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: Paolini is getting better
Summary: 5 Stars
Like his book's hero, Paolini is getting better as time passes and his experience grows. The author cannot resist showing his improved skills by enhancing the role of characters, other than Erragon, through interesting episodes in the story. All Erragon's "family members" (Roran, the dwarf King Orinn, Murtagh)are given a vibrant roles in the story. As it turns out, I won't be surprised if Nasuada(or even Angela for that matter) is his sister by some strange coincidence.
This plethora of heroes, of course, has the result of a more "worldly" world, where Dragons and Dragon riders do not dominate the reader's imagination. Nevertheless, Paolini gives the author a great read and a more in depth look into Algaesia and its people.
The disturbing twist in the third part of the trilogy is the "disorientating" change of the "rules". I was under the impression that a dragon would peril as soon as its rider was killed. This notion is differentiated and consequently altered in this third book. This "change", alters the rules of the world as described by the author and causes the absorbed and meticulous reader to get disturbed. While (as a reader) you are trying to submerge yourself in the fantasy world of a book, changes like this, result in oozing you out of that world and become an observer instead of a participant. Another change, albeit not a bad one, is that the trilogy is now a series. So, instead of seeing the end of the story, the book ends just when the war begins. Although stories should have an end and not drag for too long, this particular change will result in reading an older, more mature and wiser Paolini, one that would (perhaps) be able to help Erragon find an appropriate solution and a fortunate closure for all Erragon's unavoidable pledges and rash or even reckless promises.
Overall, I liked this book a lot and (although I could never think of myself reading "children"/fantasy books) I believe I will be waiting for the forth book of the series.
Book Review: Get Paolini a Better Editor
Summary: 2 Stars
I read the author's notes at the back of the book before I started and that's where I learned that this book would have been much longer had not an editor worked with Paolini to trim it down.
Time to fire that editor and hire one who will actually do the job.
Paolini's writing and the attendant lack of a competent editor remind me of what happened with Tom Clancy's books: A halfway decent story gets buried in all sorts of bad writing. If it's not the minutiae of how a sword is made (reminded me of one of Clancy's little side-trips in how to make a submarine quiet), it's the endless repetition of information that has already been introduced and death-by-hackneyed-phrases. Really, a simple search and delete of the overused phrase "waking dream" and oft-repeated references to the trial of long blades will likely reduce this book by about 50 pages. Then cut out the gratuitous meandering into useless subplots (such as the cult execution scene at the beginning, dwarf politics, Roran's integration into the Varden warriers, three paragraphs of description every time Saphira needs to poke her head into something small) and Paolini could have hit the salient plot points *and* finished this epic all within 350 pages.
It's a ponderously long and winded tale that doesn't add significantly to what was already known, and then snatches away the payoff by needing another 700-page tome to finish the tale. None of this would be as bothersome if the writing were actually good.
When I first read Eragon and criticized it for these same failings, my friends said, "He's a young author and this is a great achievement for someone in his teens." OK, I'll buy that. But it's been six years since Eragon was published. One would think the boy wonder had actually learned better writing and story telling skills in the intervening years. If nothing else, some one at Knopf should have assigned a competent editor to rein in the ceaseless blather.
Book Review: Our hero gets a sword
Summary: 4 Stars
I've followed Eragon and his companions through three books now. At the end of_Eldest_, I was rather disappointed. I thought the whole idea of Eragon being related to one of the bad guys old and tired, some of the dialogue wooden and our hero's pining away for Arya distracting. That said, I absolutely loved Oromis and thought him a suitable replacement for the sadly departed Brom. And, being a history geek, I devoured all the historical stuff. So, all in all I thought it was average but not as good as the first book, which had an urgency to it. As a reader I felt like I didn't have time to breathe. _Eldest_was a let down by comparison. Now, it's a few years later and I've mellowed somewhat, and I picked up_Brisinger_with an open mind. And you know what, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I understand what Paolini is trying to do and give him mad props for his ability to create a language with rules. I also understand that, with all the detours into dwarf politics, moral quandries, ect., that Paolini is writing about things that interest him. Do moral and ethical quandries have a place in fantasy? Absolutely. Sure, it may seen heavy handed, uneven and long-winded, but really, Eragon is not Conan the Barbarian. He's not Aragorn and he certainly IS NOT Ender Wiggin. He shares much in common with the likes of R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt. And yes, he whines a bit much. But I'm willing to overlook such things because, when you get right down to it, Paolini has crafted a pretty compelling story. Brisinger is better than its predecessor. Any way you cut it, this book advances the story and, though you have to wait until the last part, has some pretty good revelations and interesting developements. And yes, a character dies at the end. I personally think another character should have died as well (a certain pointy eared elf princess), but it's not my story. It's Chrisopher Paolini's. And I, for one, am quite interested in seeing how it ends.Book Review: Another very poor book.
