*zucht* Het is uit! Geweldige serie! Ik ga gewoon meteen door met het vervolg :-) ( )

The Belgariad, #1-5:
non capisco perchè negli anni 80 andavano di moda i protagonisti tanto ottusi, moralisti e idioti da essere odiosi! pur non raggiungendo l'apice assoluto de "la ruota del tempo" anche qui i personaggi sono ficcati a forza in clichè mediocri; alla fine l'unico di cui mi interessava era Silk

The Belgariad, #5
mancanza di ritmo in crescendo, mancanza di un vero scontro finale, zero pathos
( )

This series is the fantasy I recommend for people who don't like fantasy. I particularly like that the characters change over time, something which happens too rarely in most high fantasy. ( )

En zo eindigt het verhaal van Belgarion. Gelukkig gaat het gewoon verder in de Mallorea serie, want ik ben er nog niet klaar mee. Heerlijk leesvoer! ( )

This will be the same review for all the books in ‘The Belgariad’ and ‘The Mallorean’.

These books changed me.
I started reading them as an 11 year old who was kind of floating around in this thing called life. I had friends at school, but no meaningful connections. This I didn’t understand until I was older. By reading these books I was drawn into an incredible world filled with characters that I knew and loved, and in some cases wanted to be (come on people, I can’t be the only kid that put a streak of white paint in their hair). The story is Garion’s ‘hero’s journey’ but I felt that the adventure belonged to me too. It was my ‘Neverending story’ if you will and it gave me the confidence to be more present in my own life. I own all the copies of both series set in this marvellous world and most of the extras too. They are a pretty tired looking collection of books because I bought them as a university student from second book shops all over Christchurch and Auckland. I love that they have been released again relatively recently with a fresh new look so that they can appeal to the younger generation. I thoroughly recommend these books for lovers of high fantasy, action, and relatable characters. It is the quintessential hero’s journey. ( )

{Fifth of 5 in Belgariad series; fantasy, high fantasy, quest fantasy, young adult} (1985)

The final book in the Belgariad pentology. Everything Eddings has told us without telling us, such as Garion's true identity, has come to fruition and now all bets are off. We know that the Child of the Light is destined to face the Child of the Dark as the representatives of the two opposing prophecies that have existed almost since the dawn of time and finally cancel out one prophecy but no-one, not even those entities themselves, knows which will win. Garion, Mister Wolf and Silk trek towards that momentous meeting while Aunt Pol, Ce'Nedra and the armies of the West try to distract the hordes of the East, which have been steadily amassing, from intercepting them and preventing the meeting. And so we get to meet several of the rulers of the East - who may not have a vested interest in their god waking for the proscribed event or even in cooperating with each other.

Garion's character continues to evolve as he comes to term with his destiny.

If he had consciously sought any of this, he could have accepted the duty which lay on him with a certain amount of resignation. He had been given no choice in the matter, though, and he found himself wanting to demand of the uncaring sky, 'Why me?'
He rode on beside his dozing grandfather with only the murmuring song of the Orb of Aldur for company, and even that was a source of irritation. The Orb, which stood on the pommel of the great sword strapped to his back, sang to him endlessly with a kind of silly enthusiasm. It might be all very well for the Orb to exult about the impending meeting with Torak, but it was Garion who was going to have to face the Dragon-God of Angarak, and it was Garion who was going to have to do all the bleeding. He felt that the unrelieved cheerfulness of the Orb was - all things considered - in very poor taste, to say the least.

He's not in a good mood as he and his two companions trek through the fens of Drasnia and cross the mountains into the eastern kingdoms under leaden winter skies as the book opens.

Ce'Nedra too, while not changing in essence, matures and uses all her wiles and charms to recruit ordinary people, including peasants and serfs, to the army of the West but her compassion has also developed.

As the kings lead their peoples to war, the ladies are left in charge of their kingdoms and come into their own each in their own unique way. Shrewd Queen Layla, for instance, pretends to be clueless and organises her children to run interference to exasperate the persistent Tolnedran ambassador who thinks he can push through treaties favouring his empire while King Fulrach is away. I confess; I may have used this technique myself - maybe this was where I discovered it?

There is more of the banter that I love about this series and which keeps things light despite it being about an all-encompassing world war and the loss of life that comes with battles.

