::big no::
RIP David Eddings :(
Apart from children's and YA stuff, The Belgariad was literally the first fantasy series I ever read. (This may have had a lasting effect.) Except by the time I was allowed to read it, I already knew several of the best parts, because on car trips my sister would start laughing at them and we'd make her read them aloud. Several years later, I was still laughing, knew the definition of the word "defenestrate", and secretly wondered why all the other fantasy characters in other books, on their own quests to save the world, never complained about the weather, eating the same food all the time, getting attacked by the bad guys, or each other. And upon a particularly woeful character bitterly railing against the Universe for their fated role in the epic battle of good and evil, I cannot but help think how much better it would be if the Universe always made fun of them and told them to shut up and stop whining.
Looking back, I wouldn't exactly call David Eddings the BEST AUTHOR EVER (I didn't even finish his last series), and some of his stuff now makes me cringe a bit, but while he wrote to a formula, he did it because it was FUN, and that translates very strongly into his work. Besides, his characters? MADE OF WIN.
He once called his contribution to fantasy "the literary equivalent of peddling dope", which I think pretty much encapsulates his particular brand of awesome. He'll be missed.
Apart from children's and YA stuff, The Belgariad was literally the first fantasy series I ever read. (This may have had a lasting effect.) Except by the time I was allowed to read it, I already knew several of the best parts, because on car trips my sister would start laughing at them and we'd make her read them aloud. Several years later, I was still laughing, knew the definition of the word "defenestrate", and secretly wondered why all the other fantasy characters in other books, on their own quests to save the world, never complained about the weather, eating the same food all the time, getting attacked by the bad guys, or each other. And upon a particularly woeful character bitterly railing against the Universe for their fated role in the epic battle of good and evil, I cannot but help think how much better it would be if the Universe always made fun of them and told them to shut up and stop whining.
Looking back, I wouldn't exactly call David Eddings the BEST AUTHOR EVER (I didn't even finish his last series), and some of his stuff now makes me cringe a bit, but while he wrote to a formula, he did it because it was FUN, and that translates very strongly into his work. Besides, his characters? MADE OF WIN.
He once called his contribution to fantasy "the literary equivalent of peddling dope", which I think pretty much encapsulates his particular brand of awesome. He'll be missed.