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Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1) (Hardcover)

~ Christopher Paolini (Author)
Key Phrases: Dras Leona, Eragon Brom, Saphira Eragon (more...)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,879 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Here's a great big fantasy that you can pull over your head like a comfy old sweater and disappear into for a whole weekend. Christopher Paolini began Eragon when he was just 15, and the book shows the influence of Tolkien, of course, but also Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, and perhaps even Wagner in its traditional quest structure and the generally agreed-upon nature of dwarves, elves, dragons, and heroic warfare with magic swords.

Eragon, a young farm boy, finds a marvelous blue stone in a mystical mountain place. Before he can trade it for food to get his family through the hard winter, it hatches a beautiful sapphire-blue dragon, a race thought to be extinct. Eragon bonds with the dragon, and when his family is killed by the marauding Ra'zac, he discovers that he is the last of the Dragon Riders, fated to play a decisive part in the coming war between the human but hidden Varden, dwarves, elves, the diabolical Shades and their neanderthal Urgalls, all pitted against and allied with each other and the evil King Galbatorix. Eragon and his dragon Saphira set out to find their role, growing in magic power and understanding of the complex political situation as they endure perilous travels and sudden battles, dire wounds, capture and escape.

In spite of the engrossing action, this is not a book for the casual fantasy reader. There are 65 names of people, horses, and dragons to be remembered and lots of pseudo-Celtic places, magic words, and phrases in the Ancient Language as well as the speech of the dwarfs and the Urgalls. But the maps and glossaries help, and by the end, readers will be utterly dedicated and eager for the next book, Eldest. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell

From Publishers Weekly

While exploring the forest, 15-year-old Eragon discovers an odd blue gemstone—a dragon egg, fated to hatch in his care. According to PW, "The author takes the near-archetypes of fantasy fiction and makes them fresh and enjoyable, chiefly through a crisp narrative and a likable hero." Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Product Details

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Hardcover: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (June 25, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375826688
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375826689
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,879 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #57,140 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #10 in  Books > Children's Books > Series > Fantasy & Adventure > Inheritance
    #16 in  Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( P ) > Paolini, Christopher

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Christopher Paolini
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Dras Leona, Eragon Brom, Saphira Eragon, Eragon Murtagh, Beor Mountains, Palancar Valley, Brom Eragon, Isidar Mithrim, Eragon Saphira, Hadarac Desert, Carvahall Eragon, Eragon They, Murtagh Eragon, Leona Lake, Urgals Eragon, Eragon Orik, Saphira Brom, Brom Jeod, Eragon Ajihad, Rider Eragon, Saphira There, Varden Eragon, Golden Globe, Igualda Falls, Snowfire Saphira
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Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1)
72% buy the item featured on this page:
Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1) 3.8 out of 5 stars (2,879)
$12.89
Brisingr (Inheritance, Book 3)
10% buy
Brisingr (Inheritance, Book 3) 3.7 out of 5 stars (662)
$18.15
Eragon and Eldest 2 copy mass market boxed set (Inheritance)
7% buy
Eragon and Eldest 2 copy mass market boxed set (Inheritance) 4.4 out of 5 stars (175)
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Eldest (Inheritance)
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Eldest (Inheritance) 3.6 out of 5 stars (1,543)
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2,879 Reviews
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3.8 out of 5 stars (2,879 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Eragon: Annoying to Read, February 8, 2004
By Cara (MI, USA) - See all my reviews
I know this book has already recieved its fair share of reviews, but I felt I should put my two cents in.
I have to start out by declaring my age: 13. About and around the age many say I should not be able to tell whether a book is bad or not, correct? Well, dead wrong. When I borrowed (thank God) Eragon from a classmate, I liked the cover and was surprised to find the author was very young. My expectations were heightened at this discovery but once I started reading the book, I was disappointed. From the beginning to end, Eragon is just a pain to read. I was first distracted by how the book read like bad FANFICTION - it was painfully obvious how hard he tried to make his boring and predictable plot exciting by using "big words" and fancy made-up language and drawing out scenes forever. Needless to say, it didn't work.

