The Rivan Codex : Ancient Texts of the 'Belgariad' and the 'Malloreon - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006483496 ISBN 13: 9780006483496

Publisher: HarperVoyager, 1999

Synopsis

Comprising the ancient texts of The Belgariad and The Malloreon, The Rivan Codex is a book which stands in the same relationship to the Belgariad and Malloreon as The Silmarillion does to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Before David Eddings started to write his first fantasy series, the BELGARIAD, in the late 1970s, he spent a year working on the design and mythology of the fantasy world in which it is set. The Rivan Codex comprises the immensely readable background material to Eddings' best-loved series, repeated information a lot of it, but it's the books that repeat the information, and these seminal documents have about them an air of original inspiration, world-building in action. The rest of it is background which is taken for granted but not spelled out. History, geography, myths and folktales, peoples, gods, customs, social organization, political hierarchy, laws, dress, modes of address, produce, culture, flora, fauna, all presented with so light a touch one can only yearn for Eddings to be taken up by academics so that his style might catch on in the real real world. The 12-book long series grew out of these delightful preliminary sketches like a river growing from a spring of striking purity and constancy. Magically, the information reads fresh each time, minimal Eddings prose, beguilingly arcane, in which massive events attain an all-time perspective.

About this title

Review

So you want to write a multivolume, bestselling epic fantasy? Here's the book to help you. The Rivan Codex was published to answer the many letters David and Leigh Eddings have received from students, teachers, and aspiring writers. It's a companion to the 12-book fantasy series comprised of The Belgariad (five books), The Malloreon (five books), Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. In David Eddings's words, The Rivan Codex "may give the student of our genre some insights into the creative process--something on the order of 'connect wire A to wire B. Warning! Do not connect wire A to wire C, because that will cause the whole thing to blow up in your face." This is a collection of the groundwork David and Leigh Eddings laid for the Belgariad and Malloreon series. On this firm foundation they imagined and built their world in book after book.

There's a fascinating introduction, a personal history of Belgarath the sorcerer, Holy Books, Gospels, Histories, King Anheg's diary, and an afterword. Footnotes tell how the authors used and changed these materials in writing the books. And of course, there are plenty of maps (the starting point for all epic fantasies). --Nona Vero

From the Publisher

Truth to tell, I'd give anything for a new Eddings novel, a new world where David and Leigh can work the magic they did with The Belgariad and The Malloreon, The Elenium and The Tamuli. There's nothing like an Eddings adventure.
        But while the Eddings are busy inventing a new world and peopling it with heroes and vallains and just-plain-folks (skulking and otherwise), it's nice to peek behind the scenes and see what went into inventing the world of The Belgariad. It helps you appreciate why it does take so long to start a truly new series. And, as one of the first people to see the rough material of this book said--how did she put it?--it's actually very giving of Dave to share this much of the creative process with his readers. And as impatient as we all are for a new adventure, I think we've got time to sit and reminisce with old friends...

--Veronica Chapman, Senior Editor

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperVoyager
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0006483496
• ISBN 13: 9780006483496
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English