Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

Long ago, in the land of Alagaesia, prosperity reigned supreme under the vigilant guard of the Dragon Riders. They were the protectors of the country, maintaining peace among humans, dragons, elves, and dwarves.

However, the Riders gradually became complacent in their power. It only took the madness of one Rider to bring the entire organization crashing down.

Now, the mad Rider, Galbatorix, has been self-proclaimed Emperor for the past century or so. The other Riders are all dead. The elves and dwarves have abandoned the heart of Alagaesia and are working with the human rebels, the Varden, on the fringes of the Empire. In the remote parts of the country, no one alive has ever seen a dragon.

Eragon, a fifteen-year-old lad and an orphan, is being raised by his uncle in the foothills of the forested Spine Mountains. One day, he stumbles upon one of the last dragon eggs and takes it home, completely unaware of what it is. When the dragon hatches, she bonds with Eragon, but he has to hide her from both his family and the authorities. An inevitable disaster then thrusts the youth and the dragon into a war... a war that only they can win.

Content Advisory
Violence: There are numerous fight scenes, mostly featuring human combatants against what seem like discount Orcs. There is some gratuitous gore. Our hero narrowly escapes from a human sacrifice cult, though fortunately, we don't witness them sacrificing anyone. Later, he comes across a town where all the inhabitants have been slaughtered, and there is a pile of corpses with an impaled baby on top. An elf is held prisoner and tortured, resulting in awful injuries. A young man bears an ugly scar from when his father threw a sword at him.

Sex: Eragon develops an instant and intense lust for the elf, Arya. When Murtagh tells Eragon that he is on the run from the Varden, the latter asks if he killed the wrong guy or "bedded the wrong woman."

Language: None.

Substance Abuse: There is a pointless scene where Eragon gets extremely drunk and wakes up with a wicked hangover. Saphira smugly asks him, "Have we learned a lesson?"

Politics and Religion: There is an Ancient Language that contains the true name of everything, and using these words in the proper arrangements produces magic. Evil beings called "Shades" obtain their magic powers from being possessed by demons.

There is the aforementioned human sacrifice cult, who worship in a building that Paolini insists on calling a "cathedral." In the real world, "cathedral" has specific Christian connotations, which makes that part of the story rather confusing.

Eragon meets a witch named Angela, who rolls dragon knucklebones to tell his fortune.

Nightmare Fuel: The aforementioned Shades look like grotesque vampires, with greying skin, scarlet eyes, and sharp teeth. EDIT: As my friend Whiteraven191 notes in the comments, Durza files his teeth, which is even more grotesque. Then there are the insectoid Eldritch abominations known as the Ra'zac, who seem nearly impossible to defeat...

Conclusions
Christopher Paolini was only fifteen when he completed this hefty book, which is an impressive feat. However, this book would have been significantly better if Paolini had finished the manuscript, outlined the rest of the series, and put it aside for a few years before returning to it with a bit more maturity. Both the style and the content would have benefited greatly from this. Even a ruthless editor could have been of great help.

Unfortunately, Paolini's parents self-published Eragon as it was and promoted it aggressively. Eventually, Carl Hiaasen read it and put in a good word at Random House. This was in 2002, when high fantasy was experiencing a boom due to the Lord of the Rings films. Eragon became a bestseller, buoyed by its aesthetic similarities to LOTR, its cool dragons, and the youth of its author.

The book does have its strengths. Compared to other YA bestsellers of that era, it succeeds where many of them fail. It is much more lively than its spiritual sister, The Naming, although The Naming has a lot more depth. It has a plot, unlike Twilight. It has more heart and soul than The Hunger Games, isn't nearly as elitist as Harry Potter or as rigidly stylized as the Lemony Snicket novels, has a much grander scope than Tamora Pierce's Tortall stories, isn't a diatribe aimed at a real-world religion like the Dark Materials trilogy, makes more sense than Inkheart, and never devolves into crassness like Rick Riordan's demigod novels and Artemis Fowl.

The main problem with Eragon is the immaturity of the writer, which is evident in its derivative plots and settings, uninsightful characterizations, and bloated prose.

