Books that are similar to Belgariad

[evil_genius666]

I think it just popped in my head.

 

[Balinor]

First off, yes the film of Eragon was rubbish, but it was nothing like the book. Personally I loved the first book (the second being more dull imo)

Secondly, of course theres going to be some similarities between any fantasy books.

Garion was a farmboy when it all started. In Eragon..Eragon was a farmboy too
Most heroes start out as lowly farmers or similar
.....Druss (David Gemmell) started out as a farmer/woodcutter
....The first ohmsfords were working in the family inn (Terry Brooks)
....Richard Rahl was a woodsman (Terry Goodkind)
.......Sam Gamgee was a farmer, the list goes on
its part of what makes the story interesting, that someone who isn't so important, manages to have a great adventure.


The twins (Beltira and Belkira). In Eragon theres a twin too. They even have the same mind as Belkira and Beltira.
You can't say somethings the same just because there is a twin in both books, the twins in eragon don't share the same mind afaik (although if you can point it out i'll concede the point), they just can communicate mind to mind


The silver mark on the right hand of Garion (In Eragon...Eragon has a mark on the right hand too the same as Garion)
Ok, this is similar, but it's not even significant, many heroes have scars or marks that distinguish them from a crowd, take Harry Potter or frodo of the 9 fingers

The sword. In Belgariad we have the sword of Iron-grip. While in Eragon theres the killer sword...and would u belive theres a blue orb on the pommel of the sword too (See Eragon the movie)
That sword was, as you said, IN THE MOVIE. If you remember the books, they are nothing like the movie, in fact, the only things they really kept the same was the character names.

The sotryteller that became a very important person. In Belgariad we have Belgarath as a storyteller then turned out to be Belgarath the Sorcerrer. In Eragon we have Brom as a storyteller then turned out to be a former dragon rider.
and in Shanarra we have a "wanderer" Allanon, who turns out to be the last druid, in LotR we have a old travelling magic man who turns out to be one of the most powerful wizards in middle earth, in Terry Goodkind's books, we have a grandfather who turns out to be the first wizard,

And would you believe theres another similarity? Garion is called the Godslayer and Eragon is called the Shadeslayer.
oh big deal, he killed something thats supposed to be almost mpossible to kill so they named him an xxxslayer, in James Clemens books the main character is a Godslayer, Gotrek and Felix are xxxslayers


if you look at a book without the detail most are similar. Young normal simple lad, learns of something powerful and scary, takes a journey with the help of some skilled allies, saves the day and proceeds to the next book.

The general plot of the book is not important, it's the character details, description of the environment and the emotions you feel when you read it that makes a story worth good.

 

[devilsgrin]

and alas for Eragon, the general plot, the character details, the enviromnental descriptors, the attemped emotive respone of Eragon are all lifted straight out of Anne McCaffrey's, JRR Tolkein's and David & Leigh Eddings works.
Yes there are bound to be similarities to other fantasy genre works, but Paolini's plagiarism is rather blatant.

 

[Balinor]

which eddings book? I'm only up to castle of wizadry, but I can't really see where your coming from, and I can't see the tolkein link either (not read McCaffrey yet), in fact, to compare the lord of he rings to eragon would seem rather degrading to tolkeins work imo

 

[devilsgrin]

pawn of prophecy in particular. especially before the quest begins with Mister Wolf and Garion discussing things...
the most obvious point is where mister wolf (at this stage he's not belgarath to readers yet - or to garion) is telling Garion about what is possible and what is impossible... he says something along the lines of "and in nine years you've discovered all things that are possible and impossible?" Brom says almost the exact thing to eragon - substituting 15 for 9.

