Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

Long ago, so the storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion over all and drove the world to war. Now the one talisman keeping this sinister force from seizing power has been disturbed—and no one will be safe. . . .

Raised on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, Garion spends his days lounging in his aunt’s warm kitchen and playing in the surrounding fields with his friends. He has never believed in magic, despite the presence of a cloaked, shadowless stranger who has haunted him from a distance for years. But one afternoon, the wise storyteller Wolf appears and urges Garion and his aunt to leave the farm that very night. Without understanding why, Garion is whisked away from the only home he has ever known—and thrown into dark and unfamiliar lands.

Thus begins an extraordinary quest to stop a reawakened evil from devouring all that is good. It is a journey that will lead Garion to discover his heritage and his future. For the magic that once seemed impossible to Garion is now his destiny.

I first read Pawn of Prophecy in high school. Back then, I wasn’t as familiar with the fantasy genre as I am now and I did not realize it abounds with clichés. You have the prophecy, the chosen one and on and on. At least, they are clichés now. Pawn of Prophecy was published years and years ago, and I have no idea if they were clichés then. Maybe they weren’t and David Eddings broke some new ground (not entirely new – Tolkien came before him.) Just somewhat new. He could have – his books are still in print and certainly popular enough.

In anycase, I loved Pawn of Prophecy in high school and it remains one of my favorite comfort reads. Why? I don’t really know why. It is just somehow comforting to read – if I am in the mood for nothing else, I can always read this. Or one of the books in this series (there are five). I cannot begin to count how many times I have reread this. I didn’t read it last year of course (odd!!!), but normally I manage to read one of the five books once a year. On rare occasions, I manage to read all five. It just that it is easy to read and it still makes me laugh.

It has flaws of course but I ignore those. :P