Many readers complain that the setting borrows from Tolkien while the plot rips off Star Wars. I can understand where these accusations come from, but I don't think they are entirely fair. While Paolini's dwarf kingdom of Farthen Dur is clearly based on Moria and Erebor, and I suspect that the elf kingdom in the woods will imitate Rivendell and Lothlorien, the rest of Alagaesia isn't that closely related to any specific Middle-earth locale. Tolkien had an incredible talent for establishing setting; Paolini, at age fifteen, did not. Eragon's hometown of Carvahall is the most tangible place in this book, a backwater on the edge of a dangerous wilderness, and you can sense the growing unrest of the people who live there. The other human territories blend together.

As for the plot, George Lucas and his collaborators deliberately developed the first Star Wars to be a distillation of the Campbellian Hero's Journey archetype. The plot was intentionally generic, and the color was provided by the space setting and the unique worlds within it. So, if a given story has plot similarities to A New Hope, that alone is not a cause for great concern. If it turns out in Eldest that Durza the Shade was Eragon's father, then we can worry about ripping off Lucas.

Paolini's characters only resemble Lucas' in terms of their roles in the plot; they have very different personalities. When we first meet Luke Skywalker, he is whiny and a bit nosy, but overall, he is a sweet lad. Luke's darker side only emerges after the viewer knows what a good person he is.

Eragon is no Luke. They share curiosity, but that's about it. Eragon has a very intense temperament, which (understandably) turns into full-blown rage when his uncle is killed. This is where Paolini gains an advantage over Lucas; Luke has almost no reaction to the death of his uncle and aunt, while Eragon is truly devastated by Uncle Garrow's loss and feels guilty because he knows that the Ra'zac were looking for him and his dragon.

Unfortunately, Eragon's grief is melodramatic and loud - the way you might write about the death of a family member when you've never experienced it. Grief is a cold, quiet thing that creeps in subtly; sometimes you forget it's there until you come across a memento and it overwhelms you. It is not necessarily constant, and it is more likely to make you sad than angry.

We never really see Eragon being sad in a healthy way, and we never really see him forget himself and feel joy for a few moments either. He doesn't feel wonder when Brom starts teaching him magic. His friendship with Murtagh has an edge, and his crush on Arya is also edgy. He never opens his heart even to Saphira, his telepathically-bonded dragon. All of this is fine, but it does make Eragon the character difficult to like. His one endearing quality is his fascination with knots and his hope to undo them someday, which is a nice bit of symbolism.

Murtagh is no Han Solo. Han is just trying to get by - beneath his cocky exterior, his heart is three sizes too big. He also has a sense of humor, which Murtagh has even less of than Eragon. Murtagh actually has an emotional investment in the war and avoids the Varden because he fears his parentage being known, not because he is reluctant to commit to a cause. He has a dark, simmering energy that reminds me of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. But he is almost redundant because Eragon himself is already a bundle of angst. Returning to the Star Wars comparison, I strongly suspect that Murtagh is Eragon's long-lost sibling, not Arya.

Which is a relief because Arya is no Leia Organa, and her dynamic with Eragon is very different from that between Leia and Luke. Leia was stuck-up, but she was also always snarky and upbeat. She was actually able to contribute to her own rescue mission, and her general persona was sanguine and approachable. Arya is an elf, which automatically makes her aloof, but she spends most of the book in a self-induced magical coma, which slows down her character development and doesn't give her the opportunity to bond with the boys and Saphira.

There is no hint of attraction between Arya and Murtagh (who seems more interested in Nasuada, the daughter of the Varden's top commander). But there is some chemistry between Arya and Eragon, who attempts to wake her from her coma with magic, resulting in a telepathic bond. The flirtation between Luke and Leia was minor and innocent; even that infamous kiss was really only to make Solo jealous. Eragon and Arya have very different personalities that will hopefully lead to some entertaining friction in the rest of the series.

