Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful work of fantasy!
Review: I love this series! My sister first heard about it from one of her friends and I read it and absolutely loved it. Edding's writing is very humorous, sometimes stupid humor but most of the time really great. Whenever I read these humorous parts, I start laughing so hard, my parents some to check and see what I'm laughing at. I'll admit that sometimes the series is very predictable, but hey, it's just great. His characters are really great. I could go on and on about his books, but whoevers reading this would probably get pretty bored.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute classic! The best story I've ever read!
Review: When I first started reading Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad part 1) I was instantly drawn into this fantastic world that David Eddings created. The story is full of wonderful and intriguing characters, and that is what moves this story along. The plot has been done before, but it's slightly reinvented for this story. Garion is expertly written, and as I read his story I felt as if it were me who was taking this journey. Not many books have done this. Belgarath is reminiscent of Tolkien's Gandalf, only more down-to-earth. Polgara is an AMAZING woman, overflowing with personality and so much fun to read. The sorcerers' power, called The Will and the Word, is very cool and probably the best form of wizardry I've read. Its concept is fresh and interesting. No magic words or anything...just will something and command it to happen with a word. But using it could alert those evil sorcerers of your whereabouts from the "noise" that magic makes.
All in all, this series rocks! Also check out the prequels, Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. These are amazing books. The only modern fantasy books that have come close to creating this same excitement for me has been the Harry Potter series.
Rating:
Summary: Why is it the best?
Review: I'll tell you why David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon series are among the best in fantasy. THEY END. Both series are confined to five books: they have distinct beginnings, expansive middles, and satisfying conclusions. This may sound like an odd thing to praise, but anybody who has waded into (and become hopelessly mired in) Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" or Terry Goodkind's "Wizards First Rule" series will know exactly what I'm talking about. Tolkien didn't make us slog through - and this is quite literal, in Jordan's case - tens of thousands of pages of pointless verbosity before bringing his opus to a rousing crescendo, and Eddings...though certainly no master like Tolkien...gives us the same courtesy.
Aside from this most appreciated of gifts, Eddings is also an imaginative and engaging author. Terry Brooks' "Shannara" series, for example, was a barely, thinly, poorly veiled ripoff of Tolkien. Jordan's glacial repetitiveness has caused his once-promising series to run completely out of steam. Goodkind has the same problem. But Eddings keeps things fresh. He also writes some of the most engaging and multi-dimensional characters in fantasy. He writes real growth and dotes loving care on his characters: the changes they undergo through the course of the ten novels of the Belgariad and the Malloreon are believable, understandable, acceptable, rather than visceral and awkward (Terry Goodkind, take note).
All too often, fantasy is given short shrift in serious literary circles. It would do well to remember how much utter trash there is across ALL genres of fiction, not just fantasy, and to accept Eddings' for what he is: a talented and engaging writer. Give these a try.
Rating:
Summary: The very best there is !
Review: These books are the very best there is. There is war, murder, mystery, romance, magic, and humor. It is better than Harry Potter. There are spectacular characters in these books. Belgarath and Polgara are constantly bantering with each other, and it is so funny. There is a whole lot of action in these books that make it an on-the-edge-of-your-seat thriiler. There is some romance that just make your stomach do back-flips. Truly they are the best books I have ever read, and it makes it all the more exciting that there are three books in one! I advise you to read these books, however if I were you I would get the other books when you buy this one, because you are going to want to read them when you finish these. You will not be able to put these books down!
Rating:
Summary: My all time favorite fantasy series!
Review: Sure, he's no Tolkein, but how many people are? It doesn't make Eddings any less great in my eyes. Of all the book in the fantasy genre that I have ever read, Eddings's Belgariad and Mallorean have the best characters. He creates a complex world simply and though the books are predictable, they are nonetheless great. As I read them, I felt myself as part of the characters' group, going on their journey with them. By the end, I felt like they were my friends and I was sad to see it end. He writes about a wide variety of characters who are each unique in their own way. The story itself moves along fast enough and though simplistic, I found myself liking the twists, turns and surprises, even if I did see them coming. The thing that totally makes this story are by far the characters that I totally fell in love with. Silk will go down in my book as one of my all time favorite book characters, up there with Atticus Finch. This is a must read for fantasy readers but not if you're expecting some sort of deep and meaningful story. It is fluff, but it's also the best fluff I have ever read with the greatest characters that have ever existed in fantasy stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay but not spellbinding
Review: Having read the reviews on Amazon I expected a great read that was going to keep me on the edge of my seat, devouring the pages as I raced to the conclusion of the series. Well, the first three books of The Belgariad are far from that. I expected a great book and got something that was ok.Though the plot has striking simimilarities to those inherent in the fantasy genre, it does have interesting characters. There are some very witty lines, and the dialogue is probably the best aspect of the book. The problem is that a strong editing hand needed to be brought to the book, or some added creativity. The vast majority of the first three books is "the group travelled, ran into some Murgos and killed them, and continued travelling." This formula is repeated ad nauseum, really making the book duller than it should be. Occasionally Eddings tries to be a bit more inventive and will show the skeleton of an extinct monster that does nothing to forward the plot or even make it more interesting. If Volume 1 could be condensed to 1/2-2/3 of its current length, then it would make for a much stronger and compelling read. As it is, read it only if you have the time to spare and have nothing better to do. It's not a bad read, but it's not one of the greats like most of the other reviewers have asserted.
