Magician's Gambit (The Belgariad, Book 3) [Paperback]

David Eddings (Author)

Book Description

Series: Belgariad | Publication Date: June 23, 1997

Ce'Nedra, Imperial Princess of Tolnedra, had joined a dangerous mission to recover the stolen Orb that supposedly protected the West from the evil God Torak. And somehow, she found herself feeling quite tender for Garion, the innocent farm boy, who would be forced into the strange tower in the center of all evil to retrieve the Orb by himself.


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Absorbing. Touches all the right Fantasy bases. Warring gods, political intrigues, supernatural creatures, and appealingly human magicians." -- Publishers Weekly

"Exactly the kind of fantasy I like. It has magic, adventure, humor, mystery, and a certain delightful human insight." -- Piers Anthony

"Fabulous! Eddings has a marvelous storyteller style. Exceedingly well portrayed." -- Anne McCaffrey --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

David Eddings [The Belgariad series] -- This is like Bonanza, or like I Love Lucy. There will be other fantasy series, but there can never be another that's so seminal, that so captures the essence of fantasy. Big Dave and Little Leigh grow their heroes from the ground up, and they grow the best.

--Veronica Chapman, Senior Editor --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Del Rey (June 23, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345418875
• ISBN-13: 978-0345418876
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,804,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walls Were Made For Walking Through, June 23, 2005

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Magician's Gambit (The Belgariad, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Volume three of the Belgariad brings the first story arc, the quest for the orb, to closure. It also complete the grand tour of the West that Eddings has been taking the reader through. With Nyissan interference out of the way, Belgarath and Silk rejoin the rest of the party and reveal that the Orb has fallen into Murgo hands. Ctuchik, an old enemy of Belgarath is guarding the Orb in Cthol Murgos, and the wizard is willing to let him have for the moment. There are more important things to do before fetching it back.

Taking a shortcut through Maragor, where a lonely god weeps for his lost people, the party heads for the Vale, where Belgarath first learned to be a wizard, and Polgara grew up. It's time for Belgarion to meet Aldur and even experiment with his new found (and uncomfortable) powers. It's also time to start developing C'Nedra into something other than a very spoiled and dubious imperial princess.

The next stop is the land (make that caves) of the Ulgos. When gods were choosing out peoples, the Ulgos got left out. After what is probably the world's most effective guilt trip they managed to get Ulgo to be their god. As a result, they have become a very serious people about their religion - in a good way. Belgarath is looking for a special Ulgo guide who can deal with solid stone walls, and he's quite willing to interfere in a religious rebellion to get what he needs. C'Nedra is left safely behind, and the trek to Cthol Murgos to retrieve the orb is under way.

In Magician's Gambit, Eddings' style crystallizes. He will spend a lot of time on side adventures, details, and character interaction, only advancing the plot when he has to do so. Later this will become the characteristic that will cause some people to become great fans and others to lose interest. Because I like Eddings' sarcastic style, I enjoy the periods where almost nothing happens just as much as those times when the action really picks up. It's a pleasant break from the high speed novels of modern fantasy.

Eddings has created a very large world. So large that two more volumes and another whole series will fit into it. This interesting environment and the characters that people it make Eddings' work into the equivalent of literary comfort food for me. If you've made it this far, you will want to read on.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Continuing the fun, May 12, 2005

By 

Jared Garrett (Utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Magician's Gambit (The Belgariad, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Magician's Gambit steps up the actual quality and stakes in this ongoing series. Princess CeNedra is a wonderful creation, definitely one of the more colorful and vivid characters in the series. She adds a new element to the story, and readers take a sly pleasure in knowing exactly what Garion and CeNedra's destiny is while the two unwitting youths stumble closer to each other. Eddings masterfully weaves this semi-subplot into the ongoing saga of Garion, Belgarath and Polgara.
The story telling is crisp and without frills again, causing the action to move swiftly and the reader to be drawn in immediately. Description and setting are done well, but not overdone to the point of stagnating the story. Subplots move along swiftly--unlike the plodding of Robert Jordan.
All in all, an excellent episode in the ongoing saga of the Belgariad.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprise running thin, November 29, 2002

By 

Rummy (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magician's Gambit (The Belgariad, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Once again I am shocked by yet another amazing book in The Belgariad series. My expectations for these books were extremely low before I started reading them, but over and over again I am surprised as I get caught up in the plot and in the amazing characters. However, by now my surprise is wearing off and I'm becoming more and more scepticle of the overall quallity of the writing.

The plot is simple: a boy called Garion has started a quest into perilous lands to recover the Orb of Aldur, a very powerful magical item which was stolen by a thief. With the Orb, the thief could awaken the evil god Torak and then mount a campaign to attack and defeat the western civilizations, all of which are eternal enemies of Torak. Garion is traveling with his aunt Polgara, his grandfather Belgarath (both of which are sorcerors), and several other interesting characters as he chases down the thief to recover the Orb. All the while Garion is discovering a strange power which he has, and things are revealed about a mysterious other awareness which inhabits his thoughts occasionally.

That was just the basic plot-as basic as it gets. That was simple, but the details and twists in the book pulled me in from the first pages, and constantly I found myself caught up in it, turning the pages as fast as I could to finish and find out what happens. The thing about the plot is that it's exactly what I started reading fantasy books for in the first place. The Belgariad captures your imagination and curiosity better than so many other series, and it inevitably led to me sitting around, reading a few hundred pages a day because I just couldn't put it down.

Then, there are the characters. I can say that the characters took no small part in getting me caught up in Magician's Gambit. I found that I cared about the characters quite a bit. I really wanted to see how they'd change over time, with their general actions and actions toward each other. I was very pleased as I found that, like in the first two books, the developement of the characters was natural and believable.

However, my initial shock of how amazing the plot and characters are began to wear off as I got into the book as I found more and more ways to criticize the writing. The quality of the writing really isn't anything special. There are parts which should be shortened, parts which should be lengthened, and parts which just simply need work. I have read some really amazing books before by really amazing authors, and the quality of the writing really isn't anything special.

In the end, though, I had to give this four stars. I can't say something's terrible if I was so caught up in it and read it in just a day or two. I'd reccomend it-it's easy, enjoyable, and a very good example of a fantasy book.

*Please give me feedback-helpful or not?*