Customer Reviews

Castle of Wizardry (The Belgariad, Book 4)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know what it is about David Eddings that keeps you glued to his books. Is it his plots? No, they tend to be overly complex, even if they are linear. Is it his narrative? While he is definitely entertaining, Mr. Eddings often drags the story out a bit too long (hence, two 5-part series). Maybe it's the dialogue? It is, after all, highly witty.

No, what keeps me turning page after page are Mr. Eddings' characters. I don't recall ever having a fondness even remotely close to what I have with Garion, Belgarath, Pol, and Silk.

That's why this book stands out as my favorite of any of his novels. This book best demonstrates the bravery, yet naivete of Garion while contrasting Ce'Nedra's strength against her fragility. It defines the true roles of their companions and sets up the confrontations and fates that await them. It goes beyond what most fantasy novelists write and gives us a truly fantastic epic.

Read this book. Every page is worth it.

The Belgariad as a whole is an entertaining piece of work. The stereotypical characters are fun to watch and listen to, and the plot doesn't tax your senses or raise the tension too high that you stop being entertained and actually start worrying about whether the heroes are going to make it or not. For those who haven't read the rest of the series yet, I'll recap quickly. It's the story of a young hero named Garion who has no idea he is the descendant of kings of old, whose destiny is to reclaim his ancient throne and kill the mad god Torak. He's aided in the quest principally by his Aunt Pol and his grandfather Belgarath. Other memorable companions include the wiley thief/merchant/spy Silk, the flightly princess Ce'Nedra, and the knight Mandorellen. Compared to the rest of the books in the series, Castle of Wizardry is a standout in this regard because this is where the lull in the story occurs. Readers that require it get some breathing room. This is the calm before the storm. As such, I don't find it to be as entertaining as the next book in the series. Nevertheless, you do get a lot of playful banter and relatively safe plot. The characters get to explore their own selves for a little bit, as opposed to being acted on by a whole lot of external forces in the previous books of the series. I like this book precisely because we learn more about the characters themselves. We find out the who and the why behind a prophecy that's thousands of years old. We get to follow the progress of a young kitchen scullion (Garion) who would be king of half the world, as he learns more about the extraordinary family of which he is the latest, and arguably the most important, member. We get to see old companions from previous books return. We get to see all the preparations being made for a titanic battle between the West and the East, and the struggle of a young hero to find a way out of all the bloodshed to come. Though it doesn't try to reach the level of literature with a capital L, it does obliquely ask some interesting questions. The question of how a mortal man can kill an immortal God is an intriguing one, and Castle of Wizardry ends on a rather high point by asking the question but not providing any hint of an answer. Overall I liked Castle of Wizardy. I think it's the best of the series behind the final book, Enchanter's End Game. Sure it's not high literature, but it's great "safe" reading for a rainy afternoon.

I've read all the books in the Belgaraid seris but this one's my favourite!! I was reading the other reviews and I just can't understand how people could not like the book!! But then I'm only a teenager whilst others are adults so my bottom line is: this book is great for younger people because from an adult's point of view the book might be too immature and boring.

It is in the nature of David Eddings that, no sooner does the plot head for its climax, but he starts to slow down. I think there is something in him that does not love endings. So now that Garion, Belgarath, and Polgara have regained the Orb you would expect they would quickly go on the attack. No such chance. Eddings has grand plans, and we are going to get every detail.

Belgarath is literally comatose from his battle with Ctuchik. Getting him to safety and retrieving C'Nedra are the big priorities, since it is time for Garion to return to Riva and accept the throne. And it is time for C'Nedra to present herself in that same throne room as the Tolnedran bride for the Rivan King. Thus much of the first half of Castle of Wizardry is spent on various domestic scenes where either Garion is bewailing his new responsibilities or C'Nedra is having fits about marrying a kitchen boy from Sendaria. This is comic relief before the tough get going, and there are many wry moments.

Then suddenly Garion realizes that the real game is deadly and that many lives could be lost before his final meeting with Torak. Enlisting Belgarath and Silk, Garion decides to skip the battles in between and head directly for the final confrontation, jilting C'Nedra and leaving Polgara in a spectacular rage in the process. Now the story splits in two as Garion travels through Drasnia on the was to Torak's resting place and C'Nedra begins to rally the armies of the West in order to divide the attention of the Angaraks.

