This is a poorly xeroxed copy, with none of the meaning or emotion behind it, and no true victory over the enemy, only a hollow shell of one. There's nothing to tempt Eragon. The King keeps saying "join me" and Eragon keeps saying "no". It's meaningless, because there is no attempt by either side at temptation. He hasn't seen the power that could be his, he hasn't felt it flowing through him, he hasn't almost let it consume him and pulled back at the last possible moment in defiance.
One thing I hate when authors do is they will have a character start explaining something and say "ok, this is what I'm going to do It's a crap transitional element that no one should ever use in any medium EVER. He did it several times earlier in the book too.
In fact, he did it so many times that I was literally yelling at the audiobook narrator by the end over it. That's just lazy, pointless, and annoying storytelling in the guise of trying to be clever. It is an ending to the series, and some people might call it good, though I think a lot more are going to call it bad.
Most of this book is just Paolini jingling his keys at his readers, and really should have been cut or developed to the point that it actually was relevant to the plot. Paolini is steadily improving as an author, and if he ever decides to stop shamelessly stealing from other authors and figures out how to properly use imagery and metaphors, he might make a decent writer of himself someday.
Shame on the editor for not seeing past her fandom to the fact that this book needed massive amounts of work still. Someone needs to sit her down and explain to her what, exactly, her job is, because she certainly isn't doing it. I didn't completely hate it, but I wouldn't say I liked it either. Check out my other reviews. May 31, Lauren Elena rated it it was amazing Shelves: fantasy , favorites , magic , dragons. Before Reading: I can't wait for this book to come out, but a tiny, miniscule part of me doesn't want it to come out because if it is not absolutly flipping fantastic, then I may have to kill myself.
This final book needs to be better than the previous books, which is not an easy feat. Plus all the lose ends need to be tied up. I for one, am interested to see how Christopher Paolini pulls it all together. Two things I am hoping for in Inheritance: 1. We will see some action from Galbatorix. And Before Reading: I can't wait for this book to come out, but a tiny, miniscule part of me doesn't want it to come out because if it is not absolutly flipping fantastic, then I may have to kill myself.
And I'm not talking about his army. I want him to actually talk or do something. Everyone talks about his great evil, but I want to see him preform some. It seems that when he couldn't accomplish magic, he would eventually be able to do it.
I think that Roran is too ready to give up anything for Katerina. To me he seems dangerous, and not just in the big hammer way, either. Something will happen in Eragon's love life. Maybe it will have to do with Arya, although she seems more like the wise best friend type than girlfriend. Two things that I expect to happen: 1. The Rider is Roran 1. There will be an epic battle between Eragon and Saphira, and Galbatorix and his dragon, whose winner will be decided by a small factor that seemed irrelevant but really was important What I wonder How old is Nasuada ruler of the Varden anyway?
When she was introduced, begging Saphira for Eragon's whereabouts, Paolini described her as a young woman. Who knows? The reason I wonder this is because in Brisinger, she meantions that she is feeling alone and wants a relashonship. Know of any other young bachelors looking for love? But of course we do not know her exact age, so I can't really single any man out for her. November is so far away. I have to content myself with reading excerpts from Inheritance online. Wow, writing that down made me realize how much of a dork I am.
This could change everything! Paolini wouldn't make the new Rider die, would he? Which means that the new Dragon Rider probably isn't Roran. This discovory is going to keep me up for days of diliberation. Could Nasuada be the Rider? But she is the leader of the Varden, and they don't want one of the Undying to lead, which would mean she would have to give up her position. But I'm getting ahead of myself, funny, that seems to happen alot because what if the Rider is on Galbatorix's side?
I really hope Eragon is able to steal the egg back. Maybe that was what they were trying to do when Roran got crushed killed? It says he will have an epic romance with a woman of noble blood, and who is beautiful and powerful beyond measure. This is almost undoubtably Arya.
Dang it. That takes a lot of fun out of my fantisising. What I don't get is the part where Eragon will never set foot in the Empire again. Doesn't it count as going into the Empire by rescuing Katrina from the Ra'zac? I just realized something; I need to get a life. But where's the fun in that? Maybe it will be Arya? This hadn't occured to me.
Some crazy obssesed book nerd I turned out to be. When Eragon and Saphira are walking to Nasuda's tent in Brisinger, they come across Angela, who asks them to bless two travelers, an older woman and a young girl just becoming an adult.
