Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2)
by Christopher Paolini
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Book Reviews of Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2)
Book Review: I liked it!
Summary: 4 Stars
I haven't read a lot of fantasy besides Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter (I'm an over-the-top Harry Potter fan) but I really liked this book and I have to say that I'm really surprised that so many people are giving this book bad reviews. I picked up 'Eragon' a couple of months after 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' was released because I was looking for something to read and I liked the cover and the synopsis. I wasn't disappointed at all. In fact I enjoyed 'Eragon' so much that I recommended it to a bunch of my friends and they all liked it too. We're all over the age of 25, by the way.
We didn't quite look forward to the release of 'Eldest' as much as we did to 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince', but we were definitely excited for it. I wasn't disappointed in 'Eldest' at all either. In fact the review I gave it elsewhere (before I saw how trashed it was getting on here) said:
It was AWESOME. It was everything I expected and more. Christopher Paolini's writing has just really improved since Eragon plus I think he broke away from the standards of fantasy writing which he was criticized for with Eragon. The elements are still there, but in Eldest he put his own personal take on them moreso than he did with Eragon. I don't see how he can be criticized for poaching the works of others with this one.
The only criticism I can make about the Inheritance Trilogy is that perhaps he laid out a little too much of his plot direction in 'Eragon'. The reading/prediction that Angela makes to Eragon via the dragon bones in 'Eragon' spelled out much of what was to come and at the end of 'Eragon' I wasn't particularly left panting for more. He didn't do that in 'Eldest'. I literally have very few predictions for what the third and final volume will bring, while I guessed at a lot (and was proven correct) of what would happen in 'Eldest'. I have a few guesses at what might happen in the next volume but I have to re-read 'Eragon' to solidify my thoughts. Any clues to the next book lie in 'Eragon'. He played his hand a lot closer to the vest in 'Eldest'.
Now, I'm not the harshest critic in the world but there have been books that I've hated so much for being over-hyped and for their poor writing (Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson, anyone?) that I've thrown them at the wall when I've finished them. I put 'Eldest' down with a feeling of contentment after having had 8 great hours of reading enjoyment for my $15. That's all I can ask of any book I read. I only gave it four stars because of the aforementioned criticism with the revealing of too much plot in 'Eragon' and because I found some of the poetry and lays to be on the awkward side and the sentences in the Ancient and Dwarf languages to be sort of boring. Those last two are the same criticisms I made of LotR too though. I'm just not interested in stuff like that. Overall though I really think this book is worth the money.
I just went to the 'Eldest' book signing in Milwaukee yesterday and had a great time. Christopher Paolini is very friendly and outgoing and even though he had to sign well over a thousand copies of 'Eragon' and 'Eldest' he was completely gracious and had a good word for everybody. For those of you fans out there, I'll tell you what he said about the next book. He told us that he had completed a very important chunk of the third book right before he went on tour--he had written the first sentence. lol He will be getting to work on book three as soon as he gets home from tour. The cover of book three will feature a green dragon, which means that the last egg in Galbatorix's possession is a green male. He said that he hasn't settled on a name for book three yet because, in his words, he and his editor are "currently involved in a polite argument over the title of the third book." He was also asked if there were ever any female riders and he said yes and that they were smarter and quicker and more clever than their male counterparts. But it didn't sound as though he was saying the next rider would be female. He won't have any part in the movie version of 'Eragon' (he was supposed to play a warrior who gets beheaded) because they are filming it right now in Budapest (I think he said that's where they were filming it) and he can't go because he's on tour. The movie will be out in 2006. All in all it was a great experience for a great book.
Book Review: Recycle the book...save the poor trees.
Summary: 1 Stars
This book was good for only one thing, triggering my anger and in turn helping me to write a great scene in my own story.
I'm one of those people who doesn't like to stop reading a book or a series for that matter, after I've started it. I just feel incomplete if I do and so I pain through the whole book even if all I want to do is bash my head against the wall as I read. The only thing I wanted to do during this book was bash my head against the wall. It even gave me a migraine at one point. I kept re-reading these few pages over and over again to figure out what the hell was going on, and I just kept drawing a big blank...what was Arya talking about? Everything she was telling Eragon was contradictory! And then Eragon. He just walks around with this aura of stupidity. I can't think of one intelligent thing he did or said during the entire book. How is this kid supposed to save everyone? He doesn't do ANYTHING by himself. If he does, he almost dies.
