Das Vermächtnis der Drachenreiter

The Inheritance Cycle #1

by Christopher Paolini, Joannis Stefanidis (Translator)

Der fünfzehnjährige Eragon lebt mit Onkel und Cousin in einen kleinen Dorf in der Bergen von Alagaesia. Die Menschen sind arm, das Leben ist hart - aber Eragon gefällt es. Das ändert sich jedoch schlagartig, als er in den Bergen einen geheimnisvollen Stein findet, der sich als Drachenei entpuppt. Denn kaum ist der Drache geschlüpft, gerät Eragons ganze Welt ins Wanken: Brutale Schergen des grausamen Königs Galbatorix jagen ihn, ermorden seinen Onkel und stecken den Hof in Brand. Eragon verliert in einer einzigen Nacht seine Familie und seine Heimat. Und so verlässt er das Dorf und macht sich auf die Suche nach den Mördern.

Dabei steht ihm nicht nur der Drache Saphira zur Seite, sondern auch der alte Brom, ein Geschichtenerzähler mit einer geheimnisvollen Vergangenheit. Er offenbart Eragon nach und nach, warum Galbatorix so versessen darauf ist, Eragon und Saphira zu finden. Der König ist nämlich an die Macht gekommen, indem er die einst mächtigen Drachenreiter vernichtet hat. Und jetzt bedroht mit Eragon ein neuer Drachenreiter sein Imperium. Zuerst versteht Eragon die Furcht des Königs nicht - doch dann lernt er mithilfe von Brom seine magischen Fähigkeiten kennen. Auf ihrer Reise übt er sich in dieser gefährlichen Kunst, aber die bösen Mächte scheinen ihnen immer einen Schritt voraus zu sein. Bis Eragon schließlich das geheime Versteck der Varden findet, die schon seit Jahrzehnten im Verborgenen gegen Galbatorix kämpfen. Alles läuft auf eine entscheidende Schlacht zu ...

Der erst fünfzehnjährige Autor hat mit diesem Buch ein klassisches Fantasy-Epos geschaffen, das alles bietet, was das Herz eines Fantasy-Fans höher schlagen lässt: monströse Urgals und mysteriöse Elfen, kämpferische Zwerge und gefährliche Zauberer, telepathische Drachen und kluge Werkatzen, Magie - und einen jugendlichen Helden, der Schritt für Schritt seine Fähigkeiten entwickelt und seinen Platz in der Welt sucht. Der Beginn krankt ein wenig an dem Hang des Autors zu ausufernden Beschreibungen. Doch die Geschichte nimmt schnell Fahrt auf und lässt einen dann so schnell nicht mehr aus ihren Drachenfängen. Und das Ende lässt hoffen, dass man von Eragon noch mehr lesen wird. Denn nach der großen Schlacht ist seine Reise lange noch nicht zu Ende... -- Gabi Neumayer

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Dragons, Adventure, Magic, High Fantasy

604 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

About the author

Christopher Paolini was born in Southern California and has lived most of his life in Paradise Valley, Montana. He published his first novel, Eragon, in 2003 at the age of nineteen, and quickly became a publishing phenomenon. His Inheritance Cycle—Eragon and its three sequels—have sold nearly 40 million copies worldwide. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars was his first adult novel.

Visit Paolini.net and Fractalverse.net for the latest news about this project and follow Christopher on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here is a short list of things I find more enjoyable than reading Eragon:



Why does this book read like it was written by a fantasy-obsessed 15-year-old? Oh, nevermind... Is THAT why is has EVERY single one moth-eaten fantasy cliché???
It's like Paolini actually, in all seriousness, used Diana Wynne Jones' humorous The Tough Guide to Fantasyland as a real technical manual on how to create the Eragon universe. And the proud parents of a budding "new Tolkien", instead of proudly allowing him to read it out loud at family gatherings, decided to publish it and unleash it upon the world.


LEFT - the ride that this story promises to take you on. RIGHT - what you actually get.

The only way to actually enjoy Eragon is if you have never encountered a single fantasy-related story in your life (and that includes "Star Wars", by the way). Let's have a roll call for the clichés, shall we? A mysterious talented orphan/poor farm boy? Check. Dragons? Check. Elves and dwarves? Check. Stew? Check. Ancient sword? Check. The weird apostrophe-ridden names (save the protagonists, of course?) Check. A quest? Check. Hot chick Damsel in distress? Check. And it goes on and on and on... Wait, you say, maybe Paolini was deliberately paying homage to the traditions of the fantasy genre. Fine. I suppose that could explain some of it. But still, blindly and straightforwardly rehashing of the old tropes without adding much originality IS NOT OKAY, okay?

I think that the writing is immature and betrays the author's young age and lack of experience. Throughout the novel, Paolini clumsily brings our attention to anything that he considers important to the story with constant reminders and brick-sized hints. Foreshadowing should be subtle, but I don't think he quite grasps that concept. The descriptions are trying too hard to be Tolkien-like, but fail at this miserably. His attempts at creating accents and dialects are pathetic. There were quite a few instances when I had to shake my head muttering, "I don't think this word means what you think it does". The prose is stilted and quite irritating while trying to be overly pretentious.



The characters are flat and devoid of any believable personality, with shallow and simplistic motivations that only exist to move the plot forward. The interactions between them are far-fetched and forced. The protagonist (Paolini's version of Luke Skywalker), absolutely marvelous at so many cool things with minimal training (every child's dream) is there for the reader to self-insert into the story. The deux-ex-machina bits replace so many actual solutions in this story that no amount of eyerolling would suffice. And the plot holes - the story is so full of those there's barely any plot left at all. As for the worldbuilding - well, he stuffs it with every imaginable fantasy trope, as I mentioned before. Ughhhh. And yet at the end nothing is memorable.

"Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world."
The first sentence alone should have stopped me from reading this book. I should have reorganized my sock drawer instead.

Why did I read it if I hated it, you ask? Simple answer - I was bored and this was the only book within reach. I would NOT recommend it to those who are familiar with the fantasy genre. Actually, scratch that - I would not recommend it to anyone. 1 star.

[Miranda Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could read this one a hundred times and love it just the same.

This was my middle school book series. I read it over and over and over (and, as you may have guessed, over and over...).

It had dragons! And elves and magic and swordplay and not a love triangle in sight.

Even rereading it as an adult, I just...cannot separate all those happy memories So keep in mind, my review might be is more than a bit biased.

Eragon, a farm boy, stumbles upon a suspicious blue stone while hunting in the Spine (an area that few would go to even in the best of times). He loses sight of his prey but brings home the stone anyway figuring that he might sell it.

However, once folks find out it's from the Spine - they refuse to touch it. Begrudgingly, Eragon takes it home only to discover, a few short days later, that the stone is not a stone...it is an egg.

A dragon egg.

And while Saphira (his young dragon) is cute for the first few weeks...Soon, Eragon realizes that keeping a dragon, even a young one, is no easy task.

When a tragedy befalls Eragon's family, he sets off with Brom, a local storyteller, and Saphira on a quest for revenge.

Along the way, he meets both friend and foe. He travels far farther that he ever dreamed possible and experiences losses that will irrevocably change him.

"Nothing is more dangerous than an enemy with nothing to lose, he thought. Which is what I have become."

Rereading this as an adult, there are a few things I picked up this time around - like how Eragon is always just strong enough to vanquish his enemies, how he is always in the right place at the right time, how he's able to pick up swordplay and magic at an unbelievable speed...

