I've got Belgarath the Sorcerer playing on audiobook right now, I'd say that was inspired by the thread but I had started up some Sparhawk stuff a little over a week ago. I'd be up for a reread.
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View original postIt's got a distinct Men are from Mars Women from Venus take on things, which at times is irritating but then anything not this-minute modern tends to be. On of my other big favorites, and simultaneous to when I was first reading Eddings, was Anne McCaffrey and her take on feminism includes the heroine being slapped and shaken by the hero regularly. The 'women can't be understood' approach is fairly reasonable for a male author to use its just a queer one when your wife of many years is the co-author. So is the almost endless series of May-December romances which are younger gal to older guy except for two exceptions where the women never age, Sephrenia-Vanion and Polgara-Durnik. I can't help but feel the Brotherhood of Sorcerers suicides might have come off better if one of them fell in love with a mortal women who died of old age or something.
View original postI don't know about that, that anything not contemporary takes that tack. There are enough male writers, if you don't restrict the search to fantasy authors alone, who wrote good female characters even decades or centuries ago.
There are definite exceptions but the problem is I can't really tell a great cross-gender write from an okay one. Also you tend to notice the people who screw it up more than the ones who didn't. Expand the search wide enough and you get some striking exceptions, no argument there, but as an average the gender stereotypes tend to stick out more in older stuff.
View original postHadn't really stopped to think about the May-December issue, but good point... Beldin, Silk, Sparhawk, Kalten, and a fair few others I'm sure. Sparhawk's relationship with Ehlana in particular is dubious, although to Eddings' credit at least he realizes that and doesn't gloss it over.
Sparhawk's ring screw up and following events does make for once of the more genuinely humorous scenes of what is a fairly dark book by Eddings' standards
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View original postI'll give Eddings some credit for having Garion blunder around in Guardians of the West for a while unrestrained by Prophecy or ancient relatives. Those are some of his better scenes, bringing a pair of Armies to heel then getting chewed out by Belgarath over his pyrotechnics.
View original postThat was amusing, yeah. Of course, it doesn't last long, and if Garion takes the lead more in the Mallorean, most of the credit for that belongs to the Orb.
Yeah, it is probably the best parts of the first half of the book except for the Belgarath/Beldin scenes. Eriond is, IMHO, kind of boring as a character.
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View original postYeah I tend to forget about the Tamuli, even in Domes she's gets kicked around a bit and it's probably the biggest plot point of Shining Ones. The problem is that by then she's not the wise and mysterious keeper of dangerous arcana anymore but more of side note to a God-killer and his divine daughter, and the gods have been made rather mundane by that point. It's a habit of Eddings to overpower his main characters and keep writing them even afterwards till it loses it's mystery factor and becomes rather cheesy.
View original postI should reread Tamuli and see if it holds up to my memories better than the Elenium does... I recall it being more fun, albeit admittedly cheesy.
I like Tamuli but it seems to zig-zag between the generally fun and light-hearted Garion stuff and the bleaker Elenium.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
I was doing a reread of The Belgariad, and while I like it...
- 27/03/2013 06:00:11 PM
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Interesting. I certainly wouldn't make that comparison...
- 27/03/2013 09:30:33 PM
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About Ce'Nedra
- 28/03/2013 01:26:43 PM
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I guess, but they also learn not to take her too seriously at times like those.
- 30/03/2013 09:18:10 PM
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I think you're forgetting David wasn't the only Eddings writing those books
- 29/03/2013 05:14:55 PM
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I liked the "secondary" female characters a lot, actually
- 30/03/2013 06:50:07 PM
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The problem was the longer the secondary's stuck around the more Mary Sue they became
- 30/03/2013 09:10:57 PM
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True, although I feel Polgara (in her own series) and Aphrael hold up well enough even in rereads.
- 30/03/2013 09:12:31 PM
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Polgara the Sorceress was maybe a bit late, but Aphrael is a ffair example
- 30/03/2013 10:16:26 PM
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Fair enough.
- 31/03/2013 12:53:19 AM
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Re: Fair enough.
- 31/03/2013 05:44:09 AM
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I wonder how many participants we would get for an Eddings reread... 
- 01/04/2013 12:10:00 PM
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- 01/04/2013 12:10:00 PM
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He's a good reread, I just started back up
- 01/04/2013 01:38:33 PM
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I started my reread of Polgara and the first few chapters are awful
- 13/04/2013 09:36:01 PM
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I'm actually up to the Demon King of Karanda (Mallorean reread), but I totally agree.
- 13/04/2013 07:42:25 AM
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Eddings is like comfort food, read it and don't think about it 
*NM*
- 13/04/2013 09:22:47 PM
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*NM*
- 13/04/2013 09:22:47 PM
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Re: I was doing a reread of The Belgariad, and while I like it...
- 20/04/2013 04:36:03 AM
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