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Belgarath the Sorcerer | Rating | |
| D | |||
| David and Leigh Eddings | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, Enchanter's End Game, Belgarath the Sorcerer | ||
Belgarath was instrumental in helping Garion defeat the Dark God, Torak. But he lived for many years before the lad was every born &mddash; many, many years. Now at last Belgarath tells his own story: of his disreputable youth; of learning the Word and the Way; and of his centuries upon centuries of service to Aldur, the benificent god, working to bring the great Prophecy to fruition.
Seven thousand years or so is a lot of life to cover. So it should be no real surprise that the book is very thick indeed — over seven hundred pages. Understandable, but it is a bit daunting, nevertheless.
But because there is so much time to cover, and because the book is told as if Belgarath was the one telling it, it is one big example of "telling instead of showing." Belgarath is telling his audience about his life. It's that simple. But Belgarath is no storyteller; for large stretches what we have is an enormous history lecture. It's friendly enough, never dull and droning, but it is a lecture. Major battles are here and gone in a paragraph. It's understandable when one has "only" seven hundred pages to play with, but that doesn't make it very good.
Worse, both because of the speed of events, and because of The Belgariad series, there's little tension. We never wonder if Belgarath will make it through this crisis or that one. Given the scope of the book, it's more in line to wonder if this nation or that one will make it, but that never happens, either. We already know, and if readers don't remember details from The Belgariad then they will doubtlessly recall that it all turns out all right, so any losses are tragic but acceptable. (Except they're not all that tragic, either; given Belgarath's lifespan, the deaths of his associates is something he has learned to live with, more or less, whether from battle or old age, and it shows.) Even those who haven't read The Belgariad first will know that. The book is, after all, one humongous flashback, complete with a prologue set after events have all played themselves out. It's kind of hard not to notice Belgarath is still alive and kicking.
And if that's not enough, there the whole prophecy, called Necessity here. It's so important to the fate of the universe that it's sentient. Belgarath can talk to it, ask it wha needs doing. It can't always be done and he doesn't always get a straight answer, but that he gets an answer at all is plenty. Even when Belgarath can't or won't elicit information directly, several times he is compelled or directed to take actions or acquire some bit of knowledge that wouldn't pay off for centuries. It rather diminishes him as a character to know that it wasn't his foresight or planning or just plain luck that made him do these things. He was ordered to.
That was the case in The Belgariad, too, of course, but there Garion was a youngster doing as his instructors told him to do, and the identity of the voice in his head wasn't revealed until well into the series. But Belgarath is a millenia-old wizard, yet he still isn't allowed to take any initiative. When it comes to anything of any real importance, Belgarath is simply told what to do and when, or at least told what to tell others. He might as well have been a bad actor whose stage cues had to be shouted at him as the play progresses for all that anything can be attributed to his own desires or plans. He might as well have been a marionette, for that matter.
It's not all bad, though. There's very few books that are, really, and this isn't one of them. The story isn't always on accelerated time — not hardly. The really is only an issue for the first thrid or so of the book, with sporadic remissions here and there afterwards. And Belgarath's sty;e infuses the story. It really does feel like he's telling all this to readers personally, in a face-to-face chat. It's a very engaging narrative. And, of course, it does explain the world's history alongside Belgarath's own. The sorcerer mentions this event or that encounter throughout The Belgariad, and I must admit it's nice to see most of them fleshed out a bit. Finally, readers can see for themselves and truly understand how it all came to pass.
But the fact remains, Begarath never, ever does anything of substance without being told to do so. Sometimes he knows why, sometimes not; sometimes he has to figure out how, but most times he was told. Anyone could have done this stuff. It weakens him as a character, and it weakens the book. Combined with the other problems in the novel, I had to literally force myself to continue reading until the end, and I just can't bring myself to believe it was even worth it. This book is Exhibit A for examples of why prophecies should be kept vague.
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