'Instead of letting Sir Mandorallen annihilate these thousand Murgos all by himself, why not select a contingent from each part of the army to deal with them? Not only will that give us some experience in tactical coordination, but it'll give all the men a sense of pride. An easy victory now will stiffen their backs when we run into more ditficult times later.'
'Fulrach, sometimes you positively amaze me,' Rhodar declared, 'I think the whole trouble is that you don't look that clever.'

(Although I'm not entirely sure that that's a compliment.)

The ending wraps up everything neatly - but there is a second series which follows on and which has been set up by events in this book though it doesn't leave you feeling that the story is unfinished.

And, right at the end, I found the discomfited Orb very amusing.

The Orb continued to ignore him, its attention obviously elsewhere.
"What are you concentrating on so hard?' the old man asked curiously.
The Orb, which had glowed with a bright blue radiance, flickered again, and its blue became suddenly infused with a pale pink which steadily grew more and more pronounced until the stone was actually blushing.
Belgarath cast one twinkling glance in the general direction of the royal apartment. 'Oh,' he said, understanding. Then he began to chuckle.
The Orb blushed even brighter.

June 2022
4.5-5 stars ( )

As I continue on my journey to re-read all my favorite novels and possibly re-judge them, Eddings first sword & sorcery series holds up to current cultural mores. The enmity between peoples has nothing to do with race, color, or even politics, but all to do with what we once called creed. On one side, we have several races (each complete with their own god) and they are the 'good guys'. The black hats consist of a few nations worshiping the evil god. Amongst the bad guys, the majority consists of people terrified of said evil god, and slaves. Even today, we still get to root for good over evil - it was just a lot easier to tell the difference in these simple books.

As to it's actual literary merit (which I wish was the only criteria for judging a book), it's okay. Not great; I doubt even the Eddings would have classed it with, say, Lord of the Ring, but it is a pleasant quick read - my version of a beach book. If this was the first book you'd read of theirs, you would probably enjoy the characters, but they do go on to reuse them in the rest of their books. The same with the gentle humor. It's lovely in this first set, but the repetition goes on to become slightly tedious in later series.

That said, it continues to be a favorite because it is warm, inviting and comfortable in a time that, to me, isn't. ( )

This was the fifth and final book in the Belgariad, a classic epic fantasy style series by David Eddings.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the whole series although I've read other epic fantasy I've enjoyed more. This one is light and straight forward. There aren’t any real shades of gray; one knows exactly who the good guys and bad guys are. Most things are clearly foreshadowed in advance. It’s one of those series where everything that happens is driven by prophecy, so there’s also a sense of events being inevitable and not really under anybody’s control. I don’t care for that kind of more heavy-handed prophecy approach, so that’s one aspect of the series I didn’t care for. I also prefer more twists and turns and much less spoon feeding, but it was an undemanding read and that can be nice sometimes.

I liked the characters, although I had some complaints, and the banter between them was probably my favorite part. It’s not a lot of non-stop witty banter, so if somebody goes into the series expecting a lot of that they might be disappointed, but there was enough of it for me to enjoy. I smiled several times, and laughed out loud a few times. I especially enjoyed Silk and Belgarath. I was not, on the other hand, very fond of the female characters. The two main female characters at least were not dishrags, and they did play significant roles in the events, but I didn’t like their personalities. They were both temperamental and bossy and often behaved in ways I considered irrational. Ce’Nedra, while only a teenager, still came across as more immature than I thought her age and circumstances justified. Every once in a while she’d do something mature, but she never seemed to learn any lessons of a permanent nature. And I was not amused at the way Polgara went off the deep end when Garion left to fulfill the prophecy she knew he had to fulfill. Speaking of prophecy, it was kind of silly how upset everybody was when Durnik died since we'd been told from book 1 that he would die twice, implying he would live again after the first death. In fact, considering how determined everybody was to make sure the prophecy was followed, I didn't understand why that in itself wasn't enough to motivate the gods to help Garion bring him back.