There were so many things that bothered me about this book I don't know where to start. I guess that first thing is the descriptions, the never ending descriptions! All I wanted to do during them was take the book and throw it at Paolini. I felt like I was reading Lord of the Rings all over again. If he's gotten one thing right it's trying to be like Tolkien. I had the same problem when I read LOTR, but at least Tolkien was good at being long-winded. Paolini's descriptions of the mountains, the rivers, the trees, the gazelles, the grass, the stones, the dirt...EVERYTHING! I just couldn't follow! He rambled so much about nothing, I didn't know what anything looked like anymore.
Then there was the dialogue. One word kept repeating in my mind during almost all the conversations..."WHAT?" Half the time what people said made no sense, and the other half I could not help but be reminded of how much someone sounded like another character. It got so bad during this book that Eragon was not even the same arrogant idiot he was in the last, now he was the idiot trying to be wise and so he sounded just like every other character. There was no character development in this book. And no one seems to have a personality of their own.
Oh, and let's not forget the writing itself. I had a really tough English teacher this year who did nothing but correct minor imperfections in our papers and criticize. His favorite thing to write on our papers was "awkward," "WC (word choice)," and "HUH?" It seemed like every other line I was thinking "awkward or word choice" as I read Eldest. Seriously, what crackpot edited this book?
But probably the worst part of the book was the predictable story-line. I guessed the end during the first chapter, and it killed me when I read it. Paolini had f***ed up Murtagh too, the ONE character which I saw ANY potential in in the last book. Not only that, he didn't even present it well. I guessed the whole related thing, the whole being "evil" now thing, and now Eragon is begging for his life? Um, what? And he begs for like one sentence and that's enough to stop him for being killed. I wanted to kill himself myself at this point, but to be fair, I want to kill Eragon every time I hear him think or speak. It was infuriating though. I put the book down and didn't read the last chapter until a few days later. Instead I text messaged my friend to vent my anger. All I wanted was to call her and yell, but it was like 2 in the morning, so instead I wrote my rage away, or at least tried. Nothing could make me forget that I had wasted over 3 hours of that night (and of my life) to finish the book while I could have been writing, watching a movie, or even studying my vocab. for the SAT's! It was THAT bad!
Overall the book sucked, but I did expect it. In fact that's why I read it. My friends and I had a great time making fun of it and Paolini after. My only advice for reading this book is to keep a bottle of aspirin and a pillow handy. Sometimes it seems impossible to continue reading unless you have some kind of pain killer to calm yourself, and if you need to scream during the wee hours of the morning because of Eragon's stupidity or Paolini's for that matter, you'll need a pillow to stuff your face into.
I think Paolini needs grow up and realize he can't write. I've seen much better work from my fellow classmates and we're what, three to five years younger than he is?
Book Review: Er...
Summary: 3 Stars
Look, Electric, Mr. 'I Reject Your Reality and Replace it with my Own', your reality must lack common sense based off your review.
Eldest captivated me with it's writing style.
Granted, the writing style was decent, but not so much as to save the book.
Although people say it is a rip-off of Lord of the Rings, they are clearly wrong. Every fantazy novel has at least, elves, dragons, orcs, trolls, magicians... so to call it a rip off, would be like calling Star Wars a rip-off of Star Trek.
Maybe because...everyone else is copying Tolkien too, just not on the level of Paolini. While other people have more subtle ways of going about it, nevertheless ultimately making their elves the pale archers made famous by Tolkien, Paolini has one of the most unoriginal I've had the displeasure of reading. It's not even the species, but the names of the characters and places, the way the plot is...This book is cliche, no one can deny that.If you have any reading comprehension at all, and you probably don't even though you most likely think you're some prodigy, you'd figure a few things out --- such as [following sentence is a spoiler] Arya being of royalty. The prophecy (oh no, that's not cliche either) Angela states that he'll fall in love with a noblewoman. Maybe this would be more impacting if THERE WAS ANY OTHER GIRL FOR THE SHALLOW CHARACTER ERAGON TO FALL IN LOVE WITH? There is one other, Nasuada I believe her name is, and she is kind of royalty but still. It's obvious.
Also, the Urgals are NOT like Orcs!!! They are more like cavemen, mixed with modern man, and a little bit of monster!!!
Yeah, that's right. Say I rewrote Romeo and Juliet but made it a tad more modern. There is still a similarity.
THEY ARE NOT TORTURED ELVES LIKE IN TOLKIEN"S STORY!!!!
...and? I'll copy a description of a character almost word for word, so he looks exactly like someone else's, but I'm clever enough to change his name and a bit of his personality. Clever as a three-year old.
It is very original, and I actually kind of liked Eragon's desperation for Arya.
