'The Rivan Codex' by David & Leigh Eddings

Reviewed by: Michelle (Wyrmtongue, Oct. 2000)

If you've already read the 'Belgariad' series, 'Mallorean' series, 'Belgarath the Sorcerer', and 'Polgara the Sorceress', you might be getting a little tired of hearing the same story over and over again, and wonder whether there's a point to reading 'The Rivan Codex'. After all, this is just the original source material for the Belgariad - what more can there be?

An awful lot, it turns out. Holy books, bits of history, and plenty of comments from the author putting all the pieces in perspective. This isn't a dry catalogue of facts, maps, and battles - Eddings used this material as a learning experience, to get the feel for characters and races, and as a result many of the sections are done as an in-character dialogue, diary, or essay. In other words, it's not another 'Silmarillion' - being easy to read and interesting, like the rest of Eddings' work. This engaging writing style is probably how he got away with so many re-hashings of the same material, while still making each new book worth reading - in my opinion. (That, or my atrocious memory for books...)

We have several of books by David Eddings in the icsf library, please see the database for more details.