Rating: 
Summary: Story grows as the hero does
Review: The Belgariad is Eddings' first and best fantasy series. First published in the mid-1980s, the Belgariad differed from other fantasy fiction because: (1) it was not based on the elf-dwarf-human creature structure like Lord of the Rings and its various copycats (Terry Brooks, Weis/Hickman, Dennis McKeirnan, etc.); (2) it had mature and defined political systems (including a country that popularly elected its king), international relations and ethnic patterns, unlike even the more mature fantasy offerings of Donaldson (Thomas Covenant) and LeGuin (Earthsea); (3) it had a unique formulation of magic -- the will and the word; and (4) it inverted the purpose of the fantasy quest -- the EVIL ONE sleeps and the heroes seek to prevent his awakening BEFORE he begins his attempt to take over the world (again). Eddings narrative is sly and occasionally slick -- the characters balance seriousness with humor and the dialogue is often very funny. His world is believable because the political and religious interactions make sense. The best feature of the Belgariad is its relative tonal change -- from reflecting the innocent wide-eyed view of young Garion (the hero, farmboy, of course) in Pawn of Prophecy, the next two books become darker and more serious as Garion begins to realize who he is and what is at stake, and he comes to grips with who his "Aunt Pol" and his "Grandfather" really are. Eddings' books are also something of a quest story with a travelogue in the world he created -- in the Belgariad he leaves no country untouched in the western continent; in the Mallorean the characters go to every major district in "boundless Mallorea" and his other series (Tamuli, Elenium) are similar. If they sound repetitive, that's because they are -- Eddings repeats the same formula with some variations in his other series and the various wisecracking and irreverent humor that is refreshing in the first Eddings series you read becomes tiresome and predictable thereafter. That said, the Belgariad is the first, the most original and probably the best farmboy-saves-the-world quest of the genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Cookie-cutter fantasy.
Review: This is another book I really wanted to be good, the Belgariad is one of the best loved and most popular Fantasy series out there. However, I was really disappointed. I managed to read Pawn of Prophecy but just had to stop halfway through Queen of Sorcery. The whole thing is just SO boring! Come on Garrion - there's a black dude on a horse watching you your whole life and you never thought to TELL someone? And Polgara, could she be any more grating? Sure she may have solid reasons for being like that but they are never even foreshadowed in the early books thus robbing her of any current credibility. This book will appeal to younger readers to introduce them to fantasy, but they will soon progress onto the stuff with a plot that isn't "Dim boy and co. travel the world, saving it in the process. Repeat." Yawn. - A.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best stories written to date
Review: If your a fantasy reader and you've not read this book then you have to buy it today. Its one of those books that you cannot put down. Its like an addiction, so plan to stay up late. A young boy learns who his family is for the first time. He has many questions, and they only tell him a little bit at a time. Confused, angry, and full of questions he continues to poke and prod his aunt and Mr. Wolf to try to figure out "who he really is"... and when he finds out, he wishes he could be that little boy in Aunt Pol's kitchen once again. We've all been kids at one point in time, and this will make you remember the frustrations of being a teenager, and the confusions of your emotions. Garion begins to learn and to grow as the story goes on. Eddings creates a powerful world of colors and sounds, and mystical powers. Everyone in this story is important, everyone must be there, and events take place for a reason. It just happens to be a reason that Garion doesn't yet understand, and his family refuses to tell him "until he gets older." A great story. Its like "the wizard of oz" of fantasy novels. Its a must read, and must read again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't take my eyes away from reading the whole book
Review: This book is the best! I recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy, magic and even to readers who imagine themselves right beside the main characters of a great book like I myself sometimes do! You can't keep your eyes off the pages and after I finished the book within the week I was disappointed, not knowing that it continues on in another series called "The Malloreon". I was content to read more on this saga. I became addicted you could say. I had to read more and more. Hard to pass this one up!
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