The Malloreon

[jazzfish]

David Eddings, Guardians of the West
King of the Murgos
Demon Lord of Karanda
Sorceress of Darshiva
The Seeress of Kell

I didn't reread these three summers ago when I went on my Eddings binge because I didn't have a copy of the first one. I finally fixed that a few weeks ago, so figured it was about time to decide whether these are worth keeping.

Um.

Really bloody annoying sexism? Check.
Racism as shorthand for character? Check and double check: the only reason the titular King of the Murgos is a human being is that he's half Drasnian (by which I mean "half Silk").
Plot consisting of characters being led around by the nose for no good reason? Check.
Godawful dialect? Check.
General exhaustion and no real desire to read much further by midway through book four? Check.

And yet. I've read these books so often, especially the first three, that they're seared into my brain. In a lot of ways they're the only good memories of junior high that I've got. The dialog's snappy, the individual episodes aren't too bad. . . meh. I've got the Elenium for that, and it's shorter, to boot.

Anyone want hardback copies of the Belgariad and the Malloreon?

Comments

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Do not need hardbacks.

However, it was occurring to me not too long ago that these are on the list of things I read at twelve-or-so and possibly should re-read sometime, as I remember only isolated moments of them and no particular plot arcs. I do recall being annoyed by the use of morning sickness as a hard and fast indicator of pregnancy that was obvious to women but never to men, but I think that was in the first set. (I also never quite got into the shorter series; possibly I'd burned out on his writing by the time I got there?)

[salzara-tirwen.livejournal.com]

I already own them all, just popping in to say that I have no idea why they're so rereadable/addictive, not being that good in an absolute sense (if there is such a thing).

[jazzfish]

Right, the morning-sickness thing was definitely in the Malloreon as well. Along with people being scandalised by any mention of Teh Sex.

I think the Elenium's the best thing he wrote, honestly. It's short enough that the obvious flaws don't have as much time to grate on you and the characters feel more like characters and less like racial stereotypes.

On no account should anyone read the Tamuli (the sequel trilogy to the Elenium), though.

[jazzfish]

For me, Eddings is readable/addictive because his characters are witty in mostly exactly the way I like, and that's enough to keep my interest. For awhile.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Well, being scandalized by sex is a personal opinion (which to at least some extent I shared at the time I was reading the books); morning sickness is a biological thing that only hits about a third of women, according to mid-1970s statistics. Oh well.

The more I think about it, I think I didn't read the Elenium because I was waiting for all of it to come out before I started, and the one time I did have the first book out of the library, I just didn't get into it. The only thing I can remember about it at all was the main guy explaining why he called people "neighbor" rather than "friend."

[jazzfish]

being scandalized by sex is a personal opinion

Oh, absolutely! My problem with it was that every single character is scandalised whenever any other character makes any reference to Teh Sex. Including characters doing the scandalising at other times.

the main guy explaining why he called people "neighbor" rather than "friend."

Ah, yes. That and "whose turn is it to do the cooking, Ulath?" (a secret revealed either late in the second book or sometime in the third) still amuse me.