When Eragon asks for their names, the older woman says she prefers for him not to know. Eragon accepts this and blesses them. He notices that the woman has a well-armored mind. He asks Angela about them, and she says they are pilgrims on their own quest. I wonder if they will be metioned. That mention of them seemed very ominous I feel tingly with excitment!!!! Is that normal? With all these freaking updates I won't even have room for the actual review.
I may have to delete some of this pointless gibberish. My predictions have a nasty habit of not coming true, so I wouldn't put to much faith in them.
But one thing I know is that Inheritance will be a good book. Whether it is good enough to end a series as amazing as the Inheritance Series has yet to be seen.
After Reading: Wow. I very much doubt I could write a review that would do Inheritance justice. That's impressive. A lot of my predictions were true suprisingly, cosidering I was half delirious with giddiness when I wrote them but a few were a bit off the mark. I won't give anything away. I'm not a spoiler!
You'll have to read it yourself or ask a spoiler to tell you- shameful way to get out of reading a book to get the specific details, but I'll go over the basics. The Varden are attacking the Empire. Eragon and Saphira are still their only hope. Roran makes the impossible possible and captures a seemingly impenetrable city, earning him captain status. Glaedr starts training Eragon again. Something happens to Nasuada.
Eragon becomes leader of the Varden. Eragon realizes that only he and Saphira remember the Rock of Kuthian, because some mysterious force is making everyone in Alegesia forget it.
Even Solembum, the werecat who gave Eragon the advice to go to the Rock of Kuthian when all hope is lost, does not remember. Murtagh has a change of heart. Eragon and Saphira discover something about themselves. They find a way to possibly defeat Galbatorix.
The Varden attack Uru'ben. Galbatorix has the ultimate power. Murtagh helps them. That's all I can give up. Sorry if the after review wasn't as amusing as my pre-review, but I'm currently in just-finished-reading-an-amazing-book shock. Christopher Paolini did say that he will write more books in the world of Alegaesia in the future. I just lived through these torturous past months waiting for Inheritance to come out and now you're telling me that I have to wait some more?
He even goes so far as to say it could be 5 years before he writes it! That's it. I'm not reading his books anymore. Until I learn the title of his next one. Then I will become re-obsessed. How fickle I am. Read Inheritance. It will knock your socks off! View all 37 comments. Nov 10, Mara rated it did not like it Shelves: fantasy. I am desperately trying to think of one concise word which sums up the sheer misery of the last five and a half days, in which I had to slog my painful way through this page monstrosity.
The horrors of Inheritance are so vast and so many that I am unable to; instead, I find my mind reliving the pain, the awefulness, and the absolute boredom of this book.
So maybe I should give up trying to express my feelings in one word - since it apparently cannot effectively be done - and just relate to y I am desperately trying to think of one concise word which sums up the sheer misery of the last five and a half days, in which I had to slog my painful way through this page monstrosity.
So maybe I should give up trying to express my feelings in one word - since it apparently cannot effectively be done - and just relate to you the attrocities which face any Reader brave enough - or dumb enough, depending on what led to such an unforunate circumstance I was being paid - to pick Inheritance up.
One thing I will say to my fellow critics - especially those being hired to read this book: you should demand hazard payment! Whatever small hopes I might have expressed in my review of Brisingr, they were all crushed. Character development?
Plot twists? Dream on. Deepening of character relationships? If you even wanted that, then you are already way too much into this series and will probably stone me for this review. Character deaths? My mind is drawing a blank.
Paolini promised surprises and unexpectedness of all kinds; the only thing that surprised me was that I managed to finish this fourth - and blessedly last - book in this torturous four-volume collection as quickly as I did. Every single thing that happens is predictable, - no psychics needed - right down to the end. But don't despair - there are some.
Let's start with the worst of it, shall we? Now, I have often commented about the wrongness that prevades these books - in descriptions, word choice, and events. In Eldest, we were presented with a bathing scene where our oh-so-lovable hero shamelessly eyes his now-naked teacher who is male, by the way from head to toe, and the Author finds it necessary to inform us helpless Readers that Oromis has absolutely no hair on any of his person.
I didn't think things could get much worse than that, and it doesn't, but my goodness, does it come close. Muscleman is as wooly as a baboon. Descriptions only get worse.
In the same chapter, Roran is attacked by an assassin, and they fall into a heap at one point, trapped under a now-collapsed tent.
