After having read David Eddings' "The Belgariad" and "The Malloreon" twice and reading the "Belgarath the Sorcerer" and "Polgara the Sorceress" prequels, I felt compelled to go ahead and read the thirteenth and final entry in the series: "The Rivan Codex." I did so with some reservations. The book is a collection of histories, religious documents, gospels, and footnotes about the fantasy world the two series are set in. The copy I had I bought on eBay quite affordably. It was beautifully illustrated with many pen-and-ink drawings.
I loved reading this book, though, much more than I had expected to. It even has a couple of sections from David Eddings' perspective about the writing of these books and about writing in general. He admonished me for not writing daily (at least at seemed personal when he said it...) He also went over the ten ingredients of fantasy books and even went so far as to describe them as 'dope.' It cracked me up. But it's true in a way. I mean, good fantasy can't be put down.
A lot of this material was written really to assist the authors, David and his wife, Leigh, with crafting the worlds and the stories included in the books. They are truly epic in scope, and they truly went the extra mile in fleshing out all of this history and background. If I hadn't re-read them relatively recently, I'd be encouraged to pick them up again.
Eddings was frank about his inspirations for "The Belgariad" and "The Malloreon" even going so far as to noting which fantasy nations were inspired by which real-world nations from history. He also encouraged the reading of classical medieval literature as those provide some basic frameworks for how fantasy stories tend to function. I had recently read one of the books he cited in "Le Morte D'Arthur" by Sir Thomas Malory and can appreciate its impact on the genre.
The book closed with a fervent recommendation for a book by Eddings' personal favorite fantasy author, Lord Dunsany's "The Book of Wonder." He noted that Dunsany can do in four pages what it takes Eddings to do in four hundred. That's quite an accolade. I ordered one from Amazon and hope to read it soon.
I was delighted to read this collection of background notes on two fantasy series that I have loved over the years. I had a great time and, if anything, it made me want to read more fantasy rather than satiating me with its contents.
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