Polgara the Sorceress

By: Leigh Eddings, David Eddings

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 30 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Polgara is the epic culmination of a magnificent saga, and a fitting farewell to a world which, once experienced, will never be forgotten.

She soars above a world of warriors, kings, and priests. The daughter of Belgarath and the shape-shifter Poledra, she has fought wars, plotted palace coups, and worked her powerful magic for three thousand years. Now, Polgara looks back at her magnificent life, in this fitting crown jewel to the saga that is the Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean cycles.

Her hair streaked white by her father's first touch, her mind guided by a mother she will not see again for centuries, Polgara begins life in her Uncle Beldin's tower, and in the prehistorical, magical Tree that stands in the middle of the Vale. There, she first learns the reaches of her powers. There she assumes the bird shapes that will serve her on her adventures. And there she starts on the path toward her destiny as Duchess of Erat, shepherdess of the cause of good, adversary of Torak the One-Eyed Dragon God, and guardian of the world's last, best hope: the heir to the Rivan throne.

Here is the legendary life story of a woman of wit, passion, and complex emotions, a woman born of two majestic parents who could not have been more unlike one another. Ordained to make peace and make war, to gain love and lose love, Polgara lives out her family's rich prophecy in the ceaseless struggle between the Light and the Dark.

Fantasy fan? Listen to titles in the Malloreon series, which is a sequel to David Eddings' Belgariad series.

©1996 David Eddings and Leigh Eddings (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

kind of meh

listening to the voice narration was absolutely brutal. Every female character sounded like some sort of wicked witch of the West knock off. And the pronunciation was awful. She sounded like a 5 year old sounding out their first book with words.

Pronunciation is atrocious

I love this series. Read it many times. Listened to the whole series too. This reader mispronounces nearly every name. Mallorea (Mal-OR-ee-a) is pronounced like diarrhea to name one of the worst. It’s the only audiobook I haven’t finished in the series for the frustration.

Oof... this narrator! 🤦‍♀️

Guys. I’ve loved this series since I was a kid. These characters are like people to me, and one of the highlights of my marriage was the day I introduced them to my husband. I’ve been through all of the Cameron Beierle recordings, and had to get used to the fact that he pronounced most of the names differently than I have for my whole life. I finally was able to complete the series with this book, but it’s killing me. I could get used to the fact that her tone of voice is often more acidic than I’d pictured for the characters. (Pol has sass, but she’s not THAT sarcastic, in my opinion.) But her pronunciations??? Ugh. If you pronounce “MallORea” so that it rhymes with “diarrhea,” you’re doing it wrong. I’m halfway through listening, and I suppose I will finish it for the sense of closure. However… It’s kind of agonizing.

Good for the story...

There was no consistency from prior recordings in the pronunciation of certain places. Took me a minute to figure out what she was saying.

Great end to the story

Fantastic wrap of if well, everything.

TERRIBLE pronunciation and voices. Absolutely and truly awful.

After the amazing job the previous guy did on all of the other books, including his wonderfully perfect and convincing female voices, as well as all of his exceptional portrayals of so many characters, they should have just had him do this book as well.

Seriously, he already had a perfect Polgara voice. And he pronounced all the words, names and places correctly. The lady who read this book just made it painful and exasperating to listen to.

Seriously, it’s took effort to get thru this otherwise wonderful book. That should not be the case.

good story not so good story teller

this is the 12th book in the series and I was extremely disappointed that so many names of peoples and places where pronounced wrong. other than that it is what I expected and was a good book.

Terrible performer for a great story.

Not much to say aside from this being the worst voice performance this side of Fran Dresser.

The story is classic Eddings but the narration...

Would you consider the audio edition of Polgara the Sorceress to be better than the print version?

No.

What didn’t you like about Dina Pearlman’s performance?

She has completely mis-judged Polgara's character and reads with a sweet voice.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The death of her senechal, Kilean.

Any additional comments?

It should have been narrated by a man. Most of the characters appearing in the book are male and it would have made more sense. There are good male narrators out there who can pull off a rich woman's voice and throw a better variety into the rest of the cast. Plus it would have helped when supposedly huge brawny men bellowed out instead of listening to a woman's sweet tinkling effort.

Pronunciation

I read the entire series in print and Loved it. The Belgeriad, The Malorean and Belgarath The Sorceror were read by the same actor who pronounced certain fictional words pretty much the way I did in my head while reading (ie: certain character or place names.).
While I understand that Polgara's story should be read by a woman and her performance was at least as good as her counterpart, I found the inconsistency of pronunciation quite jarring.

great story, horrid reader.

great read, great story. horrible reader. changed established pronunciations. changed established tones and inflections of characters. struggled to get through this audible version.