Saphira the dragon is a fairly good character. At first, her thoughts sound appropriately alien, and they become closer to human as the book progresses - which makes sense because she has only been exposed to humans. But towards the end of the novel, Saphira's thoughts simply echo Eragon's; she no longer offers him any insights that he couldn't have reached on his own, and often replies to his questions with "I don't know, maybe we'll find out." This almost makes her seem like his imaginary friend.

Brom is okay, but he is clearly a combination of Gandalf and Obi-Wan and never develops his own distinct personality beyond that. His inevitable death is also staged in an abrupt and silly way, and I'll explain why the Ra'zac were the wrong characters to kill him.

Roran, Nasuada, and Angela are placeholders. They are clearly going to be important later, but there isn't much to say about them at the moment.

Galbatorix is never shown in person. His servants Durza and the Ra'zac are suitably frightening, but the man himself and his dragon remain unseen and rather ineffective.

There are a few scenes that could definitely have been improved to enhance the archetypal, mythic elements. When Brom takes an arrow that was intended for Eragon, it is rushed - the only rushed scene in the book is the one that actually needed to be drawn out more.

I would also argue that Brom should have survived until they reached Durza's dungeon and perished at the hands of Durza, not the Ra'zac. The Ra'zac are certainly grotesque, but they are so alien that it is difficult to even imagine them. We already know that this is rehashing elements from The Fellowship of the Ring and A New Hope, so it seems natural that the mentor figure would die in the stronghold of evil, just as his two inspirations did. Finally, I find Durza more viscerally scary than the Ra'zac. This change could have made the book fifty pages shorter and made the final combat between Eragon and Durza more satisfying.

Similarly, while I thought Arya's coma was rather dumb, it wouldn't have been so bad if she had woken up shortly after being rescued. But it doesn't make sense that Murtagh ends up carrying the comatose girl. Since the narrator has told us several times that Eragon is already preoccupied with her, he should be eager to carry her himself - and in a nice bridal-carry, not slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. And if Murtagh was the one to stab Durza, he should have his hands free anyway.

If Arya woke up much earlier, she could also have guided Saphira and the boys through the wilderness to the Varden and eliminated a hundred pages of aimless wandering.

A more refined prose style would have minimized the flaws of the story and maximized its strengths. But Eragon is so verbose that the narration can disrupt your immersion in the story. Paolini uses obscure words from the thesaurus when a common one would suffice, and the story would flow better as a result. He also compulsively overdescribes background characters and settings, as if afraid that we can't picture the scene without every detail being filled in. Tolkien also loved to set the stage, but he knew how to incorporate the description with subtlety. Here, the narrative can come to a standstill for paragraphs because Paolini has to ensure that we know the exact dimensions of Horst's kitchen table.

In conclusion, this isn't a terrible novel. The story is familiar but still rather exciting, and the characters and setting have potential. It's just a bit of a mess - you can tell that it was written by a teenager and makes a lot of beginner's mistakes. Good editing and rearranging some events could have made the book shorter and more engaging; some advice from a more experienced reader could have given it more emotional depth. As it is, I'm interested enough to see where the story goes next, but the significant flaws have created a barrier between the reader and the story that shouldn't be there. It's not terrible, but it doesn't reach its full potential either.

I love it when I take the time and effort to write a full-on rant review for this particular book. I pour out my honest thoughts and feelings, sharing every detail that has bothered me about the story, the characters, or the writing style. And then, out of nowhere, Goodreads decides to randomly delete it.

I’m really not mad, I promise. But it’s just so frustrating. I mean, I understand that there might be some guidelines and rules that need to be followed, but to delete a review without any explanation or warning just seems unfair.

It makes me feel like my voice doesn’t matter and that my opinion is not valued. I write these reviews not only for myself but also for other readers who might be interested in knowing more about the book. It’s a way for me to contribute to the book community and share my experiences. And now, with this deletion, it feels like all that hard work has gone to waste.

I hope that Goodreads can be more transparent about their review deletion process and give reviewers a chance to defend their work or make any necessary changes. Otherwise, it’s going to be really discouraging for people like me to continue writing reviews.

Well, this is not too bad if the writer is 16. (Oh, he is?) Give him another fifteen years of writing experience, and he should be really good. (Oh, it’s been fifteen years? How is he now?)

