Fantasy Author David Eddings Dies

Fantasy Author David EddingsDavid Eddings, one of the best loved and most influential fantasy authors in the world, has died just shy of his 78th birthday.

Born in Spokane, Washington State, he won a scholarship to Reed College, Oregon, where his ambition was to study drama. College was followed by a spell in the army followed by a work as a buyer for Boeing before moving to Denver to begin his writing career while working in a grocery store. His first novel was ‘High Hunt’, an adventure story about four guys on a hunting trip, but he struggled to write his next ‘Hunseeker’s Ascent’ a story about mountain climbers which he apparently burnt and is famously quoted as saying “…it was a real bomb and had reached the point where I couldn’t even stand to look at it any more.”

It was during a visit to a bookstore that he found a copy of Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ on the shelves, whereupon he allegedly said, “Is this old turkey still floating around?” but was subsequently shocked to learn that it was in its seventy-eighth printing. Bringing to mind a sketch of a map he had drawn previously, Eddings realised that within the fantasy genre he might find the home his talents needed so he went back to that map and and began building a world that eventually became the geographical basis for the world of Aloria.

Alongside his wife Leigh, Eddings produced a distinctive brand of epic fantasy laced with witty and believable dialogue, strong characters and firmly tempered with realism and it was to her credit that the female characters, so important in all the books, were so well written. It’s a sign of the times that Leigh remained uncredited at the insistence of his US publisher because a woman’s name would damage sales but, once they had proven that they could hook millions of readers with total mastery of the genre, new terms could be dictated and, from 1997, Eddings has been ‘David and Leigh Eddings’, arguably and even bigger bestseller.

Eddings first series was the five-book fantasy epic ‘The Belgariad‘ a coming-of-age story about an orphaned farmboy called Garion and his aunt Polgara and grandfather Belgarath in a quest to recover of the Orb of Aldur and fulfill an ancient prophecy that will decide the fate of the universe. Along the way Garion discovers his true identity and destiny. He followed this with another five book series set in the same world, ‘The Malloreon‘ but while the story concludes here, fans could read about minor events that occurred as part of story in the prequels ‘Belgarath the Sorcerer’ and ‘Polgara the Sorceress’ covering the entire history of the world.

Always modest about his success “I’m never going to be in danger of getting a Nobel Prize for literature” he would say but he nevertheless has a strong literary background, basing his work on classical archetypes and traditional writing. He once wrote that “Since what is called “epic fantasy” descends in an almost direct line from medieval romance, my studies of Chaucer and Malory gave me a running head start in the field.”

Several other series followed, The Elenium series, The Tamuli series, The Dreamers series; “To be honest about it, I write because I have to write” he always said, and he once joked, “I get up at an unholy hour in the morning my work day is completed by the time the sun rises. I have a slightly bad back which has made an enormous contribution to American literature.”

That may or may not be true, but we think he did, and he will be sorely missed.