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.