The beginning of the story is actually quite decent. It grabs the reader's attention and makes them want to know more. However, as the story progresses, I find myself growing increasingly bored. There is very little to no character development. Eragon, the main character, has very few flaws, if any. He just seems to go along reacting to stuff and trying to be a hero without much depth or complexity. The descriptions in the book are also rather boring. They lack the vividness and detail that would make the story come alive. The action scenes, too, are not very exciting. They feel rather flat and unengaging. The writing itself is pretty good on the surface, but I think it needed to be more succinct. There are a lot of unnecessary words and phrases that could have been cut out to make the story flow better.

I’m going to summarize the plot in gifs, so spoilers ahead. But if you have read any fantasy book before, you already know what happens. (Seriously, this story is Star Wars with a Lord of the Rings paint job on it.)

Eragon is an orphan living with his aunt and uncle. He has no idea who his father is. One day, he picks up a mysterious object that leads him to seek advice from a Strange Old Hermit. Unfortunately, this decision gets his family killed. Eragon then wanders around for a while and quickly becomes a master at magic and sword fighting. While our hero enjoys what I like to call Die Hard Syndrome, the mentor of course has to go. Eragon then has to decide whether to join the Rebel Alliance and rescues a princess archetype along the way. Naturally, all the female characters (all two or three of them) are amazingly beautiful.

Okay, about the dragon. The dragon doesn’t have much personality, either. She and Eragon are perfect for each other in this way. For some reason, whenever the book talked about Eragon riding the dragon, I kept imagining something completely different. The audio narration was pretty good, but the dragon’s voice (and the were-cat’s) for some reason sounded like an impersonation of Frank Oz. I thought of these guys every time the dragon talked.

TL;DR
This book is a great introduction to fantasy for young readers. Everyone else will just see one cliche and trope after another. It lacks the depth and originality that would make it a truly great book. However, it is still an enjoyable read for those who are new to the genre and are looking for a simple and straightforward adventure story.

Eragon's discovery of the blue stone in the forest was a fateful event. He brought it home, hoping it might fetch a few coins to help his poor family through the winter. Little did he know that this stone was actually a long-lost dragon egg. The parallels between Paolini's work and Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS are evident. While Eragon didn't have a Ring of Power like Frodo, he was chosen by Saphira, the unhatched dragon, to become the only Dragon Rider in the known lands. This launched him on a multi-novel quest against Galbatorix's evil plans.

The story is filled with dwarves, elves, magic spells, runes, and more. Paolini also added his own unique characters like Angela, a witch with the ability to read the future, and Solembum, a humorous werecat. If Paolini can maintain the excitement and quality throughout the trilogy, this fantasy lover will be very pleased. ERAGON is an amazing debut novel and a great start to THE INHERITANCE CYCLE.

“The worth [of anything we do] is in the act. Your worth halts when you surrender the will to change and experience life”

Implementing a winning formula of Familiar Dragons and a lord of the rings like fantasy epic may not be the most original idea in the world.

But stop fronting, this is good entertaining escapism.

Ok, I know that Paolini wrote the Eragon when he was fresh out of high school and was greatly helped by the advantage of his parent owning a publishing company. So he went mass market and best selling very early in his career. It's amazing to me to think this very successful author is the same age as my wife.

I only point all this out because there seems to be some haters among the Goodread author's community. But I wonder if such criticism is more envy than credit based.

The world of Alagaesia is well fleshed out and a comforting setting for an escape. The characters are solid and the dialogue is on point. At no point did I get disinterested, lost, or confused about the narrative or setting.

The plot has basic elements of the heroic epic, with an evil empire to overthrow. The prevailing theme of being your own master and not being influenced by greater power really resonated with me.

All that is good, but this book and series is all about the DRAGONS. That's why they are on the cover and the reason for the series and author's success. I will give Paolini credit for the compelling relationship between Eragon and Saphira. Writing compelling and believable relationships is something some fantasy writers struggle with.

This first novel of the Tetralogy centers mostly on their developing relationship. Later the story leads up to the ultimate conflict that hopefully arcs in the series. There's an action-packed battle at the end which I enjoyed.