And yet...

There is one thing that 11-year-old me and 25-year-old-me would absolutely agree.

One thing that remains steadfast and true.

I will defend this book to my dying day. This book is simply the best. The best of the best.

Audiobook Comments
While the book may be the best of the best...this audiobook (narrated by Gerard Doyle) was not. In particular, Saphira's voice was absolutely, hands-down, the worst voice ever bestowed upon a dragon.

I could understand going for a deeper voice for a dragon, but she's a young, female dragon, not a crotchety 1000-year-old creature with a chip on his shoulder. It was painful to listen to. Over 10 hours of a deep, guttural flem-in-the-back-of-your-throat sort of voice - think yoda on steroids.

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[J.G. Keely · Rating 1 out of 5]

Standard fantasy fare, except that while most fantasy authors lift their plots only vaguely from a previous author, Eragon is simply the plot of Star Wars with a Lord of the Rings paintjob:

Princess flees, trying to keep precious item out of the evil emperor's hands. Boy finds item. Bad guys burn down his farm and kill his uncle. Old mysterious man helps him, and 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 (eventually) to princess, then dies tragically. Boy learns how to fly X-Wings (er, dragons) and goes to take on his father and the evil emperor, &c., &c.

Paolini also resembles other fantasy authors by denying that he is a fantasy author, instead imagining that he is a great literary talent. In his own words:

"In my writing, I strive for a lyrical beauty somewhere between Tolkien at his best and Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf"(1)

Unfortunately, his control of language is more akin to a piece of Harry Potter fanfic. There are some days that I wish my parents ran their own publishing company, too. However, if such a boon would require me to write as obliviously as Paolini, I would have to decline.

Yeah, I know he was eighteen, but so was Byron when he wrote "Hours Of Idleness" and Pope when he wrote his "Essay on Criticism". If Paolini doesn't hesitate to compare himself to (what he sees as) literary greats, I certainly have no problem with letting my criticism fall with equal weight on his little bit of fluff.

I think the reason I keep returning to Pulp writers like Robert E. Howard is that those authors just wanted to write exciting stories instead of the next 'literary event'. Authors who lack pretension often write very good stories, because they aren't forcing themselves to write overblown, overly-complex stories. Many modern fantasy authors do the opposite: they write redundant escapist yarns and then get upset that no one considers them to be literary greats, yet.

There is nothing new or interesting here for anyone who has read fantasy before--it's just a rehash of old cliches. The writing, pacing, and characterization are substandard. I wasn't surprised to find that a teen boy wrote this book--it's exactly what I would expect a teenage fantasy fan to write.

My Fantasy Book Suggestions

[J.Elle · Rating 1 out of 5]

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. Tolkien's "Lord of The Rings" trilogy. If you are not familiar with the Inheritance books, allow me to inform you:

Lord of the Rings: Trilogy
Eragon: Trilogy
Lord of the Rings: a main character Aragorn
Eragon: main charactor Eragon
Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's love interest is Arwen (the daughter of an elf king)
Eragon: Eragon's love interest is Arya (the daughter of an elf king)
Lord of the Rings: bad flying things are Ringwraiths
Eragon: bad flying things are Ra'zac
Lord of the Rings: there is a big fight in the troll dungeons
Eragon: there is a big fight in the troll dungeons

I could continue...suffice it to say, after reading "Eragon" I classified it as "Lord of the Rings" with a dragon. This is definitely not worth anyone's time, unless you want to amuse yourself by noting how many similarities there are between the trilogies.


Addendum: WOW! Thanks for all the comments. This is, by far, my most popular review. I'm glad to know others share my feelings for this pitiful excuse of an imaginative novel.

Addendum 2: If you, like so many others in the comments, find fault with my apparent ignorance and wish to correct me regarding the fact that this series is not a trilogy, please see comment #53.

Addendum 3: I can't even. I just can't. Do you know how many people have commented on the fact that this isn't a trilogy since I added Addendum 2 SPECIFICALLY addressing that? I don't even know how many because I've lost count. What does this teach us? It teaches us that people don't read. Let that sink in.

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't care what anyone says, I freaking loved this book. I get that it's sooooo freaking cheesy, with a Gary Stu and a BABY DRAGON and a weird elf with whom ---- oh, can't say that cause it's a spoiler. Heh. ANYWAYS, it's great.

Yeah it literally checks all of the shitty high fantasy YA wet dream, with an orphaned SPESHUL character and dragons and elves and deus ex machina up the yin yang, but I. DON'T. CARE.

I loved it the first time I read it and I still love it now. The movie was an unmitigated disaster, which is probably more accurate to how actually good the book is (i.e. not very). Like I said, I get the haters, and in theory I should have hated this book only I don't

:D

[Brownbetty · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 would change the world." Please note, the author has just claimed that the world is going to be changed by a smell. Which would actually be an interesting book, sadly, not this one. I know this, because that quote is the first sentence of the book, and what the author means is "Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent giving warning of the coming of persons who would set in motion events that would change the world." I know, it lacks a certain something.

Better the eighty percent of the pit of voles, but still, undeserving of being published.

I do not blame Paolini for writing a bad book. People write, and sometimes, they write badly. But I do blame the editor, and his publishing house. This book is crap, and it should have been obvious to anyone who read it. The main character's most interesting bit of characterization and only vestige of personality is that he collects rocks, and this is only mentioned in one paragraph. He's a transparent sue. Everyone acts as if they have just acquired their motivations and history on a 3x5 card before walking on for their scene.

The plot is a clumsy clunker that is foreshadowed on page 22. He has never known his father, and his mother refused to answer questions about him! Do you think this will turn up again later? His name is Eragon. Like dragon, but with an E. An old man pops in to tell what in a better novel would be suspiciously appropriate myths and folktales every time Eragon needs to know what is going on.

Descriptive sections are often incomprehensible, as for example, "His hand was numb, his fingers paralysed. Alarmed, he watched as the middle of his palm shimmered and formed a diffuse white oval." The only reason I know what the author is intending to say there is because I have read enough fantasy to recognize the Mystical Mark.

Our hero makes decisions that make no sense, simply because they are necessary to move the plot forward. Obstacles like hiding a dragon from those living in your house are hand waved away in two paragraphs. Things that oughtn't be obstacles, like buying groceries, are, just to build sympathy with the protagonist by inserting baseless discrimination.

Why publish this!? Were they incapable of finding something more deserving? Was this book even edited? Is he someone's nephew? Publishing this book is an insult to readers and a disservice to writers everywhere, including Mr. Paolini. It's like telling someone they look great when they have spinach in their teeth. Dammit!

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 story begins with a young farm boy, named Eragon, from a small village. While hunting in the wilderness in search of food for their family, Eragon comes across a rare stone (which is later revealed to be a dragon egg). He takes it home with him and to his suprise the egg hatches and out comes Saphira. The two are instantly connected as a Dragon and Rider making them inseparable. Once Saphira is big enough to fly they set out to seek revenge for the death of Eragon's uncle who was murdered. This is just the begining of their journey throughout the land battling mysterious, evil forces. A very good book to cuddle up with on a cool fall day or during the winter when you need a good adventure to bring you out of being stuck in your house.

[Petrik · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5/5 stars

Age of the readers and how well acquainted they are with the high fantasy genre seriously need to be considered here.

