EVER BOUGHT A BOOK ON THE STRENGTH OF THE REVIEWS ON THE BACK???

If you are like us (and probably one of the many thousands of book lovers across the globe) and have had the misfortune of spending your hard-earned cash on an apparent "best-seller"; you will probably also have experienced the dull thud as you bang your head against the wall, thinking "Why did I listen to the reviews on the back?!" The truth is: reviews found on books are usually self-promoting, PR stunt-type hype and not necessarily a true reflection of the books' quality at all.

It is our aim to tell the truth about books, but don't for one second assume that that is synonymous with us creating a blog to 'diss' authors' work - to the contrary - our intention is to provide an honest appraisal of each and every book we read. If the book is any good - it'll get a good review. If it's awful and a tragedy to the literary world - then it won't. It's that simple.

Thursday 11 October 2007

The Belgariad (Castle of Wizardry) by David Eddings (ISBN 978-0-552-55479-4)

Number four out of a five-part series called 'The Belgariad', "The Castle of Wizardry" is a tale of pure fantasy. This genre has always had a keen following, although, thanks to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Eragon, it has seen a shift into mainstream popularity.
By no means is this to be compared with the aforementioned Lord of the Rings; it lacks the finesse and does not require the strength of will necessary to read those tombs... which is a positive in its favour.
Relatively easy to assimilate, there is plenty of fat on the characters to provide a decent meal for even the most famished of fantasy-lovers. On the downside, it does suffer from a bout of 'much-of-a-sameness', which I personally feel is prolific amongst titles in this genre.
I long for the day when fantasy writers give us something MORE than just another set of unfortunate events, battles, unrequited love, true love and good overcoming evil. It gets a little monotonous after a while.
It is one of the better written of its contemporaries, and if you're a die-hard fan (or simply don't like existing in the real world) - this series gives you plenty to wrap your teeth around.

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