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A review by fraeyalise
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This is a good beginning to a nice relaxing fantasy series. I have a special nostalgic connection to this book and this series due to my dad, who introduced me to them (he had read them as a teenager).
Unfortunately, there's a lot of things that have aged badly- mainly the racism. According to the origin story of the book's world, the people in it are actually different from one another (7 gods made 7 different tribes of humans with their own artistic license, so it can be inferred they are actually genetically separate). With this in mind some of the racist overtones might make more sense, but its a very slippery slope to justifying racism and that gets really gross really fast.
The last time I read this book was probably close to a decade ago, and I'm sad to see the racism so prominent in it. However, there are also a lot of good lessons in it I learned that I need to revisit at this point in my life, so I'm going to keep reading it.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes long-running fantasy series with a Hero's Journey plot, and recognizes the inherent racism (and the small amount of sexism) as a product of its time.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of things that have aged badly- mainly the racism. According to the origin story of the book's world, the people in it are actually different from one another (7 gods made 7 different tribes of humans with their own artistic license, so it can be inferred they are actually genetically separate). With this in mind some of the racist overtones might make more sense, but its a very slippery slope to justifying racism and that gets really gross really fast.
The last time I read this book was probably close to a decade ago, and I'm sad to see the racism so prominent in it. However, there are also a lot of good lessons in it I learned that I need to revisit at this point in my life, so I'm going to keep reading it.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes long-running fantasy series with a Hero's Journey plot, and recognizes the inherent racism (and the small amount of sexism) as a product of its time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism