Guardians of the West (Paperback)

David Carroll Eddings was born in Spokane, Washington in 1931. He attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, graduating with a B.A. in 1954. Eddings then entered the military for two years before returning to school at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he graduated with an M.A. in 1961. Holding a variety of jobs, including buyer for the Boeing Company, he eventually became a college English professor. His first book, 1982's PAWN OF PROPHECY, was the initial entry in the Belgariad series, which swelled to five volumes by the end of 1984. Eddings claims that he wrote the book in order to explore some theories about writing, centering on making as realistic a presentation as possible of an imaginary world with unlikely geography, steeped in a wholly invented theology. In 1986 he wrote his first non-fantasy novel, HIGH HUNT, before returning to the the world of the Belgariad, in GUARDIANS OF THE WEST, which began the five-volume Mallorean cycle. After a non-genre novel, THE LOSER, and an unrelated six-volume fantasy series, the Elenium, he returned again to the Belgariad in 1995's BELGARETH THE SORCERER. This book was credited to both Eddings and his wife, Leigh--they had married in 1962. At the same time, Eddings acknowledged publically that she had co-written all of the fantasy books, and subsequent reprints have included both of their names. The Eddings's work has been marked by a level of humor usually missing from fantasy epics and an extreme sense of authenticity regarding their created worlds. In 1998, they published THE RIVAN CODEX, which gathered their notes and research on the world in which the Belgariad and its sequel are set. Also containing extraneous information, such as poems and song lyrics they had written over the years to color in the world, the CODEX was further proof of their commitment to the details of this fantasy world.