Castle Of Wizardry by David Eddings (The Belgariad: Book 4)

Castle of Wizardry is the fourth book of the Belgariad. The Orb of Aldur has been retrieved but unless the company can escape from a crumbling enemy fortress of Rak Cthol and avoid the Murgo soldiers it would have all been for nothing. The meeting of the Child of Light and the Child of Dark looms nearer.

This is a coming of age story for the characters C'Nedra and Garion and this makes the book slightly more grown up, similar to the way in which the Harry Potter series ages with the reader and the characters. Unfortunately the series begins to run out of steam and the events that occur in Castle of Wizardry are just a re-run of events in the earlier three books. There is a distinct lack of action and you get the feeling that David Eddings is purely padding out the story to complete the five book series. The story in itself is a good one and the characters are well drawn but the Belgariad would have been better, in my opinion, as a trilogy. One of the drawbacks of the series is that the prophecy essentially makes all decisions worthless as the have already been pre-ordained.

The Belgariad could have done without this book, hopefully Enchanter's End Game will redeem Castle of Wizardry and give the series a rousing send-off. The chess theme continues in the book titles with Castle of Wizardry.

8/10 A tired re-hash of the earlier novels

Review by

1 positive reader review(s) for Castle Of Wizardry

David Eddings biography

Castle Of Wizardry reader reviews

from UK

Well written book, but a bit boring at times. Like when Garion and Belgarath leave, in my opinion, it goes downhill more from there. But better than the Lord of the Rings.
8/10 ()

from UK

In comparison to some of the other reviews, I found this to be one of the most enjoyable books in the saga. There is just so much more to enjoy in Edding's work than Tolkien's which, let's be honest, was ground breaking for its time but essentially pretty dull.
10/10 ()

from Sligo

Nothing special, I found the characers to be under developed and to be just thrown in there for the protagionist, Garion to talk to. Also you get little to no scope of the size of the kingdoms of the west and journeying is usually described as 2 weeks later sort of thing which I was really disappointed with. Really just a poor kiddies version of The Lord of The Rings.
6/10 ()

7.9/10 from 4 reviews

All David Eddings Reviews