 

[evil_genius666]

Hahaha yea...it just popped into my head

 

[zoran]

To me it seems that T. Williams has "borrowed" a lot from Belgariad in "Dragonbone Chair"

 

[ghost8772]

as far as epic level quests go, the Eddings' did pull off a decent story, however they did not have a monopoly on the "nobody kid from nowhere being orphaned and taken under the old male mentor's wing." people who haven't read eddings would slap a Star Wars label on the book instead. Yes, Paolini's writing came across as a mish mash of instances taken from books that he liked. Dragon's bonding with a rider. Rider dies, so does dragon. dragon dying, rider is smacked fairly far down, and likely dies, but some don't. The eddings ideas that seemed borrowed, was some of the magic ideas from the Elenium/Tamuli. Magic comes by proxy from a magical creature. the sword could have come from Eddings, though if I recall it had to be constructed by the rider him/herself, and each was unique, felt more like lightsaber than Riva Irongrip's Sword.

Honestly, Paolini is the reason I never took up writing. I KNOW I'd be writing down plots, scenes and conflicts I'd read and liked without even being able to tell what was original, and what was taken nearly verbatim from great works.

 

[Arthur Sting]

I have read Eragon and Eldest (will read Brisingr ) and I like them. And I also read all of the Belgariad & reading the Mallorean. My point to you Evil is that NOTHING now adays is original!

Yes it is similar (if not rip off) but Eddings' wasn't original eithar.

PS....When is there going to be a Paolini forum!!!

 

[devilsgrin]

you may get a paolini forum when he has enough books to qualify... two is clearly not enough.
When the Belgariad was published, it was not the first fantasy (of the style of fantasy we have now at least) to be released, but it was certainly a fresh take on a genre mired in heavy, heavy analogous themes. much lighter than the literary prose that Tolkien wrote, and infinitely less plagiaristic that Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara - which is generally accepted as having been all but copied straight out of the pages of Lord of the Rings. Prior to Eddings' Belgariad, there were few others of note. not none certainly, but very few, and none who have had eddings' success (aside of course from Tolkien and Brooks) - clearly he wrote a series of books that people love.

there are differences between being unoriginal and being plagiaristic. clearly your a fan of Paolini's... books... and your entitled to like them. that doesn't change the fact that he's at best a poor writer too easily influenced by the works of others to not even realise he's copying large tracts of text from their books. or else a blatant plagiarist.
lets also recall that he would NEVER have been published by a major publishing house with Eragon and Eldest as his submitted works - he had to have his Daddy publish them for him.

 

[Wayspooled]

This isn't all these authors wrote that was good, just the most similar, best sample in my opinion. Most like Eddings:

Raymond E Feist - Riftwar Saga
1. Magician: Apprentice (1982)
2. Magician: Master (1982)
--- (Apprentice and Master are also found published together as "Magician")
3. Silverthorn (1985)
4. A Darkness at Sethanon (1985)

Tad Williams
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
1. The Dragonbone Chair (1988)
2. The Stone of Farewell (1990)
3. To Green Angel Tower (1993)

Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Dragonlance Chronicles
1. Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984)
2. Dragons of Winter Night (1985)
3. Dragons of Spring Dawning (1985)
Their Dragonlance Legends trilogy, 7 book Deathgate Cycle, original Darksword trilogy and original Rose of the Prophet trilogy are also very good.

Susan Dexter - Winter King's War
1. The Ring of Allaire (1981)
2. The Sword of Calandra (1985)
3. The Mountains of Channadran (1986)

Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time
all of it, some have various reasons to not like it but I do.

Dave Duncan - Man of His Word
1. Magic Casement (1990)
2. Faery Lands Forlorn (1991)
3. Perilous Seas (1991)
4. Emperor and Clown (1991)

Duncan's Seventh Sword trilogy is classic and probably his best work but it's not exactly the same type story as The Belgariad.
1. The Reluctant Swordsman (1988)
2. The Coming of Wisdom (1988)
3. The Destiny of the Sword (1988)

Dennis McKiernan
The Iron Tower
1. The Dark Tide (1984)
2. Shadows of Doom (1984)
3. The Darkest Day (1984)

The Silver Call
1. Trek to Kraggen-Cor (1986)
2. The Brega Path (1986)

Terry Brooks - Shannara
1. The Sword of Shannara (1977)
I like this I liked the 2nd and 3rd ones too. Lots of people razz it because it "copies" LotR but I think that's because it was just the first and closest of many that did. So what? I was hungering for anything like LotR after reading it. Besides being a great story, it was the first fantasy novel to ever make the NY Times Bestselling List and is therefore somewhat responsible for a lot of writers writing fantasy. At least the ones that wanted money.

