David Eddings

Warr

Warr

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Instead of derailing the Wheel of Time thread, I'll start one here:

Warr said:
I didn't know there was hate for Eddings. Granted I did the majority of all this reading 20-some years ago, but Eddings still holds up for me. And I know my tastes have changed at least a little over time because other stuff from back then like Drizzt books have not held up.
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Sterling said:
I don't hate Eddings, but it's totally intro level fantasy and all of his characters are essentially trope archetypes dialed to 11. In fairness he wrote a lot of his stuff in the 80s before fantasy was nearly as popular as it became later so it didn't feel as blatant at the time especially as a kid. It's definitely miles better than that Drizzt trash though, for sure.
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So I'll admit that is true for the first 2 series he wrote (Belgariad and the Mallorean). You had the orphan hero destined to be king, a couple wizards, a buff warrior, a rogue, a knight, etc. But the next 2 series with Sparhawk and the Church Knights I thought were a little more unique and badass. I also liked the mystery and political intrigue sprinkled into the Elenium, and those two 3-book series came across as just a little more tightly written compared to the two 5-book series that came before it.

Tying this back to the Wheel of Time: The one thing I noticed from my very first reading of any of those Eddings series was the planning and pacing. Both within each book and across the whole series. It's like he planned out everything to take the exact number of books needed (5 or 3), with appropriate climaxes in the each book and a finale in the last book of the series, and enough room to breathe after it was all over. Compare that to a series where you know they are building towards something but you have no idea when it will end while you are reading it and it's like night and day.
 
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Furry

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I read tons of fantasy books, about 3-8 a month give or take on how wordy they are. I've never read any of eddings stuff, but I've always seen it around. I'm currently devouring anything and everything by tad williams, but getting close to the end. I'll add eddings as my next author to attack. Any advise on where to have me start, and I'm not asking for his first book.
 
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velk

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I loved the Belgariad when I was 10, I am not sure how well they would hold up to a re-read though. The landscape is a lot more competitive now than it was in 1982.
 
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Warr

Warr

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Furry said:
I read tons of fantasy books, about 3-8 a month give or take on how wordy they are. I've never read any of eddings stuff, but I've always seen it around. I'm currently devouring anything and everything by tad williams, but getting close to the end. I'll add eddings as my next author to attack. Any advise on where to have me start, and I'm not asking for his first book.
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I would recommend the Elenium (3 books: The Diamond Throne, The Ruby Knight, and the Sapphire Rose).
- It kicks off a new series, characters, and world building
- The characters are a little less of "1 of every basic archetype"
- At 3 books as opposed to 5, the series is a little tighter

All in all, if I had to guess, I'd say that he took lessons learned from his first 2 series and applied them to this new series.
 
Arative

Arative

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I grew up on Eddings, was some of my first fantasy books in the late 80's and 90's. I enjoyed his books. I would say they would be a good starting point for kids to get into fantasy
 
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Randin

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I'm actually in the middle of gradually doing a reread of the Belgariad--last time I read them was probably 15-20 years ago. Are they simplistic and trope-y? God yes (apparently intentionally? I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the books came out of Eddings wanting to play with fantasy and mythological tropes). But they're just... nice books to read; very relaxing. The occasional book that just plays everything completely straight can be a nice change of pace.
 
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Ritley

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I never really liked belgariad so didn’t read the rest. It wasn’t terrible but seemed incredibly bland.

I tried going back and reading the drizzt books and they are also pretty bad. Can’t make myself reread dragonlance because I’m sure it’s going to be bad as well, but I’d like to preserve my memories of enjoying it.
 
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C

Captain Suave

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Thanks for reminding me of Eddings; his books were a formative part of my youth. My son is about to turn 10, likes fantasy, and needs some new material. Having re-read them as an adult it's obvious that these books are hardly great literature, but we've all got to start somewhere.

I also need to add Raymond Feist. I loved the Magician series.

Ritley said:
Can’t make myself reread dragonlance because I’m sure it’s going to be bad as well, but I’d like to preserve my memories of enjoying it.
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Don't. The nostalgia is far better than the reality.
 
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TheBeagle

TheBeagle

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Yep, outside of The Hobbit, this was my first intro to fantasy when I was 10. I really loved it and was hooked into reading fantasy the rest of this life. I remember great characters and a big story but I don't think I will ever re-read it and spoil my fond memories of it. I did that with the Dragonlance books, which were my third or fourth series as a child and it didnt hold up at all.
 
pysek

pysek

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This is why won't go read Hubbard's insane decalogy the Mission Earth series again. Those Rockecenter lesbian bitches beating mustard into our protagonist before rushing off to have smeary chick sex just won't hold up the same as it did in high school.
 
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Zhakrin

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I really enjoyed eddings growing up but my only problem was every single book had the exact same plot.

Even to the point they almost joke about it in the Malloreon, the fact things are repeating.

edit: can't spell
 
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Lenardo

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well that was the premise, of the mallorian,

while the belgariad series solved the "initial" issue, the overall issue remained due to the solving of the first issue left a hole that NEEDED to be filled. so events were on repeat due to having to finally finish the prophesy "correctly". time could not progress without a mallorian god-be him good or evil.

loved the series when i was younger, still like reading the series every few years.

hell i was in a guild called the belgariad clan in wow.

i have HUNDREDS of fantasy books in my library lets see:


i really liked the elenium books.

loved the magician series by feist

brust's vlad series is good.

goodkind's wizard's first rule is good.. the REST of the series takes a turn to wacky world, but book 1 is good.

terry brook's landover series.

dragon riders of pern books are good.

deryni series by kurtz

weber's oath of swords series is good

baen.com has dozens if not hundreds of books -ebooks so gotta read on tablet or computer or phone- that are free to read (oath of swords being one)

lots of others.....

ooo out of the dark by weber is free at amazon if you have unlimited..hits read now.
 
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reavor

reavor

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I was reading the Belgarion books at the same time as Wheel of Time, and they felt very similar in the terribly written female characters and male-female interactions, and the kind of lame magic. Looking back at them they definitely feel very geared to a teenage demographic. I think I had grown out of them when I tried reading Malloreon and Elenium, just couldn't get into those. Started reading the dark tower and game of thrones instead at that time.
 
Oblio

Oblio

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I listened to the whole series on Audible about 13 years ago and this Christmas I gave my 12.5 yo the whole set. I enjoyed it for what it was and I think my kiddo will too.
 
Grizzlebeard

Grizzlebeard

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Apologies for the bump but I've been trying to get the Belgariad on Kindle for a while. I read it a few times like 20 years ago and it's pretty easy going but UK Amazon doesn't list it.

Did a bit of digging around to see if there was a particular reason and noticed someone comment about his shady past. Normally I would be fairly ambivalent about historic claims of wrongdoing by the current cancel culture generation but the newspaper article paints a pretty fucked up picture.

Spearfish Couple to Face Jury for Child Abuse

He and his wife both did a year inside.
 
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C

Captain Suave

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Wow, that's fucked.

If you still want the ebooks (Eddings or any others that are hard to find), I'm sure you can hoist your digital Jolly Roger and head over to:

 
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