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Review: Pawn of Prophecy
TLC
UKFDB | 2003-06-24
This series of books is the fantasy equivalent of comfort food. It is not pretentious; its not peddling big ideas, but it does contain all the traditional elements that make up a good fantasy. It has evil priests, ancient sorcerers, a good-hearted thief, a beautiful and spirited princesses (if rather less well endowed than she would have liked it) and a young innocent hero. It also has prophecies, magic swords and enchanted forests. It may not be epic writing, but is good storytelling. Eddings also excels at characterisation, his characters may appear to be stereotypes or archetypes depending on you point of view) but they are also very human. This means they have good qualities and bad qualities, although the comment by one that "there is no good or bad, only them and us" is somewhat disingenuous as there clearly are good and bad characters.
The books are very humorous, not because they are comic, but because the characters all have their own sense of humour. This helps Eddings to produce naturalistic dialogue, where despite the fantastic setting people have real conversations, and are not serious all the time. It is largely due to this clever use of dialogue that I became so fond of the characters as they seemed to be real people with a life outside of the pages of the book and outside of the stereotype.
It is the simplicity and familiarity at the heart of these books that makes them such a good read. These are the books I turn to when I want a fix of classic fantasy, especially if I haven’t much time on my hands, for they are not long books, which is a relief given some of the tomes available in this genre.
1. Pawn of Prophecy
2. Queen of Sorcery
3. Castle of Wizardry
The first three books cover the gathering of companions and a quest, although with the quest that our hero doesn’t actually know what he is questing for. Garion, the hero of these books, is the classic young innocent. His ignorance comes across as very authentic, especially as we are given hints that a number of more experienced characters have guessed what he is yet to realise.
4. Magician’s Gambit
5. Enchanter’s Endgame
The last two books concern the battle of good versus evil, of men against gods. It’s great stuff!
As the books increase in scope to cover politics and warfare so Garion can be seen to rapidly mature as he takes on more responsibilities. A similar character development is seen in Ce’nedra, the heroine (who naturally also fills the role of love interest and princess).
However, if you don’t like slush word of warning is necessary. The use of classic stereotypes requires a happy ending and for Eddings a happy ending apparently mans getting married. Near the end one of the characters is even driven to comment on how suddenly everyone is getting married, and he’s not far wrong.
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