a magnificent epic set against a history of seven thousand years of the struggles of gods and kings and men of strange lands and events of fate and a prophecy that must be fulfilled the belgariadlong ago so the storyteller claimed the evil god torak sought dominion and drove men and gods to war but belgarath the sorcerer led men to reclaim the orb that protected men of the west so long as it lay at riva the prophecy went men would be safebut that was only a story and garion did not believe in magic dooms even though the dark man without a shadow had haunted him for years brought up on a quiet farm by his aunt pol how could he know that the apostate planned to wake dread torak or that he would be led on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger by those he loved but did not know for a while his dreams of innocence were safe untroubled by knowledge of his strange heritage for a little while thus begins book one of the belgariad