The writings of Eragon are the lamentations of readers...NOTE: I listened to this on audiobook, so espect to find the names and places probably hideously misspelled. I would make an effort to correct the spelling if I cared.Eragon and the Vardan have defeated Galbatorix’s forces at Farthen Dur. But Eragon’s journey has only begun. He must now travel to Ellesmera to learn the ways of the dragon riders from the Elves. Meanwhile, his cousin, Roran, must defend his home of Carvahall from the Raz’ac.But you might recognize it better as:Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance have defeated the Empire's Death Star. But Luke's journey has only begun. He must now travel to Dagobah to learn the ways of the Jedi from the last remaining Jedi Master, a crazy old alien, Yoda. Meanwhile, Leia must defend the Millennium Falcon from Darth Vader and retrieve Han, her true love, from his clutches.I strove hard and long to find something admirable, enjoyable about this book. After much head-scratching I have one thing: Oromis teaching Eragon magic. Don't ask me why those parts interested me, but they did (few and far between though they be). Oh, no, wait, I have another favorite part: Vanna (White?) the Elf smack Eragon around. God, that almost makes the book worth reading. Well, not really...Other than these two very teeny, tiny blips on the Eldest radar, I found the “story” painful to listen to, hour after agonizing hour. I must be an ascetic, for mustering through almost 24 hours of this mess. Actually, I probably listened to less, as I tended to wander off mentally only to return and find that absolutely nothing had happened! It’s sad, when you’re reading a novel only to learn that half of what you are reading isn’t even important to the story. It’s either a big, red warning sign that the author is writing piles and piles of fluff or that the editor fell asleep while editing the draft. In Eldest's case, I believe it was both.As we saw in Eragon, the characters in Eldest are terrible, starting with Eragon, our loosely-defined "hero" and a pitifully concealed variant of Aragorn/Luke Skywalker. (NOTE: Be prepared for copious comparison to LOTR and Star Wars, as Paolini loved both so much, he decided to write a fanfic about them hooking up and having babies. Eragon and Eldest are those "babies.) Unlike either Aragorn or Luke, he is the most boring, bland, uninteresting, emotionless, stupid, insipid (yes, I can use big words too!) protagonists I’ve ever read. Eragon never feels anything, he just cries out in anger or pain. The audience never feels any of his anger or pain, we are just told he has it. We suffer through his never-ending descriptions of descriptions of descriptions of everything around him, told with wide-eyed awe that made me wonder if this guy had been locked in a box as a child. We grimace as he stumbles over wooing Arya. We wince as things that are obvious, such as whether the Twins are traitors (they are, it’s not a secret, you could tell in Eragon), are completely beyond him. We are belabored with reading him study such anachronistic subjects like electricity, magnetism, modern physics (Gravity!), and microbiology (milk spoils because of tiny organisms). I suppose if this novel had been established as a steampunk novel like The Golden Compass, this could have worked, but as it stands, this only shows how “enlightened” the Elves and Eragon are, to be studying these odd subjects (Medieval Elves know about microorganisms that spoil milk? People don’t think electricity and magnetism are magic?). My head spent most of these sessions impacting a desk. I have the bruises as proof. And when Eragon becomes an Elf in the most contrived manner…I am still recovering from that one.Then we have Arwen—I mean, Arya. We learn here that she is—GASP!—a princess. Really, did no one see that coming? About the only other plot twist they could throw at us is if she is Eragon's sister. She is the most distant, cold, uninviting character (not Elf, not female, not protagonist, character) I’ve ever encountered. How are we supposed to want Eragon to fall in love with her when I’ve seen granite with more personality?! How are we supposed to think she is so much better than dwarves when she is the one to start a fight with a dwarf about religion (she barges into their temple and begins to tell them how stupid they are to believe in gods with no provocation)? Why are we supposed to feel anything when she reunites with her mother, Queen Iszlanzardi? And what the heck was the beef between them anyway? Why bother to bring it up if there isn’t even going to be a fight or a growth or a purpose to the difference of opinion?Then we have the poor forsaken Gimli-clone that accompanies Eragon. He is almost completely forgotten in the book, so much so that the author at one point finally remembers him and has Eragon comment on it. Why is he even in this book? What does he contribute to the story? Oh, right, can't knock a story when there really isn't one.Then we have all the characters that are basically carbon-copies of Star Wars and LOTR. Eragon is Luke with Aragorn’s name, Arya