Ahh David Eddings, the gateway drug to fantasy literature. When I was a small lass (not that much smaller when I think about it) we went on a family holiday. I brought my usual holiday reading material and my dad bought 'The Diamond Throne'. (pictured at the side) I stared at it every time I went into my parents' room, the cover enticing me way before the blurb. By the middle of the second week of the holiday, I had finished my books and asked to borrow my dad's. And that was it, I had discovered Eddings.
David Eddings is not a deep or dark writer, he doesn't spend 90% of the plot shacking every character up with the other or killing people off in increasingly vicious ways. He's almost comforting as a writer and the 'good v. evil' plot has been done to death, but he writes it well.
After reading the Diamond Throne, I found the urge to read more Eddings and I found the Belgariad. (I know farmboys and mystical macguffins) but Eddings can write. His characters are funny and sympathetic, his world cozy and dangerous at the same time. There's no George RR grittiness here and for that I am thankful. Much as I tore through Martin's doorstopper tomes, I have no real urge to read them again. Though I do return to Eddings from time to time. It's like putting on a pair of comfortable shoes and you are taken out of the world for a time. And to me that's what a good fantasy book should do. Fantasy takes you away from reality and when you come back, you are refreshed and happy. Edding manages this and more.
Should you want a simple, quest story with good guys and villains, you can't go far wrong than Eddings.
David Eddings is not a deep or dark writer, he doesn't spend 90% of the plot shacking every character up with the other or killing people off in increasingly vicious ways. He's almost comforting as a writer and the 'good v. evil' plot has been done to death, but he writes it well.
After reading the Diamond Throne, I found the urge to read more Eddings and I found the Belgariad. (I know farmboys and mystical macguffins) but Eddings can write. His characters are funny and sympathetic, his world cozy and dangerous at the same time. There's no George RR grittiness here and for that I am thankful. Much as I tore through Martin's doorstopper tomes, I have no real urge to read them again. Though I do return to Eddings from time to time. It's like putting on a pair of comfortable shoes and you are taken out of the world for a time. And to me that's what a good fantasy book should do. Fantasy takes you away from reality and when you come back, you are refreshed and happy. Edding manages this and more.
Should you want a simple, quest story with good guys and villains, you can't go far wrong than Eddings.
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