Rather than expressing this in somesuch words as "Roran and the assassin fell atop each other in a tangle of limbs," he instead chooses the phrase and I quote directly : "Roran continued to hold him as the life drained out of him, their embrace as intimate as any lovers.
I can't tell you how much I squirmed in my chair and made faces; I even got a bad taste in my mouth and shrieked out loud in horror. However, among all of the chaos of just plain badly-written battle scenes where Paolini attempts to be like Michael Cadnum and throws in gore, which doesn't succeed; there is a proper way to write gory scenes, and he didn't do it , looonngggg nightly character routines we get to read about Eragon's regular spelling sessions!
Enter, Mr. This part, by far, outweighed even The Chest Hair Chapter when it came to over-the-top unnecessary and ultimately vomit-enducing descriptions though the number of flared nostrils nearly did me in.
Page is entirely devoted to describing, in microscopic detail, the clean and cultivated - yes, cultivated - fingernails of a character whose name you never even find out. And I hate to say it, but those fingernails were the only thing in that entire book which had even a smidgen of personality.
By the end of page , I knew those fingernails so well that I was inclined to give them names, and the description is so in-your-face thorough that whenever the owner of the nails walked through the door, I no longer pictured a man, but a giant fingernail with googly eyes. And if that isn't scary enough, Inheritance abounds with monsters fit for your worst nightmares. Imagine, if you are brave enough, being attacked by. No joke! Eragon is attacked by a giant snail, like the sort you find in your garden, which proves, once and for all, that Eragon really is a vegetable.
If the Author inserted these snails for comic relief, it is a joke which falls flat and wastes time. It is plain stupid and adds to the length of an already-lengthy novel. But apparently Paolini has some fear of insects, because before the giant snails, he introduces us to maggots called - again, I am not joking - burrow grubs with "obscene little mouths. Or even beetles, because there are actual existing beetles which are poisonous. But maggots?! The rest of the book is just disappointing - even for an anti-fan like myself.
Anyone who was anticipating an even halfway decent stand-off between Galbatorix and Eragon will be really disappointed. Also not surprising, Murtagh has a "change of heart" and does something that helps Eragon kill Galbatorix. I thought I would never say this, but for once I would have rather had a cliche hero-kills-villain death, as opposed to how Galbatorix really dies.
I am sorry if I an spoiling the book for anyone, but presumebly if you're reading this, you either don't care or you've already read the book. Rather than a sword through the heart or a fireball to the head, Eragon and his accomanying Power Jellybeans kindly show Galbatorix the error in his ways, from when he stole a candycane from his baby sister at Christmas, to his tempting people to join his side with their favorite cookies.
In the words of the book, Eragon "makes him understand. What do I need to add to this? What's wrong with this picture, people?! The villain - the evilest person in the book - is killed with sad memories!!!!! That brings up another point that plagued me throughout the book, and that is Galbatorix's supposed badness. When a country is controlled by a tyrant, there are signs of it: soldiers in cities, secret police, crushing taxes, executions, people dragged from their homes at night, furtive glances over one's shoulder, starving peasants, closed borders - just to name a few.
If I walked through Alagaesia and a random citizen came up to me and said, "Hey, our king is a tyrant! Every once in a while, the Author kind of mentions a few high taxes, just in passing, but there has never been any real indication of a controlling king. Heck, Eragon and Brom traveled the entire country in the first book with no Imperial soldiers stopping or attacking them!
No bands of knights or whatever pillaging. And I failed to see his massive evilness in Inheritance when he had occasion to talk with other characters. He, in fact, seems no more evil than the average evil person. He sits in his tower all day, twiddling his thumbs, admiring his riches, eating cookies, making the occasional threat, and watching instructional videos on his plasma-screen TV. Explain to me how that makes him the Big Cheese out of the evil people in the kingdom. All in all, Inheritance was as I anticipated - aweful, painful, and boring.
If you wanted an effective way of torturing people - well, this would be it! No one could recover from the giant snails, maggots, fingernails, and chest hair - or the fact that the book ends a good seven times.
And I feel for anyone who had to suffer as I did through it. Thumbs up to you critics who bulldozed your way to the th page, and didn't cringe too badly at the ending so obvioulsy stolen from The Lord of the Rings! I take my hat off to you! View all 67 comments. Apr 26, Charlotte May rated it it was amazing Shelves: epic-fantasy , page-plus , favourites , ya. I must admit this has been a tough series for me.