This volume contains one of the most touching story arcs in this epic. Garion, Belgarath, and Silk find themselves caught by Vordai, witch of the Drasnian swamps. She forces Belgarath into a surprising bargain, one that beautifully displays Eddings ability to write something else besides light, sarcastic prose. In a sense, this episode makes the wait worth it.

As characters both Garion and C'Nedra do a lot of growing up in this volume. Although Garion will always be a bit bewildered and C'Nedra will never be 'reasonable.' But the requirements of the plot will put both of them and their relationship to the test.

I enjoyed this book, but it is very much over-written. Eddings frequently puts the plot on hold for side stories and long conversations. Many of these are interesting, or at least funny, but there are times when you just which something would actually happen. Eddings will never really break this writing habit, though it is sometimes mitigated. As such, Castle of Wizardy may displease the impatient.

Garion, Belgarath, and group have just managed to retrieve the Orb of Aldur, and Chutchik managed to annihilate himself, and that's where this book continues.

It starts off decently, as the group has to escape from Cthol Murgos with the Orb, and the odd little child Errand. Of course, half of the Murgos and most of the Grolims are on their tail. Sadly, after this exciting escape, the book starts to get a little boring.

Garion's destiny, as if it was ever in doubt, it finalized, along with Ce'Nedras. Things move along rather slowly for most of the rest of the book - even as Garion, Silk, and Belgarath sneak away to face Torak. The book never really reaches any sort of climax at the end like the previous three did, sort of simply building up for the fifth book.

It's good, like the entire series is, but seems to serve little more than advancing the story, instead of really being exciting to read.

Here we have the fourth book of David Eddings' Belgariad. This book has many things going for it: action, comedy, romance, and surprise. Guess what it doesn't have? A castle of wizardry.

Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall any such place. There is a castle. And a few folks who know something of sorcery stop by there for a while. But with that logic, they could also call this book: "Boat of Wizardry", "Swamp of Wizardry", or even "Horse of Wizardry". And who wouldn't want to read a book called "Horse of Wizardry"?

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, let's move to the story. The knock on this book is that nothing much happens and thus this installment needlessly delays the climax.

I don't agree. There's not as much action as the other books, but some critical things do happen regarding Garion and Ce'Nedra. Don't look for much from Barak or Mandorallen in this book. They're around but hardly do anything significant. Polgara and Belgarath have plenty to do and their banter is top notch as usual. Silk is more prominent than in past books and we get a brief glimpse into his back-story.

And I was surprised that I enjoyed chapters with Ce'Nedra in it. In previous books, her character was somewhere between annoying and pain-inducingly annoying. In this book, she is more often than not one of the best sources of comedy. I laughed quite a bit.

This is a decent book, but I only give it three stars simply because nothing about this installment is extraordinary. The few twists in the story are fairly predictable, and with little action, the meat of this book is just dialogue. Fortunately for us, this plays to the greatest strength of David Eddings.

Mild Spoilers ahead

In my review for Pawn of Prophecy I said that the Belgariad/Malloreon cycle is, in form at least, like a big Fantasy sitcom. This is most evident in this novel, where the episodic nature of the Belgariad is most evident. Extending that metaphor a bit, you discover that it's not really a fantasy sitcom (in book form of course) it's more a sitcom about an extended family set in a fantasy environment with fantasy tropes. There are similarities to The Princess Bride here, with that book essentially being a love story set in a fantasy setting and also very comedic.

The practical upshot of all that is that your average fantasy fan expects the action to intensify at the beginning of this book, but it doesn't because that's not the main issue here. There are other things happening here, the story, in the course of this book, goes from being a slightly prototypical, straightforward quest story to being much more geopolitical, a process that is going on in the background through all the little episodes.

There are a lot of little episodes too, this book is full to brimming with moments of pure Eddings wit. Most writers would love to have ONE such moment. Eddings has many, Garion and Adara, Barak and Meril, Polgara's worry over her father's possible psychic injury and the inability of his family to talk to him about it, C'Nedra's fear of public speaking, Lelldoren's story about his misadventures in Arrendia and most of all, Garion's fear for a people he has suddenly become the ruler of. For those of you who think the story should pick up here, think about this, without those episodic moments, we would not believe as audience that he would pick up a sword and head off to kill a God if we didn't understand his connections to the people around him.

