Belgarath the Sorcerer & Polgara the Sorceress - David and Leigh Eddings

 

Hello, and welcome to the Empty Shelf. My name is Mike, and I’ll be your reader and reviewer today. A note to the reader, Some spoilers are ahead, so listen with caution.

Today, we’re going to conclude our examination of the Belgariad universe with Belgarath the Sorcerer (1995), and Polgara the Sorceress (1997), both by David and Leigh Eddings. You’ll notice the byline has changed here. Mr. Eddings enlisted his wife’s help for most of this series, and finally decided to give her credit. (That’s per his explanation in the supplemental material “The Rivan Codex.”) By the way, I have no evidence whatsoever to support this, but I get the sense these were written more or less concurrently. If anyone knows, please drop me a line. I’m reviewing these as a duology, because that’s how they feel to me. 

But, I’m going to give each book a rating, then average those ratings to get a category score. Then I’ll follow the standard rating protocol.

There’s a framing device in use in both of these novels in which Garion and Ce’Nedra hector the two titular characters into writing a memoir to “complete the story.” From there, they are each in first person, and cover thousands of years of history. As such, they are both nearly twice as long as any of the books in the previous two series. 

It should go without saying that in each of these books we follow the titular character through his or her long and storied life, the ups and downs, the lulls and the action are all here. In fact, the framing device goes out of its way to say on a few occasions that there are long periods where nothing happens. Well, we’ll get to that.

As I remember it, these two books weren’t available at my Inner Harbor B&N back in 2003, immediately after I finished the other series, so I read something else in the interim. I don’t recall what it was. Whatever the case, I was thrilled to see that there was more to read in the Belgariad universe, as you can imagine. I bought Belgarath first (since it’s the first published and I have a compulsion to read things in publication order), and dived right in.

Belgarath’s story begins in the small village of Gara some 7000 years ago. We get to see him meet and become first disciple to the God Aldur, and discover his ability with the Will and the Word. We see the arrival of his brothers, the cracking of the world, his marriage to Poledra and the birth of his daughters, the battle of Vo Mimbre, and the arrival of Garion. Plus so much more. Along the way, we meet dozens of important personages from history that were mentioned in the primary series. 

Polgara’s book is much the same. We follow her early days in the vale and the discovery of HER power. We follow her to Vo Wacune and see her adventures there, then we experience her guardianship of Garion’s ancestors, as everyone awaits the coming of the Godslayer. And of course, there’s much more here too, including more of those famous people from the primary series.

I want to point out that there are several thousand years of history told in these books and I can’t hope to cover even a fraction of it. So those were my cursory summaries. 

Both novels, of course, culminate with the death of Garion’s parents. What’s nice about these books is that they close the loop. Meaning, once they end with the death of Garion’s parents, you can go back to the beginning of The Belgariad and start all over again. It truly is a cycle. I love that aspect of these. 

I will tell you now that I absolutely LOVE Belgarath, both as a character and as a book. His grumpy demeanor and wisdom spoke to me throughout both series (which probably says something not great about me), and I was ecstatic to see his life unfold. I was less enamored with Polgara’s book. It’s possible that, by the time I got there, I was burned out, or it’s possible that I just don’t care as much about her story. Whatever the case, the first time around, I did not finish Polgara. When I finally DID complete it, I really enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it like I did the others.

One great aspect of these books is that we get to see the interaction of Belgarath and his brothers, Belzedar, Beldin, Belmakor, Belsambar, and the twins, Beltira and Belkira. I love the dynamic here. These people have ostensibly lived together for thousands of years, and they really do act like brothers. Trust me, I have 2. We bicker, we fight, we joke, we break each other down and build each other up. I’m not sure if Eddings had siblings but he absolutely nails these relationships. 

We also get to see the development of the Will and the Word a bit. It’s well explained in the Belgariad, but to see these people actually discover some of the rules and limitations is a nice little treat. 

Ok, on to the reason we’re here. Rating. I’m going to give each book it’s own rating in each category.

