King of the Murgos, By David Eddings

After destroying the Bear cult at Rheon, Garion was visited by the seer Cyradis. She gave him certain instructions about where he should go, and who he should take with him. This means that Garion must again travel through the swamps of Nyissa, where the politics of the lands have again mixed with Angarak politics. But they seem to be gaining on the trail of his son, which is the only thing keeping both Garion and Ce’Nedra sane. But mishaps and complications are ever occurring, for when they impersonate Nyissan slave traders, they get taken to Kahsha, the headquarters of the Dagashi where they are instructed to take a message to King Urgit of the Murgos. This leads them down a surprising path, and reveals more of Silk’s past dealings with the royal family of Murgos. But Belgarath’s understanding of the Dark Prophecy is mounting, and it does not look good. For if Zandramas reaches the Sardion first, Garion will have to kill his own son.

And Lo! The plot thickens! That is basically the point of this book: in book one we had exposition, and now, the climax is rising. Does it sound like I’ve been doing too much English homework? Well you’re right. But the comparison applies. We meet new characters…some of them are new anyway. I mean, we’ve met Sadi before in the Belgariad, but he only had a minor role to play then. He soon becomes very fun to read in the Eddings tradition of writing serious/witty characters. And Urgit, oh, there is fun untapped before. But I can’t tell you anything, except to say…well, nothing. I can’t say anything. And that is frustrating, but I really don’t want to spoil anything. And even saying that is spoiling it, but moving on.

King of the Murgos is a much more exciting book than Guardians of the West. We’ve got plot movement, new characters, interesting happenings, etc. It moves along a lot more, without the tediousness of ‘explaining.’ I think Eddings often has a slow start to a series, because he has the need to explain everything about characters and how they think about things. I don’t mind it too much as it only takes up about half of the first book, but it can drag for some people. But we are past that, and getting into the thick of things. Sadly we’ve seen it all before, but it’s still interesting if you keep an open mind. And it gets kind of fun to try to match the plot twists with the Belgariad. Because you can do that, and Eddings actually admits that you can in a very clever speech Belgarath gives. But that’s all I’ll say for now, except that I hope you’re still with me and intend to read this series.