Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!pesnta!amd!amdcad!lll-crg!caip!daemon
From: CREW@SU-SUSHI.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: _Belgariad_ review (major spoilers)
Message-ID: <1489@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Tue, 11-Mar-86 01:14:56 EST
Article-I.D.: caip.1489
Posted: Tue Mar 11 01:14:56 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Mar-86 19:28:48 EST
Sender: daemon@caip.RUTGERS.EDU
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 67

From: Roger Crew <Crew@SU-SUSHI.ARPA>

Re Belgariad: 

	Sorry, guys.  I have to give this a lukewarm
recommendation at best.  Entertaining even, if you don't
mind the fact that it is completely predictable.  This might
still have been good had not the author felt compelled to
stretch it out over five volumes (...this is a disturbing trend
in itself, but this flame is long enough as it is...)

(*** SPOILER WARNING ***)

The least he could have done was to throw in a plot twist.
Yes, just a little something unexpected, that's all I ask.
There were all sorts of things I was hoping he would try:

	1) Have Torak turn out to have some plausible
    purpose of his own other than basic evil and nastiness (we
    never did get to see what it was the other prophecy wanted,
    but Eddings probably never bothered to try coming up with
    anything reasonable, anyway...),

	2) Provide Aldur with his own faults/evil-tendencies
    (maybe have that prologue to Volume 5 [ Torak's side of the
    story ] be true in some important respect...)

	3) Have some of the bad feeling towards Angaraks be
    due to centruies of accumulated prejuidice (an episode with
    Garion running into some Murgos who weren't completely evil,
    vicious, and nasty might have been a good idea...).

	4) Plant some doubts to make us think that Garion
    could actually become like Z'akath or Chtuchik someday...
    (i.e., corrupted by power).  I mean that if you're going to
    make your protagonist powerful enough to blow everyone else
    off the face of the earth without any particular effort
    involved, you better do *something* to make the story
    interesting.

Let's face it, there were all sorts of wonderful
opportunities for some heart-rending moral dilemmas that
were just thrown away (this actually bothers me more than a
bad story, namely, an o.k. story with lots of potential
that never gets realized).  It's not as if Eddings wasn't
interested in this either (witness the scenes of anguish
when people start getting killed in the big battle in Book 5).

But all we ever get are these lamentations like CeNedra's
``Gosh, I'm raising this whole army and they're all going to
get killed.  But I have to do it, 'cause the prophecy says
so...''  Convenient thing, having that prophecy to justify
everything they do, ``Yup, we're on a mission from God....''
And of course, nobody really gets hurt (you may as well take
all of the people that get killed and put red t-shirts on
them that say CANNON-FODDER (or SECURITY-GUARD if you're
into Star Trek...)).

I also have trouble with these endings in which EVERYBODY gets MARRIED.

Notice how we're also set up for a sequel (the further
adventures of the Orb... coming soon, no doubt -- sigh, --
I'll probably end up buying it, too).

	roger
-------
-------