is Arwen/Leia, Murtagh is Han, Galbatorix is the Emperor/Darth Vader, Morzan is Darth Vader, Brom is Obi-Wan, Nasuada is Eowyn, Ajihad is Theoden, the Twins are Wormtongue, Orik is Chewbacca, Oromis is Yoda, Roran is Leia, Katrina is Han Solo…about the only character that could possibly be considered his own is Angela, but even she is supposedly based off his sister. That doesn’t even include the Dwarves, Elves and Orcs (called Urgals) from Lord of the Rings. In the hands of a good author, this could be done decently, so that the characters pay homage to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings without being half-@ssed rip offs, but Paolini is far from a good author.Worse than the characters, which I could at least stand in Eragon (I’ll admit, Brom was my favorite and it was shame when he died), the story is hideously, mind-numbingly boring. Absolutely nothing happens throughout the book! It’s all a long, boring retelling of journeys: one of Eragon’s and another of Roran’s.Eragon is sent to Dagobah to learn the ways of the Jedi under the tutelage of Yoda, the Last Jedi.Oops, I meant Eragon is sent to Ellesmera to learn the ways of the Dragon Riders under the tutelage of Oromis, the actual last Dragon Rider. It's so easy to make that mistake, since not only did Paolini steal SW characters, but also stole the entire plot of The Empire Strikes Back.Now, I realize that Eragon's plot was pretty much identical to A New Hope. But I could at least ignore the similarities by yelling profanities at the offending sections or getting lost in the fast pace of the novel. Eldest doesn't even bother to disguise the plot, preferring to spend pages upon pages on nothing. It lingers too long in Farthen Dur, too long on the journey to Ellesmera, so that Eragon doesn't even reach it until around Chapter 27 (which might not sound like much since the book is a freakin' 77 chapter doorstopper, but when you are listening to it hour after agonising hour, it is forever). So what happens in those 27 chapters? Well, if you guessed fighting battles, intense chase scenes, or standoffs with the bad guys, go to the corner and sit there and think about what you just did!! No, Paolini fills his "epic" fantasy with each agonizing step of the journey. I wouldn’t be surprised if Paolini detailed each day of the journey. Every stop is given in excruciating detail. Every race Eragon meets gives him long, boring lectures about their culture, their language, their religion, their clothes…anything and everything to pad this story out. Every trip down a river, every haul up a hill is recounted, every time they sent up camp...be prepared for a nap, folks!Even when we finally get to Ellesmera, the story doesn’t pick up. Instead, we trudge through Eragon’s thoughts about ants (THRILLS!), Oromis’ mind-boggling lessons on morality and ethics (CHILLS!), and Paolini’s barely concealed opinions on religion, veganism, and marriage (may I climb out the window SILLS?). No wonder my favorite part was where Vanna whips Eragon. That's the only scene where anything happens!The second “story” is Roran’s story of what happened in Carvahall. Wasn't that the guy who scooted off at the beginning of Eragon to try to make money to marry that chick? So...why is he here? Why was he ignored all through Eragon but now his story is important? Roran leads his people, Moses-like, out of Carvahall to the South to the safety of the Vardan. I have loads of insults for the stupidity of the townfolk, leaving their village at the whim of one man, to the clichéd motivational speech Roran gives, to yet another damsel-in-distress (women in these novels are just terrible, they can’t keep themselves from being kidnapped for the life of them), to another horrible, awkward romance, to the complete misunderstanding of how the world works, but I really don’t care enough about this part to dredge them up. Insert your own witticisms here.By the way, has anyone noticed that there is little explanation to why the Empire is bad? Okay, so we have the Raz’ac killing the folks of Carvahall, but that is only because of Eragon/Roran, and only because the dragon egg was stolen from Galbatorix. Last time I checked, thieves were punishable by law. If someone had stolen something from Eragon, he darn well would have gotten a horse and rode off to beat that thief's @ss...why wouldn't the government do something similar? If given the mind, one could reason that the Vardan are the enemies, for stealing, for being terrorists, and for being traitors to the government (and with how corrupt the Council are, an odd bit of realism in this stereotypical fantasy, it’s not a hard thought to wrap your head around). If you are going to make bad guys, you show them being bad guys. You show Galbatorix and Morzan killing people, oppressing people, stealing for no reason, burning down rows of pretty blue flowers, etc., not just tell the audience they are bad and expect us to root for Eragon and the Vardan.Now we get to the fun part: the writing style. Oh, God Almighty, the writing style. Paolini is very aware he’s trying to write an epic, because it sounds just like an epic should. Well, a quick glance shows it sounding like an epic should. If you read with any modicum of attention, you'll see that it reads like the worst LOTR fanfiction on the internet. Too much time is spent on needless descriptions (Oh, yes, let’s describe each of the Dwarves gods and goddesses!), padded wording, and clichéd phrases. Some of the worst passages I’ve found include:“Slippers flashing beneath her dress, like mice darting from a hole.” WORST. DESCRIPTION. EVER. Mice now dart out of a hole, back into the hole, and out of the hole, all in quick rapid succession? Was this really the best way to describe...what is Paolini describing???