This final book wrapped everything up well, with a nice, long epilogue that briefly revisits most of the characters to give readers an idea of what was next for them in their lives. The book was a little slow for me, though. There were parts I enjoyed a lot, but I felt like things were dragged out more than necessary. Maybe I was just getting ready to move on. I know there are more books set in this world, but my intent was to just read this five-book series by itself. I’ve heard the next series is very similar to this one and I think that would get tedious. I’d rather stop here, mostly satisfied. I’m giving this last book 3.5 stars due to the draggy parts, but rounding up to 4 for Goodreads due to my overall enjoyment of the series and the satisfactory wrap-up. ( )

Many people think David Eddings is overly formulaic which he is a bit but since I enjoy the tale he tells I do not mind reading it over again. His characters always have great humor at their core and you cannot beat a good epic tale for entertainment value. This particular book is a great end to a great series. ( )

It is in fact an ending. Sets the stage for more at the very end, but you can consider it wrapped here. ( )

Meh. Ce'Nedra throws some fits, does some stupid stuff. Garion does some stupid stuff, pretends he doesn't realize what being Overlord of the West means. The bad people die, the good people get married, Ce'Nedra bosses Garion around for the rest of their lives. ( )

I never "believed" in the love relationship between Belgarion and Tsenedra and do so even less after reading this book. Garion was never believable as the King--too young, too inexperienced. It never made sense to me that two powerful sorcerors such as Belgarath and Polgara never seemed to make more than an offhand attempt at teaching him, much less give him chances to grow up. He would have been much more believable had he undergone some rigorous initiation for a few years and grown into a man with knowledge of himself and his powers. Here, he seems more like a puppy expected to perform as a guard dog. I kept thinking something would happen to transform him and that he would fall in love with Tsenedra (also too young IMHO), but I was left with the feeling that they were just left to their fates and I can't imagine their really being happy.

Oh, thank goodness the good side of the prophesy came about, sloppy though it was. ( )

Listened to audio narrated by Cameron Beierle.

The final chapter in the Belgariad series, with big battles, wizard battles and the final confrontation between Garion and the evil god Torak. There is loss and hints that only one part of the prophecy has been fulfilled and that there more to come.

I'm not sure if it was the narration or just the book itself but it just sort of seemed to amble along. Then there were the battles being fought in different areas which seemed to revive the story a little until the main characters are swept away for the final confrontation. In the previous book it seemed Ce'Nedra and Garion had matured and were growing but it seemed they slid back into younger behavior in this book, to the point where I wondered how is Garion going to defeat Torak and how can these two possible claim to love each other, there was no real connection at all in this book between them. It often came across as siblings squabbling.

I remembered loving this book when I read this in school but re-reading this now, I struggled with pacing, with characterizations and believability. While younger readers may enjoy this series, I'm not sure more mature readers will appreciate it the same way.

For more of my reviews follow my blog at https://wyldheartreads.wordpress.com/
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A nice conclusion to a fun series. The author(s) took the step of twitting the mighty sorceress over equality in a funny and harmless way. These are fun books, particularly for a younger reader. ( )

Finally. I’m done with “The Belgariad”. For life. And I’m so happy about it.


This epic fantasy adventure started out well with “[b:Pawn of Prophecy|44659|Pawn of Prophecy (The Belgariad, #1)|David Eddings|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391346857l/44659._SX50_.jpg|2558293]”, went slightly downhill in “[b:Queen of Sorcery|587582|Queen of Sorcery (The Belgariad, #2)|David Eddings|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428943169l/587582._SY75_.jpg|44016]” due to all the travelling, went straight into a wall when “[b:Magician's Gambit|44688|Magician's Gambit (The Belgariad, #3)|David Eddings|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1315276590l/44688._SY75_.jpg|938086]” turned out to be a lame duck, recovered somewhat during “[b:Castle of Wizardry|645023|Castle of Wizardry (The Belgariad, #4)|David Eddings|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421711682l/645023._SY75_.jpg|1808841]” and, eventually, went down the drain with this last instalment – “[b:Enchanters' End Game|44687|Enchanters' End Game (The Belgariad, #5)|David Eddings|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1217735909l/44687._SY75_.jpg|938064]”.

In this final book of the Belgariad, we accompany Ce’Nedra’s army into the land of the Murgos, fighting against them and the Malloreans. Wait a second, though – Ce'Nedra’s army? No, in fact it’s been taken from her by the men around her whom Eddings obviously felt much more competent to handle matters of war:

“Once she was comfortably quartered in the Stronghold, Princess Ce'Nedra found herself even more removed from the day-to-day command of her troops.”

Sadly, Ce’Nedra herself seems quite content to fall back into her cliched role as her Garion’s mindless “tiny princess”. Whenever she actually does something, she gets put firmly back into place and is scolded by whatever man is around. She never gets a real chance to learn and grow beyond what she is.