Maybe it's because it's something most people can relate to, being so shallow-minded that they are desperate to land the love of a woman who has shown time and time again she doesn't like him? How is it original anyway? Seriously, him changing a few little factors does not make it original. Learn the meaning of a word before throwing it around.
It's not like Paolini can cut it out, for Angela the Witch already told him his fortune about romance in the first book.
He's stated he's planned the book ahead of time. He takes out part of the fortune telling in Book One before publishing it...scene avoided. He needed an editor who could point out how idiotic this is.
Anyway, although I have read many great books, the Inheritance series is far superior. Keep up the great work Paolini!!!
Yeah, I can imagine those great books...like The Cat in the Hat and Hop on Pop.
Seriously people, this book isn't all that good...he'd have nothing if it wasn't for his age. I sat there reading through this book which could've been cut down to 200 pages instead of being bloated with pseudo-philosophical nonsense, waiting for them to get to the elf's homeland so Paolini could finally show me how bad he is at portraying romance. The fanboys and girls have no defense...his youth is nothing to me, and he doesn't have it anymore, but people still buy into this How To Make a Bestselling Novel Just By Using Cliches book. I'm younger than him and trust me...I think up better storylines while on my can.
Paolini has time and time again refused to listen to his critics and goes with the statement 'It's about only what I think about my book'. He's some sheltered kid who was homeschooled, and he thinks that for some reason he's superior enough to not take the word of others. Like Martin Luther King Jr. said: never say you don't care about what others think, because they'll be the only ones to carry on their legacy. This kid needs to get this through his head. Hopefully he has. He'd be nothing without his fans, and he admits he doesn't care about them.
I'm not sugarcoating this...his personality is shown by the characters of his books...there is none.
Book Review: Get a clue.
Summary: 2 Stars
This review mostly goes to Spencer Bauer or "Zmoney" who has reviewed before me. He's a moron.
Before you start complaining about the critics of this book, I highly reccomend that you get your facts straight. You claim that only a few of the names were ripped-off from the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Let me start with LOTR:
miladris-Imladris
Vanilor-Valinor
Ardwen-Arwen
Ceranthor-Caranthir
Bierland-Beleriand
Narda-Varda
Isenstar-Isengaurd
Melian-Melian
Mithrim-Mithrim
Isidar-Isildur
Turin-T?rin
I'd say that's more than a few "ZMoney."
As for your review: Don't complain because some people think it was poorly written. It's their opinion and you can't call them stupid for it. At least most of them can put coherent sentences together.
As for the charge of plagiarism: I would say it's a valid complaint. As I just demonstrated, Paolini did in fact copy numerous names from "Lord of the Rings." He also used the line "Two eyes, whenever I can spare them" which is directly out of LOTR. The plot line is ripped from a variety of other stories, which, if you ever read above a second grade level, you will know. For example, "Dragonriders of Pern," comes to mind. Also check out Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea" series. Paolini's system of magic may become a little more familiar to you and hey! You may even learn something!
As for the story itself. It is very sloppy and it is full of cheap tricks and escapes. Take Eragon's transformation into the elf. Instead of coping with his injury or overcoming his shortcomings as a human being, Paolini merely makes Eragon change into something he is not...a superhuman of sorts. I felt cheated when I read that. That's a good lesson. When the going get's rough change into another person. It discredits everything that happened in "Eragon." It made me sick.
Now take Murtagh. Anyone who didn't realize he was a villain wasn't reading closely enough. The ending was obvious and cliche. I also find it hard to believe that in such a short period of time, even with the help of Galbatorix, that Murtagh could become so powerful. What happened to Eragon? He trained and trained and he even turned into an elf-like creature and he still was no match for Murtagh? Hmmmm.
I also found the themes of vegitarianism and atheism quite annoying. I myself am an atheist but for the love of God, (or no God for that matter), please stop trying to force your opinions on all of us! And the whole vegitarian thing? Eragon 'converts' due to the cruelty against animals but apparently a leather scabbard is no problem for him. Please Paolini. Give me a break. Stop preaching and tell us a story. The book would have been 200 pages shorter if you knew what it was you were talking about. If I wanted to hear that philosophy I would move to San Fransico and join PETA.
The dialogue is ridiculous. Eragon, a poor farm boy, talks as if he's some learned scholar. Everyword that is said is stilted and forced. Half of what is said adds nothing to the plot and Paolini seems to have forgotten the golden rule of writing: "Show, don't tell." Most of the feeble plot is driven by explanatory dialogue. That is very annoying.
