Brisingr (Inheritance, Book 3) (The Inheritance Cycle)
by Christopher Paolini
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Book Reviews of Brisingr (Inheritance, Book 3) (The Inheritance Cycle)
Book Review: A children's book trying too hard to be a child/adult hybrid book
Summary: 1 Stars
This is a difficult review to write - I basically agree with ALL of the criticism Paolini has received regarding his saga, and yet I'm compelled to continue reading it. I feel like a two-headed monster when reading the Eragon cycle - I'm simultaneously frustrated beyond belief at the writing "style," yet I continue reading in the hopes that the plot will redeem the writing. With Eragon, I think it did. Eldest, eh. Brisingr, it was just beyond all repair.
Part of me tries to pull back and say, "well, it's considered a young adult novel, it's supposed to be for kids, so I really shouldn't be expecting Shakespeare." That's basically the thought process that got me through the Twilight series, which, despite the not-so-wonderful writing, I enjoyed. However, I think the biggest difference is that when reading Twilight, you KNOW that you are reading a book meant for a 12 year old girl. Therein lies the difference between THAT sort of mediocre writing and Paolini's work: Paolini thinks he's the second coming of Tolkien. Between his own egomaniacal comments in interviews, his attempts at creating complex languages and political stirrings, and his pandering social commentaries, Paolini clearly "thinks" he's writing something more than a teen read. And, I think this is why he garners so much criticism - In the end, he simply wrote nothing more than a children's book.
His attempts to make that children's book "mature," I believe, are his downfall; in the end, he has created a book too long and boring for kids, but simply meaty enough for an adult. The characters are 2-dimensional, contrived, unsympathetic, and just unrelateable, the descriptions and gross overuse of figurative language make your eyes bleed, and the dialogue, Lord Almighty someone save the dialogue.
See example one, his description of the moment Roran fell in love with Katrina:
" `I saw Katrina stop by the side of Loring's house to pick a moss rose growing in the shade of the eaves. She smiled as she looked at the flower... It was such a tender smile, and so happy, I decided right then that I wanted to make her smile like that again and again and that I wanted to look at that smile until the day that I died.' Tears gleamed in Roran's eyes..."
From a best-selling author? Really? I'm going to assume that his inability to come even close to describing love perhaps stems from his own lack of experience with it. For more evidence, see the entire chapter dedicated to Roran and Katrina's goodbye ("Kiss Me Sweet"), which is chock full of clichés that would drive an English teacher mad and any reader to groan.
Another big problem for me is the terribly awkward use of different stages of English in the dialogue. The "mine head," "mine friend," "mine people," etc. reminded me of broken German. The thus, thusly, thine, thy, aye's and even nay's were just plain WEIRD. You'd have a character use one of the pronouns, and then use the modern English equivalent in the same manner 2 lines later. There was no rhyme or reason, and it made the writer look precocious, and the characters stiff and unrealistic.
For another example of the highly romanticized writing, see page 69:
"Eragon was no longer capable of coherent thought, but somewhere in the back of his brain he was aware that he was about to die. It did not frighten him; to the contrary, the prospect comforted him, for he was tired beyond belief, and death would free him from the battered shell of his flesh and allow him to rest for all of eternity. From above and behind his head, there came a bumblebee as big as his thumb. It circled his ear, then hovered by the rock, probing the nodes of citrine, which were the same bright yellow as the fieldstars that bloomed among the hills. [...] The bumblebee was so vibrant, so alive, and so beautiful, its presence renewed Eragon's will to survive. A world that contained a creature as amazing as that bumblebee was a world he wanted to live in."
Really?
I believe that my review, while honest, is colored by my frustration that this is the third, and despite all of our expectations, penultimate book of the series. I never buy hardcovers, but purchased this one excited to see how the series ends. When I was about 100 pages in, I checked the Amazon site to read a review, and saw Paolini's video explaining the need for a 4th book. I was FURIOUS by the time I finished Brisingr. So many utterly pointless plotlines and political feuds, all of which were anticlimactic (spoiler - the guy or girl you "want" to win always inevitably does), so many unnecessarily loquacious descriptions, and just so much NOTHING. If you read the first 60 pages and the last 150, you honestly get everything you need from this book. So sad, but honestly, so true.
