Oh man, guilty pleasure. I don’t know if I’d call this a “masterpiece of world-crafting”, it’s basically just “what if medieval Europe sat next to the Roman Empire which sat next to the Native American plains, etc.” Also, it’s “problematic” in various ways. And yet I’ve owned the series for most of my life and still read it through every couple of years, usually in the same frame of mind where I think about turning on a TV or eating some fast food.
Eddings was one of the earlier Tolkien-lite practitioners. He was smart enough to take it seriously and play it straight, and there’s a reason why the Hero’s Journey is so timeless. If his characters are all two-dimensional tropes, there is honesty in the camraderie they share. In fact, the best parts of the series are when everyone’s on the road, chatting and joking and planning: the crafty old man, the mysterious woman, the honest tradesman, the spoiled girl, the big man, the rogue, and you, you are with them, and you can imagine yourself there, not alone, possibly under threat but doing something important and surrounded by friends.