Review: Pawn of Prophecy

 

Summary:

Pawn of Prophecy follows the main character Garion – a 14-year-old farmboy raised by his Aunt – as he is forced to leave the world he has known – the farm he’s lived all his life – to embark on a journey with his Aunt, a mysterious old man, and a small group of supporting characters.  For much of the book Garion is kept in the dark on what is going on: their reasons for abrupt venture, the identities of the people he is with, and most importantly who he is.  It is quickly apparent to Garion that he is more than just a simple-minded farmboy, yet his identity and background are kept from him for most of the book.  

After leaving the farm, the story picks up the speed and maintains the pace as the group is chasing after and being chased by something.  As to what, Garion feels to be the only one who doesn’t know.  The story sends the group North, to a city of snow and chills as a meeting is to take place among many kings.  The party remains in the city as the story draws to an end, and little by little Garion learns more of who he is and who he is in the company of.  After matters have been discussed and plans made, the party leaves the city of the North by sea to head South and continue the chase.

I just finished book 1 of The Belgariad; it was a quick yet fun and enjoyable read.  As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’m new to the Fantasy genre and fairly new to reading for pleasure (i.e. I haven’t been much of a reader).  With that said, I would immediately recommend this book to young readers or someone new to the genre.  The main story is straightforward and there aren’t many side-stories.  Eddings uses common English – no thee’s and thou’s and Yoda structured sentences to slow down the reading.  The words he chooses serve their purpose and no more – I didn’t have to rely on context to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.  The focus remained on the main characters, and the time spent covering side-characters was not enough to require the reader to keep pen and paper nearby.  In other words, I hardly found myself asking “Now who is this person again?”  As some Fantasy authors have trouble doing, Eddings keeps his character and environment descriptions to a reasonable length, saving the pages for the story.

As said, Pawn of Prophecy was a quick and fun read that anybody should be able to pick up and enjoy; whether they want to continue the story for 4 more books is up to them, but as for me, I’ve already bought them all.