I don’t think I need to say a lot on my review on this, Eragon is a very popular book and it’s been quite mixed received, to say the least. The majority of love and dislike usually depends on when did you read the book for the first time? If you were still a child or teenager, and haven’t read a lot or any high fantasy books yet, you’ll probably love this. Unfortunately, I’m reading this for the first time as an adult who’s already well acquainted with the genre.

Anyone who has read or watched Lord of the Rings or Star Wars pretty much has read this book, Eragon almost a straight copy of these franchises with different names and terminologies. And that’s okay, especially considering that the author was 15 years old when he wrote this book. However, as someone who has experienced the high number of tropes in this book out of all medium, it was hard for me to enjoy the book.

Eragon is not a bad book, by all means, it's just a book that in my opinion will appeal more towards children or teenagers; it’s something that I will definitely recommend to younger kids. If I was reading this 15 years ago, it could’ve been one of the books that introduced me to this genre and I know it, in fact, did for a lot of people. This is something I will always praise Paolini for. I don’t care what kind of books or genre you read, if the book sparked your love for reading a genre, that gets a praise from me and Paolini did it for countless readers.

“Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life.”

I wasn’t planning to read Eragon in the first place but I received this book from one of my good friend, Dorina, as a birthday present because she wanted me to have this book that made her become the reader she is today and for that, I thank you very much, I will cherish this book. Although this book didn’t really work out for me, I can totally see why it’s beloved by a lot of readers, especially younger readers. In the future, Eragon could be a book that I’ll consider giving to my kids to spark their love for reading.

You can find this and the rest of my Adult Epic/High Fantasy & Sci-Fi reviews at BookNest

[Katerina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before we get started
-Please,please do not judge a book by its movie.
-I read Eragon for the first time when I was 15 years old.I've re-read it 5 times since (I didn't own many books back then so after I took advantage of my neighbor's and my cousin's library,I kept re-reading my poor collection) and every time I loved it just the same,because it was the book that introduced me to the world of fantasy.


The story
When I got this beauty in my hands,I thought that Eragon was the dragon (laugh all you want,I deserve it).But it turns out Eragon is the teenage boy who finds the dragon named Saphira and together they are the only ones who can fight the powerful and corrupted tyrant Galbatorix.With an old storyteller as his mentor,Eragon travels in Alagaesia,finds dwarves and elves and rebels and embraces his heritage and his responsibility as the last Dragonrider,the protector of the weak and the only hope of an oppressed people.

“Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it's actually quite common. The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.”

Reaction of 15 years old Katerina


Reaction of 23 years old Katerina


You get the picture.

Thoughts
I know there is a great amount of readers who found this book boring and slow paced and nothing special.Maybe if I read it for the first time as an adult I would agree,maybe I wouldn't.But as things turned out,this is the first book that took me away in uncharted lands,it was my Brom to the fantasy world.I know by heart the ancient language,I still use the dwarven curses (and it is very satisfactory),I still look at it with great affection and love.Eragon could be immature but it is expected from a teenager,and there were so many interesting and vivid characters,like Brom and Murtagh and Arya and Roran and Orik.The world building is fascinating,and there are epic battles and ancient swords and deaths and magic and prophecies.
It is a wonderful journey to embrace one's destiny and purpose.

“Books are my friends, my companions.They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life.”

And that's exactly what Eragon is.I can't guarantee that you will like this book,but you should give it a chance to bewitch you and make you a Dragonrider!

Sé onr sverdar sitja hvass!

[Michelle Webber · Rating 1 out of 5]

wow, so i wrote a scathing review of Christopher Paolini's book when i was a very passionate but stupid and embittered seventeen-year-old. i still get notifications on this site from people who either loved or hated this review. i do stand by some of what i said, sure. but more than a decade later, here is what i think i was trying to say, but was so burdened by hatred and jealousy to do so. i'll leave the original in tact for posterity's sake, but it's a super unfocused and awful. you've been warned!

When I was fourteen, I admired Christopher Paolini out of jealously: publishing a book at the age fifteen, and having it hit the New York Times Bestseller list? Incredible. Basically unheard of. But in retrospect, over a decade later, I have nothing but empathy for the guy. He was a child when he got published, and his clumsy writing reflects that exactly: the work of a somewhat precocious fifteen year old with a thesaurus glued to his palm and a love for fantasy. He got swept up in popularity and an outpouring of love for his first book largely based on the fact that he wrote it at such a young age. But as a result, he never quite had the opportunity to grow organically as a writer beyond that fifteen-year-old boy who struck authorial gold thanks to parents with serious ties to the publishing world, and a ton of luck. This is clear by the way he flounders to find a voice for the rest of his series; his writing becomes less focused, duller, and possibly even more overwrought and overworked. His characters do seem to grow and change over the course of four novels, but that is truly a low bar to set in terms of expectation. Paolini hasn't been able to break away from the world of Alagaesia; like JK Rowling, who too has fallen from many a fan's graces and continues to Tweet her way into obscurity, Paolini doesn't seem to have any stories left to tell. Maybe the world he "created" is a comfort to him, and something he wants to mine for his own personal enjoyment--or maybe because it was a massive cash cow he milked for years and years, and that's all he knows. Regardless, it's sad to see such stagnancy from someone who might have held some talent as a young person, but whose growth was curtailed due to (in my opinion) premature fame. Wish you and your buckets of money all the best, Paolini~


here's the original review, in all it's cringeworthy glory!

Right so. I'll just say 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/Gandhi/God/my dog..," though whoever may say this has a point. Even though he blatantly took ideas from pioneers in their respective fields, that isn't what bothers me the most.

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 receive any kind of acclaim. But in retrospect (and nearly vomiting as I attempted to get through a chapter of Eldest, which I failed at miserably), I realized that I had no reason to envy Paolini at all. He doesn't know how to write. String together a vague semblance of a story? Possibly. But at the end of the day, the description is purple, the dialogue is stilted, and the character development is next to non-existent.

For starters, has anyone noticed that he is obsessed with stating distances? Something like, "Two feet away stood three troops of fifty, in rows of five, making ten people per row" is a sentence uncannily close to one I read in the actual book itself. This kind of information is superfluous and distracting, taking away from important aspects of a novel such as character development--which, by the way, he integrates next to none of. Who is Eragon? I seem to have forgotten everything about him, other than the fact that he is creepily obsessed with a woman who has no interest in him, he acquires fighting skills incredibly fast (read: Mary Sue red-flag), and only reprehensible villains disagree with him. Basically, he's perfect, and he only gets even more amazing at everything he does. Where is the fun in a character like that?

I do, however, remember Murtagh... a little. Probably because he's the only one who changes at all as a character throughout the book, other than the occasional insight into Eragon's personal airplane--I mean, pet dragon--I mean, companion, Saphira. Even her characterization is sacrificed because she's used as a plot device by Paolini rather than fleshed out as an actual character. None of the characters are memorable and the main character is my least favorite character of them all! How are we supposed to root for the main character when he is nothing but an arrogant snot, constantly reaffirming a holier-than-thou attitude to everyone around him?

The plot is a cliche hero's journey that has been done before, and better, might I add. Where's the appeal in that? Answer: there is none.

