My Life In Books: David Eddings
For most of time growing up in North Dakota, I knew very few people who read the same kinds of books that I did outside of my mother. My friend Ryan was into science fiction and some fantasy, but we didn't have very much author overlap. One of the very few authors I can recall a lot of other people at my school reading was David Eddings, who along with his (mostly uncredited) wife Leigh wrote the Belgariad and the Malloreon.
Of course, none of those people were in my class. My senior year, my "service project" for National Honor Society was to serve as a study room monitor for a bunch of freshman boys. Leaving aside the breathtaking cynicism of letting a senior be the adult in the room instead of paying another teacher to do it, it wasn't bad gig. It was set up in the classroom used for typing and business classes, and nobody gave me any problems. Quite a few of them were on the football team with me, and I knew most of the rest of them anyway because
[a] it was a small town with K-12 in the same school.
[b] my sister was a freshman
More notably for our purposes, over the course of that semester (or year, I don't recall which anymore), almost every freshman boy in that study hall read their way through most of those combined ten books of the two series. I don't recall seeing any other boy read any science fiction or fantasy by any author at school, and precious few girls, including my sister and my high school girlfriend, who asked me out largely because she saw me reading this stuff.
In retrospect, this sort of makes sense. Eddings had basically devised the perfect fantasy series for the 13-15 year old boy. It's so perfect, that I still re-read it every 4-5 years, and while I can certainly see flaws now that escaped me back then (notably: gender roles being carved in stone and plenty of unsubtle "evil easterners" stereotypes), the Belgariad is still delightful fun. Even when I read it the first time, the Malloreon seemed a bit cynically repetitive ("oh hey, I can reuse my plot and get another five books out of it" is quite possibly something Eddings thought to himself) but I like the characters so much it was hard to complain then or now.
I got into these books when I myself was in junior high because of my mother, who by the time I started reading them had acquired most of the paperbacks. I don't know how all those freshman boys got into them, although I think my sister may have been partially responsible for setting the hook in a few of them and it spread from there. Some of those guys I never saw reading a single other book in that study hall, so it's doubly impressive that they plowed through these.
I still own my copies of the Belgariad and the Malloreon. I also own my copies of the The Elenium, which has also held up well despite it's obvious derivation from the Belgariad. The sequel The Tamuli was always a lot weaker and looks even worse today, but I still have it too. You could reasonably argue that Eddings had one original idea, and in at least The Belgariad, Malloreon and Elenium did it so well that even his repetitions of that idea were still a lot better than many other books.
Alas, this didn't hold up with his other books. Of Eddings' other fantasy books, I definitely read the three not particularly good stand alone books that followed the Belgariad and the Malloreon. I probably read and forgot The Dreamers, which came out when I was an adult. If I'd read it in junior high, maybe I would have liked it. I know I read The Redemption of Althalus, because it was so bad I wish I hadn't.
Of his/their scant non-fantasy output, I remember enjoying High Hunt and thinking it was interesting. I also spent several years secretly convinced that the The Losers was his best novel, although I suspect if I were to re-read it today I would disagree. Both titles were at least somewhat more creative than the fantasy novels he churned out later in life.
Of course, none of those people were in my class. My senior year, my "service project" for National Honor Society was to serve as a study room monitor for a bunch of freshman boys. Leaving aside the breathtaking cynicism of letting a senior be the adult in the room instead of paying another teacher to do it, it wasn't bad gig. It was set up in the classroom used for typing and business classes, and nobody gave me any problems. Quite a few of them were on the football team with me, and I knew most of the rest of them anyway because
[a] it was a small town with K-12 in the same school.
[b] my sister was a freshman
More notably for our purposes, over the course of that semester (or year, I don't recall which anymore), almost every freshman boy in that study hall read their way through most of those combined ten books of the two series. I don't recall seeing any other boy read any science fiction or fantasy by any author at school, and precious few girls, including my sister and my high school girlfriend, who asked me out largely because she saw me reading this stuff.
In retrospect, this sort of makes sense. Eddings had basically devised the perfect fantasy series for the 13-15 year old boy. It's so perfect, that I still re-read it every 4-5 years, and while I can certainly see flaws now that escaped me back then (notably: gender roles being carved in stone and plenty of unsubtle "evil easterners" stereotypes), the Belgariad is still delightful fun. Even when I read it the first time, the Malloreon seemed a bit cynically repetitive ("oh hey, I can reuse my plot and get another five books out of it" is quite possibly something Eddings thought to himself) but I like the characters so much it was hard to complain then or now.
I got into these books when I myself was in junior high because of my mother, who by the time I started reading them had acquired most of the paperbacks. I don't know how all those freshman boys got into them, although I think my sister may have been partially responsible for setting the hook in a few of them and it spread from there. Some of those guys I never saw reading a single other book in that study hall, so it's doubly impressive that they plowed through these.
I still own my copies of the Belgariad and the Malloreon. I also own my copies of the The Elenium, which has also held up well despite it's obvious derivation from the Belgariad. The sequel The Tamuli was always a lot weaker and looks even worse today, but I still have it too. You could reasonably argue that Eddings had one original idea, and in at least The Belgariad, Malloreon and Elenium did it so well that even his repetitions of that idea were still a lot better than many other books.
Alas, this didn't hold up with his other books. Of Eddings' other fantasy books, I definitely read the three not particularly good stand alone books that followed the Belgariad and the Malloreon. I probably read and forgot The Dreamers, which came out when I was an adult. If I'd read it in junior high, maybe I would have liked it. I know I read The Redemption of Althalus, because it was so bad I wish I hadn't.
Of his/their scant non-fantasy output, I remember enjoying High Hunt and thinking it was interesting. I also spent several years secretly convinced that the The Losers was his best novel, although I suspect if I were to re-read it today I would disagree. Both titles were at least somewhat more creative than the fantasy novels he churned out later in life.