I remember back in year eight smashing through the BELGARIAD at a clip, and mostly enjoying aspects like Silk the thief, with his ridiculously articulate Drasnian sign language (same thing is more or less found in DUNE).
The MALLOREON was just finishing its publication round that point. Think I had to wait for the local public library to pick up the last book in the series. By the time this second "pentalogy" had finished, I was already conscious of the fundamentally conservative, risk averse approach of the novels. I knew that my darlings would all be safe, and Eddings showed himself (or they showed themselves) to be reluctant to contemplate tragedy—tragedy was for other people, not these characters.
The contrived apotheosis of Durnik might be seen as the point where an Eddings-fantasy departs from Tolkien. Where Tolkien the philologist was steeped in myth and saga, the consolatory philosophy of mortality and of the virtue of a good life (and therefore death) to a truly hackneyed extent, the Eddings flatly refuse any outcome so unpleasant as death. Their characters not only don't die during the story—we are reassured that none of them will ever die. If the Eddings had written THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Aragorn would have become immortal at the end.
The "play happily with my dolls" psychology of this kind of fantasy perhaps has some bearing on the abuse the couple inflicted on children …
Yeah, pretty sure that was similar to my reading of them. I borrowed the books off a friend. I remember both of us waiting for the last one to be released. And perhaps, truthfully, asking for them to contemplate the tragedy of some aspects of their books more is asking for the book to be a different thing, a more adult thing. Maybe it doesn't have to be anything mroe than it is for a young reader (though you'd surely baulk at giving the book because of the racism at the very least these days).
Still, it's hard not to see a psychology in the books once you learn a bit about the Eddings'.
My wife was the adopted daughter of David Eddings, we were able to positively identify that she was in fact his daughter. It must have really messed up her head because she has bad dreams about bugs all the time. Her name was Wendy but got changed to Kathleen when she got adopted again.
This summary is well written. I learned just moments ago, this morning, about this abuse as I have been looking up older authors I liked to see who is still alive. I read these books as a teenager, as they came out, and this fact will definitely alter my fond memories of them as well, fond memories that mostly survived past comments on the Belgariad series being quite a derivative work. It is interesting that these facts were hidden for all this time, and also until after their deaths. They were lucky, but it must have been something they feared would come out their entire life. That would be suffering in itself...I hope.
I was going through my old sci fi and fantasy books, checking on the internet if I had missed any over the years.
Coming across the article about the Edding’s child abuse conviction, made me feel incredibly sad. So many sci fi and fantasy authors have some shady past or view, that would not be acceptable in this day and age, i.e Orson Scott Card or Frank Herbert.
I have to believe that this reinforces a positive view of today, and the tolerances and kinder views that have come with time.
I just stumbled across a reference to the Eddings today and found this while digging. Wow :-( . I guess I won't suggest my pre-teen continue reading any of those series (happily, he got bored around the end of Pawn of Prophecy). I probably won't revisit the Belgariad as the guilty pleasure it was yesterday, but the Malloreon was always just re-heated leftovers.
I will take issue with one thing you said and pose two questions. I'm going to do this becasue a) I'm genuinely interested; and b) you're an author and it's easier to engage such people thgouh elaborate set piece challenges than open questions (NB: I know b) is a lie ;-) ).
Questions:
1. The Drasnians were obviously the racial allegory (if we're gracious enough to call it that) for "good" Jews. They were money focused merchants but still on the good guy side. Their lead example was a small thief who's nose got mentioned a lot. So what real world mapping would you apply to the Nadraks?
2. What real world mapping do you apply for Nyissan's? I always got Egyptian vibes, but I've never discussed it as an adult with the vocabulary to dissect it.
Challenge:
3. "They’re largely uninspired, a lift from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, as popular fantasy often was back then." I've read enough fantasy over the years to not feel comfortable with this dismissal. If you say "Given me a story of good triumphing over evil in a frantasy world in ~1500 pages" then it's easy to say "LOTR is the only pattern." More modern works are likely to challenge or subvert the initial precept than fall into the trap (e.g. they're likely to ask why it needs to be good triumphing over evil in 1500 pages).
But here, I'd like to present my challenge for my own personal benefit. Can you name some other books in the last 20 years (or whenever) that have that essential theme, setting and rough length while managing to not be LOTR-esque?
I'm not after modern urban fantasy. I'm not after Hunger Games coming of age stories. But I'd love to find some fresh takes on the hero's journey. Thanks for any suggestions you can give :-)
I have to be honest and say it has been so long since I read the Eddings' books that mapping the races as allegories now is a bit difficult without spending the time - and I'd rather spend the time doing other things.
In relation to the last question, I don't know either. I suspect they're out there, but it's just not where my interest lies. I'd be surprised, however, if Brandon Sanderson isn't doing it in his books, or Naomi Novak, or the Rothfuss stuff. But it's honestly something that you'll have to go check yourself. For myself, personally, I dug the Steve Erickson Malazan series, but it's not the heroe's journey thing or anything like that so probably not what you're looking for.
(I also don't read a lot of modern fantasy, I must admit. Most of it just isn't what I'm looking for as a reader.)
Reportedly the first book David Eddings wrote was a thriller about an abusive, alcoholic parent. This is the one he started while in jail. Hard not to see something of his situation there.
I remember back in year eight smashing through the BELGARIAD at a clip, and mostly enjoying aspects like Silk the thief, with his ridiculously articulate Drasnian sign language (same thing is more or less found in DUNE).