I also give Paolini credit for writing a good and compelling opening entry to the series. Paolini was organized and knew his business and began with a clear idea of the format and concepts he wanted to convey.

A lot of fantasy and Sci-fi Series are disorganized with entries all over the place in the timeline and expanding into other series connected by fragile ties. The inheritance series so far is a well-formed arc. Digestible, to use a phrase I heard in a criticism of Feist's Riftwar series, and I appreciate that.

To conclude, Eragon is everything I want and expect from the fantasy genre!

"Amazing things do happen, I know, but always to someone else, always in some far-off place and time. But I found your egg, was tutored by a Rider, and dueled a Shade - those can't be the actions of the farm boy I am, or was."

"Every age needs an icon - perhaps a lot has fallen to you. Farm boys are not named for the first Rider without a cause. Your namesake was the beginning, and now you are the continuation. Or the end."

Lowkey spoiler

Eragon: If I had a coin for every time I've traveled with people I don't know have blood ties with, I'd have two coins. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it has happened twice lol. It's truly astonishing how fate has intertwined his life with these unknown individuals. First, there was the mysterious egg that changed his world forever. Then, he was taught by a Rider, which opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. And now, he has dueled a Shade, a feat that seems almost impossible for a simple farm boy. It makes one wonder what other surprises the future holds for Eragon. Will he continue to be the icon that this age needs? Or will his story come to an end? Only time will tell.

I can understand the reasons why some individuals offer criticism towards this book.

Undoubtedly, it draws a great deal of inspiration from renowned works such as "The Wheel of Time" and "Lord of the Rings", to an extent that at times it gives the impression that one has already perused a similar story.

However, it should be noted that this book is significantly more accessible and easier to understand compared to the two previously mentioned ones.

My sole genuine concern is that it functions predominantly as a setup book. The most captivating character wasn't truly introduced until the final 5% of the narrative.

Most likely, I will eventually get around to reading the second installment, but it doesn't hold a high priority on my list at the moment.

Nonetheless, I remain curious to see how the story will unfold and develop in the subsequent books.

While I initially hesitated to read this book (having seen the insipid movie and not being a big fan of juvenile books in general), it turned out to be a truly great fantasy novel. Reading can be an excellent escape, and these novels (I'm currently on the third in the series) are a prime example of this.

I'm certain that I'll irritate many people by stating that I've deliberately avoided the juvenile books that are popular among the masses (such as the Harry Potter cult and the Twilight-crazed zombies). I was afraid that this series would be more of the same: overrated drivel lacking original thoughts and representing an intellectual regression.

However, this first novel managed to capture my attention (no easy feat) for most of a weekend. Fortunately, the friend who insisted that I read this novel had the other two books available for me to start immediately after I devoured the first one. Although it's not a short novel, time seemed to pass by quickly (no pun intended, considering the dragon and all, ha ha), and I didn't want the book to end. It's always a good sign when I reach the last page and feel disappointed that there isn't more.

Like any good fantasy novel, by the time I finished, I believed in all the absurd elements - dragons, magic, and so on. Much like the Anne Rice vampire novels, I half expected to see some of the fantastic characters (werecats?) walking around in the real world afterwards. That doesn't mean I lost my mind, really; it's just that I came to accept that world and became completely engrossed in it.

Yes, there were a few moments when I realized how young the author must have been when he wrote this, which made me feel a little old in turn. But considering that he was only 15 when he wrote this and that this was his first novel, it's quite remarkable that I wasn't annoyed by his naivete. Instead, I forgot all about his age (and mine) and simply enjoyed the novel.

No, it's not targeted at today's barely literate youth. The vocabulary is definitely more sophisticated, and I believe the subject matter can be enjoyed at any age.

So, if you have an imagination and enjoy escaping from your daily realities into a completely different world, I would highly recommend this book. But I warn you: you too may find yourself making excuses to read whenever possible and becoming somewhat irritated by any and all distractions.

