The big 50! Queen of Sorcery, By David Eddings

After the council in Cherek, Belgarath and company travel to pick up the trail of the Orb again. Their path leads them through warring Arendia where they pick up two other companions: Lelldorin, a fiery Asturian patriot, and Mandorallen, a Mimbrate knight who truly knows no fear. After sorting out a few potential wars, the company travels through Tolnedra to inform the Emperor of what is going on. Around this time Garion discovers an interesting fact about himself which plunges him into despair, worry, and anger. But try as he might it will not go away, and soon he realizes that he needs it. For Belgarath has told him who killed his parents, and Garion wants revenge. For who else could it be but his old friend Asharak the Murgo. And he knows their paths will cross again someday. But for now they must travel through Nyissa in search of the Orb, and the Queen of that land is as dangerous and sneaky as the snakes that they honor.

Important information is learned, important people are met, and some important events happen. But on the whole not too much seems to happen in Queen of Sorcery. We have a few more adventures, and a few more laughs, but the plot does not advance very far. I’m not saying that this book is complete filler, but in a larger sense not too much goes on. They are no closer to finding the Orb than ever, and the lead of Zedar even seems to have grown. Long drawn out chases can do that to a series, because even though for plot’s sake they can’t catch the bad guys yet it seems to take forever and nothing seems to happen for books and books. This can be a problem if it goes on too long, but Eddings has only had us chasing the bad guys for two books yet, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

But really spiffy things do happen in Queen of Sorcery. Garion starts to do cool things, and grow up a bit. He still has the strange occasional childish sulk not quite fitting his age, but he no longer seems to be 12. Mandorallen is quite the piece of work and he fits in very well with Silk and Barak. The humor continues unabated with much mirth and laughing from me while I read: I can’t pass up good dry wit and sarcasm. I can’t. I do look forward to more happening in the next few books, because endless chases never really do well in a series.