Fantasy author David Eddings, aged 77, passed away last night. He is most famous for his series about Belgarion (The Belgariad, The Malloreon) and Sparhawk (The Elenium, The Tamuli).
Eddings has a special place for me since he was the author who introduced me to fantasy. It was during a book sale ten years ago or something that I picked up The Diamond Throne (mostly because of the awesome cover art by Keith Parkinson), and thanks to its accessibility it was soon followed by many other authors.
His writing feels more aimed at a younger audience — something that made me feel a little disappointed as I grew older and read more books — but at the same time something for which I am deeply thankful. If I had picked up a book by Stephen Donaldson to introduce me to the genre I would never had been where I am today.
If a little toddler told me he was interested in fantasy and asked me today what book he should start with I would probably still say The Diamond Throne by David Eddings.
Source: Stephen Hunt’s SF Crowsnest
This is incredibly sad. I ran into Eddings as a youngster myself, at about the time the Belgariad was finishing up. He and his wife may not have written deep, philosophical books, but their stories were always fun reads with likable characters. For a long time he was my favorite author, and I will always look upon his works with fond memories.
Yep the Dawn of Prophecy was my 1st Eddings book I bought, still that 1st edition in my bookcase. Easy going fantasy books. Got to be formulaic as he produced the same series with different characters later on.
Nether the less still a lot of fun and will be a good book for my daughter to read when she is older.
He leaves behind a tremendous legacy and will be missed.
David Eddings is the reason I failed to grow -socially- in highschool. I loved those books. I think I may read them again. -NK
@Castamere
His first series was excellent, the ones that followed were a rinse and repeat of that first series. So not completely convinced of the whole legacy thing.
There are significantly better authors that he was. However it was the right kind of books at the right time and I loved them for what they were.
Mr Eddings got me started in this genre 25 years ago and I’ve never looked back. R.I.P fella and thanks for everything
While I’d read fantasy before The Belgariad, that was the first set of books I really remember recommending to friends at the tender age of 13 or so. Whatever the writing quality, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for David Eddings. It adds to the losses of fdefinitive antasy authors over the past couple of years and that makes it even sadder.
While I haven’t read any of his books in years (I’ve had The Dreams trilogy sitting in my to read pile for quite a long time) his Belgariad series was one of my favorites as a kid. That was the first series after Lord of the Rings that I really got into. I’ll have to revisit them and see if they still hold up.