What left is there to hold in high regard? His world building skills? False. I don't know why he decided that his world of Alagaesia had to have EVERY single climate condition imaginable, but doing so made his world seem juvenile, fake, and forced. Not to mention boring judging by the awful over-description of said world. With regards to the language he "created"? He mostly ripped from old Norse words. He's admitted to it himself. Look, anyone can string a bunch of letters together and call it a language. But Paolini hasn't a single clue when it comes to linguistics. And hey, I'll admit that I don't either. But I also don't try to create my own languages--that I more or less steal--and claim that I created all by myself. Seriously, Paolini's alleged arrogance (based on interviews I've seen/read) disgusts me.

All in all, sure, it's fantastic that he published a book at such a young age, but are we as a society lowering the bar that much as to celebrate mediocrity? The man is now twenty-eight years old and his successive books Eldest, Brisingr and finally, Inheritance are decidedly much worse than his first book on every front. That he wrote when he was fifteen. This is a huge problem in my eyes. Someone so unwilling to grow or change like any other writer should have their title of "writer" stripped from them. It's insulting.

[Ben Alderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

seriously, Ben. Why have you not read this sooner. This beast has been sat on your TBR pile for years. What is wrong with you? Was little Ben intimidated by the size?

I FINALLY READ THIS BOOK
and
breath

I honestly think this is one of the best fantasy YA stories. Such a classic!

ERAGON YOU ARE MIGHTY FINEEEEEEE

[Emily (Books with Emily Fox on Youtube) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was straight up painful...

Full review to come!

[Julio Genao · Rating 1 out of 5]

appalling.



as if written by an enthusiastic but tragically over-encouraged teenager with insufferably supportive parents who somehow happen to be well-connected in the publishing indus—wait.

...oh.

carry on, then.

[Swankivy · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 destroy 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, and boy searches for his destiny as a legendary Dragon Rider (of course, that must be capitalized). Eragon goes through traditional bouts of training and learning about himself under the stern tutelage of old wise traveling companion. Along the way he gains and loses friends, and rescues a mysteeeerious woman from a horrible dungeon while never straying from his quest to put right all that is wrong in a world oppressively ruled by an evil king.

This book has gotten lots of attention since it first came out, partly because the author is so young. He was fifteen when he started the book, and was nineteen when it was published. Age isn't always correlated with mastery, of course, but when I read this book, I could TELL that the writer was either young or an immature writer. Though it seems people think it "got published" somehow because of its great merit, this book was actually self-published by the author's parents (company was Paolini International), and then it was paraded around on a self-funded signing tour the way most self-published people do. An established author happened to run into the family doing a signing while he was on vacation, thought a kid writing a book was interesting, bought a copy and made his stepson read it, and decided to try to get the book a deal when the kid liked it. The people at Knopf re-edited and repackaged and re-released it under that label. I believe that if this book had meandered its way to publishing houses the usual way, it would have been rejected as unpublishable, for reasons I will discuss in depth here.

Christopher Paolini himself, in his own words, describes his story thus: "Eragon is an archetypal hero story, filled with exciting action, dangerous villains, and fantastic locations. There are dragons and elves, sword fights and unexpected revelations, and of course, a beautiful maiden who's more than capable of taking care of herself."

I would argue that this book is not an "archetypal hero story" so much as an overused and overly traditional Tolkienien "epic," with "epic" in quotes because it lacks exactly that epic nature that made the world of Lord of the Rings so rich. There was absolutely nothing new or "unexpected" in this book (though the author claims there are "revelations"), and if a reader is excited by this book, they are probably reacting to the concepts themselves (e.g., fantasy worlds, dragons, fierce battles) rather than the book's own merit, or perhaps they have never been exposed to the dozens of fantasy and science fiction epics from which this author pulled his influences. My feeling was that this book was nothing special because, if I may be so blunt, "it's been done," and it's been done better.

Overall, I just think that this book was written as though it had a template or blueprint for "traditional fantasy novel" and the details and names were simply filled in. I couldn't help feeling the entire time I was reading it that I had read this story before, nothing was much of a surprise, and things that didn't make sense or got in the way of a conflicting original vision were smoothed over with excuses or deliberate muddling of motives. I think that in order to write something so traditional, a writer needs something special, a unique twist or slant, and this just hasn't got it. (In other words, I'm not saying that writing an "archetypal fantasy epic" is BAD; I'm saying that it needs to not be a rehashing of overused themes that have been done to death by classic writers.) The boy and his powerful companion having an intimate relationship? Done, in everything from Anne McCaffrey to freaking Digimon. The hero quest to punish the baddies and bring the good guys back into power? Done, in Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Lush descriptions of landscapes and surroundings? Done by Tolkien of course, but more as a background to action rather than in stagnant heaps of detail. Mysterious companions to whom there is more than meets the eye? I don't even want to think about all the books and movies that have done that. I can't pick out a single thing that this book has that has never been done before, the characters didn't interest or capture me, the storytelling was riddled with too many attempts to be grand that I was just entirely turned off by it.

Some specifics about the bad writing style:

Every imaginable permutation of the word "said" is used. If the reader cannot tell how someone is saying something by what they are saying, it is likely that the dialogue has been written sloppily. "'You're not thinking,' admonished Brom." Yes, that is an admonishment without you telling us so. Leave it out. "'Get on with the story,' he said impatiently." Well, if one person is urging another to get on with it, it stands to reason that it's being said impatiently. Running into "'Sorry,' apologized Brom" made me cringe. The fact that Brom said "Sorry" means that he apologized, so use "said." You can deviate from "said" if for some reason HOW the sentence is said is not obvious, such as volume ("he whispered") or intent ("he said sarcastically," if it isn't obvious that that's a sarcastic comment anyway). Leave out the decorations because they're tacky. The speech tags are not the part of the writing that is supposed to be interesting, so don't distract us; believe me when I say that if you do it, nearly any editor will consider it an early warning sign that you are an amateur.

Unnecessary description is inserted with maddening frequency. I am not usually a reader of traditional fantasy, and traditional fantasy does tend to be more flowery than the hard stuff, but either way random descriptions should not just be thrown into the mix. Eragon is waking up and stretching. Suddenly we get a description of the items on his night table, including the random information that he likes to look at one of the objects on it frequently. In the meantime, while we are getting this rush of information, Eragon is putting on his shoes. He then does not proceed to touch, pick up, or look at anything on the night table, and none of it is ever mentioned again. Also, people and places just get sudden paragraphs of description. We're fighting an Urgal and all of a sudden . . . drop some description on us. While he's rushing at Eragon with drooling fangs, no less. By all means, describe the fangs, slipping the adjectives in gracefully. But don't give us a run-down of a typical Urgal when we're a lot more interested in whether those fangs are going into Eragon's head.

And lastly, too many words, phrases, and concepts seem to be entirely lifted from other well-known works. Word choice seemed as though it was the author's attempt to use all his SAT words; it was verbose and flowery as if on purpose, trying to impress with vocabulary that would have been better used sparingly. The similarity of some people's and places' names to those of Tolkien have not gone unnoticed by seasoned fantasy readers; I have heard several people call this book "Aragorn" without even noticing that they weren't saying it right, not to mention things like Ardwen (compared with Arwen), Isenstar (compared with Isengard), and Isidar (compared with Isildur)--and there are a LOT more. A ridiculous number of phrases seem to be something I've heard before, though I'm not sure where; for example, near the beginning someone is touching a wrapped package repeatedly, "as if to reassure herself that it was still there." I mentioned this to a friend and said, "That's FROM something." He replied, "It's FROM everything!" Far too often, ridiculously overused or clichéd similes and metaphors are used, such as tears being described as "liquid diamonds." It is less like this book was written and more like it was sewn together from the torn apart products of others, like some old quilt on which the stitches are showing. (How's that for an original simile?)

