358 of 434 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A satisfying fantasy adventure tale, September 20, 2008
I enjoyed the first two books of this series, and was eager to read the third. I won't outline the plot, because you can find that elsewhere. I will just tell you what I think about this book.
It is an enjoyable read, and a worthy third installment to the series. I thought that Eragon was a very good story, and Eldest not quite as good, although Paolini's writing had improved. Brisingr is the best of the three. I fell back into the story right away, and I found myself caring about the characters, even worrying about their safety. This is what I look for in fiction: it made me want to pick up the book every chance I got. If it interferes with the rest of my life, it is a very good book. Brisingr is one of those books. I am thankful to my son that he recommended this series to me.
Some reviewers of Eldest were very critical of the fact that the plot is derivative of other epics, like The Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars. I didn't mind this in the least. It is the tale of a hero's journey, complete with absence, devestation and return. It is one of the oldest tales in storytelling. We already know the story, but it is the storytelling that makes it good or bad. Paolini is a good writer. Not as great as Tolkein or LeGuin, but good nevertheless. I was able to suspend my inner critic, and enjoy the read. I recommend that you do the same.
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571 of 697 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
"...events have been dark and bloody of late.", September 27, 2008
I'm not your typical Eragon basher. I find the professional Eragon detractors tiringly obsessive, and every time someone clogs up a message board with another hey-this-is kinda-like-Star Wars post he's SURE is pure unprecedented genius insight, I'm certain an angel loses his wings.
Unfortunately, the series is growing into the complaints. Paolini does have talent, but his sales figures and incredible life story have seemingly allowed his manuscripts to go unchecked, and his writing flaws are getting worse, not better.
Three major problems with "Brisingr":
1) It's way too violent. It opens on a group of fanatics who slice off their own limbs to prove their faith, whose rituals we observe in loving detail. (The head priest has lopped himself down to just a torso.) We soon continue to a torture victim whose eyes have been pecked - eaten - out of his face. "Gore" is Paolini's favorite word, particularly when it is "smeared" on something, and we get endless graphic depictions of Roran's hammer smashing an enemy soldier's skull/throat/arm/spine, its owner rejoicing in the carnage. I don't expect war to be bowlderized, but the book revels in charnel for its own sake and is too bloody for readers under thirteen.
2) Eragon has become a bit of a sociopath. A reunion with one of his childhood bullies - who's just been through horrific torture - becomes a control-and-humiliate fantasy that's disturbing. When the typically closed Arya touchingly recounts her love's recent death and how it stole all joy from her world, Eragon's heart is unmoved; he feels only irritation and jealousy, fuming that he will "not be discouraged in his suit". (Has he been reading "The Game"?) The book's ruminations on the morality of killing reach only the uninspired conclusion that it's unavoidable in war, and we're thus meant to take a certain satisfaction when Eragon joyfully dispatches even those ordinary men forced into service by Galbatorix. I guess the debate was meant only to free us from our nagging moral reservations.
As in "Eldest", Eragon's praised to high heaven by every single soul, given credit for every achievement. At points, the book seems to have other characters only so that they can sing of their inferiority to its shining star.
3) As nearly every other commenter has noted, it's too bloated, with deadly pacing. Galbatorix's nightmarish Ra'zac servants are dealt with early, leaving Eragon to dither with rebel leader Nasuada and go off on a few preparatory errands for about 600 pages. (A 200-page detour into dwarf politics is particularly deadening.) We keep waiting for the meat to arrive, for some crisis or confrontation, and (save for a quick and inconsequential early battle with Murtagh) it never comes. There is no real climax, save for the easily-accomplished sacking of one city and a death we all long saw coming, albeit not in such meaningless circumstances.
The lack of individual voices in the story makes things drag all the more; every character has an identical manner of speaking, all bloviation and overexplanation in high-fantasy Olde Englishe. Paolini too often substitutes scads of meaningless proper names for the little moments that make bring a fantasy world to life.
A few of those moments slip through, though, like the dotty old man who roosts in the majestic ruins of a half-toppled, tree-like tower, harvesting peas. Or when Arya, on a whim, braids a miniature ship from wild grasses and breathes into it magic that will allow it fly for perpetuity; Eragon wonders what stories people will tell of it in the years to come. I laugh at the self-important magicians' society Du Vrangr Gata, whose study of the ancient language is not as complete as they think and whose name therefore translates into the Alagaesian equivalent of Engrish. I like the atypically crusty elven smith, intolerant of how "too polite, too refined, too precious" her Tolkien-influenced race has become, or the touches of culture (family totems, bedtime stories) Paolini has given his orc race. For those who like dragons, Saphira's a sparkling specimen.
