h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When in highschool I was an avid reader of Eddings novels. The nature of the stories are formulaic but very deep in the character department. I went so far as to write a paper detailing the duplication apparent in the two main stories (that being the Belgariad universe, including the Mallorean, and that of the Sparhawk series). Comparing the central themes of the stories as well as pointing out the similarities of each.

If anyone would like, I am more than happy to do that again here. Let's compare the stories and see how we each view these universes that David and Leigh Eddings have given us.

Me must admit to not having read the Belgariad... but am a firm fan of Sparhawk... and Sparhawk two... Athaelus... ~grin~... and of course not to mention a rather cute cat/Goddess... Emmy... that Athaelus knows... who bares a rather striking resemblance to a child Goddess Aphrael that Sparhawk loves so much he got her for a daughter... ~grin~

If it works...

Greebs... xxx

I've read the whole lot - Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium, Tamuli, Belgarath, Polgara, the Codex and Althalus too. I love them all because the characters are so well drawn, and they're human (well as human as you can be if you spend a fair bit of your time as a wolf or an owl).

It's undeniable that the two main epics (and even Althalus to some extent) all follow the same track: hero sets out on quest to recover magic object with help of an assorted group of friends/allies - at least some of whom have some form of magical ability.

When they find said magic object, they still have to battle an evil (and completely doolally) god to win the day. They do this (someone important to the main character dying in the process). Everything's fine for a while, then it all goes wrong again - but this time it's coming from a different part of the world they inhabit, though it still involves the magic object in some way. so off they go again - usually with at least some of the characters from the previous quest in tow. There's something older and more powerful than the evil god waiting for them this time around - but if they beat this one then they win for good.

I have seen some people here on our w*rk bulletin boards pouring scorn on the Eddings novels because of their formulaic nature. But that overlooks their strongest point - the characterisation and the sheer quality of the writing.

I've always liked Belgarath because he has flaws. He may be the most powerful Sorceror that ever lived, but he's also a slob, a thief, partial to a bit of the headache juice, and he drives Polgara nuts a lot of the time (though they love each other to bits). It's very refreshing. (and as for Beldin - blimey!)

Reading the Elenium, I spent a lot of time wishing that Sephrenia would show some bad qualities (she didn't even nick someone else's cutlery around the campfire for heavens' sake!). It was nice to see her transformation to Virago mode when she met up with Xanetia. The woman was normal after all (well as normal as you can be when you're high priestess to a Child goddess).

Let's face it, there are no doubts about which way the story's going to go - but it's so well written, there are so many twists and turns and the characters are so 'believable' in the way they behave, that you still thoroughly enjoy the ride.

Brilliant stuff.

You have my summary of the comparison of the two series (I have not read Althalus yet) almost verbatim.

The Quest from West to East, the Magic Item, the Bad God the marraige between the Forbidden Lovers.... Then in teh second series of each universe you have the allys that you never expected... I agree that while the stories are painfully per formula, they are indeed great works. Silk is the highborn scoundrel (mimmicked by the theif-prince in the Sparhawk series, i forget his name) that is so outrageous that you cannot help but enjoy him. Barak is the gentle giant capable of extreme violence.

One thing that I quite liked about the Sparhawk series is that Eddings (both of them) changed the way magic works completely. This made for enough of a difference that you were able to forget the "rules" of the previous universe.

I dopn't get the idea that they are formulaic. The plot is very similar in each series, yes, but the devil is in the detail and the detail is totally different each time. Eddings took formulae and _twisted_ them into something new, exposing a new viewpoint in the process.
More important than the plot, though, is the style. No Conan, or LOTR, or suchlike, has ever gone to the genre with such a wry, jocular attitude while keeping within the bounds of realism to the extent allowed by the fantastical nature. The Elenium's archprelate election sequence would never appear in a traditional fantasy story; it's just too cerebral and not physical or emotional enough.

By formulaic I think we are saying that the plot, in it's most basic form, is per a formula. For example, tell me which of the four series by Eddings that I am talking about....

Hero is in the west
Hero needs magic object
Hero finds magic object
Hero uses magic object to destroy an evil super power


That is the formula, and as you say the devil is in the details. The details are what keeps me reading and re-reading Eddings books time and again. I am all but done with the Tamuli right now and I will read the Elenium next (would have read it in order, but I happened to pick up Domes a few days ago and started thumbing through it).