Summary: 2 Stars
The first book was ok. Even that it had similarities with Star Wars, even that it had actions that made you think .... WHY?? it was short and ok to read.
The second book was LONG and booooring. I mean, it was SOOOOOOOoo boring.
Ok the 3rd book is out. The price is even higher that the other books. Yea yea it's a best seller.
So what do we get? An even longer book. A book that attacks your intelect. Stupid dialogs. The only interesting part of the book are the last 50 pages.
Eragon it's still an %%#hole. Yea his a teenager. That's how teenagers behave. But come on. YOU (eragon) are an KNIGHT. You have power. People put your hopes in you and you are still an arogant prick. People tell you don't behave as you should but YOU STILL don't listen.
If you are maximum 15 years old, or this is the only book you'v read, this is an awasome book. If not, you will just get anoyed. VERY anoyed.
I'm not going to give up exact examples because of spoilers, but you will see dialogs like this:
- Hey. Let me heal your wounds!
- No. There are others who may need help.
- But man! Look at your wounds. It will only take a ...
- I SAID NO! Leave me alone!
- But look at you!
- Ok but do it fast.
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Belive me. You will read something like this in the book.
It seems everyone is a prick in this book. They all defy superior's orders.
Not to mention this is the type of the book you know GOOD will win. It's just a mather of time.
I don't feel like there is WAR. Galbatorix can attack in any moment. They can attack and YOU KNOW you are not prepared. Nooo. They have time to love. They have time to obey orders. They have time to QUESTION the orders. I bet they know they will win anyway.
P.S. For the people who praise the last 50 pages. Yea. They weare nice. But 50 pages are not 760 pages.
Book Review: A Guilty Pleasure at Best
Summary: 2 Stars
After hating this trilogy with vehement passion for the past few years, I've come to concede that OK, it is kind of fun, even if every sentence sort of insults your brain. At best I'd put it in the same category as Twilight, new Britney Spears songs, and porn. After a period of reflection you want to close it and then smack yourself, but can't help but wallow in its guilty pleasures.
His writing has improved (after the first two, I suppose it had nowhere else to go but up), though his misunderstanding of the purpose and methods of writing are still frustrating. He needs to stop engaging in
1. Obnoxious, narcissistic protagonists. It'd be different if Eragon was more like a Byronic hero, but as it is, sometimes I like to visualize a crossover universe where I get to meet Eragon and then soundly punch him in the face.
3. Lame plots in general
4. Lame romantic plots, specifically. The best you can do is at least make Arya's attraction to Eragon plausible. But it's even less convincing than Katherine Heigl-Seth Rogen in Knocked Up.
5. Characters with nonexistent personalities, only except to argue with (and ultimately grovel to) Eragon
6. No character development.
7. Thesaurus Rape (its a little better this time, though I will never forgive Paolini for "I'm Sorry," apologized Brom")
8. Torture porn (though I suppose with the endless melanges of head-cutting and limb-slashing, it wouldn't attract half the readers.
My take: Keep writing. Stop publishing. Take your head out of your rear (you can't just ignore reviews forever, Paolini. A little humility is important for all writers, even ones with publishers for parents. The time will come when you no longer have youth as an excuse. But then again, this kind of writing isn't usually tolerated in my high school English class, so I'm not sure where these standards are coming from.)