I had to really push myself through them when I started out. But I am so glad I did as this final instalment was incredible! Paolini creates a deeply intricate fantasy world filled with its own politics, magic and villainy.
I loved the deeper focus on all the separate characters rather than just Eragon and to see the way in which the war against tyranny affected so many others. I actually felt melancholy when I reached the end. I loved this world I must admit this has been a tough series for me. I loved this world and everything in it - from the majestic dragons, mysterious elves, aggressive Urgals and tough dwarves. Also Nasuada is my favourite!
There were views from the different tribes that I didn't understand and almost disliked but that just reinforced the idea that it is a broad world, like our own but also nothing like it. I will definitely be re reading them again at some point as some of the information was so dense that I may have missed it the first time round. Overall a beautiful, well constructed fantasy world that I am sad to leave behind. View all 23 comments. Nov 10, Swankivy rated it did not like it.
Read the really long version here. So let's break format and start with what I liked. This was my favorite of the Inheritance series. It was enough less of a chore to read than Brisingr that I very nearly considered rating this two stars out of five. But then I realized I was thinking that way based on hating it less rather than liking it more, and figured that objectively I'm afraid it still deserves a bottom-of-the-barrel rating.
Sorry, fans. First off, Paolini corrected a number of things that he's had trouble with in previous volumes. He introduced horses that actually get tired. He introduced characters who dislike the protagonists and don't automatically get written as evil or get punished for it.
He acknowledged that the elf Arya would be a better fighter than plucky farm boy Eragon owing to over a century of practice. He wrote a couple of conversations that felt like conversations. There was no Super Special explanation for why Cousin Roran was such a badass. Nobody got brought back to life in a cheesy touching resurrection. I felt less like I was being fed lines and more like what the characters experienced was actually born from their situations combined with their mindsets.
There was some decent human emotion describing Eragon's self-doubt, inner conflicts, sorrow, and crushing fear under his great responsibility.
Roran's protectiveness and savagery as a man of war worked for me too when it wasn't weird or over the top. Paolini regularly tried way too hard and forced the emotions until they turned into cloying thesaurus poop, but sometimes he did okay. There were also certain bits that I realized I felt the way I did because of my personal experiences; in other words, at times I brought my own emotions to the table instead of actually being affected by the words, much like a fanboy loves a dragon no matter how poorly it's written.
I'm a sucker for that, because I'm a huge nostalgic hippie. Eragon's philosophizing moments and contradictory feelings were sometimes organic and they worked. It mostly just made me sad that this happened so rarely in the book. This kinda made it seem like he has the capability to. The thing he really needs to learn is how and when to back off. Emotional evocation is easy. Humans do it eagerly when they read. Just get out of the way, Paolini.
Get out of the way of yourself. But let's get on to why you guys actually want to read my essays. All the stuff I hate! The biggest problem is still the obnoxious decoration. Sentences aren't Christmas trees. Stop decorating them. Even at this late stage, Paolini hasn't improved his tone-deaf prose or his tendency to decorate awkward sentences instead of pruning them.
We still constantly encounter overdescription--and not just of weapons and clothes and faces and courtyards, but unneeded comparisons of perfectly good images to other things in a ham-fisted attempt to enhance them. We can picture post-battle smoke as viewed from the sky just fine without being told that it "hung over Belatona like a blanket of hurt, anger, and sorrow," and it would actually be more poignant if he would stop forcing these associations onto every image.
Let us feel it ourselves. Stop telling us what every cloud of smoke "means. A little of this is okay. Having no natural understanding of voice and tone and no knack for writing character cannot be amended or hidden through excessive adjective insertion. Whenever I read a Paolini book, I feel like I was promised a comfortable shirt and was given an ill-fitting, scratchy garment whose tailor elected to "fix" its flaws with a frigging Bedazzler.
It consistently interrupts the action, resulting in situations like having a man running toward Eragon urgently, only to pause for two paragraphs while the man, his family, their history, and philosophy surrounding these folks is imparted to us in indulgent narration.
There's also an annoying pattern Paolini had in just under half the chapters: Some sort of action opens the chapter, and then we get at least a paragraph of description of the surroundings.
If that didn't happen, more often than not we got a flashback that led up to whatever the current situation was. It got very repetitive. And speaking of repetitive, Paolini has been doing this thing where he latches onto a certain phrase and keeps using it. Add that to all the metaphors of leaves getting swept away in a storm of some sort, and this book just starts getting silly to read.
