Magician's Gambit

David (and Leigh) Eddings books hold a great place in my heart. I remember reading these books when they first came out. I also remember waiting with some excitement when the new ones came out. Now it is many years since I read these. I have reread them at some point and recall thoroughly enjoying them. All the books in both series ‘The Belgariad' and ‘The Mallorian' are good.
It's funny. I am not sure if these books are as good now, but these books are an integral part of my childhood and no matter what anyone says about them, they will remain books that I personally cherish.

““We all have our little shortcomings,” Silk admitted blandly.” This is yet more of the same I've read so far in the Belgariad. We're still travelling, we're still seeing some fights the result of which is crystal clear from the outset and it's becoming stale and bland. There's some character development finally but mostly everyone still feels like an archetype and not like a real person. As if that wasn't enough, there are lots of “Deus ex machina” moments during which something that should be hard gets resolved effortlessly: “He ran his fingers over the icy iron, not knowing just what he was looking for. He found a spot that felt a little different. “Here it is.”” And just like that, that's it. Garion explores some more of his capabilities but is still kept small by Belgarath and Pol. The ending is rushed, anti-climactic and actually feels like Eddings just wanted to end the book which doesn't bode well for the rest of the series.Sometimes I wish I could “unread” books because they were so fantastic. In this case, I would have had to forget an entire genre to find any original thought or idea. This book was actually starting to get boring and tiresome; everything feels rather mediocre about it – I just hope the next one gets better again... Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram

I like this series more the deeper I get into it. At first, it felt like a very standard fantasy journey with more LOTR tropes than I prefer, but it is differentiating itself more as it goes along. I'm still not in love with the pacing, but I'm pretty committed to finishing it now.

I think this is the book where Polgara bitches at Garion constantly. He's just a boy!