Fantasy Hardships

Ultimately, there isn't much to tell about this book. It's a five book series that spins the tale of a young boy who is destined to be the savior of the world. He's the books sole point of view.

He begins his journey to chase some item, under the guidance of two magic users who only use magic when the plot demands it. There's the spat of mandatory royalty and ancient mystic history... So yeah, it's a by the numbers, boy comes of age and power adventure.

Now, I don't hold this against it as it was written in 1982, and back then it was blazing a trail.These days? Being the savior of the world who chases an all-powerful cafoozle is plot device I want to read about because you know how it will end. He wins and he gets the cafoozle (or nobody gets it). All of this I expected when going in.

The most annoying thing, really, is that the main character somehow manages to be in the right spot to overhear 'plot advancement'. This happens six, seven times. And in the end it became so jarring, it ejected me from the story entirely. The world isn't very interesting either, and it's clear from the start who the bad guys are, no ambiguity there and the characters are one note stereotypes.

Final Verdict

I have to admit I began reading this as it's considered a classic of that particular sort of book. Unfortunately, it didn't hold my interest enough to read the next one. You know where the journey is going to end, and the journey itself isn't that interesting.

Bottom line, it's all too... eighties fantasy, which makes sense seeing as it is an eighties fantasy. Nonetheless, it's a good baseline to see how the fantasy genre evolved over the decades. Yet even if you are completely new to the genre, I doubt I would recommend The Belgariad series.