Reviews

This final volume of the quintet begun with Guardians of the West finds Belgarion, the Child of Light, racing to his cataclysmic and long-prophesied meeting with Zandramas, Child of the Dark, which will determine the future of the world. His small band--consisting of, among others, his wife, Ce'Nedra; members of his shape-changing family; and his former enemy, Zakath, Emperor of Mallorea--is joined by Cyradis, the blind seeress of Kell, who is foreordained to decide which will win, the forces of Light or those of Dark. From the mysterious city of Kell they are directed to Perivor, bastion of chivalry, where they will learn the location of the meeting place, Korim, the Place Which Is No More. After various adventures and encounters with Zandramas's agents, the final battle of wills is joined, with Belgarion becoming privy to astonishing revelations about some of his companions. This volume is not for a newcomer to Eddings's series; while it ties up loose ends and brings the hero and his friends to a happy conclusion, the meeting that the previous four books have been foreshadowing is anticlimatic. (May)