“Eragon surreptitiously watched the Elf, curious to what he looked like without his clothes.” Uh, and why is Eragon hitting on Arya and pouting when he fails disastrously?“Eragon savored the epics as he might a well-cooked meal.” Who said you couldn’t eat what you read?“Anxiety ran through his voice like a taut bow string.” Run, Anxiety, run! Get away from the bad simile!“gyrating walls of ebony water” No, I would say “purple”, as in “purple prose”.And then, of course, as I’ve briefly touched on earlier, Paolini breaks some of the author’s Golden Rules. “Show, don’t tell”. “Good prose should be invisible”. “Don’t lose the pacing by trying to describe your setting”. “The word ‘said’ is your best friend in dialogue.” And so on.And now, I get into the audiobook. Most of the time, I don’t bother to comment, as the narrators do a good job at narrating. But I absolutely hated one thing about this narrator: his voices. They weren’t bad, even if the women were nearly impossible to tell apart from the men, but the absolute low point was the dragons. For the dragons, the narrator growled in a low, deep, raspy voice. This wasn’t bad for a short sentence here and there, but for long, long, long passages (which Paolini writes a lot of), it was so bad, I was very close to skipping over the section, just to stop listening to the horrible voice.If you are interested in reading a cross-over fan fiction of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, I recommend you go to fan-fiction.net. If you want to read horrible characters, unending descriptions, bad romance, and a thin as plastic wrap plot stretched over 71 chapters that reads like Star Wars with characters and settings from Lord of the Rings, read Eldest. If you didn’t like Eragon, Eldest will only make you madder.
Reviewed on 26/07/2015Actual Rating: 3.5 StarsJust a heads up to those who are really impatient; do not, I repeat, DO NOT ever read this book, or should I say this particular series. This apparent book has bloody 679 pages, and for those of you who hate books which are so painfully slow you could just rip them into shreds, please, run far away and never come back. Don’t even think about hesitating; just run for your life.While reading Eldest, I had the most awe-inspiring major conflict/ dilemma because this book is so detailed, like so very detailed. Christopher Paolini’s imagination alone, can win a Nobel Prize. No, I’m not even joking. The world he built in the book, took my very breath away, from the different kingdoms to the climax. And bad thing is, those were the only two things I liked in the book.First things first, Eragon is 16, am I right? Yet, he sounds like a freaking adult in his mid-thirties who have nothing to do in his life, except to dress as a 16 year old and fight a stupid evil King with a stupid name I can’t even pronounce and won’t ever try to, with the companionship of a what a female dragon who’s actually considered an infant yet sounds like a grown dragon with at least a century over of experience.What the actual ____?And what made it worst was that this 16 year old hero, fell in love with a female elf, who’s actually over 100 years old. This is absolutely disgusting, alright? Don’t even think of giving me the ‘But Edward Cullen was 104 years old when he fell in love with a 17 year old human’ excuse. Edward had a good reason; Bella’s scent was so intoxicating to him that he couldn’t resist. Yet for this case, Eragon isn’t a vampire. Miss ‘100 years old’, didn’t have any intoxicating scent, there just isn’t any reason for Eragon to fall head over heels for her.But I appreciate what the elf did; she pushed Eragon away. It’s honestly a good thing she understood that this Shadeslayer’s still a child. Well, not exactly a child, but compared to her, he certainly is one.All the other characters were developed pretty well; you gotta give a thumbs up to the author for that.To sum it up, Eldest was a brilliant read, although not brilliant enough to make itself to 4 stars (cough cough you know what I’m referring to) and another reason for the 3.5 stars; the whole process, the whole journey was painfully slow I dozed off three times. Yes, three bloody times, and everyone knows Kim isn’t someone to doze off while reading books.With all that said more like ranted, I’m definitely finishing the series as although slow in plot, there’s some serious epic action coming up. I can feel them in my bones.
What do You think about Eldest (2007)?
