http://scifi.about.com/b/2009/06/03/david-eddings-is-dead.htm
Very sad news to all lovers of classic fantasy books. David Eddigs joins his wife, Leigh, who passed away February 2007.
Condolences to their family.
karl

Hunting down his works is not an easy thing here in Poland (only one reprint, in 1996) but I managed to complete both Belgariad & Malloreon set, as well as Belgarath trilogy (Actually I cheated and bought missing ones in London).
I've read his books many times and never got tired of re-reading them. The stories were wonderful and characters really fleshed out.
Through his books he introduced fantasy genre to many. He will be missed.

I was surprised to hear this, I thought he died years ago.
Very good author too.

Yes, Edding's books were the first fantasy I've ever read. For me they most certainly don't rank among 'the best', but they do hold one of the top positions on 'fond memories'.

Definitely... I read most of his books in middle school/early high school. Reading them later took a little bit of the shine off, but I definitely have great memories of them.

I read the Belgariad and Elenium (sp?) ones in my early teens, really enjoyed them. He will be missed.

Damn. I read the Belgariad, Mallorean, Tamuli, and Elenium series multiple times over the years. One of my top authors (along with David Gemmel and Raymond Feist).
Thanks for the news.

As a kid I read the Belgariad (loved it), the Malloreon (also good, but that's because it was the same story), and gave up on him completely in the middle of, IIRC, the Elenium (because, unbelievably, it was the same story again!).
A good writer, but he apparently only had one story in him.

That's true. It was also true for the Altheus (I think that's it) series. Many of his characters were recycled across multiple stories, just with different names. But I enjoyed them all anyway.
And he was always humble about his ability as a writer, for example quotes from the article in the first post:
"I'm never going to be in danger of getting a Nobel Prize for literature."
"After they've finished with me... ...they can move on to somebody important like Homer or Milton."
It would have been nice if he'd branched out into different stories and characters in his fantasy works, but what he did do was highly enjoyable. I would have happily read more of the same from Eddings.

Sad news indeed :(. He was one of my favourite authors at one time and loved his Belgarion, Tamuli, and Elenium series as well as Stories of Belgarath and Polgara. I could not get into Mallorean or his later works unfortunately. I have Belgarion, Mallorean, Tamuli, Elenium, Rivan Codex, Belgarion and Polgara in Hard Cover format in my collection (talk about big books for last two) as well as asortment of others in paperback.
Rest in Peace David Eddings. You will be missed.