I’m glad you cleared up my misunderstanding, because, honestly, the series makes so much more sense knowing that it was written in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. Does knowing this make me adore the series and want to pick it back up again where I left off (I think I briefly skimmed book four before abandoning them)? Eh, probably not, because the greatest draw for me is a book with characters of depth and substance.

If someone was looking for a fun romp in the fantasy realm, I might tell them to have a go at The Belgariad, though probably not before, say, Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series or Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series (because Eugenides is freaking awesome).

Oh, and I’m glad I’m not alone with my thoughts on Ce’Nedra. I can take a character that is initially annoying, but she never moved beyond that stage.

Lloyd Alexander, did he write the Westermark (?) series as well? I’ve heard a lot of good things about his books, but I sadly have not read anything by him. Clearly I need to remedy that.

Thanks for your wonderful comments — I love discussing books with other people and I don’t get to do it nearly enough.

“My magic is at best a kind of pragmatic cop–out. Many of my explanations of how magic is supposed to work are absurdities – but my characters all accept these explanations as if there was no quibbling about them, and if the characters believe, then the readers seem also to believe. Maybe that’s the “real” magic. That’s the basic formula for fantasy. Take a bit of magic, mix well with a few open-ended Jungian archetypal myths, make your people sweat and smell and get hungry at inopportune moments, throw in a ponderous prehistory, and let nature take it’s course.”

Not groundbreaking stuff, but fun when you throw in his amusing, sometimes hilarious dialogue and character interactions. Those are the real reasons I read the series (and its inferior, but not without merits, sequel series The Mallorean). I view the books as essentially adventure-comedies with a light mythic backdrop. This is why the books are so addictive, as you said. While I don’t count it as one of the great fantasy series of the modern age, I did read all the books late into the night, like I haven’t even with other superior books. Eddings knew a thing or two about pacing and keeping readers interested.

I agree with you on Ce’Nedra, though. I think I’ve been secretly in love with redheads in general since at least Eilonwy from Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain, but Ce’Nedra annoyed the heck out of me. I have no sympathy for her.

Have you finished the series yet?

Anyway, why does the release date have to be so far away??? Actually, it’s probably a good thing, since so many awesome books and albums are coming out this fall, it’ll give me a bit more time to save up my money.

Thanks for the award — I will have to head over to your blog to check it out!

I can’t quite remember why I stopped reading The Eagle of the Ninth in the first place. I think it was just not what I wanted to read at the time and I never got around to picking it back up again. I’m definitely going to have to give The Silver Branch a go sometime in the near future if you say it’s that good. I’ll let you know what I think.

One of the many wonderful things about Rosemary Sutcliff is that virtually all her books are stand-alone. The Silver Branch‘s connections to The Eagle of the Ninth are extremely tenuous, and you don’t need knowledge of either one to enjoy or understand the other. Personally, I think Sutcliff is such mandatory reading that you should read any book of hers you can get your hands on as soon as possible, whether or not it’s part of a technical series that you don’t have the rest of. She’s that good!

Also, I tagged you with the Liebster Award on my blog. The post is: http://raesamm.blogspot.com/2012/07/liebster-blog-award.html

That is one nice thing about reading an e-book with an embarrassing cover — no one has to see it. I suppose the same thing can be said for reading a hard cover book, since you can take the dust jacket off. Still, I’m hoping for a better cover for the paperback.