Rating: 
Summary: The Bet ever!!
Review: Anyone who likes to read books about journeys or adventures needs to read this book. It is the best series I have ever read, and I have read a lot. The series is especially good for pre-teens because it treats them as adults while leaving out course language and whatnot. I have propbably read the series twenty times, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet!
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh!
Review: Light fantsy- very light. What little deeper meaning this book offered was almost as cliched as the rest of it. The rags to riches story has been far overused, and the banter was pathetic. The world building was good- though the Mad God Torak was a very weak character with no motivation save madness. The characters were so two-dimensional you could practically see through them, as you can see through the plot. This is an overly predictable book, with weak characters who certainly don't stand up to scrutiny very well. For light reading that actually contains characters you can care about, and plots that an eight year old would have trouble with, try the Sword Dancer series by J. Roberson, the Aurian saga by M. Furey, and other such books. The Eddings series (I slogged my way through all of them, its against my principals to stop halfway through a book or series- in vain hope they may improve) is weakly plotted, kill-the-dragon-save the princess-save-the-world. However bad the plot may be, the characters were the thing that really put me off. They are caricatures of stock characters, with no individual traits outside those stock characters. The humor was fair, but I have heard better from thirteen-year olds. Over all, not worth reading, unless you plan to read it while so exhausted your mind can't grasp anything more original or complex.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: Flat, predictable, two-dimensional. The characters and story are of your basic cookie-cutter format. I couldn't even get halfway through the book, and I can read 500 pages in two days! I just wish I hadn't creased the spine -- I can't get my money back for the book now. Perhaps this book would be good enough for a reading list at an elementary or high school, but for adults, it's not worth the time or money. I give it two stars, simply because of the effort I'm sure it took for the author to put words to paper. If those words had amounted to something that would have held my attention, I'd give him more credit.
Rating:
Summary: Pawn of Prophecy
Review: Very good book. Leaves you in suspense half the time. High reading level. About a boy named Garion living at A farm in a fantasy world. There are many religions and hes growing up at Faldors Farm. Then the sacred orb is stolen from the Rivan castle. They have to leave faldors farm for good. His guardians are Aunt Pol (paul) and Old Wolf. On their way they meet a sly person named Silk and a big guy named Barak. Garion has a dry voice inside him helping him make decisions and telling him what to do. Our teacher read this book to us and we all got hooked so were reading the 2nd and 3rd books now and we all love the series. High amount of action and have to read carefully to get every clue. Leaves you with many questions. Great book.
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable read.
Review: Not being a fan of fantasy, I was little weary of this book. The only other fantasy books I read were The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I was surprised at how well this book came out. It's not just monsters and dragons, but a story about a world and a little farm boy named Garion.This book is humorous, action-filled, playful, and suspenseful. It's a great read, and Eddings has great fluidity. The book starts out on a farm, with one boy and his aunt. Throughout the book, tiny bits of information eventually lead this boy and a group to an epic adventure. The characters are great, each with its unique part to play. The plot is wonderfully done, as the story unfolds itself slowly, adding to the mystery surrounding the boy. Because of this, I vowed to read every other book in this five part series. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Pawn of Prophecy Tale of the Mysterious People
Review: Pawn of Prophecy is a good tale by the author David Eddings. This book does a pretty good job of explaining the surroundings and most of the characters. Eddings does a good job with the relationships with the characters. He does this by mixing up characteristics like strength, courage, intelligence and other important features. The boy Garion has been curious throughout this book and as he gets older he gets watched more closely by his Aunt Pol and the character Mr. Wolf. There are constant conflicts between Aunt Pol and Mr. Wolf. Garion always tries to overhear Aunt Pol and Wolf talking especially when he assumes the conversation will include his name. This curiosity may cause more bad than good in the Garion's life as time goes on. Some of the characters in the book such as Silk remain suspicious throughout the book. At times Silk almost seems to be on the wrong side and at other times he seems to be one of the best things working for Garion's side. All in all this is a good book that will keep you interested or at least laughing at Aunt Pol and Wolf's constant arguments.
