Start with Pawn of Prophecy. There is no alternative entry point and no chronological-versus-publication argument to have — the two prequels were written last and are meaningless before the main series, so ignore anyone who suggests opening with them.
The more useful thing to settle before page one is what this series is. It is comfort-food fantasy, written to an explicit structural plan, aimed at readers in their early teens and published as adult fantasy. It is warm, funny and archetypal. It is not trying to be Le Guin, and readers who arrive expecting depth bounce off it hard. Readers who arrive wanting a very good campfire story rarely put it down. Two further things worth knowing up front: each nation in the world has exactly one national personality, and this flat ethnic essentialism was standard for 1982 and reads poorly now; and Leigh Eddings, David Eddings's wife, co-wrote the books and went uncredited on the early volumes, her name being added to later editions.
The Belgariad, five books that are one novel
Pawn of Prophecy opens on a farm with a boy who does not know who he is, an aunt who is more than she appears, and an old storyteller. Eddings is using the oldest shape in the genre deliberately and openly. Garion, Aunt Pol and Mister Wolf are the whole reason the series works; the plot is functional and the banter between those three is the product.
Read Queen of Sorcery immediately after, and then make a decision. The two-book test is real: if the constant teasing, the enormous quantities of food and the comfortable road-trip rhythm have not won you over by the end of book two, they will not, and you should stop.
If they have, read Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry and Enchanters' End Game back to back with nothing in between. These five are one novel published in five parts — the volume breaks fall wherever the page count ran out, so the endings of books three and four are not real endings. Castle of Wizardry is the best-constructed of the five: the quest resolves earlier than you expect and the book then becomes about what Garion has to do afterward. Enchanters' End Game closes the arc properly, with a genuine ending rather than a hook.
Where to stop
Here, if you want to. Five books is a complete story with a real conclusion, and a great many readers stop and are glad they did. The Mallorean is a real continuation but it is optional in a way that book five is not.
The Mallorean, if you want the same thing again
Guardians of the West, King of the Murgos, Demon Lord of Karanda, Sorceress of Darshiva and The Seeress of Kell rerun the Belgariad's structure deliberately and almost beat for beat: a prophecy, a stolen object, a party crossing a series of countries, a confrontation at a named place. The books say so out loud, which is either charming or exasperating depending on your tolerance.
The compensation is the cast. Everyone is older, married, funnier and more self-aware, and much of the pleasure is watching the same people do the same job with none of the wonder left. The sequel also has one genuine structural improvement on the original: instead of a straightforward dark god, it sets up a choice between two prophecies.
Be warned that Guardians of the West spends a long time on domestic life and politics before the plot starts, and is the most likely place to stall — many readers rate it the weakest of the ten. Push through it and King of the Murgos, Demon Lord of Karanda and Sorceress of Darshiva form the most enjoyable stretch of the sequel. Be aware also that the national stereotyping is if anything more pronounced here, because the sequel visits more countries.
The prequels, last
Belgarath the sorcerer and Polgara The Sorceress are first-person biographies covering seven thousand years of backstory. Ten books in, you know the world well enough that these stop being reference material and become the company you already like, talking at length. Read cold they would be a shapeless chronicle. Read here they are the right way to leave.
Browse more fantasy reading paths on Discover.
Follow the full ordered path here: The Belgariad Reading Order and Guide.
