Trouble with passing time...

[Pyan]

I read The Belgariad years ago, and remember it as being a pretty average-to-good fantasy series....just picked up a 2-volume set of The Mallorean, and having a bit of trouble with it: specifically, the habit DE has of taking four pages to describe in detail (say) how the party set up camp for the night,what they eat, how they cook it, etc; then the next paragraph starts off something like "Several days later"...
Is it just me, or does anyone else find this a bit, well, disconcerting? It's a bit like pushing FF every five minutes when you're watching a DVD...

 

[Reading_fanatic]

I never had a problem personally with the time changes in his books (But I know others do) but then I don't read all the details personally (I tend to skim read those parts)

 

[M@.Price]

I don't have a problem, but I do get a bit confused as to how old Garion, Ce'Nedra and Eriond are. I think in the mallorean Garion is about 28 and Ce'Nedra about 26, then for the most part Eriond is about 14. Am I right?

 

[Talysia]

At first, it didn't bother me, as the Belgariad/Malloreon were amongst the first fantasy books I read, but the last time I reread them, I definitely noticed that the story seemed a bit choppy for it.

And Eriond's age was something I wasn't really too sure about, either.

 

[ghost8772]

well, time is usually choppy, subjectively speaking. if all that happened were a few days of travelling, with the identical routine then yeah, hitting ff, for a few minutes to get past the 20 minute scene of people riding horses down a road would be justified. I dunno if I'd want three chapters on an uneventful ride across the countryside.... no matter how painstakingly detailed the story might be.

 

[white_wanderer]

I must admit that the layout of the stories and books in this manner seems to be confusing. In Belgarath the Sorcerer, Eddings demolishes centuries between two lines, in the trend continues.
It's all to do with the layout - he needs to put a blank line between these temporal gaps, rather than just a new paragraph on a new line.

 

[The Ace]

I suppose he's just trying to tell the story, striking a balance between giving information and skipping the boring bits, a difficult balance to achieve.

By the way, Garion and Ce'nedra are the same age, Garion's sixteenth birthday (Erastide) coming only a short time before Ce'nedra presented herself in the throne room in accordance with the Accords of Vo Mimbre.

Errand seems to be a toddler when he first appears and seems to grow up normally, but who can tell ?

 

[Arthur Sting]

How many years is it between the first page of the Belgariad, and the last page of the Mallorean?.

 

[devilsgrin]

it seems to me that from Pawn of Prophecy to the end of Seeress of Kell is about 12 years.
We start out with Garion at 14. By Queen of Sorcery he's 15.
In castle of wizardry he turns 16 (as does Ce'Nedra).
From the end of Enchanters End Game to the beginning of Guardians of the West is about 8 years making Garion roughly 24/25. It would stand to reason that the quest across Mallorea would have taken roughly 2 years...the time it took for Geran to become a 2 year old...
So unless my maths are faulty thats roughly 12 years.

Eriond first appears to Zedar as a toddler of about 2. During the events of the Belgariad, he is referred to as appearing around 6. this fits with him being 14-ish once the malloreon adventures begin (him being the focus of this quest and being 14 at the beginning, and Garion being the same when his journeys began - part of the continual repetitions that Garion mentions in Tol Honeth perhaps... or Eddings meddling?).

 

[The Ace]

There is also the fact that Eriond, "Started to move around the world," when Garion was born.

As a god, in potentia, Eriond remained a toddler until he was required to be something more, I suppose. He certainly had no difficulty in overcoming Ce'Nedra's resistance to going to Riva (something Polgara singularly failed to do).

 

[ghost8772]

LOL

Eriond just made it a voluntary thing, as opposed to Ce'Nedra appearing through the judicious use of chains.

 

[X'Nedra]

I always had difficulty working out Eriond's age in the Mallorean... When I pictured him becoming a god, he still seemed to be about 8 or so... although I know that's not correct.

 

[ghost8772]

I always had difficulty working out Eriond's age in the Mallorean... When I pictured him becoming a god, he still seemed to be about 8 or so... although I know that's not correct.

Well Eriond was four or five when Garion was 14 or 15. that journey was a year or so. then was what seven years or so until the story picked up in Guardians of the west? something like 2 or three years spread out until the end of Seeress of Kell? so figure Eriond looks something like 16 or 17 when the series ended? even though he still tended to act like a pre adolescent throughout the series.

As far as the time lapse, from Belgariad 1 to mallorean 5 hard to tell since it started with Garion's first memories of running laughing through Aunt Pol's kitchen. So figure 20-25 years total.

 

[kirgi08]

Good post.'08.