"The Belgariad" is such a... bizarre place in fantasy literature. It is truly... liminal. It is a pivotal work, quite literaly. And the quintessence of 80s American fantasy. The type of stuff you cannot ignore even though you likely never heard about it.
It was a rebirth. As the Tolkien mania of the 60s and 70s died out, as "epic fantasy" lost its breath, "The Belgariad" came to prove that you could still do classic fantasy inspired by Lord of the Rings and make it work. It took all the motifs, all the exceptations, all the tropes, and used them fully while subverting and twisting them enough to rekindle the flame and passion. And this resulted in a series deemed a very good introduction to the fantasy genre, fondly remembered as a "teenage read" or a "first fantasy read" ...
... Yet it was never a full parody, nor an actual deconstruction, as it was a follow-up and pastiche first and foremost. So, when you get into the genre deeper, when you reach the great classics, the Belgariad can feel too simplistic or stale. In many ways it starts feeling like a D&D work quite literaly - mashing together fantasy inspirations and offering a plot that feels at time like a D&D campaign laid down. While a reference in its time, it fell into mainstream obscurity thanks to its' creator stern (if not pedantic) refusal for the books to ever be adapted in any way or form. And it is filled with stuff that today's sensibilities, or just any adult mind, immediately recognizes as nasty - toxic relationships, casual racism, moralistic preaching, abuse excuses... (I am not talking of the narrative presenting or using these elements, I am talking about the texts soaking in them and treating them as normal in an un-ironic way)
It is a work that tries and succeeds to be funny, by having caricatural characters, joke-cracking ones, and by pointing out the absurdity of some of its own situations. Yet it is still a work that remains serious and presents itself as epic - down to the covers and recaps often making it sound like a dark, if not edgy fantasy... And yet the series remains funny by accident because of how ridiculous some characters were made, and how badly-written some parts are - meaning it ends up feeling (or being better appreciated) as an humoristic fantasy, even though it is not.
It was a work progressive and inventive for its time, that pointed out or got rid of the flaws of mass-derived, copy-pasted Lord of the Rings imitators of the Tolkien-mania era (and flaws that would return in the 2000s due to the craze around the Lord of the Rings movie). It was "updating sword and sorcery for a modern audience"... But in the 80s. Meaning it aged, and aged quite badly, in a way that made the Belgariad so very cliche and stereotypical that it is now considered the very example of mass-marketed product without uniqueness it wanted to get above in the first place... And yet that was the point as the Belgariad was basically trying to show you could still do LotR pastiches and epic-fantasy-cliches and make it work - by just putting a minimum effort.
And yet, despite its simplicity, its flaws, its embracing of cliches, it still managed to trigger imaginations and perpetuate the marvels of "epic fantasy". The art that was made out of it proves it. It managed to fill heads with grandiose images, to conjure wonderful designs, to suscitate otherwordly visions, to evoke a mythical feeling... And like any respectable, old-fashioned fantasy work it got its own obscure music named after it. (Check out "Wizards of Aldur" on Youtube and their fantasy synth albums inspired by the Belgariad books). This is why, even though re-reads often cause disappointment, unease, or even rage, they also will make you chuckle, suscitate nostalgia and offer some pay-off. At least, if you make peace with what the series is and the context it was created in and the effects it had later on.
In conclusion... These books are charming by their simplicity and their cheeky tone, but it is these same simplicity and cheeky tone that makes them frustrating and unpleasant down the line. It was a series influential for at least two generations and which earned its place as part of a cemented era of fantasy, yet remains a poster child or what not to do in fantasy anymore.
I still hold "The Belgariad" as the best (and maybe the only) part of the Eddings' large set of fantasy series.
Its sequel, "The Malloreon", is by everyone's agreement a massive letdown, that loses the freshness and novelty of the first installment (being a sequel series), "Flanderizes" the characters, and that, for me, has no literary or narrative value. Its main interest solely relies on how it expands the first series' lore and worldbuilding while nuancing (though too late) its manichean divide (and even then not really, it just makes it a bit less racist).
"The Elenium" is maybe the only other Eddings fantasy piece I would say is worth a read - because the same way The Belgariad was a variation on the LotR-formula, The Elenium is a twist-rewrite of The Belgariad and thus a fascinating example of how a writer can rewrite their own book in a way that works. The Belgariad's flaws pass much easier in a bitter, more cynical, more mature work of openly dark fantasy like "The Elenium"... But "The Elenium" is also the key that opens the mind to all the unsavory subtext and disturbing recurring elements present throughout the Eddings' works. (It was notably my eye-opener when it came to the casualness and openness of the ephebophilia in the books, that borders on pedophilia one too many times for me).
"The Tamuli" is "The Malloreon" all over again... And while I never read "The Redemption of Althalus", I did try reading the "Dreamers" book and by gosh was the charm worn out, I chucked this farce of a novel out of the window as soon as I could.