So to be completely honest, if you're like me and are irritated by the writing but enjoy the story, you truly DO NOT HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK. The 200 (generous) pages worth of valid plot can (and will) be summarized at the start of the yet to be named 4th book. Or, just find it on a website. Heck, email ME. Just don't punish your eyes and brain like so many of us did by reading this 750 page tragedy.
Will I read the 4th book? Yes. Will I buy it? Unfortunately, no. The reason why is simply this: I feel cheated. Had Paolini delivered a 3rd book that introduced some new meaty plot that warranted turning a trilogy to a cycle, I'd be okay with a fourth book, perhaps would be excited by it. Instead, I just feel cheated and that both Paolini and his publishers wanted to eek out some more money from the franchise. And that, well, just makes me mad.
Book Review: Fire in the Hole!
Summary: 2 Stars
Chris Lingel did a fantastic job reviewing this book and I am certainly not aspiring to trump that. However, I do want to add some critiques of my own. Disclaimer: of all the sins Paolini committed, verbose is one I understand best because, I obviously too. LoL!
The book is a true accomplishment for Paolini, so why do I only rate this book with a 2 star? I rate it thus because while Paolini done an outstanding job as a 19-20 yrs old writing the third of this series (which should have been the last), I don't consider it worthy of a 4-5 stars work in Amazon's collection of books under this genre. Like other reviewers said it similarly: great potential and creative for adolescent's work. Paolini is an overachiever even for home-schoolers and for all the same reasons I want my son to be like him, besides the fact if I was his dad, I would be a quad-series millionaire, early retirement, lavish vacations, not worrying about bringing home the bread, etc etc. Precisely so, it is the wrong reason to have any penmanship rated with permanent praise. At best, it is the kind of work that promising authors write for testing the water and gauging his/her potential. But if 3 books aren't enough to spend on this attempt, I don't what will in the brief time we do live in this world?
Aside from the incessant criticism of Paolini needing a better editor (as there is no need to revert to pseudo-Victorian style) because of his verbosity, the 'navel-gazing' sessions of his pro/antagonists riles my impatience to the nth degree. I mean, how deep can you dig into your navel and ponder the zen of tree growth, space metals, PTSD, and dwarf politic. To psycho-analyze in Paolini's fashion, I have to say I am not sure whether the Victorian-like publishing company (Knopf) got the better of him or is it a reflection of his adolescent/puberty struggles. And I have to sway to the latter because Paolini is essentially fantasizing himself in Eragon's persona.
Along the line, I often find myself rolling my eyes and sighing - "here it goes again" when I couldn't flip the pages fast enough to skip paragraphs and pages of sweet-nothing exchanges between the himself (as the 'little one') and his invention - Saphira. It makes me want to hurl after not pulling out fast enough from reading a few lines of the childish romance between a man and his pet flying lizard. Because its sensuous nature, I think the book should be X-rated due to the pervert love between a man and his creature. And to psycho-analyze in Paolini's fashion, because he is not yet married and fantasizes himself as Eragon, you might as well read Paolini's puberty and romantic struggle in his description of Eragon and Arya - failed or unblossomed teenager crush? Uhmm, disturbing...
Lastly, Paolini prefers cat over dog, no good words about dogs but plenty of mystique surrounding the feline species (hint, hint - super good powerful beings: werecats, Maud, Solembum but where is a were-dog?). As is obvious from the way he describes Saphira, Angela, Arya, Isalanzadi, Nasuada, Brigit, Katrina, and Trianna. These female characters behave catlike - jealous, protective, hen-like, quick to anger, assertive, and well - moody and aloof. Which is what bothers me about how he protrays female in general - fierce, assertive, hen-like, but mysterious, and wiser than their male counterparts in general. Aside from that stereo-type, the female characters are very flat and predictable. Which of course, I learn to psycho-analyze in Paolini fashion - it is indicative of the dysfunctional views of the female races. Is it due to his upbringing; I am not going that far, but if you are a girl and you want to attract Paolini, boss him around and 'assert' yourself. LoL! Because he might make you his Saphira in human form. At least, that is a healthier relationship than one with a four legged creature.