Patricia McKillip
Quest of the Riddle-Master
1. The Riddle-Master of Hed (1976)
2. Heir of Sea and Fire (1977)
3. Harpist in the Wind (1979)

Angus Wells
Godwars
1. Forbidden Magic (1991)
2. Dark Magic (1992)
3. Wild Magic (1993)

Jennifer Roberson
Sword-Dancer
1. Sword-Dancer (1986)
2. Sword-Singer (1988)
3. Sword-Maker (1989)
4. Sword Breaker (1991)
5. Sword-Born (1998)
6. Sword-Sworn (1999)

Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth
1. Wizard's First Rule (1994)
2. Stone of Tears (1995)
3. Blood of the Fold (1996)
Continue if you like, they're mostly good but I think he hit his peak in book 2 or 3.

R A Salvatore
Icewind Dale trilogy
1. The Crystal Shard (1988)
2. Streams of Silver (1989)
3. The Halfling's Gem (1990)

Dark Elf trilogy
1. Homeland (1990)
2. Exile (1990)
3. Sojourn (1991)

George R R Martin (same kinda thing, a little darker)
Song of Ice and Fire
1. A Game of Thrones (1996)
2. A Clash of Kings (1998)
3. A Storm of Swords (2000)
4. A Feast for Crows (2005)
5. A Dance with Dragons (2008)

Christopher Paolini
1. Eragon
2. Eldest
and something else.

Other great writers with similar style though not the very same quest trilogy etc type - Anne McCaffrey (combo fantasy/sci-fi), Stephen R. Donaldson (bit darker, heroes from another world), Robin Hobb, Terry Pratchett (bit lighter), Barbara Hambly (In her best stuff, the heroes come from another world etc so that's a little different, trying to skip those since it's not the same thing.)

 

[ghost8772]

overall, I wouldn't put Paolini in any "great" author category. I read eragon, and the feeling was it was at best fanfic, which should have been put on a fanfic site, not published as his own happy work. yes earlier its been said again and again that the adventure itself followed a fairly generic template, used in 2-3 works that come to mind right now. star wars, belgariad, and LoTR (can't use sword of shannara because I also feel brooks grabbed LoTR, or ITS base story and called it his own. later works were excellent, but sword felt too much like a pale copy) , the problem is the specifics of Paolini's story were the best points of OTHER authors' works, and not even well disguised. A Jedi constructs his own lightsaber which is superior to anything but another lightsaber. mere humans getting their magic abilities as an extentions of a magical creature's will, dragons bonding with humans for life, a dragonrider losing his dragon is FORBIDDEN from trying to get another dragon.

all this being said he did have one item that seems fairly unique, though it felt like he wanted to hit McCaffrey's dragons with it. a dragon egg wouldn't hatch at all until its rider appeared, instead of hatchlings dying because a suitable match couldn't be found.

anyways, the eddings slant of eragon can be almost dismissed due to generalities of the adventure genre, but for some almost verbatim conversations.

