Krim

That's because I have books up there that I had when I was twelve or thereabouts, and just because they're there doesn't mean I like 'em. It just means I bought them. I need more recent pictures. I just moved, so I have my books in a box (it took about four large boxes, all of them stuffed, which pissed off my parents.)

Various other books I recommend.

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke,
Litany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe,
Foundation by Isaac Asimov,
Complete Tales of Poe,
In Search of Memory by Kandel,
Neverending Story by Ende,
Art in the Zen of Writing by Bradbury,
To Green Angel Tower Part One and Part Two by Tad Williams,
Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Williams,
Otherland: River of Blue Fire,
Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe,
Sword & Citadel by Gene Wolfe,
The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox,
I Am America (And So Can You),
Dreamcatcher by Stephen King,
The Scar by Mieville,
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch,
Anansi Boys by Gaiman,
The Magician's Guild,
The King of Elfland's Daughter by Dunsany,
No Country For Old Men
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy,
War of the Flowers by Williams,
All nine of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher (a guilty pleasure) and all of his Codex Alera books,
The rest of the Nine Black Company books by Gene Wolfe,
American Psycho by Brett Ellis,
Lord Valentine's Castle by Silverberg,
Donnerjack by Zelazny,
The Talisman by Peter Straub,
The Stand by Stephen King,
Christine by Stephen King,
Riddlemaster of Hed,
The Last Unicorn by Beagle,
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett,
East of Eden by Steinbeck,
Looking for Jake by China Mieville,
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon,
various books on Neurolinguistic Programming,
The Knight and The Wizard by Gene Wolfe,
Neuromancer by William Gibson,
Stardust by Neil Gaiman,
Innocent Mage/Awakened Mage by Karen Miller,
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman,
Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss,
Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card,
The Belgariad by David Eddings,
Dreams of Terror and Death by Lovecraft,
Salem's Lot by King,
The Idiot by Dostoevsky,
Crime and Punishment,
Cujo,
Fahrenheit 451,
Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman,
House of Scorpions by Nancy Farmer,
Sea of Trolls by Farmer,
The Shining,
From a Buick 8,
Buried Fire by Jonathan Stroud,
The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon,
Smoke and Mirrors by Gaiman,
Corrupted Science by John Grant,
Hyperion by Dan Simmons,
The Wyrd Museum Trilogy,
Divine Comedy,
The Lesser Key of Solomon,
The Basic Works of Aristotle,
Stranger In A Strange Land by Henlein,
The Science of Superheros by Kakalios,
Mistborn
and Well of Ascension by Brian Sanderson.


Nope. They're guys with swords who cut things apart.

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"A terrible energy and strength began to grow in him. It grabbed his emotions and forged them into a solid bar of anger with one word stamped on it: revenge." - Eragon by Christopher Paolini, an international bestseller

Dwood

That's right Vader, Eragon's coming for you.


Then I never suggest any of Orson Scott card's works to you.

Xenocide, anyone?

dwellerofthedeep

I guess this means you know a better way to shrink

"an act of genocide directed towards aliens",

if so, I'd like to here it.

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ClancyBoy

That always bugged me too. Xenos (ξένος) means "guest," not "alien." I guess you could shoehorn "slaughter of aliens" into the word, but I'd prefer he hadn't.

Somehow when I read that title I always imagine some renaissance dinner party where the invitees and the host go at it with table knives and two-pronged forks.

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dwellerofthedeep

The title didn't really bother me, but I see the word is a little confusing in a literal sense at the very least. I learned a lot of my vocabulary from science fiction back in the day and I often didn't bother questioning if a word was being used properly. As a result I'm a wee bit easier to please in that regard.

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MerryLlama

i really don't understand the critism! I LOVED Eragon and Eldest.
ok so it did have loads of cliches and ok it was kind similar to other books like Lord of the Rings but so what! I loved lord of the rings too and im not going too say no to more.
It made me smile, laugh and cry what more could you want?

for anyone thats interested the third book has spilt into two so there are now four books, the third one is called 'Brisingr' and out on the 30th of September

ps i've read the Robin Hobb books and think there great too

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Impressario

It sure has become popular to criticize this kid. Eldest is a much better work of fiction than Eragon,true, but overall the quality isn't as low as people would have you believe. The problem lies in the obvious similarities to the original star wars trilogy. In Fact they're far too similar. . . But its a good interpretation.

Luc

Forgive me for stating the obvious question but if there is such clear evidence that christopher paloni took other people's ideas and carved them into his own stories then why have lucas or whoever it is that overlooks LOTR literature and merchandise remained silent over this? Jk Rowling has never shyed from those trying to copy her work. even suing an author in russia who created a female character with the exact traits and history of harry potter.

DavidGil

Ideas used from LOTR are pretty commonplace. Lucas probably hasn't said anything as there's no lightsabers or anything in the inheritance series. So I guess it's all fair what Paolini used within terms of copyright.

But keep in mind I haven't read any of the books. I have the first one mainly to see how someone that age writes whose published. So I'm just going off what others have said.

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alanmt

It's not "popular" to criticize this author. He is criticized frequently, because his work deserves criticism.

Luc, being derivative is not the same as plagiarizing. The former is not actionable in the courts; the latter is. The book is the evidence, btw, and its derivative nature is clear to any objective reviewer.

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Krim

antishurtugal: A Somewhat Comprehensive Guide To Countering Common Arguments.

- chokes with laughter. - Yeah, right.

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"A terrible energy and strength began to grow in him. It grabbed his emotions and forged them into a solid bar of anger with one word stamped on it: revenge." - Eragon by Christopher Paolini, an international bestseller

lemonavenue

I have read a little bit of Eragon but none of Eldest. I plan to get my hands on Eragon eventually and read it all the way through as some kind of learning experiance. I had read some hype on the internet before I picked up the book so I was prepared for the worst, but what I found actually wasn't that bad.

There were a lot of spots that I skipped over and could have easily been edited from the story, or at least shortened, and a lot of inaccuracies, continuity errors (Eragon went hunting for dinner when they already had a whole chicken ready to eat?), and scenes obviously penned by an amature teen writer. Yet it was not unreadable. In a way I can't help but feel happy for Christopher. At least he's living his dream. He may regret Eragon someday if he ever improves his writing, but for now I hope he's enjoying himself.

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MerryLlama

They are really not that bad! He's done amazingly well saying he started when he was only about 15, his storys aren't perfect but the ideas there and they're great for getting kids reading.

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Luc

Glad that link mentioned Kaavya Viswanathan, she was the author I was looking for orignally to ask about the difference bewteen her and paloni given one was critcsed more than the other.

I'll need to loan some of his books and find out the whole craze behind his books though I get the feeling that it was because of his own background may have to do with the sale of the stories, I think anyone would be curious to what kind of books a 15yr old has manahged to get published. Though if he wants his series to stay a succses then he usn't allow a sequal to that 'film adaption' of eragon. (I never visited any fansites of such yet I got bombarded by spam of online petitions demanding that peter jackson be signed on to do a remake of it?!

Damian_Rucci

Every time a major fantasy book comes out, they say it ripped from LOTR. I only read the first book tho, Eragon. When I'm done reading my other books I'm going to read Eldest

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