On 2005-12-14, Lord Kalten <Kalten@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> I have always though that the Belgariad was the best series I have ever
> read. Okay, the first of Eddings books I read was Guardians Of The West
not
> knowing there was a previous series and got totally confused with
references
> to Old Wolf in passing conversation.
>
I can't remember if I read the Elenium first or not, but I know that GotW
was
my first look at the Bel/Mal world. Although that was because teh school
librarry had the entire Mallorean, but only 2,4 & 5 of the Belgariad. :-/
> However, I do recall that when The Redemption of Althalus came out. New
> readers of Eddings' books liked it a lot more than the original
> Belgariad/Elenium series.
>
> Personally, I thought that with later books, such as Althalus, the
heroes
> were never in the same tight spots that previous books presented.
>
> However, is it really more the fact that older readers simply have read
> similar Eddings books in addition to having higher expectations. If all
> books before Althalus never were published, we'd all be cheering on
Eddings
> at the moment? If all books prior to Althalus came out after the
current
> books, we'd all be slagging off the Belgariad as being a rehash?
>
> Any thoughts?
I do thtink that the reason most long-term Eddings readers dislike his
latest
works is that it feels like reading a bad copy of his earlier stuff. From
what
I've heard of the new series each *book* is like a bad copy of the last
one. I
think if the Bel/Mal or El/Tam were to be released today, rather than when
they
were originally, we'd probably appreciate them as decent fantasy, and be
saying
that this is how Althalus et al *should* have been. My main issue with
Althalus
in particular (aside from there being no main characters he hadn't used in
2
other series already), was, as you said earlier, that it was rushed. It
would
have been much better as a duology or trilogy, giving him the extra pages
needed to invest in the locations & people involved.
The thing that annoyed me the most about the Rivan Codex, was the way that
he
ranted about not liking fantasy, that he felt it was beneath him, and that
fantasy readers couldn't handle a "real book". That single passage
probably
lost him more readers than the abysmal quality of later work.
>
> Kalten~!!!
> p.s. I went into a few London book stores a few days ago and it appears
the
> book shelf space reserved for Eddings books has seriously diminished.
>
So it appears. Not exactly a suprise, given how little his stuff is likely
to
be selling these days.
--
Mandorallen, Baron of Vo Mandor, Knight Protector
(Sometime) Champion of AFE
Mandy at the weekends...
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