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Pawn of Prophecy

Pawn of Prophecy

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very Good Series
Review: Far too few books in general (not to mention those in a series) have captured my attention like this book. This book had me hooked from the beginning. I didn't stop reading for any mentionable length of time until I read the whole series. I was totally immersed. The Belgariad was a very captivating story. Also read the Mallorean if you had affinity for Garion in any way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A good beginning
Review: My friend recommended this book to me, so I read it, expecting some corny fantasy novel. Instead, I found a great plot that made me want to read the rest of the series. Garion, Pol, and the other characters that they meet along the way are likeable if they are supposed to be and not if they're not. They stay in character the whole time and are very well developed. All in all, this novel was a gripping beginning to a journey through 12 novels by David and Leigh Eddings. If you like this book, read the Belgariad, the Mallorean, Belgarath the Sorcerer, and Polgara the Sorceress.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best i have read so far..
Review: I have to say this is the most wonderful fantasy i have ever read. The character are as good as real. Moreover, eddings include all the various class: sorcerer, priest, thief, berserker, warrior, knight, bowman, farner and this made the story all the more exciting. The concept of the good-align kingdom(alorns)versus the evil ones(Angaraks) with the neutral cities helping out on any side from time to time is great. overall, i will say this belgariad series will be perfect if there is a better ending...the good people should not have won hands down.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great book, great series
Review: If you are a fantasy fan, this is an awesome book and series. Eddings has written some excellent books, this was his first series and should be your starting point. Kind of like the star wars trilogy - there are some books Eddings wrote later about periods earlier in time, but if you read those first you will ruin the suspense in this series.

Eddings really develops his characters and there are some excellent ones in this book which reappear throughout the series. Wizards, thiefs, knights, elves, magical creatures - you name it, this book has it. The plot is the typical good vs. evil and the journeys along the way are very entertaining. The plots in the follow on series in my opinion are not as good - seem added on after the fact and re-hash the same stuff - kind of like when they make a II and III movie after first one is succesful. They are good, but just dont measure up to the original.

I read these books when I was 14 or 15, but they are good for anyone who likes fantasy books from age 10-100. You wont want to put them down once you start.

If you like these, cheak out other fantasy authors with good series that I liked are: Tolkien (the orginal), Raymond Feist and his Magician series (again start with Magician series - first ones he wrote but not first in time).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's like a bag of chips, you can't put it down
Review: David Eddings has one of the most brillant mind in the world. Pawn of Prophecy has it all, humor, action, suspense and your occational drama. His characters are classic, not at all like J.R, Tolkin's Lord of the Rings. You expect to see dwarves and goblins and elves and stuff like that. Eddings on the other hand reaches deeper into his imagination and creates characters with wonderful characteristics that you have never expected to see in a book lik this. Once I read Pawn of Prophecy i read the next 4 books in a month and a half. I even went out to buy the whol series and the next one too without even reading up on it. I expected my self to enjoy it so it did't matter if a have read it or not. This is one of the best books published in more people should reconize that.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A modern Classic
Review: It's been many years since I've read the Belgariad, but it still remains one of the best fantasy series of the past 30 years. Eddings is a grand departure in the field of epic fantasy for being completely non-Tolkein like, and paving the way for such authors as Jordan, Feist, and Goodkind.

Eddings concentrates more on action and character development as opposed to the beautiful, but sometimes wordy prose of Tolkein. You'll find no Halflings, elves, or dwarves here. Most of te inhabitants are human although there is a nasty race of serpent people.

