Eragon

Title:

Eragon

Author:
Christopher Paolini

Series:
The Inheritance Cycle, book 1

About the Author (Goodreads):
Christopher Paolini was born in Southern California and has lived most of his life in Paradise Valley, Montana. He published his first novel, Eragon, in 2003 at the age of nineteen, and quickly became a publishing phenomenon. His Inheritance Cycle—Eragon and its three sequels—have sold nearly 40 million copies worldwide. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is his first adult novel.

Book Summary (Goodreads):
One boy...
One dragon...
A world of adventure.

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.

Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.

I'd Recommend to:
Fans of Star Wars; high school boys 

My rating:
4/5

My Thoughts:

I liked the story/plot. I did not like the writing. 

My friend, Justin, recommended this series to me as it's his favorite. I can see why; it's about a poor farm boy and he's a poor farm boy. Then the one in the story finds a dragon egg and suddenly becomes very important in the role of society. I'm sure when Justin was first reading this, he could clearly imagine himself as Eragon. 

I'm not really into dragons; I'm more into vampires/werewolves/witches but you can learn a lot about a person through their favorite book so of course I'd give it a read. 

Like I said, I liked the story. So much so that I'm currently reading book 2 in the series. My friend, Madison, heard they're going to make a tv series on the books and she's very excited. She said the movie was the biggest disappointment of her life and to not waste my time watching it after I'd read the books. 

Honestly because of the writing style, I would have probably given it 3 stars if it weren't for how loved it is by my friends. This book is over 500 pages, which isn't a big deal except for the fact that there is no reason it was so long. Every little excruciating detail was written out which just drew out the pages. It also had several stopping points that would have been a good end for the book to have readers continue onto the next one; I don't think there was clear start and stop for the book itself and where it ended seemed like the author just went "oops I hit over 500 pages, might as well stop and make the rest another book!" because it didn't make sense to have it end there but not at similar points throughout the book. I don't understand what dictated the start and stop of book 1 vs book 2,3,4, etc. This is also a young adult/children's chapter book but there were a lot of English words that I didn't know. There's also a lot of made-up language words for the various factions - humans, elves, dwarves, magic, etc. - but the actual, real words were just as hard to understand at points and I'm a full-grown adult. I think the plot could have remained the same with the writing toned back a bit. 

This book reminded me a lot of the Star Wars movies. There's an evil Empire and Eragon has been chosen by his dragon to be a hero of society, but he's just a farm boy so he must be trained by the village storyteller, Brom. He travels across the Empire's lands, training in magic and fighting. Towards the end, he must take an injured elf to the Varden, the Rebel Alliance to the Empire. There were a lot of similarities, but on Earth and with dragons instead of in a galaxy with Wookiees. 

I listed high school boys as part of the groups I'd recommend this book to because, although Eragon can be quite rude at times, I think it does provide a good role model type for boys transitioning into men. Eragon learns to do what is right, how to be stronger in all aspects, and provides insight on what it's like to go from an ordinary kid to someone that potentially holds a lot of power. I think this can be influential in a positive way to those reading it at the right time. 

I would definitely watch a movie based on this book (I have seen all the Star Wars movies, after all), but not the one currently out as Madison said I shouldn't. I hope the tv show coming out does it justice. There are certainly enough details written out that the book to television writers don't need to improvise anything as long as they have the budget.