Secondly, I couldn't get past the fact it sounded so similar to Lord of the Rings and the Pern series. I'm sure there are other similarities to many other books, in fact, I'd say Eragon sounds like a English writing assignment gone insane. It seemed like it took really broad aspects of the standard fantasy writings and mashed it all together. Nothing stood out as making these broad themes specific and original. Plus, I felt rather sick as I read the big hints of love between Eragon and that elf woman. Hollywood syndrome. *shiver*

It was just a very messy, boring book. I didn't enjoy it and probably will only read Eldest just to see if his writing has improved. If not, I expect I'll just roll my eyes.

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78 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Mythic, but perhaps too much so., May 25, 2004
By nelyk (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
Everyone here seems to be extremely divided in their views of this book, and I'm afraid I fall in the dislike camp.

Okay, let's start with the plot. I must admit it is quite enjoyable, if you are in such unlikely circumstances that you are both inclined to like fantasy, and have not read most of the modern classics in said genre; or, perhaps, you have to have read enough awfully-written stories to know cliches when you see them. Basically, Eragon embarks upon a quest for revenge against shadow forces he doesn't know much about, but which will undoubtedly have something to do with his 'mysterious past.'

While most people mention fantasy books as inspiration, I find Eragon's plot more reminiscent of Star Wars than of anything else. There's the dead order of peace-keepers with amazing powers, the main character's mysterious past (Who's his father? He doesn't know!), the magical power, the old man with long-dead secrets of the past, which of course he teaches to this headstrong youth without really bothering about whether he's _good_ or not, and most tellingly, the destruction of the boy's farm and death of his uncle, which in both Star Wars and Eragon sets the main character off on a quest of revenge. Just thank heaven there's no C3P0...

In terms of concepts, there are very few original ideas, either. Paolini draws from Tolkien's works, not just Lord of the Rings but background materials as well, and, I am told, Anne McCaffrey's (sorry if I misspelled that) Pern books. Personally, I can't stand McCaffrey's writing, which is why I can't speak for myself on that one. Anyway, all of the races are almost exactly the same, down to the origins of the elves across the sea (Tolkien came up with that one, folks!); while Urgals and the Ra'zac are original, as far as I know, they are shadily described. Indeed, the Urgals always remind me of the Knights who say Ni, a la Monty Python, which rather kills their potential as villans.

Paolini attempts to make his world original and fresh by adding in what he seems to think is his own idea, judging by the care he takes in explaining it: an ancient language, a true language, with magical power. Unfortunately, his implementation of this idea has two flaws: 1) lacking a proper knowledge of the mechanics of language, he has created a set of _words_ with absolutely no grammar involved, so that to get across a complex idea you have to smoosh words together and hope that it works; and 2) the words seem to have been created by randomly pounding on the keyboard, and adding vowels where he thought them necessary. They're not unpronouncible, as this has created a tongue with a phonology similar to Russian, or perhaps closer to Czech; but I doubt that was intentional, as my high school is one in, I think, a little over fifty in the United States that actually teaches Russian. 'Brisingr' is a word that simply could not exist in any Romance or Germanic language, and, as I said, I doubt that Chris Paolini put much thought into making his language original (even Tolkien, a philologist, only used harsh Slavic sounds in his black speech, the tongue of evil) when all the rest of his work has little or no thought in that area. Originality, I mean.

One more thing. Eragon is grammatically correct throughout, a fact for which I am thankful, but shows distinct signs of having been written by a ten-year-old - and yes, I know the author was fifteen at the time of publishing. So what? I'm sixteen, and I can still vary my sentence structure. Learning to do so was an integral part of my 7th grade English education! All of Eragon's sentences are short, less than a line long, and generally begin with either an article (a or the) or the subject of said sentence; occasionally you'll find another adjective there instead, if you're lucky. I have not noticed a single subordinate clause in the entire book, and have been appalled at the blatant lack of semicolons. Semicolons! What is the world coming to, if people can say a story without semicolons is worth reading?

Still, Eragon did wonders as light, mindless reading material - besides, of course, the choppy writing style inherent in a book with uniform sentence structure and a dearth of semicolons - and so, rather than a one, I give it two stars out of five.

