoughts occasionally. That was just the basic plot-as basic as it gets. That was simple, but the details and twists in the book pulled me in from the first pages, and constantly I found myself caught up in it, turning the pages as fast as I could to finish and find out what happens. The thing about the plot is that it's exactly what I started reading fantasy books for in the first place. The Belgariad captures your imagination and curiosity better than so many other series, and it inevitably led to me sitting around, reading a few hundred pages a day because I just couldn't put it down. Then, there are the characters. I can say that the characters took no small part in getting me caught up in Magician's Gambit. I found that I cared about the characters quite a bit. I really wanted to see how they'd change over time, with their general actions and actions toward each other. I was very pleased as I found that, like in the first two books, the developement of the characters was natural and believable. However, my initial shock of how amazing the plot and characters are began to wear off as I got into the book as I found more and more ways to criticize the writing. The quality of the writing really isn't anything special. There are parts which should be shortened, parts which should be lengthened, and parts which just simply need work. I have read some really amazing books before by really amazing authors, and the quality of the writing really isn't anything special. In the end, though, I had to give this four stars. I can't say something's terrible if I was so caught up in it and read it in just a day or two. I'd reccomend it-it's easy, enjoyable, and a very good example of a fantasy book...
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by David Eddings
by David Eddings
by David Eddings
by David Eddings
by David Eddings