I know ask you "ZMoney" what it was about Paolini's world that you found new and refreshing. Was it the system of magic? Nope...that's Le Guin. Was it the dragons? Nope...that's Mcaffery. Was it the places and names? Nope...Tolkien there. There is nothing in the book that is new. It is scraps torn away from other books, thrown in a blender, and set for "cheap bestseller." There is nothing new here. I repeat. There is nothing new.
So "ZMoney," stop complaining about the critcs. If you want to call us stupid, make sure you know what you are talking about. Otherwise you simply look foolish. If you think this is such a great book than enjoy the last in the series. But don't whine about what other's think. I will say this. The plot is cliche. The characters are flimsy. The writing is poor. Get over it...it's my opinion. Oh and by the way I won't "shut up and be GRATFUL" for the language guide. It doesn't make up for a crappy story. I give Paolini credit for trying. He failed but at least he tried. Thank you. Goodnight.
Book Review: This eagerly awaited continuation of the Inheritance series doesn't disappoint!
Summary: 5 Stars
ELDEST opens as Eragon surveys, with great dismay, a field of dead, bloodied bodies, the results of the war that is being fought for the Varden against the evil Empire of King Galbatorix. He has killed the Shade known as Durza. With his dragon Saphira's help, he has bravely fought these enemies who destroyed his uncle and who continue to threaten the Dragon Riders. But his heart is heavy and he senses that there are changes happening to him. The boy is becoming the man, the warrior, the new Shadeslayer, but the cost is so dear.
...He no longer believed that life possessed inherent meaning --- not after seeing men torn apart by the Kull, a race of giant Urgals, and the ground a bed of thrashing limbs and the dirt so wet with blood it soaked through the soles of his boots.
So begins the second book of the Inheritance Trilogy, Christopher Paolini's eagerly awaited continuation of Eragon's life as Dragon Rider. While a 704-page book might appear daunting for readers, ELDEST roars along from beginning to end. The author's writing has matured and he has developed great skill at layering his themes as they build to an exciting climax.
While Eragon receives his training as a Dragon Rider from the wizard/Rider known as Oromis of Ellesmera, his cousin Roran begins a dangerous adventure of his own. Roran, bitter about his father's death, feels that in some way Eragon has been responsible. Roran does not realize that Eragon has left the valley to protect his family and friends from the Galbatorix. He only knows that if Eragon had not kept the strange stone (which was a dragon egg) a secret, perhaps things would now be different. After Garrow's death, Roran returns to the village of Carvahall where he hopes to court the beautiful Katrina and eventually ask for her hand in marriage. However, he no longer has a home or farm (thanks to Eragon) and he needs to build his fortune to win the approval of Sloan, Katrina's father.
Before any of this can happen Roran discovers that the Galbatorix, represented by horrible creatures known as Ra'zac, are after him --- simply because he is associated with Eragon. As the situation becomes more intense, Roran attempts to hide away from the village, but within a short time the village is under siege and the dreaded Ra'zac take Katrina captive. Here begins the true journey for Roran, as he leads the villagers away and begins a frightening, most dangerous adventure to find both safety for them and a way to get Katrina back.
Paolini skillfully weaves the stories of Eragon and Roran back and forth --- creating countless other fascinating characters on all sides. There are even suggestions of romance when Eragon becomes infatuated with Ayra, the elfin princess he rescued, and for Saphira, the only female dragon around, when she is attracted to her mentor, the great dragon Glaedr.
There are also spots of humor, and in one scene especially the often-quoted lines from the film Treasure of the Sierre Madre are played on when Loring, the cobbler, is protesting the use of barges for the villagers to make their escape:
"Barges?" said the cobbler. "Barges? We don't want no stinking barges!"
The panoramic battles at the end include one of the most exciting moments as Saphira fights a giant red dragon over a bloody battlefield. The battle is vividly realized as Paolini paints a scene that is sure to be a favorite. The identity of Eragon's father is also uncovered during a dual that echoes the power and themes of STAR WARS.
Using blended ancient Nordic languages is affective in the dialogues of this myth-like world, and an excellent language guide is provided at the end of the book. Wizards, monsters, dragons, elves, dwarves, magic forests, witches, storytellers, enchanted swords and powerful spells all combine to make ELDEST a sure winner for fantasy fans. There is no question that Paolini is paying tribute to writers like Tolkien, L'Engle and McCaffrey. His writing is filled with quests, heroes, magic and mysticism. A screen adaptation of these books, as well as book three in the trilogy, are in the making. For old and new fans, all of this cannot happen soon enough!
--- Reviewed by Sally M. Tibbetts