Belgarath the Sorcerer

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Set in the same universe as the Eddings' The Belgariad and The Malloreon, it is effectively one big flashback (or a prequel) to the other series, although the framework story is set after the events of The Malloreon.

Then came the dark day when the Dark God Torak split the world asunder, and the God Aldur and his disciples began their monumental labour to set Destiny aright. Far too often Belgarath goes to places just because “he feels he has to” or makes events come out a certain way “because the prophecy told him to”.In Magician's Gambit, the Voice of Prophecy tells Garion that he has never spoken to Belgarath directly, whereas Belgarath the Sorcerer records many conversations between Belgarath and the voice. He admitted that he had to distance himself from people as they grow older, because endless grief was not a condition the human mind could endure, and he, despite millennia of life, was still human. He was driven to near bestial rage when he heard Aldur had been struck by his brother, and was willing to give up everything to follow the will of his master.

I have so many memories of the time I spent reading David and Leigh Eddings’ books as a teenager that I was almost afraid to go back to them as an adult. This is possibly also why Beldaran at least was slightly short changed as a character though to what extent this was a lack of attention and to what extent simply the recognition that Polgara would be closer to her twin sister than her mostly absent father I don’t know. Likewise, I was rather surprised how often and how easily Belgarath was able to simply pop in on enemies such as Torak’s Disciple Ctuchik for a friendly chat, though this did give something of the idea of a chess game with prescribed moves and countermoves (even if the opposition always seemed to play it very badly). 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. Of course in a book like this in which prophecies play an important role, many of the characters and events are fated to occur.You know who will live, who will die (usually) and who will show up during the introductory sequences. This both occurred on a smaller character basis (Belgarath was surprisingly ready to give his favourite daughter to marry the Rivan king), and on a far wider political basis.