Story and Conflict - Belgarath is 7000 years old, and Polgara a little over 3000, so there’s a LOT of ground to cover. First, we’ll talk about Belgarath.

 Something I really liked about both of these, but more so in Belgarath, is that Eddings selected a series of events and elected to focus on them. With 7000 years of his own history to cover, I’m sure there was a temptation to expand on some of the more mundane things and really lay out the work he had done to create this world. But he didn’t, and that’s a sign of good storytelling. The first person POV works well here for exactly that reason. The narrator would not want to dwell on the 300 years he studied Literary criticism or some such. And remember, the NARRATOR is supposed to be a storyteller too, so he knows how to spin a yarn. Tell the important bits, and then move on. 

The big events like the recovery of the orb and the Battle of Vo Mimbre are exceedingly vivid and I wouldn’t be surprised if those two events were the main impetus behind the writing of this book. 

Anyway, the story is big, and that’s great. There are a lot of side characters to keep track of, and that can be a bit of an issue in certain parts, but in general, those characters are gone almost as soon as they appear. For the big “set pieces”, the events we focus on the most, the cast of characters is manageable. 

This book feels like a series of short stories all linked together through an elaborate framing device, which I guess is exactly what it is. The conflicts are well handled and the action rises and falls with each one. Of course, it all builds up to the inevitable conclusion, saving the Universe. The stakes for each mini story are appropriately high, though it never really feels like the good guys will lose. But then, if you’ve read the two prior series, you already know that, so it’s ok. I’ll give Belgarath the Sorcerer a Story an A. There are some plot holes, just like in the other books, and the attempts to close some of the old ones are a bit clunky. I don’t care though. I love this book.

Polgara the Sorceress covers 3000 years of history. Still a long time, but substantially less than Belgarath. Structurally, this is handled much the same as its predecessor: that is a series of short stories linked together. The issue is that I didn’t care as much about these stories. That’s not to say that they weren’t well written, because they were. And it’s not to say it’s not engaging, because it is - though a bit less so than Belgarath. My issue is that these stories feel like side quests. While the important stuff is happening over in the other book, we’re going to take some time here to talk about things that happened, but aren’t very important. The fall of Vo Wacune, while interesting, doesn’t really affect the larger narrative. 

The back third of this book is the tale of Polgara watching over and guiding Garion’s ancestors in preparation for his arrival, and that is fun to read, if a bit windy. There are parts in the first two thirds of the book that are fun to read, but again, the stakes just don’t feel as high. In the few instances when the stories come together, some real magic happens. The battle of Vo Mimbre for example is great fun. 

I’ll give Polgara a B-. It’s well conceived and well told. I just don’t care as much. If you average them out, that’s a B+. Sounds right.

Pacing: Belgarath is going to get an A+ for pacing. At no point does this book really slow down. Even the sections where he’s describing centuries where little or nothing happens, it’s still fun to read and you still want to turn the page. It doesn’t have the pacing of a thriller, but it doesn’t need it.

Polgara on the other hand…well let’s just say pacing was a big issue the first time I tried to read it. We linger too long in a couple places and ages, and sometimes turning the page is a chore. I’ll give it a C. Another middling score for a middling book. 

As an average, that’s a B. 

Character: It’s really nice being able to delve deeply into the mind of a first person character, especially one that’s been around for thousands of years. That said, with a couple exceptions, these characters have been established for 10 books already, so there’s not much that can be done with them. The SIDE characters, on the other hand, are fun to see. People like Riva Irongrip and his family, The sorcerers, a few of Irongrip’s heirs. Even a couple villains like Zedar and Ctuchick. Belgarath gets an A- for character. For a bunch of small parts that come and go over the course of 800 pages, you really get a sense of them.

Polgara. Well again, the characters are already established. The side characters in her book are not quite as interesting. Oh, there are a few worth turning the page for, like Darion, Asrana and Mandorin, but they are few and far between. 

