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57 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Eragon--Whew. Not one to curl up with, December 8, 2003
By A Customer
Cheese and rice. Has anyone else out there read Eragon by Christopher Paolini? I'd read the hype, a 19-year-old with a publishing contract. I was curious, and when I ran across the book at a book store last week I picked it up. Anne McCaffrey, who's written two of my favorite children's fantasy books Dragon Song and Dragon Singer, said that she gave it full praise. She must have been on acid. In a word the book is ghastly. The book opens with "Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world." Which is perilously close to "The wind wasn't the beginning... But it was a beginning." Immediate reference to an evil Shade (humm, three letters off Jordan's fade) a non-human that controls Urgals (descriptions similar to trollics). There are items that ring of Jordan--shades and urgals, evil banding together and showing up where it never has before, the mentor is a bard just like Thom Merrilin Eddings--a silver, oval marked palm, an orphan raised by relatives and not knowing his true heritage, not being able to stay because of discovery, the word and the will (he doesn't call it that, but his description rings of Eddings) McCaffrey--a dragon making the choice for rider, telepathic connection between dragon and rider, dragons classed by color On page 155 Eragon is having a conversation with his mentor. His mentor scolds him saying he should have used his magic to tell what someone in the town they were just in was thinking. This after warning him about the dangers of using the magic on 139. It's maddening and continual. It's like reading someone's unorganized notes. The contradictions are through out. This is just one example. There are MANY others. At the beginning Eragon is hunting in the Spine (more Jordan terminology, but closer in description his Misty Mountains, or Mountains of Mist). He is the only hunter who will go there. (Rand, Matt and Perrin) has a bow only he can pull (Rand). Anyway, he's a mighty hunter tracking a herd of deer, three nights away from home, he has a pack, a a knife, and a bow. But the next morning he also has a pan. Where did it come from. Yes I know it could have been in the pack, but that would have made it difficult to keep up with the deer. A pan isn't typical hunting gear. Camping? Yes. But he had no camp. He's following a herd which means travel rations. His family needs meat for the winter and has no money, but when he arrives home his uncle and cousin are eating chicken for breakfast. If you're poor, that's not what you're going to eat first thing in the morning. And on and on. I know that these items have been used by others and will be again. But never before have I read something that so clearly rang back to the original book. Language is a problem. To quote Nancy Springer, "When 'was' shows up, you have problems." Paolini uses was five or six times a page. Yes, every so often I stop and count the number of times he uses was per page. So far I've counted eight different times. He uses 'was' five or six times a page. He cops out on 'had/has.' Passive. Inadvertent POV shifts. He tells. He tells. He tells. He contradicts himself. He tells. This book is a mess, and it got published. You remember the movie Dances with Wolves? Wind-in-His-Hair says, "All we know about this man is he has a smart horse"? Well, I think this kid has smart parents and a publisher thought that they could hype his age. This book could have been saved if it had been edited. I get the feeling it wasn't. I really want to stop reading the book, but it's kind of like a train wreck. You don't want to look, but you just can't help it. Has anyone else read it? Did you like it? What was I missing? Okay, I decided I've been to hard on this kid. I've taken a look at the chapter endings and found out that he has a disability. Poor Eragon has narcolepsy. He falls asleep on pages 18, 89, 128, 142, 212, 220, 249, 272, 316, 323, 392, 478. (These are chapter endings mind you.) I know that gives me permission to put the book away, and I wish I could, but something makes me continue to read. Ok. If falling asleep isn't bad enough, I have found no fewer than seven times where he's knocked unconscious at the end of chapters. (Pages 80, 134, 263, 266, 292 and just when I was getting worried about the lack, page 491). I know, that's only six. I didn't really know how to classify the stupor leading to sleep on page 233. Now keep in mind this in no way includes the loss of consciousness in the bodies of the chapters themselves. I'm still only on page 301, and the book has 200 or so more pages. I wish I could put myself out of my misery and burn the stupid thing, but I must finish it. There has to be some reason the book has gotten so much press. Other than the smart parents, which I now find out self published the book prior to it being acquired by Knopf. Oh, by the way. Does anyone have the definition of epic fantasy? Mr. Palini claims to have written one, but I can't seem to find it.
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