And there are *dwarf ninjas*. That's gotta count for something, with someone.
My point is that the books need less Gary Stu carnage and more gems like these. Show us why this world is worth fighting (and fighting and fighting) for.
And we need some actual change to come out of all these pages. Roran's love soothes his anxiety over his battlefield casualities by opining that he'd be evil only if he actually enjoyed killing. Later - whaddaya know - Roran DOES come to love killing, quite enthusiastically, but the book forgets to look at him any differently. Eragon makes a few crucial mistakes in dwarfland due to arrogance and petulance, but he is still lavishly praised from here to Valinor. Nasuada endures a (naturally) bloody duel for leadership of the rebel faction, yet she is viewed no differently by her people afterward. Murtagh's horrific tragedy, the king who hosts the rebel Varden yet resents being pushed to the sidelines in his own country, the new hot elf guardsman who's really a lion-type furry and whose musk gets all the females...er, in heat - nothing comes of any of it. (The waste of Murtagh, who now apparently exists only to be ruthlessly dispatched, is particularly criminal.) C'mon, Rowling introduced and destroyed seven whole Horcruxes in the same space! Pick a story and develop it!
Also, are we gonna SEE Galbatorix before this series ends? There is an evil EMPEROR in this evil empire, correct?
Enough sarcasm, though. Again, it's senseless to waste your life hating these books as some do, all anti-Shur'tugal; better simply to move on to other stories. Myself, I just wish someone would guide Paolini - edit him down, focus him - so the rest of us got more out of his talent.
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379 of 481 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This should have been the final book., September 21, 2008
I was disappointed when I first heard some months ago that the Inheritance trilogy would, in fact, become longer. Part of me wonders if the 4th book wont also end up being too long, and needing to be split. Eragon certainly has more to do now than he did at the end of Eldest, and Paolini has made it clear that whenever Eragon swears an oath to someone, we're going to devote a whole lot of time to watching him do it. Given that Eragon swears a new oath every 50 pages or so (give or take), it may be a while before he gets caught up.
I have long since given up on the tiresome fantasy series of Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, and the like as I noticed that after about the 3rd or 4th book, nothing new happens. A series should be short, maintain our attention, and always keep in mind the primary conflict between hero and villian.
Books one and two of the Inheritance cycle did this. At the end of Eldest, Eragon has three things that need be done, fulfill his promise to Roran, return to Oromis, and defeat Galbatorix. The first of those is finished in the early pages of the book, but from there, we spiral away from the story and into tiresome cliche. Eragon spends pages moaning and groaning about how he has been forced to kill, but it never amounts to anything. Eragon and Roran spend pages pontificating at each other in conversations that make each of them sound as though they were raised in the hearts of academia, rather than on the farm.
As an aside, the characters talk way too much in this book. For pages. One wonders when they pause to take breath. Even other characters notice this "He certainly talks alot." says Saphira at one point. Yes, I suppose he does. But then, so do you, my dear blue dragon. So do you...
As for the plot, what is there to say? Of the three tasks Eragon had at the beginning, two are completed. But with much else along the way. Eragon visits and then leaves a mysterious hermit who'se only purpose in the book is so we wont be surprised again when he shows up next time, no doubt to give Eragon a crucial piece of information. We spend page after page waiting for the dwarves to elect the ruler we all know well in advance will be elected in a process that isn't the least bit interesting. One hopes that the elected leader is able to cut through the red tape.
We learn things about Eragon's father that don't suprise us in the least, and even dissapoint us, as they make Eragon a far less interesting character, and free him completely of the guilt that was the sole characteristic making him interesting. Galbatorix's and Murtagh's inexplicable strength is explained using a plot device that I'm sure Paolini developed only after making his two villians untouchably strong. And when Glaedr gives Eragon a gift towards the end, I knew it would mean only one thing.
This should have been the final book.
But instead of the planning and fighting against the forces of the empire, we get Eragon brooding whether or not he should eat meat or starve to death. (He eats the meat, but feels real bad about it.) Instead of studying new spells and magic, Eragon asks an Urgal for a bedtime story. And instead of a climactic battle between Eragon and Galbatorix, we get a deeper insight into the dwarven political arena than is needed or even wanted.
At this point, I'm invested in the series, however, and I await the fourth (but will it be the final?) book with the same anticipation as I await a trip to the dentist, or the DMV. It's just one of those things you don't really look forward to, except for the feeling of relief when it's all over.
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