I will read on, just because I have an unhealthy tendency to finish what I started. Whether it is CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling, Tom Clancy, or Dorothy L. Sayers; I will finish what I started, sometimes against my own good. My guess is that Paolini will actually write 5 for the series. Why? (WARNING, I am going to let out a small spoiler here, so if you are not ready, skip the remainder of this paragraph) Because he obviously has to overcome Murtagh before the great G, and the great G hasn't even bothered to appear in person, and in the Victorian fashion Paolini writes, it sure doesn't 'pay' to write terse. So, I gather, 1 book will be used to describe each of the dragons in his world, and there really are 5 dragons, albeit one hasn't hatched. So that is my prediction.
Honestly, I hope I am wrong! But at least I got the book from the library, so I didn't spend a dime for it. Do I still want my son to become like him, dollars and cents wise - hell ya, write me 10 best sellers! I only charge 10% of sales for room and boards! Seriously, but I would give him a kick in the pants whenever he starts to dig into that navel of his, and I would also promptly fire his editor after whipping his you know what! ROFL!
Book Review: Brisingr: Is It Worth Reading
Summary: 1 Stars
Seventeen-year-old farm boy, now Dragon Rider, Eragon and his blue dragon Saphira are back for a third installment of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle - a fantasy series considered epic by many readers. I, however, was not so convinced. The continued stupidity of Eragon is about the only thing epic in this series.
Normally a fast reader, it took me a week and a half to get through the 745-page Brisingr. And even now I puzzle over what made it so darn long! The chapters mainly focus on the political struggles of the Varden and especially the dwarves - as if there wasn't enough of that in Eldest. And while the politics surrounding a war are definitely important, none of it contributes to Brisingr's supposed plot.
Wait - there was a plot?! If there was, I certainly missed it among the laughing soldiers who can't be killed - unless you stab them through the left nostril, their foot, or the armpit -, Eragon's conversing with the surrounding foliage and wildlife (yes, the ants are back), and Roran's constant doubting of his leadership qualities, as well as his dislike for killing. (Ironically, in one battle, he ends up slaying nearly two hundred people, and is seemingly unaffected by it afterwards, whereas he had occurring nightmares after other battles that CP found necessary to relate in detail.)
And if you hoped that there would be character development, you will be sorely mistaken. Eragon has elf abilities now, but he still passes out about every other chapter, and gets exhausted. Never mind he can punch straight through someone's stomach and not feel light-headed in the slightest after getting a compound fracture. He is still as whiny as ever, and his intelligence level hasn't gone up in the slightest.
There are a few moments with Arya where the reader sees a softer side of her, but they are few and far in between, and really do not contribute to her character at all. It just leaves the reader thinking "O-kay, so one moment she was sharing sentiments with Eragon around a campfire, and now she's slashing and hacking and acting as uppity as ever."
I found Roran to be very tiring - particularly when he slew nearly two hundred men on his own while gushing blood all over the place. After that moment, he simply becomes a killing machine with a big warhammer in tow. For a while, CP shows signs that Roran may be able to use magic - which is demonstrated in a few nonsensical scenes where he tries to levitate a rock -, but that is left open for speculation. This may be because CP has plans for it in the fourth book, though.
About the only character(s) who develop are the Urgals! Urgals, people! That is sad! And even they are not as developed as one would hope. You don't get to see much into their culture - hopefully the fourth book will fix that - and they are still very much portrayed as hulking brutes with ram's horns and yellow eyes that go about grunting and roaring. This portrayal makes the character developments hard to take seriously (though none of this beats the part in Eldest where Eragon experiences the Urgal's childhood).
A good portion of this book focuses on the dwarves (wow, just like the last two!), and the majority of that is spent with the clan chiefs bickering back and forth about this and that, and one clan giving Eragon the evil eye because he's a Rider. The only redeeming quality during those many chapters is the Star Sapphire is repaired, and Eragon is attacked by ninja dwarves!
The battles should have offered some variation, but they didn't. One is so abrupt that I literally jumped in my seat. One moment the Varden are being merry and preparing for a wedding, and then BOOM! There's an army of non-pain-feeling laughing soldiers on the horizon! And - surprise, surprise -, the "evil" Murtagh shows up, and he and Eragon have their usual conversation that suspiciously resembles the ones Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker have.
The most disturbing thing I found about that particular battle was afterwards, everyone acted like nothing had happened, and they went back to being happy and merry.