Eragon = Star Wars

The book kicks off with Princess Arya, much like Princess Leia, engaged in the dangerous task of smuggling a dragon egg, which could be seen as equivalent to a message or the Death Star plans, from the menacing evil kingdom, similar to the Empire. She manages to conceal it successfully, but unfortunately, she is captured by Ozzy Osbourne, who is analogous to Durza or Darth Vader, and is interrogated about its location.

Enter a simple orphan farm boy named Eragon, who is parallel to Luke. He acquires the egg, message, or plans but has no real clue about what to do with it. One fateful day or night, he returns home only to discover his uncle and aunt brutally murdered by ra’zak, who are like storm troopers, in their attempt to recover the egg or plans. With his surrogate parental figures gone, he makes the decision to leave home forever, determined to seek revenge.

He embarks on a journey with an old man named Brom, who is comparable to Obi-Wan. Brom actually has some knowledge about the dragon or message as he was a former Dragon Rider, similar to a Jedi Knight. He begins to teach Eragon how to use a sword, similar to a lightsaber, and how to master magic, which is like the force.

During their journey, the evil kingdom draws them to their fortress, similar to the Death Star. Once there, they are able to rescue the princess, but unfortunately, Brom meets his end at the hands of Durza, just as Obi-Wan is killed by Vader. After escaping the fortress, they meet up with Murtagh, who is like Han Solo, and he claims he can take them to the hideout of the Varden, which is similar to the Rebel resistance movement.

However, the ever-present evil kingdom tracks them to the hideout and initiates an attack to wipe out the entire resistance movement. At the climax of the battle, there is an intense aerial confrontation between Eragon with his dragon, similar to an X-wing, and Durza with his dragon, which could be a Tie bomber or a Tie fighter. In the end, Durza is defeated and Eragon blows up the fortress, just like Luke destroys the Death Star.

Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews

This review must begin with my admission that I am a middle-aged, white man. My angst-ridden teen years are a distant memory most days. However, as the proud – and highly stressed, at times – father of several children, I get to relive those dramatic teen days over again through my kids. Something I tend to do by watching their favorite TV shows and movies with them, listening to their music, and reading the younger children (pre-teens and younger) their favorite books at bedtime. And this is how I first was introduced to Eragon several years ago: First at the movies in 2006, then a few years later as a bedtime story read. More recently, I decided to revisit the story via an audio book.

Why am I starting my review this way, you ask? Mainly, it is to warn everyone that I am definitely not the target audience for Eragon, so please be aware of that and assume that the review to follow will not be highly favorable of it.

Eragon starts out like many old school fantasy books: The focus being on a poor farm boy. His name here is. . . (drum roll please!) Eragon! This solidly built and morally firm youth is out hunting in the dangerous mountains for food to help his “adopted” family get through the winter. It is something he does willingly, since his uncle has loved and raised him as his own son ever since Eragon’s mother disappeared soon after his birth.

After a tiring hunt, our young farm boy is about to kill a deer when a burst of magic disrupts the peace of the land. As the light disappears, Eragon discovers something much more dangerous than any wild beast lying before him. Rather, he observes an unadorned blue stone! A simple thing really. One that Eragon quickly takes, intending to sell it to get his family food for the winter. Little does he know that the stone is priceless beyond imagination. A metamorphosis soon to occur that will change Eragon’s life (and the fate of the world) forever!

The story that follows mixes a dash of Lord of the Rings (everything), a pinch of Star Wars (knights with glowing swords), a smidgen of Pern (dragonriders), and a cup of over-used fantasy tropes (you name it, it's here) to create a fairly generic story. While it isn’t bad, Eragon isn’t anything great either. Honestly, it seems at times that Mr. Paolini was content to cut and paste his favorite parts from other stories, tacking these borrowed elements together to create his own teenage fantasy adventure. (Yes, I know Paolini was a teenager when he wrote this, which is why I believe this assessment is fair.)

Does that mean Eragon is not worth reading? No, it is a decent fantasy novel. My youngest child adores it. He has had me read it to him once and watches the movie regularly, but he hasn’t even hit double digits in his age yet. My older children (pre-teen and teens) do not like it at all, however. In fact, when I read it to them as a bedtime story several years ago, they totally revolted, demanding that I stop and read something more interesting. When I asked why they felt that way, they said Lord of the Rings was better. Since I couldn’t argue, I moved to the next book.