I am giving this fours stars only because, despite it being perfect, it was a little too slow at some points, like when Eragon was traveling to the land of the elves. Too many nights having small talk around a campfire for my taste, you know? Regardless, in all other aspects this book is beautiful. Paolini has created a world of its own; even though people sometimes accuse him of copying a little of the work of others, I disagree. Alagaësia doesn't feel like anything I've read before. It is a unique land with unique culture, old magic and background history; seriously, there's nothing not to like about it. The story on this one takes up immediately from the end of Eragon. Eragon and Saphira spend some time with the Varden, where they learn some important lessons about the responsibilities of a dragon rider and also a lot of dwarf culture. Soon enough, though, Eragon, Saphira, Arya and Orik depart for Ellesméra, the land of the elves, for Eragon must learn more about magic if he is to defeat Galbatorix. After uncountable nights traveling through the most beautiful landscapes, they finally get there. Here is where Paolini, visibly, started to single himself out as a free writer; he takes a courageous leap of originality and creates his own elves, with their own unique culture and magic. Magic. This is the word for Ellésmera. It flourishes from magic, from the smallest sprout to the biggest tree, and trees are really big there... some of them contain houses. It's so breath-taking and vivid that I remember having dreams, for days, of myself roaming through Ellesméra, contemplating all its magnificence.From the point Eragon's training begins, though, despite it being very interesting to know the foundations of Paolini's magic, things get nasty. Some elves can be a bunch of arrogant pricks when they want to. Some of them refuse to acknowledge Eragon, a foreigner teenager human, as their only hope against Galbatorix, so they turn everything into a chance to remind him of how weak he is. Fortunately, though, the Universe is on Eragon's side, so after a little time some events occur which make him more prepared to face the tasks which his future reserves for him. I don't think he would have survived Ellesméra had it not happened.Overall, this book was better than I was expecting, after having liked the first one so much already. A lot of background history was revealed, which made the whole thing much more believable and coherent. I can relate a lot more to Eragon now, after all the trials he had to face; sometimes I even physically reacted to what was happening to him, which can only be thanked to Paolini's extraordinary gift with words. About the events that take place at the end of the book, I can only say one thing: I didn't like Murtagh that much before his disappearance, now I hate him. Very. Much. Interesting quotes that I didn't include in the review: Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now. Wise? No, I simply learned to think. You cannot miss what you have never had. The Last Passage(view spoiler)[ Unable to sustain the spell any longer, Eragon let the image fade away. He leaned against the wall of the tent for support. "Aye," he said wearily, "she's alive. And chances are, she's imprisoned in Helgrind, in the Ra'zac's lair." Eragon grasped Roran by the shoulders. "The answer to your question, brother, is yes. I will travel to Dras-Leona with you. I will help you to rescue Katrina. And then, together, you and I shall kill the Ra'zac and avenge our father." (hide spoiler)]
—Ademilson Moraes
Okay, so most of what I said about Eragon still applies... the main change here seems to be that the author has reduced the amount of action and plot events, and replaced them with exposition. This isn't completely horrible, as it's somewhat well done, but having done it at all really just resulted in hundreds of pages where very little actually happens, while the author fleshes out the setting and history of the world through lessons with Oromis, casual conversations with Arya, informational moments with Nasuada, etc.And really, that's what drags this book down, ultimately -- I just found myself longing for something to happen. An interwoven substory with Roran and the villagers of Carvahall helped with this a little, and actually provided most of the action for most of the book. Then at the very end, we finally get some sustained activity and a nice twisty revelation.But ultimately, I felt like the book could have been a lot shorter, and probably should have been. The exposition and world-fleshing could have been saved for a supplemental book, a "Tales Of Alegaesia" or something. And once again, I got the feeling that some entire scenes or events were added just to explain away some earlier contradiction or unclear element. Plus, even more so than in the first book, some of the writing obscured what was going on more than it elucidated -- there were various times I reread entire passages and still wasn't sure what exactly had happened.Again, I wonder about the editing here.Overall, less enjoyable than the first book, and with way too much exposition and too little action -- though that said, reading through the pages and pages of exposition was still somewhat interesting and enjoyable.
—Nathan
Haha I was the same in high school, rarely read YA! My friend was OBSESSED with the first two books so I gave them a try and was surprised to find I enjoyed them :DOmg that's long, but I think listening to the books would probably be more enjoyable than reading them. I found the last 2 tedious to go through, but I think I would have enjoyed them a lot more if I went the audio book route!Good luck finding book 3!!
—Mel
