So not their best but still considerably better than most of the stuff their contemporaries managed. It's not edge-of-your seat reading, because you already know where this story will end (it's a prequel as well as being THAT story.

I adored the Garion books, and I was quite fond of this one, but its charm has worn off - even more than the original series.Getting to the part of their writing career when David and Leigh were clearly starting to run out of new ideas and set to reworking and elaborating on existing plotlines. While this sometimes caused consternation in Polgara and the mothers of the boys, Belgarath often had some advice or consolation for the current Rivan heir, to help him out with whatever problems he had at the time. According to Belgarath the Sorcerer, the name of the Rivan prince who survived the assassination of the royal family was " Geran", whereas in Castle of Wizardry, Polgara says that the name was "Gared".

You know who will live, who will die (usually) and who will show up during the introductory sequences. Belgarath revealed that his habitual clothing was actually by design, including the mismatched boots, so he could look the part of an itinerant storyteller, and the entire outfit - apart from the rope belt - was made to his specifications and intended to look scruffy when they were really so well made that they were nearly indestructible (a claim made by Belgarath based on the fact that he still owned the same garments five hundred years later). Again, for the most part I could take this sort of thing in the adventurous spirit in which it was meant though even for vile, human sacrificing Grolim priests burning alive or total slaughter of a defeated army felt as if it were going a bit too far.If however your looking for a fun and familiar romp with a little self-reference and some sly digs at the characters you already know and love, then sit down by the fire with old Mr. Feist's Riftwar Saga all helped turn reading for me to something I had to do to something I enjoyed doing back in my high school days. Belgarath the Sorcerer is another one of those Del Rey series-padding specials - there were a whole bunch of these in the early 90s, where authors rewrote their successful work from the point of view of another character. Then I found this book (Belgarath the sorcerer) and was eager to read it, it's sort of an 'autobiography' which explains in detail his early life and the events which led up to The Belgariad.