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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fitting cap, if only for fans, January 4, 2001
This review is from: Polgara the Sorceress (Malloreon) (Mass Market Paperback)
If you haven't read the Belgariad (mostly) or the Malloreon, then don't even bother picking this up because you probably aren't going to know what the heck is going on. David Eddings seems to polarize people even more than say, Robert Jordan, there are people like me who have read the Belgariad a million times (and I generally don't read books more than once) and there are folks who spit in his general direction upon hearing the name Eddings. So I'm biased. Who isn't? Like the similiarily gigantic Belgarath, this is basically the three thousand year history of Eddings' world told from the point of view of the woman who wound up guarding the line of Rivan kings for about a thousand years or so. Polgara is an engaging narrator and even though she's going events that we know a lot about already, her perspective is both different from the omniscient narrator of the series and Belgarath's from the other book. The thing I most liked about the Eddings' books (at least initially) was they had a bit of a gentle, homespun quality. There may have been high sorcery and world shattering events going on around everyone but you got a sense of wonder and a feeling that these are regular people being thrust into something that's been going on forever that they have little conception of. Of course that's Eddings' best and worst trait as a writer. He's pretty much incapable of detailing complex emotions in any way shape or form and over the course of seven hundred pages it can get tedious, it's never less than entertaining but you may want to take short breaks from the book before going back to it. It's also very slow moving, because being immortal is mostly sitting around and waiting for stuff to happen. With Polgara being three thousand years old, it takes a while to get anywhere and there's a lot of repetition in events, heck, even the Rivan king names start repeating after a while. Also, for some reason, every fantasy writer except for Tolkein decides that he has to give his or her personal view of male/female relationships, Jordan is notorious for this and it never really bothered me in Eddings until now, perhaps because of said repetition. All the woman are manipulative, but tender and sensitive, the men are gruffy ineffectual, needing a woman to guide them and nobody is ever complete until they are married, and just about everyone falls apart completely when his or her spouse dies. Polgara winds up restating the same point several times, which isn't uncommon in a long, somewhat ramblinh narrative but still jarring nonetheless. Still, there is lots to recommend to fans, Polgara's accounts of how she became a duchess and basically created Sendaria are pure Eddings and the Vo Mimbre section of the book alone is worth the price of admission, if only because it's the only really epic action packed thing there (it was the last clash of Light and Dark before the Belgariad). Definitely a kind and gentle way to say goodbye to a series that has thrilled me more times than I can remember and it was great revisiting all those great characters and events one last time. If you've grown up on Eddings, you owe it to yourself to get this, if you're new, get the Belgariad first and see if you like that, then come back here. It'll be waiting. Or something.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic commentary on the events of the series, June 29, 2000
This review is from: Polgara the Sorceress (Malloreon) (Mass Market Paperback)
The Belgeriad and Mallorean series are my favorite pieces of fantasy literature - I've read them a couple times, and they are always super enjoyable, and always force me to stay up late reading them because I can't stop, even though I know what's going to happen. This book (and Belgarath) is a wonderful cap to the whole series, going all way back in time. Although much of it is a repeat of what was in the other books, this is wonderful reading since it is all from the perspective of Polgara, daughter of Belgarath, alive the last 5,000 years. Polgara offers many, many new insights to the events of the books. It's fascinating: construct a whole series with the omniscient narrator, and then write two more books going over the whole thing again, but from the point of views of two characters in the series. Surprisingly, it not only works, it works well, and it's quite compelling reading. And Eddings writes convincingly enough to make one think it really *is* Polgara who has written this. Absolutely excellent reading, but of course, you really do have to read the first ten books first. And I can't recommend this series enough. Certainly the best multi-volume fantasy series that has come out (and yes, I am apostate by regarding this higher than Lord of the Rings, but so be it).
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very, very well done, Pol, June 15, 2000
This review is from: Polgara the Sorceress (Malloreon) (Mass Market Paperback)
Finally, the saga is complete and this book doesn't disappoint at all. It is, off course, very similar to "Belgarath the Sorcerer". People who read the other books by David & Leigh Eddings will love it, for everyone else, let me warn you: The book takes its time to get into high gear and many things that Pol writes about are hard to understand for people who haven't read the other books. So, for those of you, you can subtract two stars from my rating. For Eddings-fans, this is a must-read: We finally learn how Polgara guarded the Rivan line and it is a fascinating concept that someone has to take care for a blood-line for 15(!) centuries, staying with that family for so long, always seeing people get born, grow up and die. Very sad, but a fascinating idea. For everyone who has read "Belgarath the Sorcerer" here's a valuable hint: Have the Belgarath-book close by when you read Polgara's story. It is absolutely fascinating to read the same events from two perspectives. A hint to the publisher: How about putting those two books together in one single (very thick) volume in a cross-cut style switching always from Belgarath to Polgara and back?
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