From: ais3@po.CWRU.Edu (Amy I. Sheldon) Subject: Alpha Version - the a.f.e. FAQ Date: 08 Feb 1996 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <4fdch7$rs3@madeline.INS.CWRU.Edu> organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) reply-to: ais3@po.CWRU.Edu (Amy I. Sheldon) newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings Following is an EXTREMELY rough first draft of a potential FAQ. I need: ISBNs. Frequently asked questions (and answers) for the Sparhawk books. The address of that MUSH based on the Elenium. Any comments or corrections you folks care to make. A Revised version will go up the week of February 19th for any last minute comments, then I'll submit the blasted thing to the news.answers team at the beginning of March. They should approve it by about July or so....Then we'll have a genuine FAQ! Happy happy joy joy! The alt.fan.eddings David Eddings FAQ CONTENTS I. About David Eddings A. Biographical Information B. Bibliography C. Miscellaneous Publishing Information 1) Omnibus Editions 2) _The Losers_: Copyright date vs. creation date II. Frequently Asked Questions A. I've got this great idea about who should be in a movie... B. Dryads (a.k.a. The Thread That Will Not Die) C. So, what exactly *is* on Garion's amulet? D. The meaning of 'Bel' and 'Pol'. E. Why can't Zedar get out of that hole Belgarath put him in? F. Speaking of Zedar, don't you think his punishment was a bit too harsh? III. Eddings Resources A. alt.fan.eddings newsgroup B. Web pages IV. Credits and Thanks ------------------------------------ ABOUT DAVID EDDINGS A. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION From _Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series_, Volume 35. PERSONAL: Born July 7, 1931, in Spokane, Washington; son of George Wayne and Theone (Berge) Eddings; married Judith Leigh Schall, October 27, 1962. Education: Attended Everett Junior College, 1950-52; Reed College, B.A., 1954; University of Washington, Seattle, M.A., 1961. Politics: "Unaffiliated." Religion: "Unaffiliated." CAREER: Writer. Has worked as a buyer for Boeing Co., as a grocery clerk, and as a college English teacher. Military Service: U.S. Army, 1954-56. From the back dust jacket flap of _Belgarath the Sorcerer_. David Eddings was born in Spokane, Washington in 1931 and was raised in the Puget Sound area north of Seattle. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, in 1954 and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Washington in 1961. He has served in the United State Army, has worked as a buyer for the Boeing Company, has been a grocery clerk, and has taught college English. He has lived in many parts of the United States. His first novel, _High Hunt_ (published by Putnam in 1973), was a contemporary adventure story. The field of fantasy has always been of interest to him, however, and he turn to The Belgariad in an effort to develop certain technical and philosophical ideas concerning the genre. Eddings and his wife Leigh currently reside in the Southwest, where they work together on their bestselling fantasy epics. B. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Note: Publisher and ISBN listed are for U.S. editions. "hc" = hardcover, "pb" = paperback. "The Belgariad" Pawn of Prophecy (1982) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-30997-9 (pb) Queen of Sorcery (1982) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-30079-3 Magician's Gambit (1983) Del Rey Castle of Wizardry (1984) Del Rey Enchanter's Endgame (1984) Del Rey Eddings' first fantasy series. About the adventures of a young boy, Garion, as he grows to realize his amazing destiny. With his Aunt Pol and Grandfather, he must travel through the Kingdoms of the Alorns and Angaraks, making new friends and overcome deadly enemies. "The Malloreon" Guardians of the West (1987) Del Rey King of the Murgos (1988) Del Rey Demon Lord of Karanda (1988) Del Rey The Sorceress of Darshiva (1989) Del Rey The Seeress of Kell (1991) Del Rey Sequel to the Belgariad. Ten years after the events of the Belgariad, King Belgarion's son is abducted by dark forces. Belgarion and his companions must recover the child before disaster occurs. Belgarath the Sorcerer (1995) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-37324-3 (hc) Polgara the Sorceress (forthcoming Spring '97) Del Rey A pair of prequels to the Belgariad and Malloreon series. The books are presented as narratives by the title characters. "The Elenium" The Diamond Throne (1989) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-36769-3 (pb) The Ruby Knight (1990) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-37352-9 (pb) The Sapphire Rose (1991) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-37474-6 (hc) ISBN 0-345-37472-X (pb) Fantasy series set in a new world. The church knight, Sparhawk, returns to his home to find his Queen dying, and sets out to save her life, and overcome the evil plots of a corrupt and powerful church Primate. "The Tamuli" Domes of Fire (1992) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-38327-3 (hc) ISBN 0-345-37321-9 (pb) The Shining Ones (1993) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-37322-7 (hc) ISBN 0-345-38866-6 (pb) The Hidden City (1994) Del Rey ISBN 0-345-37323-5 (hc) ISBN 0-345-39040-7 (pb) Sequel series to the Elenium. Prince Sparhawk answers a plea from the Tamuli Empire to help them oppose dark magic. Novels (non-fantasy) High Hunt (1973) Putnam The original hardcover is long out of print. In 1992, Del Rey reprinted it in paperback - ISBN 0-345-32887-6 The Losers (1992) Fawcett Columbine ISBN 0-449-90719-8 (hc) ISBN 0-345-38520-9 (pb edition published by Del Rey) C. MISCELLANEOUS PUBLISHING INFORMATION "The Belgariad" was published in the U.S. as a set of original paperbacks - the only hardcover edition available prior to 1995 was a two-volume omnibus from the Science Fiction Book Club. In 1995, _The Belgariad Part One_, containing _Pawn of Prophecy_, _Queen of Sorcery_, and _Magician's Gambit_, was published by Del Rey in hardcover. _The Belgariad Part Two_ (containing _Castle of Wizardry_ and _Enchanter's Endgame_) will be out in mid-1996. Eddings' two non-fantasy novels, _High Hunt_ and _The Losers_, came out in a hardcover omnibus edition titled _Two Complete Novels_ from Wings Publishing in 1993 (ISBN 0-517-11908-0). Despite the 1992 copyright date, _The Losers_ is actually David Eddings' second book; it was written right after _High Hunt_. He wasn't able to get it published until he became a bestselling author. