Tonight I meet once again with my Reader Advisory class. Last week's discussion went pretty well, so I am looking forward to working through tonight's topic: science fiction and fantasy.

For this week's class I read Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings, the first book in the Belgariad series. Long ago the evil God Torak drove men and Gods to war when he stole a powerful orb from his brother Aldur. The war raged for many years until one fateful night when Belgarath the Sorcerer led a group of men to reclaim the Orb of Aldur from Torak. According to prophecy, as long as the Orb stayed on the Isle of Riva men would be protected from Torak's wrath. Now thousands of years have passed, and the legend of the Orb is nothing but a story to Garion. Raised on a farm by his Aunt Pol, Garion knows nothing of the outside world except the stories he has heard from Old Wolf. But when it appears that the Orb of Aldur has been stolen, much of what Garion always thought of as being impossible comes crashing down around him. Before he knows it he finds himself on a quest with Old Wolf, Aunt Pol, and a handful of strangers to track down the Orb. Through their journey it becomes painfully obvious to Garion that everything is not as it appears. Who exactly are Old Wolf and Aunt Pol? And why does he feel like there is some connection between himself and the Orb they so desperately seek?

As a whole I really enjoyed Pawn of Prophecy. The world the author created was interesting, but for me the greatest strength of the novel was the cast of supporting characters. Although it is clear that Garion is the main character of the novel, as a reader I was just as interested in the other characters stories. Because I am now invested in more than one character from the series, as I reader I am probably more likely to pick up book two in the series. Tricky authors. They know just the things to get us to keep reading them. :-)

Being that the book was an epic fantasy, I couldn't help but make connections between Pawn of Prophecy and The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books. While I know there are certain characteristics that are universal in any work of genre fiction, it seems like fantasy as a genre suffers a bit because there are two series that are so omnipresent in reader minds. For me it seemed only natural to say to myself, "Oh this is just like when Frodo..."

So my question for my class tonight (and you as well) is this: Has the popularity of series like LOTR and Harry Potter hurt fantasy fiction?

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