The other two battles consist of Muscleman Roran and his skull-smashing hammer doing hundreds of baddies in. And the Varden siege resembles a role-playing game so much that you automatically wonder, "Did I save the game?" when a character enters a building.
What few plot twists the book has are so obvious that you feel like you've already read that part of the book. In fact, most of the book feels that way. Just think of the most obvious Star Wars-ish plotline twist and you have probably already figured it out.
In order to cover all of the horrible instances in Brisingr, I would have to write an essay. So in conclusion, if you have read the first two books, you have pretty much read Brisingr. And if you have seen Star Wars, you have read the Inheritance Cycle. Just replace some of the character names with Yoda, Obe won Canobe, Luke Skywalker, the Sith Lord, and Darth Vader!
Book Review: Promises, promises!
Summary: 1 Stars
Somebody needs to tell Christopher Paolini that no matter how many elves and dwarves you include, moral debates and politics do not an epic fantasy make.
Unfortunately that's only one of the problems with Paolini's third long-winded, short-plotted fantasy novel about the adventures of the More-Special-Than-Thou hero Eragon. "Brisingr" reads less like a coherent novel than like a string of unevenly-written side plots -- and the last one improves somewhat, it cannot save the third Inheritance Cycle book from being as lifeless as the dead trees it's printed on.
After a gratuitously gory cult scene, Roran and Eragon make the journey to a mountain citadel to rescue Katrina. But after sending his cousin and future in-law off, Eragon finds himself facing a moral dilemma -- he's found Katrina's treacherous father, and isn't sure how to punish him. Be assured that whatever choice he makes is the right one, because he's a Dragon Rider and therefore Utterly Awesome. Meanwhile, the Varden are threatened when a chief of Nasuada's native people challenge her to a bloody duel, and she has no choice but to accept.
Oh yeah, and Murtagh and his newborn dragon arrive with a bunch of nerveless warriors for a surgical strike on the Varden citadel. But even after that, there are many other problems -- a forthcoming wedding, Roran's assignments on dangerous missions, and the upcoming nomination of a new dwarf king. And when Eragon finally returns to Ellesmera, he learns new facts about his own past, and is given a possible key to his future...
Originally the finale of the series, "Brisingr" commits a lot of literary sins, but the worst is the main plot -- it doesn't have one. Instead it has a string of side plots loosely knotted together, with no central storyline to hold them in place. A battle with Murtagh, sentencing Sloan, the Trial of the Long Knives, creepy psycho-kid Elva, the sexy furry elf, the dwarf politicking -- all of these are strung on one after the other, with little to connect them.
Simply put, "Brisingr" is boring. The entire book sags painfully under pretentious moral pondering and endless political bickering, to the point where characters will even stop during a battle to chitchat with Eragon for what seems like hours. Even Paolini seems to be aware that it's pretty bloody dull, because then he'll throw in a brief battle. But despite those battles, the biggest source of tension is everybody worrying that Eragon might get hurt, because they Just Can't Win The War without his awesomeness.
The plot does take a slight upturn when Eragon returns to Ellesmera, and has to deal with a couple climactic plot twists straight out of "Star Wars." But it's not nearly enough to salvage the book. And the worst part of all is that Paolini tries to be funny -- while there are a few cute moments such as Saphira sneezing fire, most of his humor is staggeringly unfunny. Examples: Nasuada's much-lauded and nonexistent wit, and Angela's talk about Monty Python bunnies. I wish I were making that up.
And in his efforts to out-Tolkien Tolkien, Paolini's purple prose has become almost a parody of itself -- he's so intent on details that Eragon stops during a heated battle to note the color of a Lethrblaka's blood and compare it to copper verdigris. His choppy, awkward dialogue doesn't sound like anything a person would actually say or think, especially not a teenage boy ("Even we, who were boys but a short while ago, cannot escape the inexorable progress of time. So the generations pass...").
And while Alagaesia apparently revolves around Eragon, Paolini does his self-insert no favors. There are feeble attempts at character development by making Eragon whine and angst about killing people, but it doesn't stop him from coldly killing anybody he fights, including a young man begging for mercy. And the open worship of him becomes downright nauseating: children frolic before Eragon, leaders don't dare to punish him, and injured soldiers announce "We fought for you, Shadeslayer!"
