Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle #1)

[Trisha]

This thread is to discuss Eragon by Christopher Paolini, the first book in the The Inheritance Cycle series.

Pages: 503 pages

Length: 1 Month (January)

Participants: Dubhease, Alaina, Anissa.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

[Ilse]

Can I join you? I want to re-read this series haha

[Dubhease]

I have the book sitting on my desk waiting for New Years Day.

[Pamela]

Could I join this buddy read as well? I want to read the entire series

[Alaina]

All set with my copy from the library! :)

[Mandy]

I would like to join, thanks.

[Dubhease]

I have read the prologue and the first six chapters.

(view spoiler)[I knew he started writing it when he was 15. Some of the descriptions read like a 15 year old wrote them. And it feels a tiny bit like Tolkien fan fic. That aside, it's infinitely better than what I was writing when I was 15.

I did like his world building. Orphans are over-represented in literature. An abandoned illegitimate child is intriguing. He could leave home was little ties, but we could meet his mother or father at some point.

I read the three chapters about the egg hatching, the baby dragon, and Brom's stories at one sitting because ... dragons.

I still have zero clue what a Shade or an Urgal are.
(hide spoiler)]

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse]

Paolini has created an excellent fantasy world with this book!

[Mandy]

I am now on the chapter through a dragons eye, which I am switching be audbile and ebook.

[Joan]

I'm interested in what all of you think for this one. I read last year and I wasn't a fan. For some reason you either love this one or hate it.

[Alaina]

I’m on page 310 “A Warrior and a Healer”. It definitely has it’s slow and faster pace moments. It took me a little bit to get into it.

[Dubhease]

I'm in the middle of Water from Sand. I both like the book and have some criticisms.(view spoiler)[

It's still giving me Tolkien-fan fic vibes. That being said, I love his original content. I like the dragons given strength to his powers. I like the mythology of the riders. I like that Brom was a rider in hiding and that he and his friend stole dragon eggs.

I am finding the all over the place-ness of the journey weird. It's like he drew the map of the land and needed to take us everywhere to show off his cool world building. Tolkien took us all over Middle Earth, but there was an overall point - the ring had to be destroyed in Mordor. Also, LotR was moving to a place. Eragon is constantly running from places.

Also, the book is just too long. My copy is 722 pages. I think it needed to be 550 or 500. I'm not sure what I'd cut, but it seems tedious in places.
(hide spoiler)]

I'm currently reading 4 books (which is too many for me.) What surprises me is that Eragon is 3rd in the book I read for the most. My second favourite is one of those Shadow hunter books (which I should hate as they are kind of soapy and definitely aimed at teenagers.) Eragon is annoying me slightly less than Insurgent, although they have similarities.

(view spoiler)[1. Both Eragon and Insurgent are exhausting.

Tolkien broke up the action with poetry and the history of Middle Earth. Rowling had lots of subplots in Harry Potter. C.S Lewis had subplots and his books were never tediously long. Above all Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling used humour.

Eragon and Insurgent go from one action scene to another with no breaks and no humour.

2. Eragon and Tris are both dumb-asses in their books. Yes, they are both 16, but it's one bad decision after another. I'm almost 2/3 through Eragon and he hasn't done one useful thing in his own self-interest. He needs constant rescuing by everyone else. Neither character is really growing. Eragon is changing physically, but he needs to grow up.

Watching characters make stupid decision after stupid decision doesn't compel me to read more. (hide spoiler)]

The stupid thing is that I'll still read the sequels.

[Therese]

I would like to join. Looks like a good series.

[Alaina]

I finished it. I think I would give it a 2/5.

Spoilers?!

It took me awhile to get into it, the slower parts were sometimes a struggle to read, and the ending was very slow up until the last 20 pages. I don’t think I will finish the rest of the series but I did google some of the questions I had about the future books/characters. I enjoyed the mentorship between Eragon/Brom and friendship between Eragon/Murtagh.

End of Spoilers?!

[Ilse]

Do you want to read the second book next month?

[Therese]

yes

[Therese]

I like "Eragon". It is slow paced, but interesting. I am enjoying the world the author is creating.

[Penny]

I love this book. What did you think of Eragon's fortune read by Angela?

[Mandy]

finished the first which I enjoyed now onto the next one.