 

[ghost8772]

forgot to mention I thought zargon was an alien in the star trek original series, one who inhabited kirk for an episode.

late 70's there was also a Sean Connery movie Zardoz

 

[Clansman]

George R R Martin (same kinda thing, a little darker)
Song of Ice and Fire
1. A Game of Thrones (1996)
2. A Clash of Kings (1998)
3. A Storm of Swords (2000)
4. A Feast for Crows (2005)
5. A Dance with Dragons (2008)

"Same kinda thing, a little darker"??????? No offence meant, but saying that A Song of Ice and Fire is "a little darker" than The Belgariad is the biggest understatement of the year. I mean, in the first chapter, Jaime chucks little seven-year-old Bran out a window intending to kill him (but he only gets paralyzed and loses his memory) because Bran had been unfortunate enough to witness Jaime having incestuous sex with his sister, the Queen. Compare the Red Wedding to what incident in the Belgariad? You can't. The massacres of the civil war, the political mechinations, etc. The Belgariad? Very simple and quaint Quest story in comparison, and it really is, now, a YA fantasy.

I wish A Dance With Dragons was released in 2008. I would have read it twice by now. Recent indications say May 2010, but don't hold your breath.

 

[kirgi08]

This oughta be good.I agree the comparison with the Belgariad is non-existant a vaporish.'08.

 

[Dimentio]

Well I noticed that when I read Eragon by Christoper Paolini there are alot of similarities in the story.

1. The twins (Beltira and Belkira). In Eragon theres a twin too. They even have the same mind as Belkira and Beltira.
2. The silver mark on the right hand of Garion (In Eragon...Eragon has a mark on the right hand too the same as Garion)
3. The sword. In Belgariad we have the sword of Iron-grip. While in Eragon theres the killer sword...and would u belive theres a blue orb on the pommel of the sword too (See Eragon the movie)
4. The sotryteller that became a very important person. In Belgariad we have Belgarath as a storyteller then turned out to be Belgarath the Sorcerrer. In Eragon we have Brom as a storyteller then turned out to be a former dragon rider.
5. And would you believe theres another similarity? Garion is called the Godslayer and Eragon is called the Shadeslayer.
6. Garion was a farmboy when it all started. In Eragon..Eragon was a farmboy too.

Correct me if Im wrong but theres alot of similarities "it makes my teeth itchy".

It is quite hard to write stereotypical fantasy without copying Eddings. I give him that his later works were quite more interesting.

 

[ghost8772]

As far as epic quests go, yeah, the Eddings' are in the same class as all the other fantasy writers. as far as character development and storytelling, David and Leigh Eddings stand alone. I haven't run across too many authors who collaborate male/female like that. It became apparent that Belgarath was who David Eddings saw as himself, and Polgara was how Leigh saw herself. I'm betting they wrote their respective characters with how they imagined each acting. Leigh had more influence on the female characters than David did, and David had more influence on the male characters. The feeling was that the characters were their gender, not cross dressed that seems to happen when a male writer writes as female, or female writes as male. worst flaw I've found in reading books like that. the image becomes a guy in a dress. makeup, and wig/salon made hair.

Personally the fantasy genre has become more shock value, song of fire and Ice is leader of that group. Eddings kept the fantasy light and more kid level. But still kept most of the epic quest (even if it became a rerun) going for at least ten books.

 

[Slacker]

Yea i have read both and i noticed that they were very much the same
another similarity neither have living parents and lived with uncle or great great aunt

 

[ghost8772]

Yea i have read both and i noticed that they were very much the same
another similarity neither have living parents and lived with uncle or great great aunt

ummmmm......... in the case of Aunt Pol, lets just call her REALLY great........ that many greats for her title might get one turned into a radish.

 

[Darv]

Just possibly Eragon reads like Eddings because the two draw from the same source (mostly JRRT) which was itself drawn from older sources. Both works, along with Brooks et al, are almost blueprint uses of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey (CF "the Hero with a Thousand Faces.")
As to characterisation, both use Campbellian archetypes almost straight off the page. This being the case I can't say that either Paolini or Eddings does a great job of characterisation. Tolkien did better and he was conciously trying to use the archetypes as archetypes. Much as I enjoy the Prose Eddings as a light read, his characters are thin and repetetive.