Inheritance

[Holsety]

He's apparently willing to branch into scifi next. Wonder what's left, as Eragon already ripped off Star Wars and Dune.

Are you sure he didn't just do the infinitely lame-r job of ripping off tihngs like Wheel of Time (which already ripped off Dune!)?

I like WoT, but to say it ripped Dune is innacurate. It ripped off twenty primeval myths, five contemporary works of fiction, and at least one song

And an astronaut's trip to the moon...well, that was more of a reference/allusion.

[SoulBiter]

Also, I wouldn't necessarily say Paolini's been a kid for a while any more; I'm two years older than he.

True... but my kids were kids at the time that they started reading this and are now young adults. My son is a Marine and my daughter is in Nursing school.

I have not read any of those books you mentioned. My daughter, like seemingly all teen girls, started reading Twilight and has read all the vampire drivel that has come out since then... so maybe reading drivel when you are younger isnt so good. My son read many of the Raymond Feist books before heading off to basic.

It's hard to justify him putting out this stuff on the basis of age now that he's 28.

I guess once he got these going it was worth while to him (especially financially and probably by contract) to finish and what could he do once he was a book into it? Its not like he could go back and re-write the story.

Am I the only one older than 40 here?

Actually Im pushing 50 here... but 50's the new 40 right??

[Avatar]

Not by a long shot, no.

Hahaha, exactly what I thought.

--A

[sindatur]

Hmmm... I don't think Eragon is nothing but, perfect characters. Look what Eragon did to Elva for starters.

Rorin tried performing magic and couldn't, Kahn and Nasuada's guild of Magicians are very weak.

Eragon couldn't beat even Murtag in books 1-3, and he's still got a long ways to go before he ahs any hope against Galbatorix (I'm only on Disk 3 of 27 of Book 4 Audio Book)

Glada and Oromis were raggedy old cripples.

I adore Saphira, Angela, Solembaum as characters, I think they're awesome. And I enjoy many of the other characters.

I've only barely started Book 4 (not even 1/9 of the way through), but, I'm enjoying it so far. Actually bought the 4 Book set for my mom, for her Birthday when Book 4 was released (She's been OD'ing on my Doctor Who DVDs, so, last I asked a few days ago, she hadn't started on them yet, so I don't know her opinion as of yet).

[Frostheart Grueburn]

Why am I not getting thread notifications? Third time this has happened recently.

Anyway, I finished the book a couple of days back, and while I still can't observe much general improvement in Paolini's writing (all the old gripes remain: illogicalities, plot holes, clichéd, predictable events, unnecessary padding--among others, a whole chapter devoted to Eragon merely wanting to eat--inconsistent characterizations, direct ganking of quotes and narration from other books, Harry Potter and The Hobbit included...), it yet seemed less mind-clogging a read than Eldest or Brickingr, and actually contained chapters I managed to follow with some interest. Need some extra time to type a more comprehensive review. Honestly, would have preferred seeing more of Murtagh, Galbatorix, and Angela (Nasuada's role wasn't that bad either), or even the culture of the Urgals, but unfortunately all the figures with actual personalities always remain more or less in the roadside bushes. :/

Still can't see the title character as being nothing but a complete Gary Stu. He might possess a handful of tiny flaws, but still too little to make him believable or something the reader might identify with. Whether he got outside help with it or not, his learning of the Ancient Language (Which is basically Old Norse molded into English grammar...it kind of annoys me that I can understand many of the spells without having to look at the glossary. What with the teemingness of languages in this world, he could've at least picked up something a bit more original, rather than just fitting his shoes directly into Tolkien's footsteps...) just irks me the most, what with having studied several foreign tongues myself, and actually knowing how much sweat, swearing, and straining the learning and maintaining of one requires. One doesn't compose posh epic poetry within weeks of the first lessons.

Add a dragon, near immortality, one of the most powerful swords in Alagaësia, beautiful looks complete with a skin that 'glows faintly', superhuman speed/hearing/sight/whatever, the constant admiration of almost everyone, and whatever other suetastic traits one can dig out, it just becomes...too much to handle. Sorry, but it really does.

Here's what could've possibly made him more interesting:
-Getting overwhelmed by his powers and doing something far, far more devastating than Elva's case

Spoiler

-Actually losing Sapphira during the first chapters of Brick #4, when she gets wounded by the spear, and having to cope with the sorrow (and perhaps madness) and lessening of powers thereafter

Spoiler

-Having someone else actually be the chosen one, and not make it so obvious: compare to Mistborn

Spoiler

-Have it turn out that he was unwittingly working to satisfy Galbatorix' ends all this while (who, in all sooth, hardly felt all that grimdarkly, nefariously, evil or insane outside the flesh-eating maggots, which seemed like a pointless Saturday morning cartoon dark lord trope to me)

-Have a significantly greater number of people doubt his abilities or outright shun him (for frag's sake, we're talking about a 17-year-old farmboy here...). Rowling handled this much better by having the ministry, et cetera, turn against Harry two thirds through the series.
-. . .?

I lost my hopes on Roran when he started transforming into some kind of human Þórr: a teenage farmboy with neither weapons/strategy training nor magical talents whatsoever manages to kill something in the lines of several hundred professional soldiers in full armor just by swinging his hammer. Just...no.

Then there's the whole trite similes and clumsy prose part. While Inheritance still sported these, at least the audience wasn't treated with gems like 'a dawnless morning', 'a flock of starlings darted across the afternoon sky, like fish through the ocean' (comparing a group of animals to another group of animals moving through their natural environment, most clever indeed...), 'her tears appeared like rivers of silvered glass', 'red as a ruby dipped in blood, red as iron hot to forge, red as a burning ember of hate and anger...', or 'Her low, rich voice contained hints of rustling pine needles and gurgling brooks and music played on reed pipes.' The last's probably my personal favorite. A voice that contains pine needle sound effects! =D

I don't know if I exactly hate the series any more. It has become more like one of those cases that bear so many issues it turns unwittingly hilarious. I could add the unplanned innuendo to this list (and it scarcely helps if one has Nanny Ogg's sense of humor). For instance this infamous passage from Brickingr, from what I've heard, has caused sniggering among quite a few readers:

Brimming with silent excitement, he struck the top of a domed rock that rose out of the ground between his legs. The impact jarred his arm and produced a muted thud but caused him no more discomfort than it would have to punch a board covered with several layers of cloth. Emboldened, he retrieved Brom’s ring from his pack and slipped on the cool gold band, checking that the adjacent callus was higher than the face of the ring. He tested his observation by again ramming his fist against the rock. The only resulting sound was that of dry, compacted skin colliding with unyielding stone.

“What are you doing?” asked Arya, peering at him through a veil of her black hair.

“Nothing.”

[sindatur]

Well, I'm still only about 1/3 through the Audio book, but, I went shopping for my mom today, and I had bought the Quadrilogy for her, for her Birthday, and she ripped through it in no time, she said she couldn't put the books down. (In the same month, she also watched all Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who episodes (160 25 minute episodes), so she must've really ripped through the Eragon Books)