Polgara the Sorceress

By: Leigh Eddings, David Eddings

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Polgara is the epic culmination of a magnificent saga, and a fitting farewell to a world that, once experienced, will never be forgotten.

She soars above a world of warriors, kings, and priests. The daughter of Belgarath and the shape-shifter Poledra, she has fought wars, plotted palace coups, and worked her powerful magic for 3,000 years. Now, Polgara looks back at her magnificent life, in this fitting crown jewel to the saga that is the Eddingses' Belgariad and Mallorean cycles.

Her hair streaked white by her father's first touch, her mind guided by a mother she will not see again for centuries, Polgara begins life in her Uncle Beldin's tower, and in the prehistorical, magical Tree that stands in the middle of the Vale. There, she first learns the reaches of her powers. There she assumes the bird shapes that will serve her on her adventures. And there she starts on the path toward her destiny as duchess of Erat, shepherdess of the cause of good, adversary of Torak the One-Eyed Dragon God, and guardian of the world's last, best hope: the heir to the Rivan throne.

Here is the legendary life story of a woman of wit, passion, and complex emotions, a woman born of two majestic parents who could not have been more unlike one another. Ordained to make peace and make war, to gain love and lose love, Polgara lives out her family's rich prophecy in the ceaseless struggle between the Light and the Dark.

Fantasy fan? Listen to titles in the Malloreon series, which is a sequel to David Eddings's Belgariad series.

©1996 David Eddings and Leigh Eddings (P)2024 Audible, Inc.

Agree on the narrator

Dina Pearlman has a great voice and she works as Polgara, but as so many Steves have already pointed out, her pronunciations are maddening. MaloREEuh and CHEWtick put my teeth on edge. I downoaded the Conan stories and that narrator pronounced it SimmuhREEuh. Almost ruins it for me. And it's why I didn't get Belgarath the Sorcerer. I was hoping it would be Cameron Bierle on that and it wasn't and the guy's pronunciations were worse than Dina Pearlman's.

Other than that, though, if the pronunciation doesn't bother you, it's a great story with a narrator with a great voice and worth the listen.

Polgara The Sorceress

The narration was well done, the book had the potential to be quite a boring audiobook because so much of is said by Polgara so I was peasantly suprised. The accents are good, took a bit of getting used to because I first listened to the Belgariad and Mallorean narrated by Cameron Bierle so I was used to those accents. My only complaint with this audio book is the pronunciation of some of the cities and countries. I think it would have main sense to keep the pronunciation the same as in the Belgariad and the Mallorean.

Good book, mind-numbing, insipid narration

I've listened to the Belgariad and found the narration excellent and engaging. Dina Pearlman was aggravating not just because at times it was like Edie McClurg reading a children's book, or the fact that she reads UL like Yule, Mimbre like Mimbray, Taur Urgas as Tower Urgas, or Issa like Eye-Sa--those will make you cringe, but she turned Polgara's story/voice into someone more likely to be President of the PTA than a nearly 4K year old sorceress. All the adult male voices, when not spoken in a horrible Lucky Charms brogue, sound like various poor imitations of Donald Trump or Obama. The god's voices, like Torak, defy description beyond "auditory excrement." Typically, I tell my co-workers and girlfriend about the book I'm listening to--this one I kept to myself, embarrassed like a 14-year-old with a Hustler (satisfying a basic need but tasteless and shame-inducing). As bad as this one is, it is light-years better than the narration of Belgarath the Sorceror--I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes and got a refund from Audible. That one should be used on the folks at Guantanamo Bay.

Pronunciation

I read the entire series in print and Loved it. The Belgeriad, The Malorean and Belgarath The Sorceror were read by the same actor who pronounced certain fictional words pretty much the way I did in my head while reading (ie: certain character or place names.).
While I understand that Polgara's story should be read by a woman and her performance was at least as good as her counterpart, I found the inconsistency of pronunciation quite jarring.

Problems with reader, but good story

I was very disappointed with the reader. Yes, I prefer Cameron B., but I was willing to listen anyway. Do the readers read the previous books before they begin? The names were mispronounced, the tones were off... Poledra sounds downright unkind... the voice inflections this reader used made our beloved characters sound rude, petulant, unkind, whiny... it was really bad.

consistent pronunciation errors.

It would be nice if pronunciations could be kept uniform through the different books. For example, the way mallorea is pronounced in this book makes it sound like diarrhea. *shudders*

great story, horrid reader.

great read, great story. horrible reader. changed established pronunciations. changed established tones and inflections of characters. struggled to get through this audible version.

I LOVE this book!

I DETEST the narration. I never understand the pride or conceit of a narrator coming into a well established series without apparently listening to the other books.
She has missed the mark on pronunciation so badly I prefer to read this one myself.

Great series!

I've read and re-read this entire series several times and love it. Only complaint with the narrator for this book is she changes the pronunciation of some of the names from what the other narrators have used in the other books.

great story...but that narrator though...

omg the narrarator is on a warpath yo butcher every pronunciation in the book. it's as if she is purposefully going out of her way to say every noun in the most exotic way. ruins the experience.