As for the others, they travel a bit, they fight a bit, some sidekicks die; forgotten as soon as they draw their last breath. Honestly, all the travelling and the pretty much non-existent hurdles were seriously boring me by now. Reading this book mostly was a chore for me.

Even the titular endgame is boring and beyond redemption. Ultimately, Garion puts it best:

“"Then everything worked out for the best, didn't it?"
- "Yes, Garion. It's as if it had all been fated to happen. Everything feels so right, somehow."
"It's possible that it was fated," Garion mused. "I sometimes think we have very little control over our own lives - I know I don't."”

After the second book at the latest, it’s crystal clear nobody of importance is going to die or even sacrifice anything. Yes, as mentioned before, an unimportant sidekick or two die (I’ve just finished this book and already forgotten who...) but at the end of the day, there’s no way things are going to go really wrong – and this makes this entire epic fantasy saga stale and bland for me.

There’s absolutely nothing I take away with me from these books. I’ve learned nothing new, I’ve felt nothing new, I’ve not noticed any new or original idea. Not even a single quote-worthy sentence is to be found in this seemingly unending bleak desert of words whereas I thirst for something that nourishes me.


If you’re young (10 to 15 maybe?) and haven’t read much fantasy before, the Belgariad may be to your liking. It does have its moments.

If you’ve read these books when you were younger and loved them, stay clear; you will be disappointed because even if these books were what you remember them to be – you are not who you were anymore.

Anyone else, stay clear as well: A seasoned reader will pretty much know the entire story very early on and there’s nothing in these books to surprise you or keep your interest for tens of thousands of words. And this in books that are about “the Word and the Will...


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Vrij redelijk eind aan het boek en daarmee de serie. Bovengemiddeld fantasy-serie.

Het lot van de wereld is afhankelijk van één duel. Garion is nu de koning van Riva, maar hij weet dat er geen vrede zal zijn zolang de god Torak leeft zijn. Garion is samen met Belgarath en Silk vertrokken om hem te vinden. Ce'Nedra heeft, samen met de Koningen en Koninginnen van de Westen,
Om te zorgen dat Torak's troepen uit de buurt van Garion blijven, en ook om de vrede in het Westen te houden, heeft Ce'Nedra krachten verzameld en is klaar om de Angarak over te nemen.

Garion weet dat hij zal moeten vechten met Torak. Maar hoe kan hij hopen te winnen van een God? Welke van de twee profetieën zal uit komen?

Dit is het laatste boek in de serie en en alles uit vorige delen wordt afgewerkt.
Er zijn twee verhaallijnen, en hoewel Ce'Nedra's verhaal interessant was, was ik eigenlijk meer geïnteresseerd in die van Garion.

Garion is echt depressief in dit boek, maar ook zeer vastberaden, en het is plezierig om te zien groeien in zijn rol.

Dit is het einde van een echt goede klassieke fantasy boek en ik zou Eindspel aanraden aan mensen die de eerste 4 boeken genoten. ( )

Conclusion to the Belgariad. Here we have the the meeting of the boy of the light with the boy of dark and who will win. I found the end satisfying. I agree with those that c/o the weakness in the female character. There was potential but the author failed to follow through. One must remember that this book was written in 1986 and maybe authors were not as enlightened as they are now and this probably was written as a boys adventure series. ( )

Finally. I’m done with “The Belgariad”. For life. And I’m so happy about it.



This epic fantasy adventure started out well with “Pawn of Prophecy”, went slightly downhill in “Queen of Sorcery” due to all the travelling, went straight into a wall when “Magician's Gambit” turned out to be a lame duck, recovered somewhat during “Castle of Wizardry” and, eventually, went down the drain with this last instalment – “Enchanters' End Game”.

In this final book of the Belgariad, we accompany Ce’Nedra’s army into the land of the Murgos, fighting against them and the Malloreans. Wait a second, though – Ce'Nedra’s army? No, in fact it’s been taken from her by the men around her whom Eddings obviously felt much more competent to handle matters of war:



“Once she was comfortably quartered in the Stronghold, Princess Ce'Nedra found herself even more removed from the day-to-day command of her troops.”



Sadly, Ce’Nedra herself seems quite content to fall back into her cliched role as her Garion’s mindless “tiny princess”. Whenever she actually does something, she gets put firmly back into place and is scolded by whatever man is around. She never gets a real chance to learn and grow beyond what she is.