While the plot is fairly standard about a young boy growing to be the child of prophecy, Edding weaves a lot of comlex intrigue into the story. His characters really do come to life and by the end I felt like they were good friends.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The start of one of the best fantasy series ever written
Review: First of all, if you go into this book with a bunch of arrogant predispositions and an elitist literary critic attitude, you definitely won't enjoy it. Something like Martin's Song of Ice and Fire is for you. Really, if this is your attitude, you probably lead a pretty depressed life. Anyway, some people complain that he thinks he is original but only uses the same formula as is typical for fantasy. He quite openly admits to using a formula in The Rivan Codex (where you will find that he did, in fact, put a lot of work into the belgariad). Personally, I believe that it's not the initial framework that defines a good author, it's what he does with it. David Eddings does an excellent job with it.
Now some readers choose to complain that this series is not realistic enough. First of all, the name of this genre is Fantasy, not reality. Look it up. The author is much freer to do things with mythical creatures, magic, prophecies, et cetera, while remaining "in bounds." The author who chooses to minimize such things and focus on politics and other "realistic things" isn't as original as he thinks he is. He is either medieval, or shouldn't be trying to write under the fantasy title. Enough of that.
Should you choose to have an open mind, this book contains a lot of humor, despair, mystery, and some rather strange, but humorous romances. It is a great coming-of-age story and is not in the least bit confusing. The characters are all clearly defined, and many of them play off of each other very well. Anyway, this can be one of the best series you will ever read if you allow yourself to enjoy it. Whether you do or not is up to you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Hero's Journey
Review: I know that many prefer to think that fantasy or genre writing in general are not "real" forms of literature, and I admit that I once agreed. It is true that many books that fall under the categories such as "Fantasy" or "Mystery" are formulaic and silly.
That was before I read this series of books by David Eddings.
It is true, there is a formula followed here, but it is simply the formula of the hero's journey, found in the greatest of classical works from Homer to Chaucer. Eddings' books follow in the grand tradition of classical romance, blending an engaging and complex storyline with overtones that are mythic and even philosophical.
The books themselves are very fun to read, and it doesn't require a lot of brain power to just enjoy the story. However, if you let it happen, the ideas presented in this book (no matter how simply they may be presented) are very thought provoking, raising age old questions such as good versus evil, but presenting them in a unique light.
This first book serves as a great introduction to the world that you will swear is real by the time you are engaged in the storyline. Indeed, Eddings himself stated in his "Rivan Codex" that he "planted enough mythic fish hooks" to keep the reader riveted by the first 50 pages. "The literary equivelant of peddling dope," he admits, but if it entertains us and stimulates our thinking then is it such a bad thing? Literature is full of macho seriousness, and these books will make you laugh and think at the same time which is extremely rare.
Quite a gift, David and Leigh Eddings, quite a gift. Thank you for your books.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Just your average Joe Fantasy.
Review: I would have given this book another half a star, had it been possible. Regrettably, it is not, however, and the score is considerably reduced.

There's nothing really surprising with this old book, and I don't think there was ever meant to be anything surprising. Rather the opposite.
It feels very much like the first episode of Star Wars in many ways, trying to explain everything with physical gifts.
The author has taken not-so-great lengths to create personalities and cracks that you will see on at least every fifth page. There's a thief, there's a big warrior, there's a couple of well, persons, then there's your average Joe Hero. He's got a birthmark, and he's just now on his way to the Council of Wise Guys'n stuff. Many of you will now be shocked to hear that he is not discarded because of his fear. The heroes only have a hint of believability in them each. They're all the very best in the world in what they're doing, and that's all they are, no more, no less.

You might like this book. I'm not sure who David Eddings intended to appeal to, what with both obviousity *and* those showoff-words --nowadays exclusively used by professors-- that the farmboy somehow seems to know.
The BIG problem with this book is that it is seemingly identical to the nine other books in this series.

If you want GOOD fantasy, I suggest reading Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (starting with Dragons of Autumn Twilight).

NOTE: This book was made at least ten years ago. Things may have been different in the fantasy world then. I don't think it is possible that books with repeated humor was GOOD back then, but you never know. Thus, the review might be a bit unfair.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Average fantasy work
Review: Not a great piece of work, sometimes bogged down in its own fantasy, but readers who love complecated plots of made up worlds should enjoy this


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