Rating:
Summary: A really great start to an EXCELLENT series
Review: This story is...GREAT! As other reviews have mentioned, you should definately read the other books in 'the belgariad' if you read this one otherwise the story will make no sense to you. It's an interesting start, at times its a little boring because you kind of don't understand it all that well, but once you get into it, there's this whole story behind each character and the whole prohecy thing fits together with everything. It has some really funny and interesting characters in it, Eddings is really good at giving the characters very individual and distinctive personalities. Things are described in an interesting and thoughtful way, without going overboard with it. The general plot is just fantastic, since the story is based on a prophecy, so the story relates to things which happened in that world thousands of years before. If you are a fantasy fiction fan (or even if you aren't) this is a really worthwhile series to read. Once you have finished 'the Belgariad' be sure to read 'the mallorean' it continues the story. Now go and buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Good
Review: First off, this is more or less a review of the whole series (Books 1-5 of The Belgariad) rather than this particular book. The story is similar to most fantasy series: A boy grows up to discovers his true powers and discovers he's to lead the world against the forces of evil. A beautiful princess falls in love with the hero along the way. The setting is a very detailed medieval world full of swords and sorcery and Gods that are fallible. I really appreciated the mythological (Greek and Roman type) context in which the Gods are described. The story is engaging but predictable and thus you rarely feel fear for the heroes' lives. It's the sort of story that makes you feel good about yourself. There are only a few moments where you feel you don't know what's going to happen. Understandably, this puts off some people. But, as I said, it's a "feel good" story and I loved it. The best part of the series is the characters. They are serious when there is need and are humorous otherwise. Their interaction is very interesting. They are always making fun of each other and cutting each other off. Each of them have a rich history (especially Belgarath and Polgara -- but of course they've lived for thousands of years and are a part of the mythological/historical texts that exist in the world). I really liked the growing love between Ce'Nedra and Garion. Neither realize they love each other until a long time. Eddings' style is fairly simple and there is usually one plot at any given time. That is to say, there are no subplots in the series. The main plot, however, is very interesting. Overall, I really liked this series and have already ordered the Mallorean (it picks up where Belgariad stops). I can't wait! One more thing: Order all of the five books together. You'll hate yourself if you don't. Some of the books don't have a "nice" ending -- that is, they stop at a point where the ends are all still loose and there is no conclusion. So, get them all together!
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful Series
Review: I have read many wondrful fantasy series, and while this isn't the best, it is FAR from the worst. This is a great series. I think Eddings developes the characters really well, and gives a lot of description without going too far. During the conversations you can see how the characters evolve and what their personalities are like. The way he works the prophecy into it is masterful, I am now rereading it and understand what is hinted in the prophecy. While it doesn't twist and turn, making you lose understanding in what is happening, it also isn't the predictable, Me hero. Me kill bad guy. There's a lot more to it. You realy should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Some of the best that Fantasy has to offer
Review: David Edding's Belgariad and Mallorean series (of which Pawn of Prophecy is the first book) both revolve around the same world and characters. The world is medieval-based, with a little sorcery and a pantheon of interesting gods (including the antagonistic, maimed god, Kal Torak) thrown in for good measure. David Edding's rarely paralleled strength is in the continuous pleasure that one derives from his fairly flawless, intelligent works of fantasy. He is a very talented descriptive writer, and his characters are undeniably cool and brilliantly drawn, each one very different from the others. Most sport insightful views into human nature, and most importantly, a hilarious sense of humour. When Eddings isn't enthralling you in his extremely colorful world, or making you grin foolishly at some of the feel-good elements, he is making you laugh out loud in utter delight (and then chagrin when everyone in the house looks at you oddly), and that comes from someone with a mature, refined sense of humour. Basically, a cast of extremely likeable characters join up with one or two less likeable characters (who are constantly made fun of) in an interesting world based upon various historical civilizations, as they pit their swords and sorcery against the evil god Torak and the Dark Prophecy that drives him, as well as against the evil half of the world (which makes for a very interesting dark continent to explore in The Mallorean series). Easily one of the best works of fantasy out there, and one of my very favorites.
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