As for the others, they travel a bit, they fight a bit, some sidekicks die, forgotten as soon as they draw their last breath. Honestly, all the travelling and the pretty much non-existent hurdles were seriously boring me by now. Reading this book mostly was a chore for me.



Even the titular endgame is boring and beyond redemption. Ultimately, Garion puts it best:



“"Then everything worked out for the best, didn't it?"
- "Yes, Garion. It's as if it had all been fated to happen. Everything feels so right, somehow."
"It's possible that it was fated," Garion mused. "I sometimes think we have very little control over our own lives - I know I don't."”



After the second book at the latest, it’s crystal clear nobody of importance is going to die or even sacrifice anything. Yes, as mentioned before, an unimportant sidekick or two die (I’ve just finished this book and already forgotten who...) but at the end of the day, there’s no way things are going to go really wrong – and this makes this entire epic fantasy saga stale and bland for me.

There’s absolutely nothing I take away with me from these books. I’ve learned nothing new, I’ve felt nothing new, I’ve not noticed any new or original idea. Not even a single quote-worthy sentence is to be found in this seemingly unending bleak desert of words whereas I thirst for something that nourishes me.



If you’re young (10 to 15 maybe?) and haven’t read much fantasy before, the Belgariad may be to your liking. It does have its moments.

If you’ve read these books when you were younger and loved them, stay clear; you will be disappointed because even if these books were what you remember them to be – you are not who you were anymore.

Anyone else, stay clear as well: A seasoned reader will pretty much know the entire story very early on and there’s nothing in these books to surprise you or keep your interest for tens of thousands of words. And this in books that are about “the Word and the Will...





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I think I only rated this one so high because I enjoyed the series so much. The end was anti climatic and to much of the final battle just happened. For having all of the books to build up to it I was unhappy with how small and quick the end was. ( )

My least favorite in the series, largely the middle 150 pages or so are a terrific bore, shockingly dull. It was quite a transition from the rest of the series, which I quite enjoyed. Once the pace picked up at the end, it's tremendous; the banter and dialogue between the characters is sharp, the main protagonists are clearly defined and endearing and the ending is satisfying and feels like a real end to the journey. This may be 3 stars, but I'd give the series a 4 as a whole - Aunt Pol and Belgarath are terrific, and despite the fantasy clichés and tropes present all over the series, these two (along with Silk) rise above the usual characterizations and personalities we're used to dealing with. A great bit of coming of age, fantasy, prophecies, magic, danger and adventure. I'm happy I read the series, and would recommend it to fantasy lovers only; I don't think the series holds up well enough to transcend other genres. ( )

When I was younger I quite enjoyed these but the suck fairy visited and shone her torch on the mysogony, hetronormativity and racism inherent in the stories. I do realise that it was there before but I had glossed over it while in pursuit of the story. A lot of the time I have bounced through a lot of this but I can't ignore it any more.

The fight between (Bel)Garion and Torak comes to pass, Ce'Nedra amasses an army and heads for the borders and several people are very smart about a lot of people deciding that others aren't so bad after all. There's a lot of relationships that come to a resolution, mostly with marriage.

It wraps up a lot of the plot but it's also leaving a lot of room for the sequels that happened. ( )

This is the fifth and final book of a pentology. It is important for me to note that before writing this review I have read all five books. Not all of my reviews for the five books results in 5 stars, only the first three. I gave the fourth book 4 stars and the final book only got 3. As a result, I have given the entire series only 4 stars.
The author decides to bring to the forefront a number of characters who barely got passing mention in the first four books which detracted me from the story. Up until now I was invested in the original crew and the many chapters suddenly dedicated to bit characters took me out of sync with the main plot. Further, the final scenes were now so predictable I found all of the previous building crescendo lost. As a result, I could only give this book a 'meh' and 3 stars. It made it tough to decide on rating the entire series at 4 stars because ending such a way was tough.
I wouldn't be afraid to recommend to a reader to enjoy the first 3 books and only go forward is fully invested. ( )

Everything I want it to be, every time. :) ( )

I was ready to be done with this series. ( )

I honestly really struggled with the last book. It dragged a lot, and I felt like it was lacking action. Mind you, I loved first four books, they were highly engaging and interesting and then all of that suddenly dropped in the last book.
Still looking forward to the Mallorean cycle though. ( )