Castle Of Wizardry by David Eddings (The Belgariad: Book 4)

8/10

Castle of Wizardry is the fourth book of the Belgariad. The Orb of Aldur has been retrieved but unless the company can escape from a crumbling enemy fortress of Rak Cthol and avoid the Murgo soldiers it would have all been for nothing. The meeting of the Child of Light and the Child of Dark looms nearer.

This is a coming of age story for the characters C'Nedra and Garion and this makes the book slightly more grown up, similar to the way in which the Harry Potter series ages with the reader and the characters. Unfortunately the series begins to run out of steam and the events that occur in Castle of Wizardry are just a re-run of events in the earlier three books. There is a distinct lack of action and you get the feeling that David Eddings is purely padding out the story to complete the five book series. The story in itself is a good one and the characters are well drawn but the Belgariad would have been better, in my opinion, as a trilogy. One of the drawbacks of the series is that the prophecy essentially makes all decisions worthless as the have already been pre-ordained.

The Belgariad could have done without this book, hopefully Enchanter's End Game will redeem Castle of Wizardry and give the series a rousing send-off. The chess theme continues in the book titles with Castle of Wizardry.