There's definitely not enough space in this little box (which has a character limit) for me to go into as much detail as I'd like talking about how bad this book is, so if you really want to read my ranting in all its entirety, you might want to check out my essay about it on my website.

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will always love Saphira!

[Wren (fablesandwren) · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know that saying “I’ll wait till the movie comes out?” Don’t.

So I am an aspiring author. Let me shed some light for those who don’t understand this series is a unique series.

“Imitation: a method of writing instruction that bas dropped off the map, fallen through the floor, and disappeared from the face of the earth as far as modern education is concerned. And yet imitation is arguably (according to Aristotle, Cicero, and numerous other authorities) the most effective rhetorical device for learning your licks as a writer.”
- William Cane in Fiction Writing: Master Class

I first want to say that everyone is entitled to what they believe and think about a certain piece of art (yes, books are considered art in my eyes). You can like a certain piece just because of the story line or you can not like a piece because they have a funny name for the main character. You are entitled.

What you are not entitled to is saying that a certain author is a piece or crap and a knock off of a literary masterpiece.

Every story, no matter where it came from or how old, is an imitation of other stories. Christopher Paolini talks about how he looks up to famous author J. R. R. Tolkien and his trilogy “Lord of the Rings.” So obviously the book is going to have some sort of Middle Earth feel to it because that is what he likes. He has similar species (elves and dwarves) but a lot of stories have those. So are we going to say that every story that has a vampire or werewolf is a knock off of Dracula? Because the species is similar to the original? No.

The two series do have similar aspects to them, but they aren’t identical. Have you ever read a book that didn’t sound like another? How about every dystopian/fantasy series out there today for young adults? A young, normal and boring girl is thrown into saving mankind against the somehow twisted and corrupted government. Now tell me you can’t name at least five series that sounds like? The Hunger Games? Divergent? City of Bones? Uglies? Matched? The Summoning? Marked? How about if you changed the young, normal and boring girl into the young, normal and boring boy? The Maze Runner? Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit? Eragon? Every book is imitating another if you actually sit down and think about it.

The real question is: why on earth would you want to do that? Why would you want to get your panties all tied in a knot? Why not just enjoy the book for what it is? Why not live and breathe the world someone created in their mind after reading hundreds of other worlds? Isn’t it amazing in itself that someone could come up with something so magical? This is art! I would like to see one of you come up with a story that has nothing similar to any other story out there (and it actually be a good story). If you do, I will personally send you an apology and say that I was wrong publically.

There is so much uniqueness and magic in the Inheritance Cycle. I am currently reading it for the third time because I get so inspired by Paolini’s writing. The map inside the cover is enough for me to get lost in the world that he created at such a young age! That should be enough for anyone to be in awe of this work and this man’s mind!

Carvahall is where our hero Eragon starts off in the book. He finds a beautiful blue stone that magically appeared during his hunting trip that turned out to be one of the last dragon eggs out there. He becomes a dragon rider. He has to decide if avenging a family member’s death is more important than saving the corrupt kingdom from a dark rider named Galbatorix.

His dragon Saphira is strong headed but usually his voice of reason. She keeps him thinking straight and his head level. I’m not sure why some people say she doesn’t have feelings because it is clear to me that she does. She is a dragon, so her feelings are not as clear to us as they are to other dragons. Half the things she does she does out of emotion anyway, so I’m pretty sure you are just mistaken.



Brom is a storyteller from Carvahall with a mysterious past that he won’t completely reveal. He has a lot of stories about dragons and knows a lot about the empire. You get pieces of his back story throughout the series and that alone is an interesting one to know.

The cities that are in this story are pretty extraordinary. You have Carvahall, which is a small and dull town where nothing really exciting happens besides when the traders come to town. Then you have Utgard which has a rich history of the riders and past battles. Teirm, one of my personal favorites, which has a history of being attacked by pirates, Urgals and other enemies. They set the whole city up to be ready for war in an amazing way, land or sea. Then there is Dras-Leona, which is a horrible place where people think that the more bone and sinew you give up, the less you’re attached to the mortal world (what in the world?). Not to mention they are heavy in poverty and slavery.

Not to mention the cities where dwarves and elves live. And that deadly desert...

Then you have the different species. Humans are a big part of the story (especially when Roran becomes a big character later in the series). Dragons, obviously, are a big part of the story. Though we only know of two that live in the first book: Saphira and Galbatorix’s second and forced dragon Shruikan. Then we meet a Shade which is kind of just like a magical being but this one is not someone you want to mess with. A Witch who knows and shows up randomly (very curious character). A Were-Cat which are as clever and sneaky as an actual cat but have some magic in their veins. Then we have Elves and Dwarves who are just as you would expect them to be. Then we have Urgals, which in my opinion are like stupid ogres mix with a lot of hate and ugliness. Not to forget the Ra’zac, which in my opinion are like bugs in cloaks and currently give me nightmares.

The witch previously mentioned name is Angela. She read Eragon’s fortune (side note: this made me happy because it proves that Paolini knew exactly where he was going with this story when he started the book) and said it was nigh impossible to see.
1. Infinity or long life
2. Many choices in his future including great battles, power struggles and countless futures
3. A death that will cause him much grief
4. He will leave Alagaësia forever, no matter what he chooses
5. Epic Romance
6. Betrayal from within the family

This is a great set up for the rest of the book. You get to watch all these things come undone and how he reacts to them. Knowing your future can be an awful thing, and this book clearly states that.

There are battles, miracles, high emotions, secrets, and magic in this book (in this series!). I recommend you read this book. First, knock out all that negativity you harness and go into thinking someone made up this world. Someone imitated parts and made up others and fit a magical story into pages for the rest of the world to read. He was fifteen when he started this book. That is amazing to me because I believe this book is thoroughly laid out. I think it is a great story. You don’t? You are entitled to that opinion. Not everyone is going to like a single piece of art. Don’t go and criticize the author though, because it takes guts and imagination and a determined mind to put together what he did and show the world.

[Archgallo · Rating 1 out of 5]

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, etc etc. This becomes even more clear in the next book, Eldest. Everyone loves Eragon, and those who don't are evil or will repent their ways (see the elf-dude that he fights in Eldest. In Eldest he becomes this superhero, half-elf half-human, while of course the other characters mainly remain stock characters: the dwarf with an axe, the beautiful but haughty elf lady. Brom is of course the wise old mentor, like Gandalf, or perhaps more like Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars, which the whole trilogy rips off anyway.

The only interesting character is Murtagh, but he turns out to be evil. I won't be surprised if he dies in the next book, or becomes Eragon's henchman after he realises how "awesome and cool" Eragon really is.

[Orient · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful rec from my GR friend, Anish :) Thank you! :)

Also a super great BR with Sweet Pinky , Lovely Saphy's Trainer and Gentleman Grumpy Cat :)

I saw the movie and loved it, but when I heard about the book recently, I was curious together with a slight feeling of worry as reading the book after watching the movie adaption works quite bad for me. But I wasn't disappointed, this book is wonderful!

RL keeps messing up with me, so, sorry in advance for a short review. This wonderful books is worth way more praises.

