Product Description

Her mind guided by a mother she will not see again for centuries, Polgara beings life in the Vale, growing up in her uncle's Beldin's tower and in the prehistoric Tree that is the heart of that magical place. There she first learns the reaches of her powers and assumes the bird shapes that will serve her on her far-flung travels. As her adventures carry her far from the safety of the Vale, her spellbinding fate unfolds. For Polgara is destined to be guardian of the world's last, best hope: the heir to the Rivan throne.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60340 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-26
• Released on: 1998-12-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 768 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345422552
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
A sorceress reminisces on her proud life in this final volume in the authors' best-selling sf series, "The Belgariad" (e.g., Belgarath the Sorcerer, LJ
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Already a runaway bestseller in the UK, this latest doorstopper fantasy from the husband-and-wife team expands upon the events encompassing two huge five-book sagas, The Belgariad and The Malloreon, plus a sequel-cum-companion volume, Belgarath the Sorcerer (1995). This enormous tome focuses on Belgarath's daughter Polgara, the 3,000-year-old shape-shifting sorceress, and her tumultuous world of magic, one-eyed evil gods, kings, swords, orbs, and whatnot. Neither sequel nor prequel, but--what? Postquel? Omniquel? (Radio satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From the Publisher
From the very beginning of PAWN OF PROPHECY, I was in awe of the character Polgara. I think all Eddings' fans are: she's the ultimate woman. And I mean that in a down-to-earth, very practical sense: of course she's gorgeous and a mighty sorceress, but she's also the one who has to pack when they're going on some epic quest; she's the one who makes sure they eat sensibly: gruel and tea instead of roast ox and beer for breakfast. She knows how to handle men and small boys and hysterical redheads, and she makes sure to have clothes fit for a throne room and a sharp rejoinder ready for her father.
        Big Dave thinks that Belgarath is the central character of The Belgariad and The Malloreon. But Leigh and I and hosts of others know better: Polgara is at the heart of these wonderful books.
                                                --Veronica Chapman, Senior Editor

Customer Reviews

Fitting cap, if only for fans
If you haven't read the Belgariad (mostly) or the Malloreon, then don't even bother picking this up because you probably aren't going to know what the heck is going on. David Eddings seems to polarize people even more than say, Robert Jordan, there are people like me who have read the Belgariad a million times (and I generally don't read books more than once) and there are folks who spit in his general direction upon hearing the name Eddings. So I'm biased. Who isn't? Like the similiarily gigantic Belgarath, this is basically the three thousand year history of Eddings' world told from the point of view of the woman who wound up guarding the line of Rivan kings for about a thousand years or so. Polgara is an engaging narrator and even though she's going events that we know a lot about already, her perspective is both different from the omniscient narrator of the series and Belgarath's from the other book. The thing I most liked about the Eddings' books (at least initially) was they had a bit of a gentle, homespun quality. There may have been high sorcery and world shattering events going on around everyone but you got a sense of wonder and a feeling that these are regular people being thrust into something that's been going on forever that they have little conception of. Of course that's Eddings' best and worst trait as a writer. He's pretty much incapable of detailing complex emotions in any way shape or form and over the course of seven hundred pages it can get tedious, it's never less than entertaining but you may want to take short breaks from the book before going back to it. It's also very slow moving, because being immortal is mostly sitting around and waiting for stuff to happen. With Polgara being three thousand years old, it takes a while to get anywhere and there's a lot of repetition in events, heck, even the Rivan king names start repeating after a while. Also, for some reason, every fantasy writer except for Tolkein decides that he has to give his or her personal view of male/female relationships, Jordan is notorious for this and it never really bothered me in Eddings until now, perhaps because of said repetition. All the woman are manipulative, but tender and sensitive, the men are gruffy ineffectual, needing a woman to guide them and nobody is ever complete until they are married, and just about everyone falls apart completely when his or her spouse dies. Polgara winds up restating the same point several times, which isn't uncommon in a long, somewhat ramblinh narrative but still jarring nonetheless. Still, there is lots to recommend to fans, Polgara's accounts of how she became a duchess and basically created Sendaria are pure Eddings and the Vo Mimbre section of the book alone is worth the price of admission, if only because it's the only really epic action packed thing there (it was the last clash of Light and Dark before the Belgariad). Definitely a kind and gentle way to say goodbye to a series that has thrilled me more times than I can remember and it was great revisiting all those great characters and events one last time. If you've grown up on Eddings, you owe it to yourself to get this, if you're new, get the Belgariad first and see if you like that, then come back here. It'll be waiting. Or something.