So my kids are split on the book, but why didn’t I (middle-aged, white guy) like this one? As I mentioned earlier, I find it generic. The story is just too formulaic, filled with too many tropes, inhabited by too many archetypes, and too unsurprising to be terribly interesting to me. The generic farm-boy-with-mysterious-past-finds-magical-object-and-becomes-the-chosen-one was overdone even when I was a kid, and by the 2000s, it was almost impossible to concoct anything new and exciting out of that type of scenario. Even adding in the Star Wars-like elements, Paolini’s story had already been told before and told better to put it simply.

Even saying all that, I can understand where others would disagree and personally love this book, especially those new to fantasy. It is an excellent introduction to traditional fantasy with enough magic, world building, and mystical creatures to keep a reader interested. In that introductory type of role, I can see how Eragon could be great.

On a final note, I must give praise to the narrator of the audio book I listened to. This person did an outstanding job with this story. The voices he created were amazingly well done as were the emotions that he somehow endowed the words with. Many times, I could tell the characters' feelings just by the tone of the narrator’s voice. A performance that was especially noteworthy and in need of a spotlight.

Eh, this book was alright.

First up, hats off to Christopher Paolini for writing such a complex story at his age. It gives hope to a teenage author like myself that one doesn't need to be a stuffy Cambridge professor to pen a novel.

Secondly, however, there were quite a number of issues with this book.

***First Issue***

Isn't this story set in what seems like Middle-earth? The dwarves, elves, shades (Black Riders, anyone?), and Urgals (Orcs?) and everything felt a bit too close to Tolkien's works for my taste.

***Second Issue***

Isn't this just Star Wars, but set in a Tolkienesque world? Eragon was raised by his uncle, his uncle dies, he meets a fighter dude, travels across the land, saves a princess from prison, and joins the rebellion (and the fighter dude doesn't want to stay). There's also a fight that concludes the book. Eragon is about as whiny as Luke, and the Dragon Riders are like Jedi. Oh, and we'll discover in Eldest that it has even more resemblance to Star Wars than I initially thought. Just saying.

***Everything else***

Apart from those aspects, I was okay with the book, but I truly felt like it was nothing extraordinary. It lacked originality. It was just another fantasy coming-of-age novel. AND I CANNOT STAND IT WHEN CHARACTERS SUDDENLY DISCOVER THEY HAVE MAGICAL POWERS!!!!!!! It really annoys me. How convenient. Oh look, I'm magic. Great. I can save the world now. In short, I think this book was good and enjoyable, although perhaps a bit longer than necessary.

***Some Positives***

There were positives, though. Overall, the book was engaging. I liked it. Eragon was actually a rather good protagonist, and Saphira was a fantastic secondary character. Her dry humour and wit were wonderful. Murtagh was okay, and the old guy, Brom, was cool too.

I once read a review that described this book as "Star Wars by way of the Lord of the Rings," and I have never agreed more with a critic's review.

***A Realization***

I just realized I reviewed this book in a similar style to Death in "The Book Thief," with the asterisks and all. How amusing.

So, basically, it's a good book, but nothing special. It won't stand the test of time like some classics, but it also doesn't deserve to be thrown in the trash like others.

4.5 stars

It feels as if no time has elapsed since I last reread this remarkable book. That was likely around 10 years ago. And indeed, my younger self was spot-on.

Nothing has altered; I’m still completely enamored with this series. It’s incredibly addicting.

I used to reread this series countless times when I didn’t have an extensive collection of books at home and was fixated on reading only my favorite series, this one and Harry Potter. My middle school teacher was thoroughly exasperated with me, lol. She would take the entire class to the library on Tuesdays, and I would repeatedly borrow the same books. Eventually, she resorted to prohibiting me from borrowing any more Harry Potter books. Thinking about it now, it makes me chuckle.

But the fact is, this book still maintains its charm after all these years, even now as I’ve developed a somewhat critical (or perhaps cynical?