I had been hoping that the Belgariad was a trilogy when I started it. Now, I really wish it had been a trilogy, not in the least because the drop off between the first three books and the last two is pretty sharp.

The prophecy (or really, prophecies) driving the action end up making the whole thing seem too fated. It’s not so much a lack of tension as it is too many things coming across like a deux ex machina.

There is a great big battle which is very exciting and well done, but the long marches leading up to it get entirely too much detail.

Credit where credit is due. There is a bit where the hero (Garion) and the two most interesting characters (the wizard Belgarath and the sneaky spy, Silk) head off on their own. It reminds me of The Fellowship of the Ring, when Aragorn said he had intended to enter Mordor with just Frodo, Sam, himself, and Gimli and not to bring the whole troop. But ripping off too blatantly from Tolkien is another problem.

Anyway. Don’t think I’ll be reading more Eddings for a while.