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The first strength is how strongly their characters are written. It's so easy to believe that these characters COULD exist in real life, because they're so flawed...and yet so noble and heroic.
A good example is "Belgarath the Sorcerer" - Belgarath is DEFINITELY not a Gandalf clone. He's a thief, a liar, a cheat, and loves keeping the company of woman of questionable reputation. Despite all that, he's still one of the most adept masters of "The Will and the Word", and can perform heroic deeds when called upon.
The Edding's other strength is their narrative. The plotline IS a rip-off of Lord of the Rings, but it moves along at such a good pace, and is so well written, that you totally ignore that issue as soon as you read the first page. The only conclusion I can come to is that although the main plotlines are similar, their execution is totally different.
Now...onto the book review. Of all five books in the Belgariad, this is my favourite. And a large portion of that is due to the battle at Thull Mardu. The plotline in this book revolves around this single event - we see the lead-up (gathering the troops), the battle itself (which is realistically written), and the aftermath. In the lead-up, we get a much better look at some of the protaganists - especially the Alorn Kings. We're also introduced to General Varana, a character who will return in the Mallorean. All of them are very well written, and each of them has a character quirk that endears them to us. We start to care about what happens to them.
The battle itself is quite realistically written. The Edding's strength in this area isn't the body count - we don't seem to get a real idea of how many people die. It's their portrayal of individual events that make it so powerful. There's one quite affecting scene involving a young boy playing a flute on top of a hill that is very well written - and is also used to portray the stupidity and waste of war. It's also important to point out that the good guys are actually outnumbered in this battle, and very nearly don't win. My only complaint about this section of the book is that the Edding's don't provide a really good explanation of exactly how the good guys escape in the end. It just seems to reach a particular point, and then, seemingly satisfied that things will turn out alright, we immediately switch to the battle between Garion and Torak.
As for the battle between Garion and Torak? It was every bit as interesting as I thought it would be. I would love to see this scene portrayed in a movie. The one aspect that really surprised me was HOW Garion defeated Torak - anybody who's read the book knows what I'm talking about. In the end, it wasn't through Garion's skill with a sword, instead it was through taking advantage of a certain aspect of godhood. In retrospect, this makes sense. After all, a god is totally infallible but does have one obvious weakness.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the battle at Thull Mardu far more than the final battle between Garion and Torak. Both were equally powerful events, it's just that one had more time devoted to it than the other. I actually read the Mallorean novels before I read the Belgariad, so it was interesting seeing the events that lead up to the second set of books. I can certainly see why so many people like the Belgariad more than the Mallorean. As for me, I enjoy both saga's equally, although I have a soft spot for the Mallorean because I read it first.
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