King of the Murgos

King of the Murgos is the second book of David Edding's Malloreon series. 

"In this second book of The Malloreon, Garion and Ce'nedra continue the quest begun in Guardians of the West. In their party travel the immortal Belgarath the Sorcerer, his daughter Polgara the Sorceress, and the little Drasnian, Silk.

"Garion knows that it is the mysterious figure Zandramas who is responsible for the abduction of his infant son, and he and his companions journey many miles and encounter many strange beings in their search for him.

"Their way leads through the foul swamps of Nyissa, ruled over by the Snake-Queen, and on into the dark kingdom of the Murgos, where human sacrifices are still made to the dead god Torak. Further on, however, even beyond those forbidding lands, they must face the ultimate danger - not only to themselves but to all mankind..."

General Thoughts: This has been my favorite book in the Malloreon series so far (of the four books I've read at this point) and I think that has to do with the titles namesake. He and Silk are hysterical. The tense situation in country coinciding with the humor that Silk and the King bring to everything is just amazing. It made the slight drudge which was the first part of the book worth it. 

<<Spoilers>>

Plot: The new plot of this series to is walk across the other side of the world to save the day. As if the first series didn't do enough travel. While the traveling isn't bad, it seemed to have lost it's engagement for me. Maybe the Belgariad has a nostalgia factor that this one just doesn't, but it seemed a bit more arduous than it had before. But at least we are well on our way to saving the baby Prince, which is strikingly similar to finding the orb in the first place. Hmm... I wonder why. I wish there was even some point of a "Hero's Journey" like there was in the last one, but no one seems to be learning anything new or developing as a character. Sure we learn new things about them, but Pol stays the same, Garion stays the same, even Silk stays the same. What to people learn? How do they grow? 

Setting: Most of the setting is the plot I think. Travel and find the boy to save the day. But we get to travel on the other side of the world into more uncharted territory that we definitely didn't get in the first series. New and unexplored cultures but with a new religious turmoil what with Torak dead and them still sacrificing people for nothing. Being in unkind territory does give us antagonists we wouldn't have gotten otherwise, which is cool, and new friendly characters which are better--in this context. 

Characters: This is what really makes this book: the characters. Sadly there is no Barak and some of the other main characters from previous series don't make much of an appearance. But Silk and the King are the real winners here. Their conversations were the most engaging part. Belgarath, Polgara, Garion, and Ce'Nedra are okay, but they don't hold a candle to Silk throughout this whole series. The Queen of Drasnia begins to make an great appearance too amongst the Western Kings. And Sadi is an interesting character too, though not a favorite. 

Spice: 2/5 Spicy Chilis. "Curtains Fall" on this one, but there is so little of anything remotely spicy, that I dropped that down. At times it feels like flirting is hard for them. 

Writing Style: David Eddings can make this journey hard to get through. Much of it is travel with "oh something happened a hundred miles after the last time anything happened. It is very scene oriented where nothing happens until dominos fall, if that makes sense. It can be very dry unless they decide to stay someplace for a longer period of time, like the Murgos palace or Salmisras palace or a camp, but in this book much of it seems to be moving and traversing the world to save Geran, but although important stuff happens, it doesn't feel like it. 

Overall: Though the ending was good, the meat of it was a struggle. And I'm having a hard time even wanting to finish the rest of the series, though that is has some other reasons too. The nostalgia is what is carrying me though this and even then it seems to be running out of gas.