Christopher Paolini's book charmed and drew me in with wonderful world building, interesting adventures in the world of elves, dwarves and other mythical creatures. The amazing thing is that the author started writing this book when he was a teen, 15 years old and his skill shows a lot as he managed to lure me into world of "Aragon" , charming with magic, action, creepy baddies, wonderful goodies, monsters, dragons and way more.

The journey to the magical and mystical world of "Eragon" began, it's full of adventures, toils and wonder, so call your dragon and lets explore this world together :)

[✨ A ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost everyone knows how this story goes. Eragon finds a huge egg in the forest but thinks it is just a precious stone — that is until it hatches and a dragon emerges. Dragons and their riders have been iradicated from the empire by the evil king Galbatorix. Eragon thinks he can keep his dragon, Saphira, a secret, but when the King sends the deadly Raz'ac to find and capture him and Saphira he realises that he has put his whole town in danger. Eragon now has to live on the run from the empire or join the resistance.


What really surprised me was how angsty Eragon is in this book. I don't remember him being like that in the other books or maybe I just didn't pick up on it. I didn't mind it though. To be honest the protagonists of today's YA books are written so mature and level headed. A lot of the time too much so where it's almost unbelievable. I didn't mind that Eragon didn't always think before he acted, or that he felt that the world and fate was against him. These are the actions of a 15 y/o boy.

Eragon can sometimes be reckless but Saphira is wise even though she basically hatched 6 months before. Saphira is one of my favourite characters. I love that she is so protective of Eragon, their bond is really beautiful.

I had fun with this book. A lot of things that are revealed in the next two books have clues in this one. It was really cool picking up on hints that I probably would not have noticed had I not known what happens next. I'm excited to move on to rereading Eldest and hopefully making my way through this brilliant series.

______
My reviews of:

2: Eldest
3: Brisingr

[Kai Spellmeier · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The greatest enemy is one that has nothing to lose.”

It's been a while. Many years have gone by since I read this as a young teenager/old child. The only problem is that I have never read the fourth and last part of this series. At the time of its release, I had already forgotten what had happened in books 1 - 3. Since then I have not been able to find the time and motivation to reread them. I finally decided to start listening to the audiobooks to freshen up my memories.

I believe that the age at which you read a book has great influence on how you read it. So does experience. The older you are, the more your viewpoint will shift. The more books you read, the better you can tell a good book from a bad one - of course, it's all a matter of perspective. Anyway, I doubt I would like City of Bones if I would reread it now, nearly 10 years after I read it for the first time. Luckily, this does not apply to Eragon, even though I lowered my rating from four stars to three.

Keep in mind that I "reread" this in audiobook form. I'm not the biggest fan of the narrator. He makes the characters seem overemotional and slightly immature and I don't like how he voiced some of them. I do think that some of this immaturity stems from the way Paolini wrote them, though. The language is generally a tad too pompous and pretentious for my taste. 13-year-old me wouldn't have minded but many years later this is something that bothers me. These characters often behave in a proud and almost regal way, like the typical knight in shining armour. The fantasy world Paolini created invites this language and behaviour. Dwarves, elves and dragons are creatures filled with pride and valour. It was an exaggeration that threatened to become ridiculous. A minor critique is about the chapter titles. I found them to be way too telling.

Overall, I enjoyed revisiting this world a lot. Paolini created something so big and fantastic at such a young age and I'm a bit jealous that I haven't yet managed to do the same. I'm glad I finally found the time for this book and will probably start reading book 2 right away.

Find more of my books on Instagram

[megs_bookrack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always heard a lot about the Inheritance series. It seems to be one of those series that gets recommended all the time for Middle Grade readers. It was published well after my time, however, so I never got to it.

When the audiobook for Eragon became available through my library, I decided to give it a shot. Better late than never.



I am happy to report, I really enjoyed it and am glad I took the time to read it.



The narrator was a hoot! He created so many distinct voices for the many different characters.

His voice for Sephira, the dragon cracked me up. It was so goofy, but in a really endearing way.



This Middle Grade tale weaves together many classic Fantasy elements, such as magic, dragon lore, a quest and plenty of action.

Reading some of the reviews, it appears some people thought it was a cliched version of Lord of the Rings. I didn't really get that feeling from it.



I mean, sure, lots of Fantasy is inspired from what came before, but I would hardly consider it a copycat version.

So, if you have heard that, I wouldn't let it dissuade you from picking it up to try for yourself.



I'm not sure if I will end up continuing with the series or not, but a part of me wants to. I am sure, like with many series, the story continues to get better and better.

[naz · Rating 4 out of 5]

“𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒆'𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒘. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚... 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒔𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒕.... 𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉.

Okay guys this was actually so good, what the heck?? 🤯

It had no romance (shocking for me lmao), lots of friendship between the rider and the dragon, and a ton of war and politics, which I absolutely ate up 👀🔥

I know this is an old book, but to be honest, if I had read this when it came out, I totally get the hype. I read it now and it is still worth the hype. The way the relationship between Eragon and his dragon (I don’t wanna spoil anything with the name 👀) was literally one of the funniest and most genuine connections I’ve read in ages!!! I laughed with them, I got scared for them, and I even got annoyed when the dragon got annoyed at Eragon too! 🤣 It’s hilarious how this book genuinely made me fall in love with dragons even more❤️🐉

Besides that (which is mostly why I rated it the way I did 😆), I loved how easy it was to read and how it really took you through Eragon’s journey from how he just found an egg and boom his life changed forever. 🤯✨

I recommend this book to those that love a good journey through someone's POV and won't mind the politics behind the huge war that is underway throughout the book. I will definitely read the rest of the series and the ending of this book was VERRRRRYYY good.

⋆. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆.⋆. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆.⋆. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆.⋆. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆.

➳ 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱｡ꪆৎ ˚⋅
hubby: i’ll read Fourth Wing ONLY if you read Eragon afterwards

me: 🤸🏼‍♂️ i keep my promises

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 swear he didnt get one thing right. first of all its not a burn with a spiraling dragon its a scale on his palm.. seocndly the dragon took moths togrow so instead of making this newborn fly into the sky and then amazingly come down all grown up yeaa what a piece of crap the movie was.. but third thing is about how brom says that rajak is tough and both movie and book and it takes forever for them to kill the rajak in the book but brom and eragon goes and takes them out within 10 minutes after saying that.. totally contradicting thierself.. and the director cut so many places out of it he didnt even introduse the witch .. who was a big character in second book... i mean did the director even read the book i want a god foresaken remake of the move its nothing like the book i hated the movie loved the book... god will thier ever be a smart director or do you consist of bringing idiots to hollywood grrrr.

~Bye!~

[Gabriella · Rating 2 out of 5]

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. He should have waited until he developed his own writing voice, instead of rushing into publishing his first work. Now… all that potential just went down the toilet because I listen to and I read his interviews and his arrogance is sickening. He’s not going to get any better because he doesn’t think there’s room for improvement, and why should he? He hasn’t even finished his trilogy when it was made into a movie and to top it off he didn’t go to his publisher, his publisher went to him. How many starving authours out there dream of being found, of not having to submit to one publisher after another, and of not having to read their rejection letters? I do respect him for buckling down and finishing his story — from writing to revising to editing — because I know from first-hand experience how hard it is… but… this shouldn’t have been published. It just shouldn’t have been.

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this is not too bad if the writer is 16. (Oh, he is?) Give him another fifteen years of writing experience, and he should be really good. (Oh, it’s been fifteen years? How is he now?)

