Thanks for the hat. *Puts it on at a jaunty angle and it promptly falls off again*
Eddings is reasonably good. His stories are pretty formula, but have attractions such as witty banter and reasonably interesting variants on generic characters. I prefer the Elenium to the Belgariad and don't really like The Dreamers, mostly due to a lot of very literal Deus Ex Machina.

what's sometimes known as high fantasy; knights in shining armour, chivalry, magic of various sorts, and a hero who has to save the world with his motley companions.

His books' fans tend to like them because the story is an easily recognisable one, the character archetypes are so strong they're almost parodies, and there is a lot of banter. Snarking it up is almost a prerequisite for an Eddings character, and even after ten years of re-reading his stuff it gets giggles out of me. :D

His fantasy books start with The Belgariad (five-book series) and The Malloreon (also five-book series) focusing on a boy called Garion who has a Destiny. There are two prequels, Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress, focusing on two of the other central figures in the series. Best to read the main books before you read them, though, as there are a lot of references to things from the main books.

The second lot of books focus on a knight named Sparhawk; they are two sets of three-book series, The Elenium and The Tamuli.

There is also a standalone book named The Redemption of Althalus, about the unusual life of a thief named Althalus (surprise :P ).

I personally recommend them; the Garion books get off to a slow start, but they're no less enjoyable for that.

Some bits can get like that, but mostly it's possible to work it out. So one character will be arguing a very different point of view to the other, the only times I've gotten confused was when I wasn't paying enough attention.

It's also a bit shoddy, I think, to not have action tags.

Looking at that second excerpt I have an urge to add action tags... probably Alice snaps the book shut before the line about McDonalds' dinners, and there's a rolling of the eyes when she says 'nothing'... oh, and disbelief from Bob pretty much the whole way through, he's definitely surprised that Alice isn't making her choices known right off the bat.

Dammit, now you've got me interested in these two. They were only supposed to be an example...!