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Dec 17, 2009

Brownbetty rated it:

Two or three years ago, everywhere I went there was some display attempting to sell me Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. It was obviously a bad book without opening the cover: the back cover carries a quote from the book, and an endorsement by Anne McCaffrey, and I'm pretty sure I could get that woman to supply a blurb for a double mint wrapper to the effect of "I couldn't put it down! An author ... to watch for!" The quote is "Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that wo More...

86 comments like (169 people liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

Keely rated it:

Standard fantasy fare, except that while most fantasy authors lift their plots only vaguely from a previous author, Eragon is simply the first Star Wars film with a LOTR paintjob:

Princess flees, tries to keep precious item out of emperor's hands. Boy finds item. Bad guys burn down his farm and kill his uncle, whom he lives with. Old mysterious man turns out to be part of a secret order of knights to which boy's (now evil) father belonged. Gives boy father's sword and takes him (event More...

32 comments like (52 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2010

J.Elle rated it:

I cannot adequately express my complete and utter loathing for this book. I was working at a library during the time that this book was being published and had access to a galley of the novel. I did finish it, but only so I could know (entirely how much) Christopher Paolini (the supposed 16-year-old author-genius) had plagiarized J.R.R. Toklien's "Lord of The Rings" trilogy. If you are not familiar with the Inheritance books, allow me to inform you:

Lord of the Rings: Tri More...

81 comments like (90 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Chelle rated it:

I hate Paolini's work. To my very core. I don't really think it's so much the "he stole from Tolkien/Lucas/Ghandi/God/my dog.." Even though he blatantly took ideas from masterminds, that isn't what bothers me. It's his writing style... When I was fourteen, I admired him out of mere jealously. I was absolutely green with envy that he could publish a book at age fifteen, and recieve any kind of high acclaim. But on retrospect (and nearly vomiting as I attempted to get through a chapter o More...

55 comments like (66 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Faith rated it:

I LOVE the Inheritance books. I had never heard of Christopher Paolini before, and was walking through Barnes and Noble when I saw this book on the end display. What caught my eye was the dragon on the front cover (I love dragons, and my "artistic eye" was captivated by the artwork). This is a great fiction/adventure/fantasy novel. Anyone who is a Lord of the Rings would truly have an appreciation for this book. I was hooked from the moment I picked up this book and began reading. The More...

18 comments like (56 people liked it)

Sep 10, 2011

Echo rated it:

It's been a few years since I read Eragon, and someday I mean to pick it up again and reread it so I can move on to Eldest. Unfortunately, I remember very little of the book. When I picked up Eldest and read the introduction where Paolini explains what happened in Eragon, I thought, "Really? I don't remember any of that." It was that forgettable. So I can't give much information about plot, characters, or anything very detailed. What I do remember are my reactions when reading the More...

2 comments like (18 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2008

Swankivy rated it:

A short (and somewhat sarcastic) summary: Main character = Eragon, mysteeeeerious boy-child left with his aunt and uncle by wandering mother, father unknown. Boy finds mysteeeeerious stone. Turns out to be dragon egg. Boy raises dragon and bonds with it strongly. Bad guys come and decimate boy's house and kill his uncle. Boy swears revenge. Boy's secret dragon is discovered by mysteeeerious storyteller who turns out to be master swordsman and random magic user. The hunt for the bad guys begins, More...

38 comments like (71 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Brent rated it:

i learned that this book kicks butt i mean common ppl you see this explosion in a forest gather up the guts to go see what it was and its a hue piece of saphire (or is it?) well then eragon goes around trying to sell it because his family is poor but know one wants it because it came out of the spine! (for those that dont know what te spine is its a collection of mountians only the brave go in but only the lucky come out) i seen the movie and i literally wanted to send a P.O. email to him i swe More...

12 comments like (26 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2011

Lissa rated it:

I give up.

Today is November 10, and I've read a grand total of 26 pages since August.

I just don't like it. The writing itself isn't quite up to the standard I would expect, but I know Paolini was a teen when he wrote it. I'm not excusing the choppiness based on his age because I know some teen authors who are simply angelic with their writing, but that kind of polish comes with experience.

Some books manage to be epic fantasies where interesting things actually More...

34 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2008

Cy rated it:

This book spells 'trite' excellently. Unfortunately, that's the best quality it possesses.