The beginning is pretty decent, but after that I grew increasingly bored. There is little to none character development. Eragon has very few flaws, if any, and just goes along reacting to stuff and trying to be a hero. The descriptions are pretty boring, and the action scenes are pretty boring. The writing itself was pretty good on the surface, but I think it needed to be more succinct.

I’m going to summarize the plot in gifs, so spoilers ahead. But if you have read any fantasy book before, you already know what happens. (Seriously, this story is Star Wars with a Lord of the Rings paint job on it.)

Eragon is an orphan living with his aunt and uncle. He has no idea who his father is. He picks up a mysterious object



that leads him to seek advice from a Strange Old Hermit



and gets his family killed:



He wanders around for a while and quickly becomes a master at magic and sword fighting.




While our hero enjoys what I like to call Die Hard Syndrome,



the mentor of course has to go.



He has to decide whether to join the Rebel Alliance



and rescues a princess archetype along the way.



Naturally, all the female characters (all two or three of them) are amazingly beautiful.



Okay, about the dragon. The dragon doesn’t have much personality, either. She and Eragon are perfect for each other in this way. For some reason, whenever the book talked about Eragon riding the dragon, I kept imagining this:



The audio narration was pretty good, but the dragon’s voice (and the were-cat’s) for some reason sounded like an impersonation of Frank Oz. I thought of these guys every time the dragon talked:





TL;DR
This book is a great introduction to fantasy for young readers. Everyone else will just see one cliche and trope after another.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy guacamole.
A great read.
Definitely try it. :)

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book that I would probably liked more it my teen years.
Now despite well-written plot and world-building based on a classic fantasy all its flaws too hard to ignore. And when I found out how old the author was when he wrote this book it became obvious where those flaws were coming from.
I mean, it's good, but it's mainly good for teenage boys, who are evidently its target audience. The story is black-and white: a chosen hero vs evil king and his henchmen, a mentor with dark past, and a love interest written in the best traditions of "women written by men". Characters quite clished and surface, and dialogues are very pompous and unrealistic.
So, the story is quite naive, bit predictable and not good enough to make me continue the series.

[BookDragon DeSanjorgs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is that one book that made me start reading dragon fantasies. I saw many reviews of this book, saying this is not a good book because the author was young when he wrote it. I think they are adult people who are reading it when they are not meant to read it, and they are reading it only seeing the high rating just to check what this book is about.

This book is for early-teenagers/ middle grade children. Don't rate bad on a book that is good for them and not for you. Those children who actually like this book aren't on Goodreads to rate it. So people should fucking hold their horses before judging and 'Re-rating' a book they liked years ago, but want to give them 1-star and 2-star now because they are ashamed to admit they liked it once.

Edit 2023: Now that I have seen the worst and trashiest children books ever in Costco and B&N and other American bookstores, which has nothing except Cats and Dogs and the Moon, I have to say again with proper enforcement that it's time someone makes a list of good books for children that has not cultist motherfuckerism in them to design kids' paths to herd them like sheep. I have seen a recent edition of this book. If the recent edition doesn't have any weird signs about cults in it, I'll keep this book in my good-for-children list.

[Cy · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 into a conglomerate mess, tries to serve it with a different label on an old beverage and expects the reader to eat this previously chewed, bland, ill-matched blob of scraps.

On top of the clearly traceable sources for ideas (almost all of which come from this century), his characterization is static and mary-sue. Eragon, a name in itself that is clearly not an ingenious solution, trots through the story with no growth or believability. Sure, he may outwardly follow a hero's journey, but there is no internalization of the theme. The physical journey is the hero's journey in this tale, despite the fact that the hero's journey is a representation of spiritual changes.

It was a stale story even before it had a sequel.

I could probably write a doctorate thesis on why this is not a prime example of a truly successful novel, but this is neither the time nor place for such a rant.

In conclusion, I will admit that I did learn something from Paolini: it helps to have parents who own a printing press.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

Long ago, the land of Alagaesia prospered under the guard of the Dragon Riders. They protected the country, keeping peace between humans, dragons, elves and dwarves.

But the Riders became complacent in their power. It only took one Rider's madness to topple the whole organization.

Now the mad Rider, Galbatorix, has been self-proclaimed Emperor for the last century or so. The other Riders are dead. The elves and dwarves have abandoned Alagaesia proper, working with human rebels, the Varden, on the edges of the Empire. In remote parts of the country, no one living has seen a dragon.

Eragon is a lad of fifteen, an orphan being raised by his uncle in the foothills of the forested Spine Mountains. He stumbles upon one of the last dragon eggs and takes it home, not knowing what it is. When the dragon hatches, she bonds with Eragon, but he has to hide her from both his family and the authorities. An inevitable disaster then pushes the youth and the dragon into the war...a war that only they can win.

Content Advisory
Violence: Lots of fight scenes, mostly human combatants versus discount Orcs. Some gratuitous gore. Our hero narrowly escapes from a human sacrifice cult, although thankfully we don't see them sacrificing anyone. Later he comes upon a town where all the inhabitants were slaughtered, and there's a pile of corpses topped with an impaled baby. An elf is held prisoner and tortured, leaving awful injuries. A young man bears an ugly scar from when his father threw a sword at him.

Sex: Eragon has a bad case of insta-lust for the elf, Arya. When Murtagh tells Eragon that he's on the run from the Varden, the latter asks if he killed the wrong guy or "bedded the wrong woman."

Language: None.

Substance Abuse: There's a pointless scene where Eragon gets roaring drunk and wakes up wickedly hung-over. Saphira smugly asks him, "Have we learned a lesson?"

Politics and Religion: There's an Ancient Language that contains the true name of everything, and using these words in the proper arrangements produces magic. Evil beings called "Shades" get their magic powers from being possessed by demons.

There's the aforementioned human sacrifice cult, who worship in a building Paolini insists on calling a "cathedral." "Cathedral" is a word with specifically Christian connotations in the real world, which makes that episode of the story confusing.

Eragon meets a witch named Angela, who rolls dragon knucklebones to tell his fortune.

Nightmare Fuel: The aforementioned Shades look like grotesque vampires, which greying skin, scarlet eyes, and sharp teeth. EDIT: As my friend Whiteraven191 notes in the comments, Durza files his teeth, which is even more grotesque. Then there's the insectoid Eldritch abominations known as the Ra'zac, who seem nigh-impossible to defeat...

Conclusions
Christopher Paolini was fifteen when he completed this doorstopper: an impressive feat. That said, this book would have been much better if Paolini had finished the manuscript, outlined the rest of the series, and put it away for a few years, then returned to it with a bit more maturity. Both the style and the content would have benefited greatly from that. Even a ruthless editor could have helped.

Unfortunately, Paolini's parents self-published Eragon as is and promoted it aggressively. Eventually Carl Hiaasen read it and put in a good word at Random House. This was in 2002, when high fantasy was enjoying a boom thanks to the Lord of the Rings films. Eragon became a bestseller buoyed by its aesthetic similarities to LOTR, its cool dragons, and the youth of its author.

And the book has its strengths. Compared to other YA bestsellers of the era, it succeeds where many of them fail. It's much more lively than its spiritual sister, The Naming, although The Naming has a lot more depth. It has a plot, unlike Twilight. It has more heart and soul than The Hunger Games, isn't nearly as elitist as Harry Potter or as rigidly stylized as the Lemony Snicket novels, has a much grander scope than Tamora Pierce's Tortall stories, isn't a diatribe aimed at a real-world religion like the Dark Materials trilogy, makes more sense than Inkheart, and never devolves into crassness the way Rick Riordan's demigod novels and Artemis Fowl could.

