I first read this when I was a teenager, and termed it a "bathroom read": nothing deep, just light escapist fantasy to read when one needed a distraction.
Re-reading it again, years later, as an adult, and all I feel is horror and disgust. The stories are poorly written (I'm talking "Twilight"-level bad writing), filled with shallow, cliched characters who are horrible examples of humanity, who we're somehow supposed to root for on this endless, padded-to-boring-extreme fetch quest. Even worse, you start seeing all the things these supposed heroes did, and how awful they truly are — Barak is a drunken brute who rapes his wife, Hettar a sociopathic killer who slaughters people simply for being the wrong nationality, Llelldorin a terrorist, Polgara a vindictive, controlling jerkass who has no business raising a child, and Ce'Nedra a narcissistic brat who resorts to emotional abuse to get her way. They're all poster children for Protagonist-Centered Morality and What the Hell, Hero?, I swear.
Worse is seeing this book continually get hailed for its "strong female characters"...yet every woman in it is treated as a baby-making machine & reward for the male heroes, and are mostly shallow, emotionally-manipulative jerks who delight in verbally abusing the men. Every single woman is "rewarded" by the Prophecy with a mate & children, no matter what she actually wants (and Merel, Barak's wife, is an especially horrifying example.).
Give this series a pass. There's too many other well-written fantasy series with awesome female characters to give the Belgariad & the Mallorean more than a first glance.
Ugh. Not aged well.
I first read this when I was a teenager, and termed it a "bathroom read": nothing deep, just light escapist fantasy to read when one needed a distraction.
Re-reading it again, years later, as an adult, and all I feel is horror and disgust. The stories are poorly written (I'm talking "Twilight"-level bad writing), filled with shallow, cliched characters who are horrible examples of humanity, who we're somehow supposed to root for on this endless, padded-to-boring-extreme fetch quest. Even worse, you start seeing all the things these supposed heroes did, and how awful they truly are — Barak is a drunken brute who rapes his wife, Hettar a sociopathic killer who slaughters people simply for being the wrong nationality, Llelldorin a terrorist, Polgara a vindictive, controlling jerkass who has no business raising a child, and Ce'Nedra a narcissistic brat who resorts to emotional abuse to get her way. They're all poster children for Protagonist-Centered Morality and What the Hell, Hero?, I swear.
Worse is seeing this book continually get hailed for its "strong female characters"...yet every woman in it is treated as a baby-making machine & reward for the male heroes, and are mostly shallow, emotionally-manipulative jerks who delight in verbally abusing the men. Every single woman is "rewarded" by the Prophecy with a mate & children, no matter what she actually wants (and Merel, Barak's wife, is an especially horrifying example.).
Give this series a pass. There's too many other well-written fantasy series with awesome female characters to give the Belgariad & the Mallorean more than a first glance.