Unfortunatly I only recently discovered the Eddings series, by which I mean not enough time to read them all while studying Mechanical Engineering at the same time. I find that the world that he creates is captivating, and as described in Polgara the Sorceress I find that sometimes I'm compelled to completely disagree with the books. I know that may sound strange, but let me explain. Especially in Polgara the Sorceress I found myself getting annoyed at what was written and the condescending tone in which it was written. I understand it was written in the viewpoint of someone who believe she is above almost everyone else, yet I found it aggravating trying to separate truth from falsehood. It seemed like a war was going on between the account is given in Polgara and Belgarath's retelling of the history where each person was attempting to take credit for everything.
Sometimes I find the writing to be condescending, it seems like as most of the things I read the writer drags out a point that is easily understandable and explains in unnecessary detail. Even though I'm forced to sit through the long explanations I still feel that the Eddings series are extremely well written and create a world extremely well.
If you're a fan of the Lord of the Rings, or any science-fiction or fantasy books and you should definitely pick up David Eddings series.

I have to admit that the Elenium and Tamuli are my favourites nowadays. It would be interesting to extract the comparable characters from the two series - but I'm at w*rk at the moment, so there isn't time. Maybe I'll do it for a bit of a laugh some time.

I always liked Ulath's 'how to avoid doing the cooking' method - and the fact that it had a major downside because Kalten was the one who usually fell for it, so they had to eat whatever he cooked - assuming it was still identifiable as food.

I was always interested by the notable differences between Polgara and Sephrenia. They fill the same sort of role, but have rather different personalities and treat situations in different ways.

Ironically, despite all their differences - neither of them seem to be able to do without a cup of tea!

I always felt an almost uncontrollable urge to shove Ce'nedra off the nearest available cliff (metaphorically speaking). But then, they all did when they first met her. I never really warmed to the character at all. I don't know why - just one of those irrational things I suppose.

At least with Ehlana she was locked up in crystal for most of the Elenium and - even better - she wasn't a brat when they woke her up either.

THat is one thing that I never got around to doing. I never did make single character comparisons. Sounds like a good excersize.

Barak -- Ulath
Garion -- Sparhawk

Others?

Hmmm. Intriguing.

I always reckoned that Tynian was more of a Barak character, though he wasn't from the frozen north like Ulath was. I thought that Ulath's closed mouth-ness made him more like Hettar.

I think that Bevier was fairly close to Relg in some aspects, as they were both hamstrung by their religious convictions until they joined up with their respective posses - though there's no equivalent in Bevier's life to Taiba.

A pretty obvious one - Kurik/Durnik as they both seem to have a sort of 'guiding/fatherly' role to the 'hero' and they both snuff it - you could almost say that Durnik is 'resurrected' when they all go off to retrieve Bhelliom in the Tamuli. If not, then you can say he's resurrected by Khalad taking over his father's role.

I suppose you could compare Annias to Zedar as well.

Silk has pretty close ties to Stragen as they both seem to have 'issues' of one sort or another, and they both operate in a 'shady' environment.

I think I'll have to do some re-reading. And make a list.

The one thing that *does* drive me crackers in the books is the use of the 'thees', 'thous' and 'forasmuches'. I know that they're a required part of this sort of novel to represent ancient culture/language - but I have a completely irrational and probably silly dislike of it.

The other thing that drove me up the wall in both the Malloreon and the Tamuli are the 'dialects' employed by Feldegast and Caalador - which I find practically unreadable on the page. They may well be specially used by the characters themselves to disguise their true natures, but it still makes me grit my teeth.

But that's just me.

Funny, I stole those dialects when I was roleplaying a character in an adventure thread here. I had a blast with them.

The Durnick Kurik comparison was blatant I suppose. Another pair is the two Emperors, Zakath and the other guy (been a while since I read the Tamuli so it is just out of my mind at the moment). Both of them are very urbane and secular.

His name was Sarabian.

There was little a bit of Urgit in him as well, wasn't there? Ineffectual King sat on by his government takes charge once the posse show up to give him a bit of redirection. Only Urgit wasn't as superintelligent as Sarabian appeared to be.

Another pairing.

Zandramas and Zalasta - both of them turned up as the agents of the bigger baddie in the Malloreon (The Sardion) and the Tamuli (Klael). Apart from both names beginning with 'Z' and having three syllables, they both came to a sticky end when they lost!

This is fun!

Resurrecting this thread to comment:

"The one thing that *does* drive me crackers in the books is the use of the 'thees', 'thous' and 'forasmuches'. I know that they're a required part of this sort of novel to represent ancient culture/language..."

I thought that Thee and Thou were examples of an informal address? Much as Tutoyer, as opposed to Vousvoyer, in French? All of the characters use "thee/thou-ing" to speak to nobles.