RIP David Eddings
Jun. 3rd, 2009 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerI remember precisely where I was when I bought my first David Eddings book. I was in Florida with my family on vacation. We had gone to the local mall and the bookstore (Walden Books) and I saw this cover that interested me. It was "The Pawn of Prophecy" by David Eddings. I devoured it and as many other books as had been published by that point. I really liked them. He was one of a few authors that I bought in hardcover because I wanted to own that book the minute it came out.
Years later I was working with Del Rey and ended up working on a repackaging of the Belgariad. I ended up have a number of conversations with both David and Leigh about it over the phone and a little bit of e-mail. I never told him how much I had enjoyed his books in my teen years. It just didn't seem professional.
Leigh passed away in 2007 and I sent a sympathy card to David. This morning I learned that David passed away. And another of the fantasy modern greats passes on.
I do regret that I never told David and Leigh how much that series had meant to me.
I am grateful that I got to work with them.
Years later I was working with Del Rey and ended up working on a repackaging of the Belgariad. I ended up have a number of conversations with both David and Leigh about it over the phone and a little bit of e-mail. I never told him how much I had enjoyed his books in my teen years. It just didn't seem professional.
Leigh passed away in 2007 and I sent a sympathy card to David. This morning I learned that David passed away. And another of the fantasy modern greats passes on.
I do regret that I never told David and Leigh how much that series had meant to me.
I am grateful that I got to work with them.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-03 04:07 pm (UTC)WHAT
Oh my God.
O___O
David Eddings is, after Terry Brooks, my all-time favorite fantasy author. I hold his and Leigh's novels very, very close to my heart. He humanized the fantasy genre and gave it a richness and detail that had been sorely lacking, as well as a subtle sense of humor.
I remember in 1998, my boyfriend at the time loaned me the Belgariad, and I was sucked in from Chapter One. I loved every character, even the minor ones, so much so that the story was almost incidental. I branched out from there to the Malloreon and then to the Elenium/Tamuli. The latter books took me a while to grow into, but now I consider them the Eddings' finest novels.
I wish I had been able to meet David and Leigh and let them know they enriched my reading and writing of fantasy in ways that I'll always be grateful for.