The man who started the craze for doorstopper-sized fantasy series, David Eddings, has died aged 77.

Prolific and bestselling, Eddings was the author of more than 25 books, many of them written with his wife Leigh Eddings, who passed away in 2007. Best known for his Belgariad and Mallorean series, which follow the adventures of the orphaned farm boy Garion as he fulfils an ancient prophecy, Eddings turned to fantasy after he spotted a copy of The Lord of the Rings in a bookshop, and saw that it was in its 73rd printing.

He'd already written a thriller about deer hunting, High Hunt, and had begun drawing a map of an imaginary world while writing another contemporary novel that hadn't been working out. After his epiphany with Tolkien, when he realised the fantasy field was under-served but potentially extremely lucrative, he began to use the map to plot the world of Garion, Belgarath the Sorcerer and his daughter Polgara, and their fellow cast of thousands.

Despite his success, Eddings was known for his humble nature. "His huge worldwide success and fame did not change Dave at all," said his long-term publisher at HarperCollins, Jane Johnson, herself a fantasy author. "He was unfailingly self-effacing on the subject of his success, once saying: 'I'm never going to be in danger of getting a

Nobel prize for literature, I'm a storyteller, not a prophet. I'm just interested in a good story'."

Eddings was always delighted, he said, to hear that he'd turned non-readers into readers. "I look upon this as perhaps my purpose in life," he said in 1997. "I am here to teach a generation or two how to read. After they've finished with me and I don't challenge them any more, they can move on to somebody important like Homer or Milton."

Born in Spokane in Washington State, Eddings studied English at university in Oregon, and then spent two years in the army in Germany, which funded him through graduate studies in Middle English. He went on to work for Boeing, eventually settling in Denver where he began his writing career.

Fellow fantasy author Stephen Hunt said that Eddings was one of the reasons he became a writer. "I was in my early teens when I discovered these books, and they opened my eyes to the fact that not all fantasy had to be the 'Ye Olde Speake' variety favoured by Tolkien – they were fantasy, but they carried a modern feel to the dialogue and

characterisation, while still being firmly placed in a deeply believable fantasy world," Hunt wrote on his blog today. "Along with writers like Moorcock and Gemmell, David is one of the reasons I became a writer, so I guess you can partially blame my Jackelian series on him. He's probably pottering around Garion's farm right now with a smile on his face, wondering what all the fuss is about."

Johnson said he would be missed "tremendously" at HarperCollins, which published his last title, The Elder Gods, in 2006. "He was a towering force of modern commercial fiction, a master of the epic, and a delight to work with," she said. "The Voyager team and I were immensely sad to hear the news."