I can't quite make up my mind whether I like this one enough to try the next book in the series.
On the negative side, this one is a bit too reminiscent of Lord of the Rings and too many other fantasy tales without bringing anything all that original to the mix. It's no ripoff like Sword of Shannara, but there is this ordinary farmboy, Garion, with a destiny (tm) who picked up companions on a quest involving a dark object coveted by a dark lord. Like Garion, I also find it a bit much to swallow that two characters are several thousand years old--maybe because the author just doesn't make them wise or strange or alien enough in ways to set them apart--you don't feel the weight of those ages. I also got exactly who Garion is from about page one, (the prologue gives far too much away) and even though the book does give reasons why he'd be in the dark (his Aunt raised him on an isolated farm and he was never taught to read) I felt impatient for him to catch up with me, the reader.
On the other hand, the style, while not lovely, was serviceable, and this really zipped past. It's as if I sat down, read the first sentence, and when I looked up again much of the day was past and the book over. I did like Polgara who for me was the standout character--all the more so for being a female character in the testosterone-laden high fantasy genre and not, unlike Garion, one of a type I feel I've read hundreds of times before. This is the first book in the series, and the author's first novel, so it might be it gets better as the series goes along. If I read another book in the series, it will be to read more of Polgara.