The MALLOREON was just finishing its publication round that point. Think I had to wait for the local public library to pick up the last book in the series. By the time this second "pentalogy" had finished, I was already conscious of the fundamentally conservative, risk averse approach of the novels. I knew that my darlings would all be safe, and Eddings showed himself (or they showed themselves) to be reluctant to contemplate tragedy—tragedy was for other people, not these characters.
The contrived apotheosis of Durnik might be seen as the point where an Eddings-fantasy departs from Tolkien. Where Tolkien the philologist was steeped in myth and saga, the consolatory philosophy of mortality and of the virtue of a good life (and therefore death) to a truly hackneyed extent, the Eddings flatly refuse any outcome so unpleasant as death. Their characters not only don't die during the story—we are reassured that none of them will ever die. If the Eddings had written THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Aragorn would have become immortal at the end.
The "play happily with my dolls" psychology of this kind of fantasy perhaps has some bearing on the abuse the couple inflicted on children …
Yeah, pretty sure that was similar to my reading of them. I borrowed the books off a friend. I remember both of us waiting for the last one to be released. And perhaps, truthfully, asking for them to contemplate the tragedy of some aspects of their books more is asking for the book to be a different thing, a more adult thing. Maybe it doesn't have to be anything mroe than it is for a young reader (though you'd surely baulk at giving the book because of the racism at the very least these days).
Still, it's hard not to see a psychology in the books once you learn a bit about the Eddings'.
I was shocked to discover about the whole affair today, and I thank you for your insights.
I'm still elaborating it all.
My wife was the adopted daughter of David Eddings, we were able to positively identify that she was in fact his daughter. It must have really messed up her head because she has bad dreams about bugs all the time. Her name was Wendy but got changed to Kathleen when she got adopted again.
I'd argue the Eddings was the least Tolkien inspired writers of his time.
In one of his books he wrote something to the effect of 'ignore daddy Tolkein'
That doesn't mean that his work was original or super creative but I don't see much explicit Tolkien DNA in it
This summary is well written. I learned just moments ago, this morning, about this abuse as I have been looking up older authors I liked to see who is still alive. I read these books as a teenager, as they came out, and this fact will definitely alter my fond memories of them as well, fond memories that mostly survived past comments on the Belgariad series being quite a derivative work. It is interesting that these facts were hidden for all this time, and also until after their deaths. They were lucky, but it must have been something they feared would come out their entire life. That would be suffering in itself...I hope.
I was going through my old sci fi and fantasy books, checking on the internet if I had missed any over the years.
Coming across the article about the Edding’s child abuse conviction, made me feel incredibly sad. So many sci fi and fantasy authors have some shady past or view, that would not be acceptable in this day and age, i.e Orson Scott Card or Frank Herbert.
I have to believe that this reinforces a positive view of today, and the tolerances and kinder views that have come with time.
I just stumbled across a reference to the Eddings today and found this while digging. Wow :-( . I guess I won't suggest my pre-teen continue reading any of those series (happily, he got bored around the end of Pawn of Prophecy). I probably won't revisit the Belgariad as the guilty pleasure it was yesterday, but the Malloreon was always just re-heated leftovers.
I will take issue with one thing you said and pose two questions. I'm going to do this becasue a) I'm genuinely interested; and b) you're an author and it's easier to engage such people thgouh elaborate set piece challenges than open questions (NB: I know b) is a lie ;-) ).
Questions:
1. The Drasnians were obviously the racial allegory (if we're gracious enough to call it that) for "good" Jews. They were money focused merchants but still on the good guy side. Their lead example was a small thief who's nose got mentioned a lot. So what real world mapping would you apply to the Nadraks?
2. What real world mapping do you apply for Nyissan's? I always got Egyptian vibes, but I've never discussed it as an adult with the vocabulary to dissect it.
Challenge:
3. "They’re largely uninspired, a lift from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, as popular fantasy often was back then." I've read enough fantasy over the years to not feel comfortable with this dismissal. If you say "Given me a story of good triumphing over evil in a frantasy world in ~1500 pages" then it's easy to say "LOTR is the only pattern." More modern works are likely to challenge or subvert the initial precept than fall into the trap (e.g. they're likely to ask why it needs to be good triumphing over evil in 1500 pages).
But here, I'd like to present my challenge for my own personal benefit. Can you name some other books in the last 20 years (or whenever) that have that essential theme, setting and rough length while managing to not be LOTR-esque?
I'm not after modern urban fantasy. I'm not after Hunger Games coming of age stories. But I'd love to find some fresh takes on the hero's journey. Thanks for any suggestions you can give :-)
I have to be honest and say it has been so long since I read the Eddings' books that mapping the races as allegories now is a bit difficult without spending the time - and I'd rather spend the time doing other things.
In relation to the last question, I don't know either. I suspect they're out there, but it's just not where my interest lies. I'd be surprised, however, if Brandon Sanderson isn't doing it in his books, or Naomi Novak, or the Rothfuss stuff. But it's honestly something that you'll have to go check yourself. For myself, personally, I dug the Steve Erickson Malazan series, but it's not the heroe's journey thing or anything like that so probably not what you're looking for.
(I also don't read a lot of modern fantasy, I must admit. Most of it just isn't what I'm looking for as a reader.)
Reportedly the first book David Eddings wrote was a thriller about an abusive, alcoholic parent. This is the one he started while in jail. Hard not to see something of his situation there.