The life story of Belgararth the Sorcerer: his own account of the great struggle that went before the Belgariad and the Malloreon, when gods stills walked the land. Belgarath the Sorcerer is another one of those Del Rey series-padding specials - there were a whole bunch of these in the early 90s, where authors rewrote their successful work from the point of view of another character. It is, however, possible that he was surprised that Garion came to the same conclusion, and although Belgarath says he has never thought about it that way before, he may still be reffering to his relationship with Garion, as opposed to his ancestors.

It is a nice read for fans of the series, but I would not recommend it to others due to its many details and relatively slow pace, as well as the fact that most of my own enjoyment of this book came from recognising parts of it from the Belgariad and Malloreon and being able to puzzle things together. Sometimes, a couple of (long) chapters were spent on describing certain events that, in my opinion, could have been explored much less thoroughly; while at other times, decades or centuries were skipped in the space of only a few pages. He is writing his autobiography which covers the 7000 or so years leading up to the events which occurred in the Belgariad.Personally, I especially liked reading about the characters I already know from the Belgariad, which made the final part, leading up to Garion's birth, my favourite. Belgarath (the book), I'm afraid, has all of the weaknesses of both series drawn out over an almost interminable 700-plus pages.

I think that the story is similar to the Lord of the Rings trilogy but is much easier to read, especially for children. Some other major events, such as Belgarath's becoming a father, Polgara and Beldaran's childhood, and the battle of Vo Mimbre, were also very interesting to read about. Granted there are some changes, after all this is a rather thick book full of changes, but in my mind's eye they don't seem to be enough.It helped set this one apart from the main serieses (Sorry, it is a horrible word, but what’s the plural? On February 28, 2007, David Eddings' wife, Leigh Eddings (born Judith Leigh Schall), died following a series of strokes. However, there were also a lot of minor events that were less captivating, causing me to lose interest every now and then, which is partly why it took me so long to finish this book.