Mass Market Paperback, 263 pages
English language
Published by Del Rey, Random House Publishing.
Long ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe.
But that was only a story, and Garion did not believe in magic dooms, even though the dark man without a shadow had haunted him for years. Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread Torak, or that he would be led on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger by those he loved—but did not know?
For a while his dreams of innocence were safe, untroubled by knowledge of his strange heritage. For a little while...
I feel somewhat underwhelmed after reading this first part of the Belgariad. In the beginning it looked like yet another LotR clone. That has not changed so much towards the end of book one. It could also be the - admittedly epic - campaign log of a D&D group. All in all it was still pleasant to read. So I'll continue with the next ... sometimes it takes me a while to warm to a series.
One my favourite fantasy series when I was a lad, I picked this up in a charity shop, and it's going straight back to a different charity shop. Not impressed.