P.S. - I haven't seen anyone else comment on this particular name theft, so I thought I'd mention it. You know the Bid'duam? Turn it around and what do you get: Muad'dib. Frank Herbert alone could sue the kid for plaigarism; I'd hate to see what the Tolkien estate would do if they got word.
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55 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars I Am Split, June 6, 2006
In my opinion, Eragon (and others in the Inheritance Trilogy) was for me as guilty a pleasure as any chick-literature would be. Pleasure in the loosest sense of the word.

As a young adult reader who loves fantasy, I enjoyed Eragon at first. It had action, it had some beautiful writing.

Until I realized how unoriginal it was. As a young writer who hopes one day to get published, I was disgusted with the quality of the plot and the characters. The plot was recycled from many sources, from Lord of the Rings, from Ursula LeGuin, from Anne McCaffrey...the list goes on and on. Furthermore, the characters were flat to the point that would put a fanfiction writer to shame. (Fanfiction being stories based on published fiction, sometimes being very clichéd or of very low quality, and often written by teens. Don't get me wrong; many fanfiction writers are excellent.)

The characters were who I had the most problems with; the plot can almost (not quite, but almost) be excused, as it is extremely difficult to come up with something new in the fantasy category. However, the characters fit too nicely into their niches. Garrow as the grudging, bitter, father-figure. Brom as the wise, mentoring, guide. What was most annoying was how perfect Eragon and Arya were. They were good-looking, they had positions of power, they were intelligent, they were educated, they were magically powerful, they were skilled swordsmen (swordspeople), they were skilled archers. I was about to gag on the self-idealization; Paolini said that he based Eragon on himself! I'm not going to insult his looks or his athleticism, as I know little about either, but there is no way that anyone could be all that.

Paolini may have promise, but that is all buried underneath the over-marketing of his book and the fact that he was self-published. He has not improved within seven years (when he was fifteen to when he was twenty-two). I would appreciate the books more if I didn't know how easy it was for him to get them published.

This may be a great book for young readers who are not mature enough to read J.R.R. Tolkien or Ursula LeGuin; if it gets them interested in reading, I'm all for it! But for people who want genuinely good fiction, it is a waste fo time and money.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this world
I found myself thinking of these characters when I wasn't reading the books. Great read.
Published 11 days ago by V. Traitel

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
This book has a nice pace. However, most of the characters are somewhat flat and the dragon could have been more involved with the story.
Published 12 days ago by Sierradragon

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Teen in Love with Dragons
This review was written by my daughter, Sarah Gossett:


Throughout our education, we are assigned books to read that are not our interest and are often... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Timothy A. Gossett

5.0 out of 5 stars Eragon Review
Christopher Paolini can be considered a brilliant to all those who like fairytales. In Eragon he tries to convey the classic David versus Goliath story with some extra twist in... Read more
Published 19 days ago by Carrie Mcnamara

3.0 out of 5 stars Major flaws, but still a page-turner
When you take this book for what it is - a work of fantasy written by a teenager with a clear obsession with the fantasy author greats - it's really quite entertaining. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Pamela J. Bolton

1.0 out of 5 stars Stupid book
The book came on time in great condition but it's one of the worst books i've ever read. A friend actually lent it to me and it took me so long to read (b/c it's soo boring and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jami Mason

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Review
Eragon by Christopher Paolini is about a young boy who lives with his uncle and cousin. What the boy finds resembles a rock, but is a dragon egg. Read more
Published 1 month ago

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique and Promising New Look on Fantasy as a Whole
It is a unique look at what it would be like to be partners with a dragon. It is The Lord of the Rings meets Star Wars in a whole new twist. Read more
Published 1 month ago by GS

2.0 out of 5 stars I trudged through five chapters
My wife and I read five chapters and just couldn't bring ourselves to read the rest. We just didn't want to waste our time. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jay B. Fisher

5.0 out of 5 stars You will be swept away
Originally posted at [...]:

It all started with a beautiful stone. A stone that, as in all good fantasy novels, isn't quite what it seems. Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Thomas

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Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1)

Eragon is the first book of the Inheritance trilogy by Christopher Paolini.  The second volume is Eldest, whic is also available now.  The third book is currently being written and has no title yet released to the public, contrary to the previous post ...

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Created on Apr 23, 2006, last edited on Aug 13, 2006.

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