This idea has been overworked many times before, and, if I may borrow a baking metaphor, overworked dough makes for flat product. Not only does he steal from successful greats, but ignores completely that the reason why they were great would be because of their ingenuity with GOING TO THE SOURCE and making it their own from there. The book takes information from mouths others, throws it together More...

0 comments like (24 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2008

Ann rated it:

I’m very happy I’ve finally read Eragon! It’s been a book that I’ve been curious to read for a long time. Because of it’s comparisons with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (which I very much love!) I’ve wondered if Eragon would be another great fantasy epic or a terrible rip-off. I’m not entirely sure that it is either. But I did enjoy the book, and would recommend it to others!

I’ve wavered between giving this three or four stars. I would like to give it three and half, but as I can’ More...

12 comments like (21 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2008

Briana rated it:

Ah...what to say about this book? I can't feel that great about it. In essence, as I have not been a big fantasy reader until recent years, the narrative was done well enough. Paolini has a decent writing style, and I did not find reading this book painful.

However, I do have to say that I agree with many of the statements that he lacks a lot of the originality. I mean, it's pretty obvious that Eragon is hardly more than a Luke Skywalker and that Darth Sauron - I mean Galbatorix More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Emma rated it:

In 2002 I was 16 and a sophomore in high school. I was the Manhattan finalist for a storytelling festival. I was writing, mostly poetry. The year before I had been named runner up in a contest held by the Poetry Society of America and had the poem I entered read on the radio. I used to feel pretty good about those accomplishments until I read Christopher Paolini's bio on his first book.

In 2002 Christopher Paolini was 15 and a high school graduate. So, of course, the next obvious step More...

1 comment like (24 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2008

Nightfalltwen rated it:

The story is your typical Hero's Journey (for more info, study up on Joseph Campbell) and that makes the plot fairly predictable. I know a lot of people compare it to Star Wars and say that Paolini copied the ideas from it and LOTR, but Star Wars follows the Hero's Journey almost verbatim and so does Eragon. Come on people. George Lucas and JRR Tolkein are/were no strangers to the idea either. Quit making stupid comments about how this author stole from that author. The hero's journey has b More...

1 comment like (16 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Archgallo rated it:

Probably the most expensive fanfiction I've ever read. I'm not sure what possessed the publishing company to publish this book (although I heard that Christopher Paolini was self-published at first). I also wrote a book when I was 16 (much like Paolini) and the quality was pretty much the same as Eragon, that is to say, awful. Eragon (the character) is a total Mary Sue/Gary Stu: he learns to fight with a sword in just a few weeks, his past is angsty, he's the first dragon rider for centuries, More...

3 comments like (22 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kristin rated it:

One of my former roommates is addicted to Young Adult fantasy books, and got me hooked right along with her. She had read the first two books in this series right when they first came out, and urged me to read them before seeing the movie (which, I later found out, was awful). So I did. Despite the criticism that Paolini's books get, I found I really, really enjoyed Eragon. He pulls a Tolkien and creates his own world, complete with different races, cultures, and languages, which is no easy task More...

1 comment like (18 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2007

michelle rated it:

A friend lent me this book after he finished, and I knew nothing about the novel going into it, short of what I had read on the teaser. And so I began...

It took me a while to get into the story. From the get-go I felt that author was trying too hard, being overly dramatic with descriptions and using words like "raven-hair" and "smote". Plus, there was something lacking in the character development; there was a beginning to it, yet the typical layers that exist More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2008

Randocommando added it

The rating of zero stars is on purpose.

This is one of the worst books I have read in a long time. If you search hard, between the covers of this book you may find an original idea. He ripped off ideas from Anne McCaffery, Jane Yolen, Tolkien, etc. He just had the happy coincidence of writing his book McCaffery and Yolen have faded into obscurity.

I have never seen a book published with so many editorial errors. He had poor sentence structure. He used so many words in More...

