50 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I seriously feel like egging Paolini sometimes, January 10, 2006
Ok. First i have to talk about the author, Christopher Paolini. I would have respected him for his work, if not for the arrogant personality he displays all the time and the media on his work. What is with all this? The Inheritance novels are mediocre. There is really no genius about it. Just beacause he is nineteen is no reason to call him a teen Tolkien, or to call his books absolutely incredible. Say, pretty nice work for a teen. And that should be it. No need to proclaim him a genius, when he isnt. His writing has improved slightly, but it is still awkward and tedious and as the author himself, he is a sure arrogant guy, comparing his works with Tolkien and Seamus Heaney. The very nerve! I would have respected him if he had been a modest guy, but a self-proclaimed genius is far too much.
This and the fact that at every opportunity, he chimes in that he graduated at the age of fifteen. Excuse me, this does not mean that he is oustanding in academics. HE IS HOMESCHOOLED, He did not go to some public school. Not to insult homeschooled kids, but this means that he could have been a C student, for all we know. All his parents had to do was speed him through schoolwork and proclaim him finished when he wsa fifteen. If i was homeschooled, i could easily do the same thing. We do not have actual proof that he is a great scholar. I mean, if it was fact that he gotten a fifteen hundred on his SATs, or he has been accepted by an Ivy League, like Alicia Keys did when SHE was fifteen, then i would admire him. But we dont. And when i hear of people clamoring over his "graduating from the age of fifteeen" and his "genius works" i am highly irritated. Paolini likes to boast of it himself, calling himself "from a child who hated to read to a man who graduated from the age of fifteen" First, so what. I absolutely loathe math, but i excell at it. i hate science, but i earn A's in my bio class. And shouldnt he say "from a kid who hated to read to a guy who WROTE A NOVEL"? That would make a lot more sense. And the fact that he used to hate to read! That lowers my respect a lot.
Oh, and the fact that he says that he brings his story to life. Excuse me, Mr. Paolini but not really. The few cases in which i could imagine the scene was, for a strange reason, straight from the Lord of the Ring movies. Weird, huh?
oh, by the way, for the eragon lovers claim that all the bad reviewers are jealous. Excuse me, but when you say something like,"this was a bad movie", does that mean you're jealous of the producers or something? Puh-lease. And people claim that since all fanstasies are similar, paolini copying is not a crime. But there is a difference between similar and PURE PLAGIARIZING like paolini does from LOTR and Star Wars. And i dont even mind that as much as the writing style. i mean, some novels are about such boring subjects. what turns them ito great books is the style in which is is written. THAT IS WHAT THE INHERITANCE SERIES LACKS. A GOOD WRITING STYLE. I mean, if it was well-written, it would have brought up my rating a couple stars up, even. But as it isnt...
oh and i read some reviews in which some writer-wannabe said that people who critizised the books were jealous that paolini got the book published by his parents who own a publishing comp. Um, please. WE'RE NOT ALL WRITERS, JUST READERS! our priorities lie somewhere else! My god.
So lets get on with the book. As i said in my title, Eldest is an improvement after that utterly disgraceful novel called Eragon. SPOILERS COMING. Ajihad dies suddenly in like the first five pages. His death and the suddeness of the ambush on him is poorly written with awkward construction. Then his daughter Nasuada suceeds him as leader of the Varden, a small group of rebels, sworn enemies of the Empire.
Before we move on, i should warn the reader that the general frame is similar to Star Wars. There is an elite group of warriors, long gone, called the Riders, kinda like the Jedi, One of them, an unusually talented yet dangerous boy called Galbatorix (cough Vader) rises to power, destroys all the riders and takes control of the land called Alagaesia and makes it into an empire. Then a poor farm boy of no importance called Eragon (sounds like aragorn but is actually luke skywalker) finds a stone which is a dragon egg. The empire starts hunting for him and a wierd old guy in his village takes eragon on a journey. the guy himself knows a lot of magic and things about riders and then soon dies. seems that he used to b a powerful Rider. (aka obi-Wan Kenobi). And then the farm boy rescues the rebel princess in imprisonment, and then becomes a hero.
