sanders@aecom.UUCP (Jeremy Sanders) (11/20/84)
Yes, its been a long wait (though not as long as some others I remember), but "Enchanter's Endgame" the fifth and final book in David Eddings Belgariad just hit the stands. I recommend this whole series as one of the best to come out in the last ten years. Jeremy Sanders aecom!sanders
jeffh@brl-tgr.ARPA (Jeff Hanes ) (11/20/84)
>... "Enchanter's Endgame" the fifth and final book in David Eddings Belgariad >just hit the stands. I recommend this whole series as one of the best to >come out in the last ten years. > Jeremy Sanders I, too, have been waiting for this to come out. I started it Sunday afternoon and finished it Sunday evening (with only one stop for food). As you might guess, i did enjoy it very much, but I do have some complaints. I feel rather let down by the ending of the book. I don't know why, maybe I was just expecting him to do something really original. After all, the concept was good, his writing has a quality and wit that is far too rare in this genre, the characters were well drawn and (mostly) believable. What more could I ask for? [ ... Spoiler Alert ... Spoiler Alert ... Spoiler Alert ... ] Well, for starters, I wish that it didn't have such a @!##$@*! Hollywood ending. Everybody (well, almost) gets married and is expected to "live happily ever after" (except Garion, his rather forced marriage has all the seeds for a really hen-pecked husband). I often felt that characters were thrown at each other and told to be "in love" without getting a chance to know each other and develop any sort of true understanding. The best example is probably Adara, the "true confession" scene wherein she expresses her love for Hettar as she lies (she thinks) dying rings totally false. It's just too contrived to feel true. This applies to most of the romances. I'm not opposed to romance or happy endings, but I would have liked a little more originality and a little less reliance on old, worn-out formulae for a happy end. In all, this book feels more rushed than the first four. It seems that the author lost control of some of his characters and relied on cliche to carry them rather than maintaining the expressive writing style that I was starting to expect from him. Perhaps he had too many people populating his book and tried to give them all equal access to center stage, but didn't have the time to craft each appearance for maximum effect. Finally, the confrontation with Torak, though exciting, left me with no real impression other than "Oh well, another Ultimate-Evil-in-the- Universe-gets-destroyed-novel." I'm tired of that sort of stuff, why can't more fantasy literature take a realistic approach to this subject, i.e. that evil resides in each of us, and that the true war between good and evil lies in the internal struggle rather than in destroying some great EVIL being. (sigh, I'll get off my soapbox, now) Whatever "technical and philosophical points" the autnor was trying to develop apparently got lost in the telling of one more good-destroys-evil fantasy story. And that is very disappointing, because he had the potential to do much better than that. I still recommend the series highly. It's exciting, often humourous, and has some of the most enjoyable characters I've seen in a long time. It stands far above most fantasy literature in quality and concept. Read it. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Fantome Straynger <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 2004 - 1963 "Will have died in a tragic temporal anomaly" Posted by: Jeff Hanes USnail: 508 Wheel Rd. UUCP: {seismo,decvax}!brl-bmd!jeffh Bel Air, MD 21014 ARPA: <brl-bmd!jeffh@seismo.ARPA>
chenr@tilt.FUN (Ray Chen) (11/21/84)
> > Yes, its been a long wait (though not as long as some others I remember), > but "Enchanter's Endgame" the fifth and final book in David Eddings Belgariad > just hit the stands. I recommend this whole series as one of the best to > come out in the last ten years. > > Jeremy Sanders > aecom!sanders YAAAAAHHHHOOOOOOO !!!!!!! I've been waiting for a long time, now. It's book store time for me... Ray Chen princeton!tilt!chenr P.S. -- Second the above recommendation.
agd@pucc-i (Gerrit Huizenga III) (11/27/84)
<The bugs go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah... >
Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Excellent Series!!!!!!!
4 Stars or more!
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