I just found out that David Eddings died on June 2nd.
I’ve read the Belgariad and the Malloreon, and the Elenium and the Tamuli more times than I would care to count. They’re pretty much textbook Campbellian fantasy, and thus quite like crack cocaine if your mind is set up for that style of entertainment. Mine most assuredly is.
The Sparhawk novels (The Elenium and The Tamuli) are more matured and sophisticated than his earlier work, with more complicated characters than Belgarion and his mates. They departed a bit more from the traditional high fantasy model in those books, and made it work well.
I was interested to see if Eddings would continue that progression through another series. But clearly, it was not to be.
June 4, 2009 at 1:43 am
The Sparhawk novels were what introduced me to fantasy; when I read about it earlier today I realised I HAD to get copies of them again (loaned mine to a friend long ago and never got them back) and re-read, and remember.
June 4, 2009 at 2:13 am
Argh. I didn’t know.
Thanks for the notice. [sigh]
June 4, 2009 at 4:20 am
I had no idea how to react to this news when I heard. I used to love Eddings, and then he just went on writing the same book over and over. My kids read the Belgariad and the Mallorean when they were about eight or nine, and loved it. Those books were well enough written to compensate for not including one original idea (oh, a big guy from a Northern kingdom where it snows a lot who goes berserk and turns into a bear, wow).
I might just go back to the simplicity of ‘Orson Scott Card is a tool’.
June 4, 2009 at 6:26 am
I didn’t read and Eddings until I was in my 20s and a seasoned reader of fantasy. His books therefore annoyed the pus out of me.
June 4, 2009 at 7:03 am
Yeah, the Belgariad pretty much got me into fantasy (I’d read The Hobbit and LotR earlier but
the Belgariad was when I was old enough to start buying my own books)
My first (when I was 12) D&D character was named Belgandalf.
– MugginsM