And blah blah blah. Of course Paolini has ripped off a lot from Lord of the Rings with his names and lands and creatures like the mining, underground dwarves, who are on shaky land with humans and the graceful, mysterious, powerful, immortal and beautiful elves, ruled by a beautiful, mysterious queen, and they hide in their enchanted forests and do nothing against the evil dude. Arwen is Arya, who helps Eragon and even matches Arwen's appearance. Eragon falls in love with her (aragorn and arwen love affair *cough*). In the first book, Paolini also ripped off LOTR the part when sauron is defeated and there's a sort of sonic boom (same thing happened when Eragon killed the evil shade Durza)
Well anyway, Murtagh has been killed and so has the twins, or at least it seems so. But by the blunt disposal of them by the author, it's pre-tty obvious that they are alive, since they are major characters and eragon expresses his grief for his companion in maybe two sentences for the entire book.
he goes off to Ellesmera to learn further magic from the elves, especially a crippled and retired rider called Oromis (obviously Yoda) and his handicapped dragon tutors Saphira.
Eragon flies into rages with an elf who is disgusted with eragon (i dont blame the elf) and pines and sobs about the cold arya, who is less than thrilled about his feelings for her. The author gives some political reasons why this is so, but in my frank opinion, who would go for Eragon, the loser and ugly guy that he is? Anyhow, Eragon learns what a vegetarian is, and has ridiculous philosiphical conversations with his mentor,
and meanwhile, his cousin rowan is having problems of his own.
Rowan comes back to the farm to find his father dead and his cousin eragon missing. He and his girlfriend Katrina are hesitant about marriage and the Ra-zac have come back and they want Rowan. After several skirmishes with the local villagers, Carvahall altogether declare war and after death and CANNIBALISM (squeamish ppl, beware) they escape across the sea for Surda and a better life. Katrina is captured and Rowan decides to kill people with a hammer.(WTF?!?!) Then after many tears and hammerblows they reach their destintaion. (one more ripoff is when there are these flying black creatures flying above them in the forest and screeching in this horrible, unnatural way that causes the villagers to moan)
Eragon, after another failed attempt at wooing Arya and just about transformed into an elf by them, he hurries back to the Varden just in time for the big battle with Surda this time fighting along them, and some Kull who resent Galbatorix. Of course they win, only to his horror,
SPOLIERS BEWARE:
"I...AM...YOUR...FATHER!!!". ok not quite. he finds out that murtagh is actually his brother and galbatorix's right-hand Rider, Morzan, slain by Brom years ago, (obi-wan and anakin skywalker duel in episode three) is his father. THis is pretty much obvious in the first book if you put the clues together. To make it worse, Murtagh is Galbatorix's slave and he is forced to obey him by ancient language-oaths, which mean that you cannot break it. If this werent enough, Murtagh, despite all of Eragon's training and longer experience, is far more powerful than his little brother. Because frankly, Murtagh has been trained by Galbotorix. And he is now a Rider. Yep the second egg has hatched for Murtagh and Thorn, the new dragon, bears a rider. Who is Murtagh.
so the battle of the burning plains or whatever is EXACTLY like the battle of minas tirith in lord of the rings. people are fighting on these desolate plains. all seems lost when ta-da, people show up and help them fight (here paolini substitutes the Rohan people for the dwarves) then ahhh! a big dragon swoops down from the sky and kills a king! the dragon's rider is dressed in steel, including these little steel-finger gloves, and when the dragon is brought down, the rider gets down from the dragon to fight by hand!! totally plagiarizing.
and let me guess. in the next book, ergaon will be brought face-to-face with Galbatorix. Ergaon will be losing, dying, when ta-da! Galbatorix's right hand man Murtagh will become good and help Ergaon kill Galbatorix. Yep. I bet you that will happen. MY GOD PAOLINI PLEASE STOP COPYING FROM STAR WARS AND LORD OF THE RINGS. JUST A SLIGHT EFFORT. Pretty please?
And i leave it to the readers to shake their heads exasperately at Eragon, who is as much as a jerk and awkwardly nobel as ever. here is an example.
Ergaon: "What is your name?"
Boy: "Jarsha,"
Ergaon: "That is a good name."
Boy: Umm, thanks.Here's a message from the council.
Eragon: "You have carried your message well. You should be proud of yourself.
Boy beams and hurries away.
see what i mean? my god, it wasn't like the boy travelled like ten miles or anything, he walked like maybe fifty steps. That line was so corny i nearly cried in disbelief that that had actually been put down on paper.
And you will grimace with disgust at the even more awkward poetry Paolini writes,...
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Christopher Paolini’s abiding love of fantasy and science fiction inspired him to begin writing his debut novel, 
Our quickie pronunciation guide will help you get to know some of the names and places in the Inheritance series.
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