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (ask again at your own risk) A. I've got this great idea about who should be in a movie... Every newsgroup that covers any literary character or characters inevitably gives birth to Casting threads, and alt.fan.eddings is no exception. There are some things you should know before you suggest that Sean Connery should play Belgarath. First, there are no plans to film ANY of Eddings' works. Second, anyone that you can think of to cast in an imaginary film of Eddings' works has already been suggested by someone else. Third, that knowledge hasn't stopped anyone else from posting THEIR casting suggestions, so why should it stop you? Just don't be surprised at the moans of dismay from the old- timers. B. Dryads (a.k.a. The Thread That Will Not Die) Donal Fellows has a fairly comprehensive compilation of the endless Dryad threads, and I'm going to see if he'll agree to letting me use it here. C. So, what exactly is on Garion's amulet? (Thanks to Jonathan Yen for this answer) We have no clue. Eddings only made one comment on what was on the amulet. In _Queen of Sorcery_, Garion looks at his amulet and notices that it has a strange geometric design. That's it. For some reason, Garion never bothers to look at his amulet ever again. Why? Don't ask me. So, of course, there has been speculation on what is on the amulet. Various things have been said, like a wolf, the orb, the Rivan sword going through a crown, and a circle. Because Garion ain't that dumb, I think he would have noticed that his amulet had a design of one of these rather than think of it as a geometric design. I myself posed the idea that the design on Garion's amulet was in fact a moebius strip. Something about two things becoming one or maybe it was one thing becoming two. I don't know...I was feeling weird that day. Amy Sheldon thought it might have been a rune. You know, a weird character that stands for an entire word (like in the Chinese language). Of course, this started up a whole lot of speculation of what the word was... D. What is this Bel/Pol prefix business? (Thanks to Donal Fellows for this one!) `Bel' and `Pol' both mean beloved and nothing more. It's just that `Bel' is the male form and `Pol' is the female form. Beldaran is an anomaly, but languages (especially English) are full of them, so you'd better get used to it... E. Why can't Zedar get out of that hole Belgarath put him in? (By Jonathan Yen, with parenthetical commentary by Amy Sheldon) Well, Belgarath mentions that sorcerers can't undo what another sorcerer does because everyone thinks differently. But Zedar ain't stupid, and so, should be able to think of another way to get out, right? So, Belgarath must have thought of a pretty elaborate way to keep Zedar down there. However, one should remember that Zedar is stuck in rock for all eternity, which means that he has sufficient oxygen and food for all eternity also. Or, it means that Belgarath made provisions for is well-being for throughout eternity. So, I propose two possible solutions: a) Zedar is stuck in rock like how Relg goes through it. (My personal favorite, with the addendum that Belgarath has somehow blocked Zedar from being able to gather his will and use magic to escape). b) Zedar is in suspended animation. (Not too likely, since if he's in suspended animation, he isn't aware of being trapped, and therefore it isn't much of a punishment....) F. Speaking of Zedar, don't you think his punishment was too harsh? No. EDDINGS RESOURCES A. alt.fan.eddings newsgroup Home of Eddings fanatics worldwide. A comfortable newsgroup with moderate traffic (10 to 20 messages a day, depending on the time of year, whether a new book has come out recently, and the level of spam on the Net) - feel free to drop in and join us. B. Web pages EDDINGS HOME PAGES: Donal Fellow's Eddings Page http://r8h.cs.man.ac.uk:8000/eddings/ Eddings trivia, voting on items of interest to Eddings fans, and links to other sites. Donal is an a.f.e. stalwart, and has been around virtually since the group's creation. It also contains a copy of the a.f.e. Recommended Fantasy Author List. Raj Shah's Eddings Page http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/thorn/eddings.htm Contains Paul Farris' original Eddings FAQ, and well as links to other sites. U.K. fans should note that Paul's FAQ has the ISBNs of the *British* editions of David Eddings' books. OTHER SITES OF INTEREST: Del Rey homepage http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/ Del Rey is Eddings' publisher in the U.S., and their site often has news about his upcoming work. They also publish quite a few other fantasy authors, and you can find sample chapters and all kinds of goodies there. CREDITS AND THANKS Special thanks Paul Farris, Donal Fellows, and Jonathan Yen, who let me use information that they had already gathered and put into useable form. I am grateful for their hard work, and their graciousness in allowing me to swipe^H^H^H^H^H utilize their efforts. -- Amy I. Sheldon ais3@po.cwru.edu