The other characters basically are there to infodump Eragon every few pages, on everything from sharpening swords to dragons' internal organs. The only halfway interesting characters are the angry Murtagh and his dragon, and Oromis for what few scenes he has. Everyone else is either a 2-D bad guy who hates Eragon, or a 2-D good guy who just loves him.
"Brisingr" may be the "ancient language's" word for fire, but Christopher Paolini's third novel doesn't really have any. Awkward, plodding and lacking a real plot, this flame was out before it even started.
Book Review: Excellently done, but going the wrong places
Summary: 4 Stars
Brisingr is a worthy successor to Eragon and Eldest. It improves in many aspects over the first two, and falls short in others, but overall, is a very good book. However, given the choice, I preferred Eldest.
I have a LOT to say about Brisingr, so I'll break it down into pros and cons here:
Pros:
*Increasing good prose and dialogue.
*Roran's chapters were very strong.
*Some brief insight into the mind of Murtagh, which was extremely well thought out and developed, solidifying Murtagh's position as the best character in the saga.
*Fast-paced, despite some rather prolonged scenes with little happening. I couldn't put the book down without reading at least 150 pages every time I opened it.
*Arya finally shows some real personality, talking a little about her past and her relationship with Faolin.(Eragon's reaction to this, however, is rather disturbing.)
*There was a nice twist on the traditional mentor death towards the end.
*We finally get some insight into Galbatorix's mindset, hearing a well thought-out speech from him at the end.
*Increasing originality.
*Some very neat characters here and there, such as Rhunon, Elva, and numerous new dwarves.
*Despite the seemingly black-and-white nature of the conflict between the Varden and Empire, shades of gray appear when the characters question their cause. I'm fully convinced at this point that the bad guys are actually in the right.
Cons:
*Too much of the book is focused on Eragon. About 80% of the pages are from his point of view, a disturbing unbalanced situation considering that he is only one of five characters who have their own POV in this book.
*The more I read, the more I come to hate Eragon. He's becoming almost sociopathic, slaughtering anyone in his way, even those only doing their jobs or forced to serve the Empire. He becomes so cold and uncaring you really have to wonder if he should be the villain, not the hero. He tries very hard to justify his actions, spouting nonsense about how the ends will justify the means and that he'd only be evil if he enjoyed killing, philosophy that is repeated through the book. Most of the problems I have with the series stem from Eragon or the overemphasis on him. What makes it worse is that the rebel faction(who I'm beginning to think of as the bad guys) praises him as a hero, inflating his already bloated ego.
*Murtagh is wasted. Despite how powerful and dangerous he is to the Varden, he doesn't wreak nearly as much havoc as he could or should. He is only briefly seen in Brisingr, and is treated more like an environmental hazard that the characters have to avoid rather than a real villain. It's a pity, because Murtagh is easily the best character and the insights into his personality we do see are very complex and three-dimensional.
*The plot is a little weaker in structure than Eldest, with some rather prolonged sessions of dwarf politics and dialogue. At times, the plot feels more like a collection of errands that Eragon has to run rather than a chain of events that leads up to the conclusion.
*The female characters are getting bitchier with every book, particularly Nasuada. She becomes so power-crazed and tyrannical in this book that you wonder at times if she is really any better than Galbatorix, who seems a much more reasonable and sane ruler than she is, I'll tell you that. Saphira is almost as bad, becoming extremely conceited and vain. I can see why she and Eragon bonded with each other . . .
*The morals are messed up, as previously mentioned. Too much time is spent with the rebels spouting self-justified diatribe on why they are in the right, and why its okay for them to be burning, raping, and pillaging on the path to opposing Galbatorix. Beloved characters are slowly digressing into cruel, unfeeling monsters.
Conclusion: Brisingr is a great book, but the series is beginning to get weighed down by some obvious problems stemming from the author's choices. Paolini has talent, but he's misusing those talents by focusing on Eragon as the hero and forgetting Murtagh. By pure storytelling, this is a 5-star book, but Paolini is taking the story in the wrong directions and, I think, making a lot of bad decisions when it comes to what he will do. He's doing what he's doing well, but he isn't so good at deciding what should be done.