The Belgariad, Vol. 2 (Books 4 & 5): Castle of Wizardry, Enchanters' End Game

I'll get this comment out of the way. Books 4 and 5 are stronger than Books 1-3. However, that doesn't mean I loved them (nor do I think it's muc... (show more)

I'll get this comment out of the way. Books 4 and 5 are stronger than Books 1-3. However, that doesn't mean I loved them (nor do I think it's much of a hurdle to be better than the first volume.)

Eddings falls into a trap common to far too many Fantasy authors: over-telling the story. His world comes across as bland and lacking in life and detail, but he spends an agonizing amount of time describing every small detail and development in his take, to the detriment of the advancing events.

However, this blandness and over-cooking applies not just to the world, but to the sequence of events in the story. The first 3 books involve the cast of characters literally repeating the same sequence of (anticlimactic and pedestrian) movements and activities, with alarmingly little variation, at least six times, and while the fourth and fifth books break that trend, they cannot escape such exposition.

The best moments in this story came too few and too far between, in the interplay between God vs. Man and God vs. God. Not even in their conflicts necessarily, but the pages spent following the lives of Gods were the highlight of the book. Unfortunately, there were approximately 12 such pages throughout the entire series.

Many would argue that the most critical component in written Fantasy is that of magic, and thus it is all the more disappointing that David Eddings seemingly IGNORED this element until the last minute. His sorcery-inclined characters are given God-like power, but at no point is it explained, described, or even explored HOW it works. In one particularly egregious instance, a character magicks himself into growing into an enormous size, and the way Eddings explains this? "Even he didn't know how he did it; he just did it." It is difficult not to ask the question, if the character didn't know, then who DID? It clearly wasn't the author.

Nearly everything in this story, stretched painfully as it is across some 1500 pages, is not so much BAD as it feels LAZY. The story is hacked and cobbled together with no seeming great care from other, better, Fantasy tales, events meander aimlessly with no seeming relation to the overall arc, half the character cast (which is already much larger than is needed for the told tale) are indiscernible from one another, and the time Eddings should have spent fleshing out the magic and mystery of the world was wasted on needless elaboration on character hairstyles and costumes.

However, these are simply criticisms and gripes I have for the story. I also have, however, some legitimate CONCERNS about the content held in these pages.

This story deals very heavily with racism and prejudice, if by "deals with" I mean "bathes in, drinks, and rubs on its chest to keep warm." Easily half of the cast of "heroes" has no greater goal in life than committing genocide against an entire race, which is entangled strongly with their religion. This "kill everyone of [insert religion here]" attitude is NOT found only in Fantasy, and it is alarming for it to be glorified in this manner.

Further, sex and gender roles in this story are obscenely misogynistic. One character, in truth by far one of the more huggable and likeable of the main cast, RAPES his wife on at least one occasion (and it is heavily implied to be a much more common occurence) despite her scorn and protest, all until she inexplicably comes to love and adore him in the blink of an eye. What event catalyzed this switch? He finally put a male child in her uterus.

There are exactly THREE strong female characters in this story: the frigid witch, the selfish princess, and the strumpet. At the story's end, they all suffer the same fate: eternally committing themselves to serve a husband.
What message does this send?
What positive message about gender roles does ANY of this send?

Before considering the ignorance of race and gender that plagues every page of his saga, Eddings' tale may just strike you as an ambitiously average and recycled story. However, I would go farther and say it is an irresponsibly shallow and oversimplified world, where racism and sexual abuse are tolerated, if not celebrated. Surely in the world we live in today, neither of these are small or inconsequential issues.

As I wrote about Volume 1, if you've got nothing else to read for the time being, pick up the Belgariad, but do so fully aware of, and prepared for, the oversights and lack of care committed by its author. (show less)