Err...I don't want to get into a big fight or anything, but I want to state my opinion about Eragon.
True, I did enjoy the book and its concept, but I was quite disgusted by the fact that Paolini's work wasn't really original and that he just as easily took other's ideas as his own. That, in a way, slightly pissed me off. Sure, he's young, but that still no excuse. Burrowing a FEW ideas is quite alright, cause readers do need influence from authors, but to TAKE ALMOST EVERYTHING from many other books should be considered STEALING in Paolini's case, including others.
This book is, in short, Standard Adventure Quest Junk. A person wanders in the forest (And of course, he's the best hunter in the village). He finds a blue rock. "It must be my destiny to have this!" He cries.
Then his family gets killed (How many times has this been done? A thousand times? More?), and he finds that his blue rock is an egg (gasp!). Then the storyteller (who would be much better left as an ordinary person) turns out to be a Dragon Rider, and travels with Eragon (That's one letter off from Aragon AND Dragon! What imagination!).
Then they wander around rather aimlessly, and Eragon gets a magic sword, a fully grown dragon, and magic to blow things up with. (While we're giving him weapons, why not hand him a sword of Vorpal Slaying +12, and a Holy Hand Grenade?).
Then, they kill some guy who's supposed to be evil, and rescue the elven princess (Cmon! That was the ultimate in cleashe!), and then they wander across a large desert. Then they come to some sort of city and slaughter a few baddies. Then they relize the evil guy they killed wasnt dead, so they kill him now.
That's the storyline. I was not impressed. In this world, the evil king sits quietly on his throne and waits for some young loser to come and kill him. He has no powerful servents left (the author saw fit to kill them off before the story, leaving him with nameless wizards). And the politics in the world are perposterous. How does it work? If you're lucky enough to find a Dragon egg, then you instantly become a noble, and if you dont, then you are no more than a pesant, so get back to work.
And you could see where a whole passage was effectively lifted out of Belgarath the Soceror! He barely changed the wording! It's about frustrating people until they get sick of it all and just yell some word at the impossible task they've been given to instantly learn magic. And when Eragon's summoning magic, it gives the impression that magic is just a tumor in his brain he lances to boil pus over people.
The main character was like a total flop! He is constantly crying, fainting (6 or 7 times in the damn book), whining and always getting angry at the most pointless things. Paolini lacks depth and emotion in his character. The characters are so poorly done, that I can hardly relate to them, much less feel an sory of feeling for them. I mean, c'mon! Even the Harry Potter series has got me feeling worried over Potty boy here!
So, in conclusion, Eragon was a poor first attempt at fantasy, bringing nothing new, and no interesting interations. It wouldnt have gotten published if his parents wern't working at the publishing company, and wouldn't have gotten any sales if the author didnt go around saying "Buy my book!" and spending more time getting magazines to generate hype then he did writing this 500 page monstrosity.
Oh, and one more thing. The egg awakes Eragon in the middle of the night and guess what? He is ANGRY with it! (GASP!)
How incredibly stupid and fake is that? Really?! I mean, if a blue stone is juggling around and making noises at night, would your first reaction turn out be angry with it? Oh please, Paolini still needs to work on it.
Though, despite my comments, I did (strangely enough) like the book. Yet, I don't think I'm going to buy the next series. Probably just borrow em from the library. Well, whatever.
