Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad, #1)

by David Eddings

A magnificent epic set against a history of seven thousand years of the struggles of Gods and Kings and men - of strange lands and events - of fate and a prophecy that must be fulfilled! THE BELGARIAD Long ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe. But that was only a story, and Garion did not believe in magic dooms, even though the dark man without a shadow had haunted him for years. Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread Torak, or that he would be led on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger by those he loved - but did not know? For a while his dreams of innocence were safe, untroubled by knowledge of his strange heritage. For a little while...THUS BEGINS BOOK ONE OF THE BELGARIAD

• ISBN10: 0345296370
• ISBN13: 9780345296375
• Publish Date: 31 December 1982 (first published 12 September 1982)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 18 October 2003
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Ballantine Books Inc.
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 262
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Yes the casual assumption that all races whatever is lazy but overall this was an entertaining yarn. Young farm boy gets hauled off on a quest to help save the world from evil, in this book he doesn't discover who he is but there are heavy hints. The story takes itself lightly and I still love Polgara deeply.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

So I originally said that I wouldn't be moving straight on to The Belgariad series after finishing Eddings' Tamuli trilogy, but my Kindle was dead, and was taking forever to charge, so I decided to read this series instead as it was calling me. So glad I did! God, I love these books!

Garion is a young, oridinary boy living on Faldor's Farm with his Aunt Pol, the farm's cook. He loves hearing the tales of myth and legend; the stories of the Gods and the wars of the past, of how evil God Torak stole the Orb of power from his brother Aldur, and how the sorcerer Belgarath fought to get it back with men from Aloria. But they're all just stories, and nothing that will touch his life. Until one day the Storyteller arrives at the farm and urgently needs Aunt Pol to go with him to recover something that has been stolen. Something important. Whisked away from everything he knows, Garion travels with Aunt Pol and the Storyteller he calls Mister Wolf into the unknown - never knowing what they're doing, what they're trying to find, and why. Kings and nobles are met along the way, who treat Mister Wolf and Aunt Pol with the utmost respect, and Garion slowly comes to realise that these people may not actually be who he thought they were...

This book is the reason I read. Just let that sink in for a moment. If it wasn't for this book, there would be no blog, and I probably wouldn't have read all the hundreds of books I've read. This is the book that turned me from a non-reader to a reader when I was 12. This book changed my life.

Reading it again gave me such a profound sense of joy there are no words to express well enough. It's like being wrapped up in a familar warmth, in happiness and comfort and complete contentment. There's also excitement to read on, get to all the exciting parts I remember. I remembered almost every moment of this book, but, like I've found on other re-reads of this series, I can never exactly remember where one book ends and another book starts.

I remember from a previous re-read thinking that it took a long while for it to get to the point where they leave Faldor's Farm, and that not very much happened in this first book. What I had forgotten is how small a book Pawn of Prophecy is. I must have become much quicker at reading than I used to be, because at 258 pages, I flew through it. This time round, it felt to me that everything happened really quickly, but not in any bad way. With each word, each page, each chapter, I was getting closer to all the excitement I was so looking forward to, and loving every second.

Pawn of Prophecy begins what has become the epitome of what is high fantasy to me. The great cast of characters, the adventure, politics and intrigue, the magic. This story completely captures my imagination every time, and never fails to remind me of the wonders of reading. This book will always be close to my heart.