Belgarath the Sorcerer

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All of this wonder he gave freely in exchange for a few meals, a few tankards of ale, and a warm spot in the hay barn in which to sleep. You get to peek at the time before Garion and friends and even if the two books (Belgarath and Polgara) have some of the same "scenes" it only made me feel exited: "I remember this from the other book!

Belgarath is one of the most complex, entertaining and lovable characters in the Belgariad and the Malloreon, without whom none of the events in those books would have taken place, and it's extremely fitting that he would have his own story to tell!The cyclical, tightly predetermined nature of this universe was beginning to annoy me in The Mallorean, but told here from the first-person perspective, it gets even more frustrating.

If you are looking for classic David Eddings, for an epic quest with the world at stake with characters you engage with, this is probably not the book for you. In the serieses, it’s sort of glossed over as a big battle, but this shows how long the campaign was (almost two decades by my campaign.

I hope that one of the other books will have the ending as this only covers the beginning and the middle. I'm almost afraid to pick up the next companion book, Polgara, for fear that it will frustrate me even more when it comes to a character I love even above Belgarath.

Belgarath the Sorcerer is another one of those Del Rey series-padding specials - there were a whole bunch of these in the early 90s, where authors rewrote their successful work from the point of view of another character. I really liked it because it showed where the main characters had come from and what their importance was in the series (just incase you didn't already figure it out). It's told from the first-person perspective of the mighty Belgarath, which is a tricky enterprise in and of itself.

I recently tried it again, and hated it for how shallow, unrealistic and purely useless the book was, and when I decided to review it wanted to put 1 star.

Oddly enough, I enjoyed Belgarath the Sorcerer rather more this time around than when I first read it as a teenager, probably I suspect because I was able to take it far less seriously. There are definitely some elements that are worth the read - most notably, I felt the book more recognisably demonstrated the same spark of life and vigour to which I'd responded so strongly in The Belgariad when Polgara first came on the scene. The problem was how much of the history seemed to default to “because the prophecy wanted the world this way” which made the international landscape feel more of a stage setting than a truly dynamic, evolving world. This means the book is peppered with little asides, aspersions, comments to and about other characters or nations, as well as the old sorcerer’s musings on the workings of the world and indeed the future events of the series.It is a nice read for fans of the series, but I would not recommend it to others due to its many details and relatively slow pace, as well as the fact that most of my own enjoyment of this book came from recognising parts of it from the Belgariad and Malloreon and being able to puzzle things together. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. This is the first of a few companion novels set in the world of The Belgariad and The Malloreon, which recounts the life of Belgarath the Sorcerer. I can easily imagine him being able to do this as this book only touches on so many little stories without elaborating a great deal.