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Eragon

Author: Visit Amazon's Christopher Paolini Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0375826696 | Format: PDF

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Amazon.com Review

Here's a great big fantasy that you can pull over your head like a comfy old sweater and disappear into for a whole weekend. Christopher Paolini began Eragon when he was just 15, and the book shows the influence of Tolkien, of course, but also Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, and perhaps even Wagner in its traditional quest structure and the generally agreed-upon nature of dwarves, elves, dragons, and heroic warfare with magic swords.

Eragon, a young farm boy, finds a marvelous blue stone in a mystical mountain place. Before he can trade it for food to get his family through the hard winter, it hatches a beautiful sapphire-blue dragon, a race thought to be extinct. Eragon bonds with the dragon, and when his family is killed by the marauding Ra'zac, he discovers that he is the last of the Dragon Riders, fated to play a decisive part in the coming war between the human but hidden Varden, dwarves, elves, the diabolical Shades and their neanderthal Urgalls, all pitted against and allied with each other and the evil King Galbatorix. Eragon and his dragon Saphira set out to find their role, growing in magic power and understanding of the complex political situation as they endure perilous travels and sudden battles, dire wounds, capture and escape.

In spite of the engrossing action, this is not a book for the casual fantasy reader. There are 65 names of people, horses, and dragons to be remembered and lots of pseudo-Celtic places, magic words, and phrases in the Ancient Language as well as the speech of the dwarfs and the Urgalls. But the maps and glossaries help, and by the end, readers will be utterly dedicated and eager for the next book, Eldest. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to the

Hardcover
edition.

From Publishers Weekly

While exploring the forest, 15-year-old Eragon discovers an odd blue gemstone—a dragon egg, fated to hatch in his care. According to PW, "The author takes the near-archetypes of fantasy fiction and makes them fresh and enjoyable, chiefly through a crisp narrative and a likable hero." Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
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Product Details
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Age Range: 12 and up
Grade Level: 7 and up
Series: The Inheritance Cycle (Book 1)
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (April 26, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0375826696
ISBN-13: 978-0375826696
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

What you almost always hear first about this book is "wow, it was written by a 17-yr-old". And the author is fully deserving of the respect and admiration he gets--it is indeed an impressive book for a 17-year-old to have written. What he probably should not have gotten was a publishing contract, since while it is impressive for a 17-yr-old, it is less than impressive for a published work of fiction.
If an adult had written and published this, I would have been disgusted (as I was with the Sword of Shannara) with the clear calculation that had gone into the work: "ok, I'll take a lot of Tolkien, a lot of McCaffery, a good amount of Leguin, some Dragonlance, some Star Wars, etc. It will be a can't miss book." Since it's the product not of an adult but of a teenager, it comes across much more positively--as a work of fiction by someone who has read lots and absorbed lots of fantasy and simply didn't have the experience (or the good editor) to take out all of his favorite parts of other works. How can I dislike or be too critical of someone who so obviously loved some of my own favorite authors, loved them so much that they simply took over his book through I'm guessing no fault of his own.
And that in a nutshell is the problem with Eragon. The story is cliched, formulaic and barely passable as are the characters and the language is simply what you would expect from a somewhat precocious teen fan of adult fantasy. If you have any experience in the field of fantasy at all, reading Eragon will feel like a visit to Las Vegas (though not so tacky)--sure you can see New York and Paris and Italy, but they are mere shadows of the real thing. So McCaffery's telepathic link between dragon and rider is here, but not the powerful emotionality of her (especially earlier) works.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. This book is a trainwreck. Where do I even begin?

I'll start with the most obvious and egregious issue: Many, many concepts, character names, and place names were lifted straight from other and much better fantasy writers' works quite shamelessly. Not even "inspired by" type theft - blatant copying. A plucky female character named Arya, a mountain range called the Spine of the World, "Urgals" who are described suspiciously like the Uruk from Tolkien - all these and far more to list here were taken directly from much better fantasy works by the author. But most disgustingly ripped-off of all was the scene where Eragon touches the magical "stone" (dragon egg) and his palm becomes marked with a silver-white circle, thus proving that he is destined to become a great user of magic. Hello, Paolini: David Eddings called; he wants his original idea back. This book is a smorgasbord of stolen works. Paolini should be ashamed of himself for thinking that such intellectual-property theft is acceptable, and he should thank his lucky stars that other fantasy writers aren't more angry over his "borrowing" of their ideas. The professional editor who offered him a contract should be tarred and feathered. And he should refrain from selling fantasy if he's not already familiar enough with the staples in the genre to know when his clients are stealing ideas.

Right, on to the next point.

The language in this book - ugh, atrocious! The prose is clunkier than a pair of cement boots. I can't say whether Eldest and Brisingr are more palatable than Eragon in terms of narrative voice, believable characters, and non-embarrassingly-awkward dialog. I will certainly not be reading those books to find out.

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