Other overused words include "crimson" nearly 50 times and "growled" regularly overused as a speech tag. At one point Eragon says "How is it you keep besting me? He's growling. And far from pleased. Because Arya is beating him at sword-fighting. And just in case you were wondering, we get a paragraph of detail on Eragon's thumbs. Is your life complete now?
Narrating the sacred Paolini spends far too long on an irrelevant scene in which Saphira flies them through a storm for no real good reason, and we're treated to several "poetic" pages full of descriptions of the beautiful post-storm night sky. The serenity and power of his observations is yanked away immediately as Paolini begins to narrate to us what exactly this is supposed to "mean" to Eragon.
He babbles on for a while and then hands down a trite little revelation about how people probably wouldn't fight each other anymore if they could see what he's seen. It cheapens it so much. You know what would have driven home the majesty and beauty he was going for? Some freakin' silence. Don't narrate the sacred, okay? Just invoking an image and then leaving us to marinate in that would have actually been good storytelling--a good character-building lesson in perspective for Eragon.
Instead, we get a litany of hollow platitudes yammered into our ears, rambling about how small he'd once thought the world was and how big it seemed now, and specific ways in which he "was once an ant is now an eagle" or some crap, and on and on about how he's reorienting his life because of this perspective shift.
Bad Dialogue: "And to what do we owe the unexpected pleasure of this visit, Your Highness? Werecats have always been noted for their secrecy and their solitude, and for remaining apart from the conflicts of the age, especially since the fall of the Riders. One might even say that your kind has become more myth than fact over the past century. Why, then, do you now choose to reveal yourselves? There's this thing called "As you know, Bob.
It is so written that it's insulting. Silly dialogue is also frequently praised by other characters, proving once again that even Paolini's characters love Paolini. Here are a few lines of dialogue I thought were ridiculous: "These are customs older than time itself. There is a line of Gollum dialogue. Dune : I still think Elva is inspired by Alia. But the jig was up on Paolini cribbing from Herbert when he named a dragon "Bid'Daum. Monty Python : Seriously, the insults still sound like the French Taunter.
Predictable nonsense: The red herrings were painful. It's glossed over, then denied outright, and then finally it of course turns out to be exactly what it seemed. It was also obvious, as soon as we found out that oaths can be broken if a true name changes, that Murtagh was going to escape Galbatorix's control by doing so.
Even better: he did so through the power of looooove, like a Sailor Moon episode. Brace yourselves. During a cheeky "history" ramble at the beginning, Paolini retells the events of his previous three books and promptly makes several misleading explanations which suggest he hasn't read his own books.
Katrina's pregnant at the start of the book and was already showing in the previous book. The baby isn't born until well after a huge denouement, before which occurred the planning, attack, and defeat of the dark lord, followed by rebuilding and a few uprisings.
Apparently all this happened in seven months. A newborn baby "smiles" at Eragon. Sorry, dude. Babies that young can't smile. That was gas. Healing a baby's face takes longer than view spoiler [killing Galbatorix hide spoiler ]. Post-baby-face-healing, the elves praise Eragon and say that his amazing feat in doing so was far beyond anything any of their spellcasters could have achieved.
Eragon starts eating meat again, displaying no recognition that he decided earlier that eating meat was excusable only if other food sources were unavailable or if he thought it'd be too rude to refuse.
Paolini has stated in interviews as well as in his ancient language rules that the suffix "ya" makes stuff plural. He proceeds to break that rule about times in this book. Elva gets shamed and manipulated by Eragon in a horribly offensive way.
She refuses to come on a mission. Someone dies. Eragon blames her, threatens her, makes her cry, forces her to apologize, and shames her into helping him next time.
When confronting Galbatorix, he points out how weak it is to bring a child in, and he claims she came of her own free will. He then proceeds to relent and let Eragon have a fair fight albeit with Murtagh.
This "distraction" leads to a revelation that allows Eragon to mess with Galbatorix's head and he ends up destroying himself. They leave out the werecats, even though werecats showed up as one of the forces to be reckoned with as a race in this book.
Eragon can control reality at the end of the book because he knows the name of the ancient language. He then proceeds to act as though he is powerless to change some things about his life and others' lives that really suck: Some aspects of Elva's situation he can't leave her with power but still take her pain? Oh please. A special spear that was thought lost to the ages is recovered in the first chapter when someone tries to kill Saphira with it. It's a lance designed specifically to kill dragons.
