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Is David Eddings any good?


Illyrio Mo'Parties

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37 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Well, they managed to make Terry Brooks into a MTV series, of all things. So who knows.

Yes. But it was/is/probably will continue to be, crap.

I think we'll see another go at Dragonlance before we ever see an Eddings adaptation on screen.

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On 1/13/2018 at 2:53 PM, Richard Writhen said:

I was quite pleasantly surprised by The Belgariad, but he kind of flakes out about midway through The Malloreon with character stagnation and an abundance of convenient coincidences.

I have lost count of my re-reads of the Belgariad since I was 12. It's like Kraft Mac & Cheese to me. I know there's not a lot nutrition, but it's comfort food that I can always count on.

Mallorean re-reads always seem to stall out at book three (Demon Lord of Karanda).

I do love dropping into the Belgarath the Sorcerer "autobiography" from time to time.  It covers a lot of ground.

I hope it's never adapted for any screen, large or small. Not necessary and would honestly disappoint viewers used to crazy twists and turns of a series like Game Of Thrones.

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3 hours ago, The Wedge said:

I hope it's never adapted for any screen, large or small. Not necessary and would honestly disappoint viewers used to crazy twists and turns of a series like Game Of Thrones.

I know Eddings was always very insistent that he'd never sell the film rights to his books, although I don't know whether whoever it is that now controls his estate will follow the same approach.

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On ‎1‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 11:55 AM, The Wedge said:

Mallorean re-reads always seem to stall out at book three (Demon Lord of Karanda).

That's exactly where I quit reading it.

Spoiler

The king is Silk's long-lost brother from another mother or whatever.

 

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5 hours ago, Richard Writhen said:

That's exactly where I quit reading it.

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The king is Silk's long-lost brother from another mother or whatever.

 

Spoiler

That happens in Book 2, aptly titled King of the Murgos.  But I thought that was actually a pretty clever twist.
Book 3 sees them pseudo-captured / pseudo-guests of the Emperor of Mallorea.

The Mallorean tedious and feels like Eddings has to fill out five books in similar travelogue formula to the Belgariad. By "Demon Lord of Karanda," I am ready for the traveling to be done, but it just keeps on going and the domestic squabbling is tiring.

The Belgariad, though, got through The Quest portion in quick order by the end of book 3, giving books 4 & 5 plenty of room to gear up for The Big Battle and The Final Showdown.

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10 minutes ago, The Wedge said:
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That happens in Book 2, aptly titled King of the Murgos.  But I thought that was actually a pretty clever twist.
Book 3 sees them pseudo-captured / pseudo-guests of the Emperor of Mallorea.

The Mallorean tedious and feels like Eddings has to fill out five books in similar travelogue formula to the Belgariad. By "Demon Lord of Karanda," I am ready for the traveling to be done, but it just keeps on going and the domestic squabbling is tiring.

The Belgariad, though, got through The Quest portion in quick order by the end of book 3, giving books 4 & 5 plenty of room to gear up for The Big Battle and The Final Showdown.

From what I remember book 5 was pretty stupid.

 

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10 hours ago, The Wedge said:
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That happens in Book 2, aptly titled King of the Murgos.  But I thought that was actually a pretty clever twist.
Book 3 sees them pseudo-captured / pseudo-guests of the Emperor of Mallorea.

The Mallorean tedious and feels like Eddings has to fill out five books in similar travelogue formula to the Belgariad. By "Demon Lord of Karanda," I am ready for the traveling to be done, but it just keeps on going and the domestic squabbling is tiring.

The Belgariad, though, got through The Quest portion in quick order by the end of book 3, giving books 4 & 5 plenty of room to gear up for The Big Battle and The Final Showdown.

I always liked the brief interlude in book three which details the spreading of the plague through Mal Zeth. I always remember the first time I read it flicking back to see if I missed something that would explain why we were suddenly following this random man instead of our protagonists. But I liked that part anyway. The rest, eh, not so much, it’s a poor retreading of The Belgariad (this is even acknowledged in the book. The similarities I mean). Book one I enjoyed though because it was at least somewhat different, taking place before the ‘quest’ as it does

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On 1/15/2018 at 11:55 AM, The Wedge said:

I have lost count of my re-reads of the Belgariad since I was 12. It's like Kraft Mac & Cheese to me. I know there's not a lot nutrition, but it's comfort food that I can always count on.

 

This is how I feel about the Belgariad and the Mallorean.  It's like being transported to a simplier time with people who are almost family.  I also enjoy the Elenium quite a bit.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 minute ago, Darth Richard II said:

The Eragon movie says hi. :P


Oh sure, but Paolini is a shameless tithead and Eddings, while brazen, was apparently not completely lacking in shame...


I would also like to take this juncture to remind you, apropos of nothing, that David Eddings once decided to check, when preparing his motorcycle for some rebuilding work, to check if he'd flushed out the fuel tank by dropping a lit match into it.



He hadn't.

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Oh sure, but Paolini is a shameless tithead and Eddings, while brazen, was apparently not completely lacking in shame...

Eddings wrote for the money and very cheerfully admitted it. He signed a contract for The Malloreon with no idea of what he was going to do with it, for example, and then hit on the idea of just repeating himself.

The non-fiction parts of The Rivan Codex are very instructive in this regard. For example, he was only inspired to write fantasy after seeing that The Lord of the Rings was on its 45th printing and realising that Tolkien was minted.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/4/2018 at 0:03 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Are you suggesting Eddings heirs will sell his stories?

I don't think he and Leigh had any kids.  The Wikipedia page doesn't mention any.

For all that cash he decided to make recycling Tolkien's journey narrative, he apparently much (all?) of it away: Per Wikipedia:

Quote

[an] unfinished work, along with his other well renowned manuscripts, went to his alma mater, Reed College in Portland, Ore.,[15] along with a bequest of $18 million to fund "students and faculty studying languages and literature."[16] Eddings also bequeathed $10 million to National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver for pediatric-asthma treatment and research. Eddings's wife Leigh had asthma throughout her life.[17]

 

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Are you suggesting Eddings heirs will sell his stories?

If you read The Rivan Codex, you'll see Eddings cheerfully admitting that he did absolutely everything in his writing career for the money, the money and nothing but the money. He was not making high art, and he openly admits to plagiarising himself with both The Malloreon and The Tamuli for more green.

I really don't think there's anything to get worked up about if that did happen, especially since I don't think it's physically possible for any writer who took over to be worse than Eddings (apart from KJA, obviously).

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