My, this was tedious...
I greatly enjoyed the Belgariad with its variety of characters and intriguing plot line; and for the most part, I found the same to be true of the Mallorean. And even Belgarath the Sorcerer was good, though hardly up to par with the others. But Polgara the Sorceress was just plain awful. Her snide, childish attitude painted her in a completely different light compared to her portrayal in the other novels. She constantly complains about her father's meddling, but it seems from the storyline that Belgarath had been content to leave her to her own devices fince before she was born. And he intruded once every so many centuries only when she'd summon him for some emergency; and he'd arrive only to be repulsed by an arrogant, churlish bully.

Another problem that this latest installment in the Eddings' series failed to solve was this question: "Why is everyone afraid of Belgarath, and esp. Polgara?" Aside from a few parlor tricks and the occasional allusion! to some "nasty deed," Belgarath and Polgara never really seem to make use of their "talent." Yet, esp. in Polgara the Sorceress, Polgara enters royal courts and battlefields swinging her name around like a bludgeon -- and everyone acquiesces. And the role of Necessity -- and Polgara's tight association with it, as newly revealed by her autobiography -- ruined the enjoyment and suspense of the other novels: Belgarath and the others were seemingly responsible for following assorted prophecies, but anytime a clinch decision needed to be made, a God, or Poledra, or Necessity, or someone, stepped in and ensured that nobody blundered, making Belgarath and the others rather redundant.

But worst of all were the little asides and pokes made in Belgarath's direction. I very well might have burned the text had a comment along the lines of "Got you there, didn't I, Old Wolf," been inserted into the story one more time. The dry humor and sarcastic bante! r that played well in the other novels was overdone in this! monologue -- and I felt as though the Eddings were adding those tedious comments in the text to ensure that the reader knows that the sarcasm is intended to be funny -- a most undesirable literary device.

One high point of the book that added depth to Polgara's character was her realtionship to Ontrose; I wish that situation and other formative events would have received more focus. Instead, reams of paper were devoted to listing the succession of Arendish kings and the geneology of the Godslayer, most of whose trivial ancestors seemed to have been named Geran anyway. (By the way, whatever happened to the other descendants -- daughters, etc. Presumably, Polgara would have wanted to keep tabs on the other branches of the family tree in case Asharak the Murgo had indeed succeeded in killing the heir-apparent to Riva's throne, right?)

Perhaps the Belgariad/Mallorean series is out of steam, especially since, the Necessity of the Universe having been repaired, there isn't ! enough evil left in the world to occupy the main characters. But I sincerely hope that the Eddings write at least one more installment to redeem this weak link of the Belgariad/Mallorean chain.

And if anyone who's had the tenacty to read it thinks what I've written is utter bullocks, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Fantastic commentary on the events of the series
The Belgeriad and Mallorean series are my favorite pieces of fantasy literature - I've read them a couple times, and they are always super enjoyable, and always force me to stay up late reading them because I can't stop, even though I know what's going to happen.

This book (and Belgarath) is a wonderful cap to the whole series, going all way back in time. Although much of it is a repeat of what was in the other books, this is wonderful reading since it is all from the perspective of Polgara, daughter of Belgarath, alive the last 5,000 years. Polgara offers many, many new insights to the events of the books. It's fascinating: construct a whole series with the omniscient narrator, and then write two more books going over the whole thing again, but from the point of views of two characters in the series. Surprisingly, it not only works, it works well, and it's quite compelling reading. And Eddings writes convincingly enough to make one think it really *is* Polgara who has written this.

Absolutely excellent reading, but of course, you really do have to read the first ten books first. And I can't recommend this series enough. Certainly the best multi-volume fantasy series that has come out (and yes, I am apostate by regarding this higher than Lord of the Rings, but so be it).