"I like nice, simple situations and nice, easy solutions," said Belgarath."Good and Evil?" Durnik suggested."That's a difficult one, Durnik. I prefer 'them and us.' That clears away all the excess baggage and allows you to get right down to cases."I want a bracelet that says "What Would Belgarath Do?"

As much as I love this series overall I felt that in this book not much really happened. The company seem to be just travelling throughout their world in search of Gerion but not getting any closer or much actually happening in the book. There is a few action scenes in the book that make it interesting but I just can't help but feel it was a bit of a time gap filling book. That being said the characters more than make up for it. I love the budding relationship between Silk and Velvet, hes so clu...

King of the Murgos is the second book in The Malloreon by David Eddings. The quest is under way! The Prophecy has clearly given everyone their instructions. (view spoiler)[Garion's task is to track down Zandramas and rescue his son while Belgarath must seek the final meeting place where the choice will be made in the various Mysteries. (hide spoiler)] Guided by the Orb, the party heads south first through the swamps of Nyssa and then on into the lands of the Murgos. The trip is quite perilous as...

Yet again I profess my love for all things Belgariad and Mallorean.And yet again I'm struck by the unfairness(?)/casual Misogyny(?) in this beloved series. One of the big personal issues that pop up in this book is Silk's parents. Silk's mom was "the most beautiful woman of her generation" until a pestilence came through the town. She was struck blind and horribly disfigured by the sickness...but they act like her fucking brain was eaten instead.Silk drinks himself into insensibility whenever he...

It is always interesting for me to read through the David Eddings novels I have and see how his focus shifted over the course of sixteen books encompassing the two pentalogies, the Belgariad, and Malloreon, and the Elenium and Tamuli trilogies.The Belgariad series deals with Garion's coming of age story woven in with a dualist plot that sort of took a back seat to the main story, even though it *was* the main story. In this current series, Garion has come into his own and Eddings was free to foc...

This book is very different to the first one of the series. With a much faster pace this book has some excellent twists and turns in it. This book will make your ideas of certain people change in dramatic ways!

Action, adventure, magic, and danger all make their way into this unforgettable addition to Eddings’ series. Phenomenal descriptions and world building combine throughout as I was drawn fully into the plot that wouldn’t let go.I love the way that this cast of characters grows and changes throughout. Ce’Nedra’s less whiney attitude made her easier to swallow here, yet she does still seem quite childish for a queen. Eddings makes the change in personality easy to understand based on circumstance.

This book was just as good as the first one. I'm really enjoying learning about the other cultures in Eddings' world. I especially like that the people of other cultures don't have to be evil just because the religious aspects of their culture are grotesque.

With Lord of the Rings under my belt, I was hungry for more of this 'fantasy' thing I'd discovered. Enter the Belgariad. I consumed the two five-book series in a few months, getting in trouble in school for reading when I should have been paying attention (I either didn't care or had already done the homework for whatever it was they were teaching while they were teaching how to do it).When complete, I read the whole series again in half the time. Then again in half that. The half-lives continue...

In the second part, our story follows the traditional plot development of high fantasy books by leading to the classic journey of our heroes to a destination where everything will be decided. In the case of this series there is also the extra element of the exploration of the unknown places of the imaginary world where we still know only one part. In this journey, our heroes meet many adventures and many interesting people, giving the writer the chance to make the story more exciting and add eve...

Nostalgia made this a four star read. It should probably be three star. I love this series so hard from childhood that it becomes very difficult to read it objectively. There are many niggles. This was when I started giving some scenes the side eye - some of the relationships between the men and the women, the power plays and the idea that they were so different from each other. Polgara started to piss me right off, with her holier than thou attitude, and I don't that ever went away again.In tru...

Good. Though, I will admit, it's my love of the characters as much as anything that contributes to my enjoyment of The Malloreon.

Laugh-out-loud funny and endearing new characters, like the King of the Murgos himself. Garion has become an increasingly strong ruler, determined and decisive, and the developments in him and the rest of the cast adds to the enjoyment of the book. Don't let anyone tell you that the first series is better; this one is just as good, if not better! More action and excitement and faster pacing, Eddings keeps his readers turning the pages as fast as possible to find out the next part.

I remember when I fist read this series, years and years ago, and how much I loved it them. I am glad that that has not changed. There are some things I wish were done differently, the stereotypical gender roles for one. But this is a product of different time and you have to go with it. Once you get over this, it is a great series.

The second in the Mallorean. This book took me longer than I expected to read it as I was reading this at home and then Matters on the train to and from work. They took it in turns to grab my attention and it turned into quite a disjointed way of reading books.I still have the same quibbles about the second series that I did with the first book. The prophecy trope has worn thin, another end of everything event has arrived and once more we are heading towards it. Relying upon fate, especially fat...

An unnecessary sequel22 July 2012 It looks as if a few people have noted that this series is pretty much a re-hash of the earlier series, with the same people just different places and a different villain. Okay, the object that was stolen is also different, but other than that it seems that Eddings simply took the script that he used for the Belgariad, made some slight changes, and made it the Mallorean. I gather that here they must get to the 'Place that is No More' which is always interesting

I’m in the process of re-reading the Mallorean series after nearly thirty years and I realise that my tastes have changed over the intervening years.This was an enjoyable read and I still find it refreshing to read an epic fantasy that concentrates on the story. However, I think reading numerous more modern ‘Urban Fantasies’ has made me more enamoured of the decisive ‘kickass’ hero/heroine, who doesn’t put up with any nonsense.Sometimes I didn’t understand what this group were doing. They contai...

What makes an Eddings novel so great?Is it his wonderfull fantasyland which we get to explore in great detail? His rich, detailed background history? His engaging story?Possibly, but for me there is one thing that sticks out: his characters. These people are amazing and just can't get enough of them. The dialogues are amazing, with sarcasm dripping off the pages. I went from laughter to tears and back again. I LOVE this series. It proves that you do not need to switch to 63 different point of vi...

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.In King of the Murgos by David Eddings, the second book in the Malloreon, Garion and his friends' quest to find find his abducted son - and the final meeting between the Child of Light and the Child or Dark, as foretold by the prophecies - finally begins. And, oooh, it's still just as exciting as it was the first time I read it!In the first book, Guardians of the West, we learnt about Harakan, an underling of Urvon, a former disciple of Torak, who had ma...

Notes from a re-read after a decade away. Has it held up? Very much so, if you ignore Polgara's misandry. But occasionally Polgara's opinions of and treatment of men is really rather painful to read.The quest begins in Tolnedra, with some things to be accomplished and people added. Then they move to Nyssa, where things are done & people added. Lastly they end up in Cthol Murgos, where more things are done and some things are revealed but no people are added.Ce'Nedra is often treated as though sh...