I will say that it is interesting to see the constant trail of heartache Polgara endures and the effect it has on her, but it could have been done in FAR fewer pages. With that in mind, I feel like there are some unintentionally sexist generalities here about how women act in certain situations. The whole thing about “breaking hearts” when Pol is a teenager felt a bit cringy by modern standards. And this was released in ‘97, so we can’t really blame it on “product of the time.” 

As I said, this whole book feels like a side quest, and there’s only so much you can do with that. Polgara will receive a C- for character. There’s just not much more to be done by the 12th book.

All told, we have a B- here.

World Building: Believe it or not, there was still some world building to be achieved in the 11th and 12th book of a series. Supplemental books at that. 

In Belgarath, we see the world BEFORE the breaking. A bit of the relationships between the gods, and the evolution of the peoples of the ancient world to the cultures we explore in the main series. 

In addition, there’s some interesting work with the magic system, as I mentioned earlier, and some fun stuff with the development of cities and setting. Overall, there’s not much to do, but what is done is done very well. It’s great fun. I’ll give it a B+. Since there wasn’t as much to develop, I don’t feel like I can go any higher than that. 

Polgara actually has some interesting stuff going on too. The vivid and lingering detail we get of Arendia - more specifically Vo Wacune - is really very nice. We also get to see a deeper look at some of the more common cultures through her guarding of Garion’s ancestors. There’s a fun bit towards the end in Gar og Nadrak, and the parts where Pol is discovering her power are an interesting perspective. Again, there’s not as much to do here, but I’ll still give it a B. The bits that were expanded were well done. 

That makes an average of B for both.

Magic System: It may seem like this is old hat at this point, what with these being the 11th and 12th books in a series. However, there’s quite a bit to do here. Eddings shows us the beginnings of the Will and the Word, or at least Belgarath’s beginnings, and also explores the limits and some of the discoveries within the system. It’s not that often that a reader gets to explore the origins of a particular magic system, so I’m giving points for that. A- for both.

Writing Style: Well, these are in first person, so the prose-y-ness is going to be different than it was in previous books. That said, I like the style. First person or not, Eddings’ style has evolved over time and it’s evident in both novels. It flows well and I do believe that each narrator has their own voice and style. I like that. But, as always with Eddings, we’re not breaking new ground. Even so, I’ll give both novels a B+. They read well.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Any excuse I have to return to the Garion’s world is a welcome one. The year 7000 history is laid out and explored and I had a great time reading both books…once I got past my little hitch with Polgara. At the end of these, it’s hard not to just go back to Pawn of Prophecy and start the whole thing again. That’s the sign of a well executed tale, in my opinion.

The characters are largely already established, and the world is already largely built, so this is just a series of tales without a whole lot of development. Is that really “bad”? Well, from a critic’s standpoint, probably. There are some plot holes, and there are some pacing issues. And there are some generalizations revolving around gender that aren’t great. 

As with the other novels in this universe, I can readily see that they are not groundbreaking literary works. These are middling novels. I think Belgarath, and even Polgara are the best of the bunch, but that doesn’t change the facts. They are still in print, though, so who cares.

Dammit, I just love these. The whole series. All 12 of them. Nothing will ever change that. Every time I read them, I have a good time. And that’s what it’s all about, right? 

So, in the end, Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress get a combined 69 points out of 90. That’s a 76%, or a strong C. Maybe a weak C+. That makes sense to me. These are a lot of fun, and they fill in a lot of history and lore, but, as with their partner series, they’re nothing overly special from a literary perspective. It seems that Mr. Eddings big failing comes in Characterization. His other categories did fairly well, all things considered. 

To sum up the WHOOOOLE universe, including the Belgariad, The Malloreon, and these two Standalones, We have a total of 205 points out of a possible 270. So if you average them all together, it turns out that you get almost exactly 76%, which is a C for the whole universe. As I’ve said, despite my love for this series, I think that’s fair. Eddings doesn’t do anything new or fresh here and there are almost NO twists. At least none that we don’t see coming a mile down the road. 

Well thanks so much for joining me for this discussion. Let me know what you think of Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. I look forward to reading with you again next time when we’ll talk about Legend, the debut novel from David Gemmell. Until then, keep reading.