Yeah, I love that Eddings's characters are archetypes and don't really know how they feel about it. And how grumpy they get at times because the Purpose of the Universe has been NAGGING them to save the world for CENTURIES and it's getting old.
I thought it was interesting that he was so careful about which variables he changed--in the Belgariad our hero was what he called the Dumb Hero--or, at least, the innocent hero with no idea what was going on in the world. In the Elenium you had a similar quest for a Magic Thingamajig (his words, not mine), but he opted for a seasoned and world-weary hero to be the one on the quest. It's a fun difference.
I must have just skimmed through LotR when I read it as a kid, because this time around I'm just overcome with how it drags. I had forgotten that the first half of Fellowship consists entirely of fucking around and musical numbers. (I had also forgotten that, while I admire his conlanging dedication, it's rather weird to have characters stop the action dead to tell their friends that the mountain to your left, which Men now know as Mount Intheway, or Hocketyblarg in the ancient tongue, is called by the Elves Ithilwithil or sometimes Wiggitywack, but the dwarves call it Glockendurm unless it's Tuesday and then they use the term Khar-daznog which means "Dude, that's a mountain over there and it's Tuesday" and on and on ...) He seems to know where he's going in The Hobbit. Not so much LotR.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-02-13 12:24 am (UTC)I thought it was interesting that he was so careful about which variables he changed--in the Belgariad our hero was what he called the Dumb Hero--or, at least, the innocent hero with no idea what was going on in the world. In the Elenium you had a similar quest for a Magic Thingamajig (his words, not mine), but he opted for a seasoned and world-weary hero to be the one on the quest. It's a fun difference.
I must have just skimmed through LotR when I read it as a kid, because this time around I'm just overcome with how it drags. I had forgotten that the first half of Fellowship consists entirely of fucking around and musical numbers. (I had also forgotten that, while I admire his conlanging dedication, it's rather weird to have characters stop the action dead to tell their friends that the mountain to your left, which Men now know as Mount Intheway, or Hocketyblarg in the ancient tongue, is called by the Elves Ithilwithil or sometimes Wiggitywack, but the dwarves call it Glockendurm unless it's Tuesday and then they use the term Khar-daznog which means "Dude, that's a mountain over there and it's Tuesday" and on and on ...) He seems to know where he's going in The Hobbit. Not so much LotR.