| The Eddings Myth | Contributor: Martin | Posted: 12/02/07 | 14:56 |
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page 2 of 4 For a genre that relies on willing suspension of disbelief on the part of readers, The Rivan Codex is a nasty awakening. But in one sense it shouldn’t be surprising. Few fantasy writers have been as persistently cynical as the Eddings, who have turned a small group of characters and one story into 18 novels, four series and two spin-offs. The similarities between The Belgariad / Mallorean and The Elenium/Tamuli are obvious, and this has not escaped the attention of critics and readers (take a look at Eddings’ Wikipedia entry), although Eddings has flatly stated in response to critics that he doesn’t "take orders from readers". For folks who need convincing, The Belgariad and The Elenium tell the story of a group on a noble quest for a blue gem that is the one way of destroying a misshapen and unspeakably evil god who has spent aeons hungering for the talismanic jewel. Alfred Hitchcock fans will of course recognise this as a classic MacGuffin, an object that has no intrinsic value but which everyone in the story is obsessed with. True genius can use a MacGuffin as a speck of sand to create a pearl within the oyster of the novel, but overuse just gives you a bunch of mutant oysters.  Even more alarmingly, David Eddings has gone on the record to say he doesn't read fantasy because he can't help himself stealing ideas from other authors. Presumably when you're pushing 80 and people keep telling you your books are modern classics, you end up with the kind of self-confidence that lets you say things like this. What also becomes clear from even a casual comparison of Eddings’ various books is that the dialogue and characters are also endlessly recycled. When an Eddings character wishes to appear urbane or mock his adversary, the irritating stock epithet "old boy" is always used. In fact, the same characters slightly tweaked populate the worlds of The Belgariad and The Elenium, such as the cynical, good hearted entrepreneur and spy Silk who gets recycled as the boy thief Talen. The good-hearted and essentially straightforward Garion is clearly recognisable in the (marginally) more complex and battered Sparhawk. Even the two villains in The Belgariad / Elenium who move beyond the "evil god" or wicked sorcerer are the same character: Zedar, the apostate sorcerer of The Belgariad who joins the evil god Torak in his quest for the Orb is a dead ringer for Martel, the renegade Pandion Knight and Sparhawk’s childhood friend who now works for the dark god Azash and his unspeakable disciple Otha. And so it goes. |
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