Guardians of the West

The Malloreon, Book 1

De: David Eddings

Narrado por: Eric Michael Summerer

Warned by the prophecy that a new and greater danger threatens the lands of the west, Garion, Belgarath, and Polgara must begin another quest to save the lands from great evil.

Three years have passed since Garion's killing of the evil god Torak and his marriage to Ce'Nedra. He is now Overlord of the West, slowly learning how to cope with the duties of a king and to overcome the difficulties within his marriage.

When the Orb of Aldur warns Garion to "Beware Zandramas!" the Voice of Prophecy reveals that somewhere in the unknown land of the East the Dark Prophecy still exists and that great new dangers threaten.

While Belgarath and Garion seek to uncover the nature of this threat, Garion's baby son is kidnapped. All evidence points to the loathsome Bear-cult, which has gained power once more, and Garion leads an army bent on its destruction. But there are even more sinister forces at work, and Garion and his followers must look towards the malign and mysterious evil of Zandramas. Their quest must begin again.

THUS BEGINS BOOK ONE OF THE MALLOREON

©1987 David Eddings (P)2024 Tantor

Way Too Many Weird Names

I couldn’t follow this story line at all. Too many weird names and characters to keep track of. I’ve liked his books in the past, but this one missed the mark for me.

Not my favorite

Too many seemingly unrelated detail but weak on character development I didn’t finish the story on my first try.

Always a Great Story but…

I’ve been re-reading this series since my teenage years. I was saddened to learn of Eddings’ sordid past that caused all previous audiobooks to be pulled and re-recorded to (somehow) prevent his estate from receiving royalties. That said, this new narrator butchers pronunciations of names and places. He gives zero life to the characters. I miss the Cameron Briegle versions and regret not getting those versions before they were pulled.

Good story

Was used to the original narrator from the first series of books. A little hard to get into this one

I like the characters and the story

The narrator is terrible at pronunciation. He sometimes seems hesitant. The saving grace is the story

An odd departure from previous series

The author somehow made the protagonist incredibly stupid in this series, while the previous series the protagonist was of average intelligence. The literary building blocks that the story uses to erect the narrative crumble upon the first logical thought, there are no clever turns or dreadful outcomes.

The narrator uses some odd inflections while reading that seem to convey a different emotion than what is written in the page. Also, between this series and the previous series the pronunciation of some names change leaving the listener temporarily confused at the first introductions of the characters.

On the whole of it, I was left disappointed and disinterested in continuing the series in an audiobook format after reading these series as a young adult.

Why would you change the voice actor??

This voice actor is good, don't get me wrong, but why for all that is good would you change them? The first 5 were fantastic. This is so different, names said wrong, places said wrong, voices different. Very very difficult jump.


Story's fantastic!!

interesting changes

I love these books, the choice to change voice actor from the first series is interesting, but I could see where it might come from since the MC has gotten older. However, the lack of paying attention to how names are pronounced is annoying, some that I can think of would be Belgarath and king fulrach, and we'll as Ctuchik. Belgarath should be pronounced (bel ga rath) not belgarth. fulrach should be pronounced (full rack/rock) like a ck not a ch like child. and Ctuchik was just straight butchered. it should have been pronounced (chu chick). the new narrator should have done more research in how names were pronounced for people and places.

Wonderful story line

the storyline is great, easy to keep up with and we'll told by the reader

Great writer!

Consistent flow of story. Story holds your attention. You get into the story and see their world through their eyes.