I think of all my reviews for these books as one big megareview (I'm writing these as I reread the series) and as such I can say this, the resonances that are set up in the first book, the many rulers and heroes and other characters you meet in book two (and three) and the explanation of who the "dry voice" in Garion's mind is in book three finally meet in this one. Here they finally become a tapestry instead of just seperate story threads. It is from these relationships that the characters will draw strength in the next book of the series, which is more the big climactic action piece.

It is also worthy of note here that my personal favorite moment in all the Belgariad happens in this book when Garion returns to Faldor's Farm and sees his first love and realizes that that farm life just doesn't fit him anymore. There are few fantasy moments that acheive that level of emotion and can still make you laugh 2 pages later.

Onward to Cthol Mishrak!

Castle of Wizardry is about a boy named Garion. Garion is a young wizard that has to go on a long quest that is in the prophecy for him to kill the evil god Torak. On the way to kill Torak, Garion has to get the Orb of Aldur to Riva. once he got the Orb to Riva he has to put the Orb on this great sword when he did the whole world shook. When this happen the God Torak awoke from his slumber and started looking for his Sword. Garion has to marry Ce'Nedra. Before he can marry her he has to set off to kill Torak and save the world from total destruction. The reason Garion and Torak have to fight is because Garion is the child of light and Torak is the child of darkness and destruction. Garion does not whant t fight the god but he has to because this is all describe in the prophicythat is fortold

At the beginning of time, something went wrong. It caused a splitting in fate-everybody and everything had two completely opposite destinies which could be fulfilled. Over millions of years, two opposite prophecies were formed, each predicting a certain fate for the world. Through the years they moved closer and closer together. Finally, the Child of Light and the Child of Dark, the instruments of the prophecies, were almost ready to face each other in a battle to the death. The winner would determine the fate of the world.

Castle of Wizardry follows the story of a boy called Garion, the Child of Light. It starts as he runs from the city of Rak Cthol where he and his companions reclaimed the Orb of Aldur, an ancient magical stone. The Orb had been stolen by a thief so that he could use it to awaken his evil god Torak from his sleep. After recovering the Orb, Garion and his companions traveled to Riva where shocking events occurred. Nothing could have possibly prepared him for the revelations which explain his past and reveal his future.

This wasn't really a bad book. I've written reviews for the first three, and I said pretty much the same things in each of them: the plot's amazing, as are the characters, but the quality of writing isn't anything special. I really won't change any of what I said for this one.

Really, the quality of the writing is the only problem. I think that there are a few parts which could have been worked on and would have made the book a whole lot better. It's sort of like a first draft. You get the idea put down, have some detail, all of that, but you still have to go over it, make it sound better, make more sense, add some detail, add some parts, take some out. I think that Eddings really didn't put as much effort into the final copy as he really could. As a result, you end up reading something which has some really good ideas, a really good plot, but you're occasionally skeptical of the writing quality. That's the only problem I can see in the book. Other than that, I would say that this is very exciting, and very good.

Even though the writing isn't all that great, I'd still recommend it. The plot and characters just about make up for the writing, so overall this is a pretty good book...

David Eddings hit the Jackpot with his 5 book fantasy series "The Belgariad" and Book Four "Castle of Wizardry" continues, in great style this easy-to-read fantastic romp through the Kingdoms of the West. "Castle" is the next installment in the story of Garion, a simple farmboy, thrust into the adventure of a lifetime, in search of a magical Orb. "Castle" begins just after the recovery of the Orb and the death of Ctuchik, follower of the Evil God Torak, but if you think the quest ends here, don't despair, there is still plenty of dark magic, corrupt priests and one very irate evil God to provide plenty of entertainment and excitement for Garion and his companions. And for those softer at heart, there's just a little bit of romance thrown in as well. So don't be shy, join Garion, Belgarath, Polgara, Ce'Nedra and all their friends on an epic adventure. But don't take too long, they can't wait much longer. After all, they still have to fight their way through Book 5 before they can start on their journey through the Mallorean...but then, that's a whole separate story!