Pawn of Prophecy

The Belgariad, Book 1

De: David Eddings

Narrado por: Brian Wiggins

A magnificent epic set against a history of seven thousand years of the struggles of Gods and Kings and men—of strange lands and events—of fate and a prophecy that must be fulfilled!

THE BELGARIAD

Long ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe.

But that was only a story, and Garion did not believe in magic dooms, even though the dark man without a shadow had haunted him for years.

Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread Torak, or that he would be led on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger by those he loved—but did not know?

For a while his dreams of innocence were safe, untroubled by knowledge of his strange heritage. For a little while . . .

©1982 David Eddings (P)2024 Tantor

An old friend

I believe David and Leigh Eddings were incredible story tellers. I first read 'Pawn Of Prophecy,' in the early 80s. Listening to it again, over forty years later is like catching up with a good friend I haven't seen in a long while. Wiggins did a good job bringing the characters to life. The story follows Garian life as he learns who he truly is. I still find it frustrating that he is kept ignorant of his heritage, but that makes the story. Sadly, David and Leigh are past, but they left behind a wealth of stories.

So happy to listen

I'm super happy to get to listen to this story during work after so many year of not being able to reread due to wear and tear on some of the original publications

Incredibly Well Done

Amazing! Been needing The Belgariad and Mallorean updated audiobooks, and as a long time fan this was incredibly well done… will get them all, can’t wait to continue listening to the entire series.

Inconsistent audio level

I’ve loved this series of books since I first read them when they came out in paperback. The narrator does not have a consistent audio level. He varies from a whisper to a strong level within the same sentence, for dramatic effect I assume. This has me constantly adjusting my volume control.

I don’t recommend this performer, but if you can find this title performed by someone else, get it.

Good story, bad voice reading

The readers voices for the voices keeps me from want to hear more of the story, which sucks, because I love the series. I especially can’t stand when Durnik speaks. Why does it sound like he’s trying to use an Australian accent? Why can’t Nick Podell read for every fantasy series?

Better off reading than listening, unfortunately.

I read this as a kid, but it's been 30 years or more. I remember it being a deceptively charming but world spanning epic coming-of-age fantasy novel. I would still call it a wholesome tale but the narrator just ruined it for me. My initial reaction was that it felt like I'd stumbled into a classroom of first graders and caught their reading hour. But I never got over it, and the narrator continued to disappoint. Terrible accents that slipped in and out of character. Mumbling some of them, to the point that I thought he might be imitating Billy Crystal's character Miracle Max from The Princess Bride for one of them. Maybe it was a joke, and I just didn't get it? In any case, I won't be buying the rest of them, and I'm sad about that.

The first title I have returned.

I read these books as a kid and absolutely loved them. It’s a wonderful fantasy tale with great characters, story telling and an engaging world. Unfortunately I found the narrator of this version incredibly grating.
His voices are uninspired and annoying with flat strangely specific American accents that do no service to the fantasy world being described. On top of the awful accents, he narrates as if he’s reading a bedtime story to a very stupid child. I couldn’t get past it. There’s a better version on YouTube. Just do that.

Good book

Story is good. Narration is sub par at best. The narrator makes the characters unrealistic and childish. Might be best to read the book rather than audio.

Great story, Bad Narrator

eted. I would highly recommend readers of all ages to ‘read’ this series.

Narration: I do NOT recommend anyone to buy this book on audible. I am sure the narrator is a very nice person, and to be honest his normal reading voice is pleasant. However, that is where it ends.

- he seems to caught up on his accents. Seems like he is more concerned with using a bad French or Irish accent over telling the story

- sarcasm is totally lost. This story has so many funny sarcastic lines, which falls totally flat by the narrator.
- seems like the narrator didn’t read or understand the line before reading aloud. Inflection such as questions, surprise, anger, etc are read so flatly.
- Garion’s internal voice - Irish Accent? Please Nooo… unfortunately, yes.
This was the final straw for me. I will not be purchasing any more stories read by this narrator.

I went back and forth on whether to leave this review. I really don’t like criticizing any narrator, because frankly I could not do it myself. However, I felt I needed to give ample information to anyone thinking about purchasing this audio book or any others in this series.

There may be some listeners that like the way this story is read, and for those , I hope you enjoy this marvelous story!

Better Narration than the first guy but ....

Why do people always have to try and add weird accents to name pronunciation?

Pronouncing Grolim as Gro-LEEM.

Malorean as Mal-OH-REE-AN.

Barak is now Ba-ROCK

Beldaran ended up being something like Be-LA-DRAN

Durnik sounds like he's not intelligent. His character is voiced as some sort of blue-collar dullard.

Silk goes from semi-normal to some Eastern European, back to normal, and then back to Russian.

Riva is REEVA or REEVAN (not a huge deal since I can at least see that one coming)

Overall, it's better than the first reading by the pompous upper-crust Brit.

just my .02