And then, despite having struck home on both Saphira and Thorn, it doesn't actually kill any dragons until view spoiler [they try to use it on Galbatorix's dragon. Then it works fine! It depended on such dumb chance events that I couldn't swallow it. Especially when an enemy soldier who's suspicious of Roran is totally willing to just take a sip of his alcoholic beverage. Sounds totally like what military dudes would do before retreating! Sometimes, using the ancient language makes something become true like saying "fire" and suddenly there is fire.
Other times, it's suggested you can't possibly say something in the ancient language unless it already is true, so it's a litmus test for lies. That doesn't make sense. A cartoon villain scene occurs when Eragon and Arya are left chained up while a monster hatches from an egg. Once it hatches, it will eat them. Oh no! But of course, the culprits from a gore-obsessed religion don't stay to watch them get eaten alive. They stick around long enough to laugh at their plight, then leave the room.
Which of course leads to them being able to escape in time. Why is the video game boss so surprised when they emerge alive? It knows it signed up to be a Bond villain. When Eragon is directionless and doesn't know how to lead the Varden to victory, a prophecy is invoked, which leads him directly to a giant deus ex machina.
He goes on the prophesied quest, finds exactly what he needs, and also finds out that view spoiler [deceased dragons have been watching over him since before he became a Rider. It was they who manipulated reality and his life to make everything improbable happen all along. Yes, Dragon Guardian Angels. Explains everything! Plus they find secret dragon eggs and therefore the dragons won't go extinct after all! When people keep asking him why he has to go and "never return," he invokes a prophecy Angela made.
Angela also prophesied that he would have an epic romance. That said, even though he and Arya do not have sex or even kiss , they exchange true names, which is much more intimate and suggests handing over ultimate control of each other.
It's suggested strongly that they decide not to get together because of conflicting circumstances, not because of lack of feeling. Eragon clearly won the girl over by the end, even if it didn't pan out for him. His dragon got laid, though! Saphira lost her virginity to Arya's dragon!
After Galbatorix's demise, Nasuada becomes the Queen of the Empire. Arya becomes Queen of the Elves after the death of her mother to Galbatorix's general Lord Barst during the battle. She also resumes her role as the courier for the newly rescued green dragon egg, which soon hatches for her. With the threat of Galbatorix removed, Eragon and Saphira are able to remember the location of the hidden eggs, and they work together to find a suitable place to house the now numerous Eldunari from both Galbatorix's collection and the Vault of Souls and to accommodate a new order of Riders.
During this process, Eragon also solves the problem of binding all the races together, by reworking the magic of the land to include both the dwarves and the Urgals in the bond between riders and dragons, meaning that dragons can now hatch for an Urgal or a dwarf.
She declines because of her duty as the elves' new queen. The book ends with the envisioned scene mentioned in the previous books of two people getting on a boat Eragon and Arya and sailing away while two dragons are flying overhead and a man on the beach Roran yells at his loss. Arya then flies off with her dragon. With that in mind, he looks forward to his new life, "a life with dragons and Riders". Brisingr contains a dedication from Christopher Paolini to his family, friends, publishers, editors and fans.
Inheritance has received mixed to negative reviews, criticised due to unresolved plot threads, derivative characteristics of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, and heavy use of deus ex machina.
Richard Marcus of the Seattle PI said that "Paolini clutters up the book with page upon page of battles that could just as easily taken place off stage" and that "the last hundred or so pages of the book are spent in a very awkward attempt to tie up all the loose ends".
He also says that the main resolution is that "In fact by wasting so much time on insignificant details along the way, the final confrontation with Galbatorix when it comes feels rushed. Even worse, discovering the location of the Rock of Kuthian and the Vault of Souls feels incredibly contrived.
The Deluxe Edition of Inheritance features at the end a deleted scene from the main text of the book. The scene features a letter from Jeod detailing life after the conclusion of the Rider War. It also features a letter from Paolini on the series and artwork from Paolini and John Jude Palencar. Inheriwiki Explore. Discord Forum Fanon. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Inheritance book. Edit source History Talk Search review text. Miranda Reads.
Check out this book in my very first video review! Anyway, onwards to the review! 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 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 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 year-old me and 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 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 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. 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 year-old author-genius had plagiarized J.
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 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 Addendum 3: I can't even.
I just can't. 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. 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. 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. 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. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers. Show full review. Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies. I don't care what anyone says, I freaking loved this book. 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. 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 year-old?
Oh, nevermind 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. 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.
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