The main problem with Eragon is the immaturity of the writer, which shows in its derivative plots and settings, uninsightful characterizations, and bloated prose.

Many readers complain that the setting steals from Tolkien while the plot rips off Star Wars. I can see where those accusations come from, but I don't think they are entirely fair. While Paolini's dwarf kingdom of Farthen Dur is definitely based on Moria and Erebor, and I have a feeling that the elf kingdom in the woods will imitate Rivendell and Lothlorien, the rest of Alagaesia isn't all that close to any specific Middle-earth locale. Tolkien had an incredible gift for establishing setting; Paolini at age fifteen did not. Eragon's hometown of Carvahall is the most tangible place in this book, a backwater on the edge of a dangerous wilderness, and you can sense the growing unrest of the people who live there. The other human territories blur together.

As for the plot, George Lucas and his collaborators specifically developed the first Star Wars to be a distillation of the Campbellian Hero's Journey archetype. The plot was intentionally generic, the color was provided by the space setting and the unique worlds therein. So if a given story has plot similarities to A New Hope, that in itself is not cause for great alarm. If it turns out in Eldest that Durza the Shade was Eragon's father, then we can worry about ripping off Lucas.

Paolini's characters only resemble Lucas' in terms of their roles in the plot, anyway; they have very different personalities. When we first meet Luke Skywalker, he's whiny and a bit nosy, but overall, he's a sweet lad. Luke's darker side only emerges after the viewer knows what a good egg he is.

Eragon is no Luke. They have curiosity in common but that's about it. Eragon has a very intense temperament, which (understandably) goes into full-blown rage mode when his uncle is killed. This is a place where Paolini gains a point on Lucas; Luke has almost no reaction to the death of his uncle and aunt, Eragon is truly devastated by Uncle Garrow's loss and feels guilty for it, since he knows that the Ra'zac were looking for him and his dragon.

Unfortunately, Eragon's grief is melodramatic and loud--the way you write about the death of a family member when you've never experienced one. Grief is a cold, quiet thing that creeps in subtly; sometimes you forget it's there until you stumble upon a memento and it overwhelms you. It is not necessarily constant, and it is likelier to make you sad than angry.

We never really see Eragon being sad in a healthy way, and we never really see him forget himself and feel joy for a few moments either. He doesn't feel wonder when Brom starts teaching him magic. His friendship with Murtagh has an edge, and his crush on Arya is likewise edgy. He never opens his heart even to Saphira, his telepathically-bonded dragon. All this is fine, but it does make Eragon the character hard to like. His one endearing quality is his fascination with knots and hope to undo them some day, a nice bit of symbolism.

Murtagh is no Han Solo. Han is just trying to get by--underneath his cocky exterior, his heart is three sizes too big. He also has a sense of humor, which Murtagh has even less of than Eragon. Murtagh actually has emotional investment in the war, and avoids the Varden because he fears his parentage being known, not because he's reluctant to commit to a cause. He has a dark, simmering energy that reminds me of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. But he's almost redundant because Eragon himself is already a bundle of angst. Returning to the Star Wars comparison, I strongly suspect that Murtagh is Eragon's long-lost sibling, not Arya.

Which is a relief, because Arya is no Leia Organa, and her dynamic with Eragon is a lot different from that between Leia and Luke. Leia was stuck-up, certainly, but she was always snarky and upbeat too. She was actually able to help in her own rescue mission, and her general persona was sanguine and approachable. Arya is an elf, which automatically makes her aloof, but she spends most of the book in a self-induced magical coma, which slows down her character development and doesn't give her the chance to bond with the boys and Saphira.

There is no hint of attraction between Arya and Murtagh (who seems more interested in Nasuada, daughter of the Varden's top commander). But there is some chemistry between Arya and Eragon, who tries to wake her from her coma with magic, resulting in a telepathic bond. The flirtation between Luke and Leia was minor and innocent; even that notorious kiss was really only to make Solo jealous. Eragon and Arya have very different personalities that will hopefully lead to some entertaining friction in the rest of the series.

Saphira the dragon is a pretty good character. At first, her thoughts sound suitably alien, and become closer to human as the book goes on - which makes sense, because she's only been exposed to humans. But towards the end of the novel, Saphira's thoughts just echo Eragon's; she no longer shares any insights with him that he couldn't have reached himself, and often replies to his questions with "I don't know, maybe we'll find out." This almost makes her seem like his imaginary friend.

Brom's okay, but he's obviously Gandalf spliced with Obi-Wan and never develops his own distinct personality beyond that. His inevitable death is also staged in an abrupt and silly way, and I'll get into why the Ra'zac were the wrong characters to take him out.

Roran, Nasuada, and Angela are placeholders. They're clearly going to be important later, but there's no much to say about them at the moment.

Galbatorix is never shown in person. His servants Durza and the Ra'zac are suitably frightening, but the man himself and his dragon remain unseen and rather ineffectual.

There's a few scenes that could definitely have been spruced up to accentuate the archetypal, mythic elements. When Brom takes an arrow that was meant for Eragon, it's rushed--the only rushed scene in the book is the one that actually needed to be dragged out more.

I would also argue that Brom should have survived till they reached Durza's dungeon, and perished at the hands of Durza, not the Ra'zac. The Ra'zac are certainly grotesque, but so alien that it's hard to even picture them. We already know that this is rehashing beats from The Fellowship of the Ring and A New Hope, so it seems natural that the mentor figure would die in the stronghold of evil, just as his two inspirations did. Finally, I find Durza more viscerally scary than the Ra'zac. This change could have made the book fifty pages shorter and made the final combat between Eragon and Durza more satisfying.

Likewise, while I thought Arya's coma was pretty dumb, it wouldn't have been so bad if she had woken herself up shortly after being rescued. But it makes no sense that Murtagh winds up carrying the comatose girl. Since the narrator has told us several times that Eragon is already preoccupied with her, he should be jumping at the chance to carry her himself - and a nice bridal-carry too, not slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. And if Murtagh was the one to stab Durza, he should have his hands free anyway.

If Arya woke up much earlier, she could also have guided Saphira and the boys through the wilderness to the Varden and cut out a hundred pages of wandering around.

A more refined prose style would have minimized the flaws of the story and maximized its strengths. But Eragon is so verbose that the narration can jar you out of the story. Paolini fishes obscure words out of the thesaurus when a common one would do just fine, and the story would flow better for it. He also compulsively overdescribes background characters and settings, as if afraid that we can't picture the scene unless every detail is filled in. Tolkien loved to set the stage too, but he knew how to weave the description in with subtlety. Here, the narrative can grind to a halt for paragraphs because Paolini has to be sure we know the exact proportions of Horst's kitchen table.

In conclusion, this isn't a horrible novel. The story is familiar, but still rather swashbuckling, and the characters and setting have potential. It's just a mess - you can tell that it was written by a teenager, and makes a lot of rookie/first draft errors. Good editing and rearranging some events could have made the book shorter and punchier; some advice from a more mature reader could have given it more emotional heft. As is, I'm interested enough to see where the story goes next, but the sizeable flaws have put up a wall between the reader and the story that shouldn't be there. It's not horrible, but it doesn't live up to its full potential either.