3 comments like (14 people liked it)

May 11, 2008

Franco rated it:

This novel would be classified under, “Fantasy Fiction” because lf its creatures and elves. The main summary of this book is, an fifteen year old regular teenager sets off on an long journey of vengeance. One day while hunting he found a blue rock or “egg”. He later tries to sell it for meat, but they wont accept because its from the spine. Eragon later lost interest in the stone and put it aside for a couple a days until something extraordinary happened. The egg hatched and it was a baby dragon More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Gabriella rated it:

I tried writing a novel when I was fifteen, too; but the difference between me and Paolini is I had the decency to chuck it when I realized how terrible it was. I’m not going to list a host of authours he ‘borrowed’ from — many people just have different opinions where exactly he borrowed from so I don’t want to get into it. It’s just… I think he had potential; descriptively, there were some parts of Eragon that were very well-written. But for the rest, he tried too hard and he tried too early. More...

1 comment like (16 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2008

Sabrina rated it:

An orphaned boy is raised by his uncle and discovers a power he didn't know he had. He leaves home to learn about this power from an old master after the farm is destroyed by agents of evil. Along the way, he discovers more about his own parents that brings into question his heritage.... wait a minute... haven't we heard this story before? Is anyone else waiting for the James Earl Jones barritone "I am your father" declaration?

Seriously now. Aside from Eragon being another More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

There are a lot of novels out there that are closely inspired by The Lord of the Rings and similar fantasy icons. Some so closely that certain people name them as rip offs.

Eragon is one of those novels that has been called a knock off of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. However I make a distinction. To me this novel is merely inspired by those tales. There is no direct copying at mind but a mere translation of similar themes and archetypes commonly found in fantasy nowadays.

More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2011

Mariel rated it:

You know the part in Diana Wynne Jones's Fire and Hemlock when Tom sends back Polly's writing with harsher than the harshest red lines in the margins criticisms? He told her to get her own ideas. Polly had just been reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy and felt "inspired". I totally get feeling like telling stories when you are hyped up about something you love. I also know that this was published because mom and dad owned a publishing house. I never, never, never, EVER ripped off LOT More...

8 comments like (14 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2009

Celine rated it:

Eragon
By Christopher Paolini
528pp. USA
Alfred A Knopf, $10.95
ISBN: 0-375-82669-6

Eragon, the nephew of a farmer, accompanied by his blue dragon Saphira and Brom is on a mission to kill the Raz’ac, to get revenge for his uncle. Facing mysterious monsters and traveling to unknown places in Alagaësia, he continues training determinedly. Eragon is a very exciting book and will keep your pages turning. If you love reading fantasy novels, this book has some really c More...

10 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2008

Melora rated it:

While I hesitated to read this book at first (saw the insipid movie, and not a big fan of juvenile books in general), it's actually a great fantasy novel. Reading can be such a great escape, and these novels (I'm now on the 3rd in the series) are a great example of this.

I'm sure to irritate a lot of people by saying that I've purposely avoided the juvenile books for the masses (the Harry Potter cult and the Twilight-crazed zombies). And I was afraid that this series would be more More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2008

Benny rated it:

Eragon = Star Wars

From complaintlab.blogspot.com

The book opens with Princess Arya/Princess Leia smuggling a dragon egg/message or Death Star plans from the evil kingdom/Empire. She manages to hide it successfully but is captured by Ozzy Osbourne/Durza/Darth Vader and interrogated about it’s location. A simple orphan farm boy named Eragon/Luke acquires the egg/message/plans but doesn’t really know what to do with it. One day/night he returns home to find his uncle and aunt More...

3 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2009

Michael rated it:

I know a lot of people love this book and the story behind it is great. But it's still the same basic plot as "Star Wars" only instead of the Force, you've got dragons.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2008

Shane rated it:

Eragon

Captivating, amazing, astonishing!

One day Eragon was out hunting in the Spine, a forbidden place where many enter and little return. He was on his third day of his hunting trip, he was tracking down deer when all of the sudden there is a loud bang and I burst of light. Eragon went to go investigate what happened, when he arrived where the bang happened he discovered a polished blue stone. He took the stone back to his village, Carvahal, and tries asking merchants More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2010

Nian rated it:

Eragon has got to be one of the most boring-est book I have ever read. I normally love fantasy (my love for Harry Potter is an indication of this) but Eragon, I could not get through. It was excruciatingly long for such a simple journey. He chances upon all things magical and makes such a big commotion of things. Everything is supposedly mysterious. But it is actually more annoying than mysterious.

The writing was terrible. There were so many details and not enough substance, and oft More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2009

Nic rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

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